Hold & Grunt

So, Covid hasn't gone anywhere and still sucks it seams. Thankfully, after a week of feeling like death I've finally been able to do the finishing touches to this mat.

This is a mat built for my good friend Henry Marfleet who got in on the list for a mat a few runs ago and wanted to be super sure he has the right model. With careful planning I think we're there now and Henry has a Nouveau Racer named "Hold & Grunt" to round out his quiver. Henry has a Rubber Bucky and a 70/70 RFT so adding a gunnie mat is the perfect model, especially as we move into winter. Henry was also really keen to secure the number 308.

Henry says:

“I’m calling the mat “Hold & Grunt”, how this name came about, which is related to number “308” as I have two classic Australian Holden utes which both have 308 cubic inch V8 engines ……. from the email I sent to you with Build Sheet -> “if it is to have a name you can call it “grunt” as that is what a 1970’s 308 ci V8 Holden engine has…… and hopefully the mat will have enough grunt to make it through fast sections, actually maybe aka “Hold & Grunt” as should have hold and grunt!”

— Henry Marfleet

Well, the Nouveau Racer certainly has a huge amount of hold, making waves that might be tough to surf a mat in mattable. The design certainly has a bottom end to what it will go in, but in solid waves, she'll go like a greased shit so I'm confident meets the brief.

On to the build, Hold & Grunt is a 200/70 with panels of PU grip to add stability. Internally she is a wheezer (restricted airflow), again to help keep things steady and dependable.

Henry has also asked for a bungee to give the leash option for those rare days when it is needed. He's also opted for a Hestered (below the flange) mini-Boston valve.

I surf with Henry a lot and as we get properly into the Northern Hemisphere winter, I look forward to seeing Hold & Grunt in action!

Cheers

G

Albert

Here's a mat for Alasdair Newby from West Cornwall, UK. Alasdair has surfed all sorts of boards for many years and ended up picking up a mat a little while back and is now in deep... That's how it goes with mats...

He got on on the current run and came with a clear idea what he wanted. A stable mat that will work in a range of conditions. Alasdair surfs the waves I first got in on as a young lad, so I had a decent sense of things.

We've gone for a 200/70 Ute. The red deck material is made with Nylon 6 which is a little heavier. The combo with the white 70d gives a nicely balanced feel. We've gone for restricted wheezy venting and a bungee for bigger days. Alasdair also opted for one of the new low profile valves too.

Alasdair has named his new mat Albert. Albert is one of a number of Utes I've built lately. Lots of Utes and lots of mats in the UK which is unusual.

Anyway, I'm building one more in this run and will do a team mat or two and then the order book will be open again for the next 10.

But back to Albert, she's heading West tomorrow. I'm hoping to get down there soon myself too so hopefully can see Alasdair and Albert in action.

Have fun Alasdair!

Cheers

G

Blackbeard

This is Blackbeard, a 200/70 G-Mat Ute built for UK based mat surfer, Steve Holmes.

Steve has been surfing mats for some time now and is keen to take him mat riding forwards, including some bigger days. We spoke about what he was after and Steve was keen for a mat that world cover all bases. The Ute seemed a solid option as the perfect all rounder. Steve has added a bungee for those rare particularly tricky conditions.

We have gone with a wheezer with free elastic rocker so Blackbeard will really have a wide range and will keep it's shape in bumpy and chunky conditions.

Steve said:

“Looks perfect fella can’t wait to try it,

My first experience of Mat surfing was about 25 years ago, A mate and myself bought a couple of Tiki mats and surfed killers in Morocco with them, Then a few years ago when mats started re-emerging, I bought a mat which I’ve been using in North Devon on Smaller days so now looking for something to use on bigger days as well. ”

— Steve Holmes

Blackbeard is heading off as we speak and I'm looking forward to hearing how she goes.

Have fun Steve!

Cheers

G

Black Back

Here's a mat for Tom Carter, a UK based mat surfer from West Cornwall. Tom has been riding mats for a while now and has a narrow mat that really has seen a lot of action and needed a few repairs. He came to me wanting something to open the bottom end up a bit more with better glide through softer sections, but also to keep the rail-to-rail feel. We talked a bit on the phone and eventually settled on a G-Mat Ute. Our thinking was that this mat will become Tom's main ride, with his current mat being saved for the heavy and hollow days.

The mat Tom has been riding has a canvas deck so, although Tom was up for more maleability, we didn't want to go too full on so have gone with a 200/70 build. In addition the the 200 denier deck, we have gone with panels rather than strips of grip which will add a little more structure. The mat is also a wheezer, with the restricted airflow adding further stability which will help with keeping shape through turns.

We talked about names. No custom mat has left my workshop without the new owner giving it a name. Tom said:

“I was thinking Black Back - a little nod to the gull. Nothing philosophical, it’s just there were two nesting on the roof at work so I saw them most days this summer! Stunners !
Have been on a wave specific mat so looking forward to surfing some different waves. Love to boot it around the coast path, and super excited to exploring some coves with the new mat!”

— Tom Carter

That sounds amazing, eh?! We're lucky to live where we do.

So, Black Back is off to hook up with Tom. We've just moved into Autumn here and it's landed with a bump, including swell, so looking forward to hearing about Tom's adventures.

Have fun mate!

Cheers

G

Zippy

Ahhhh-aaaah-aaaaah! That's right George! This is a mat built for Dave McAllister.

Dave lives over in the Channel Islands (not those ones) and has been the only mat surfer that he knows of on Jersey (not that one) for some time. Dave surfs the spots on the island's West Coast, and also takes trips to South West France fairly regularly.

Given that, Dave was after a mat that will surf a wide range of conditions.

We spoke about his existing mat and the waves Dave surfs. We settled on a mat that was stable, and fast down the line! Sorry that in mind, we went for a 200/70 RB-JMC. Dave was keen to keep things versatile so we opted for a free elastic rocker to keep the default rocker in the mat flat. I also slightly tweaked the length to make the mat feel a bit more familiar to him.

As we were going for a focus on speed, Dave has named his mat Zippy. That will bring a certain puppet to mind for people from the UK of a certain age! Dave also went for a sexy tee-shirt. He's got the HiLine Tee, so that will make Andrew Buck happy.

After a bit of a faff, I finally got Zippy shipped to Jersey.

Have fun Dave!

Cheers

G

RV Krystal Voyager

Here we have a mat for Hamish Kent @clevestone Hamish is a Byron surfer with a deep interest in riding and creating surf craft. I always enjoy building mats for people who are interested in how what they ride and how it works. Hamish is certainly in that group and we had a few calls to get things right.

Hamish has gone for an RB-JMC, as his current go to is a G-Mat RFT. He was keen to get something a little wider with a different feel. This mat and Hamish's RFT are both 70/70 (70 denier nylon deck and bottom) and as Hamish likes to make lots of turns, we settled on a free elastic rocker (flat but flexible) rather than the usual negative rocker used with this design. The other key difference (apart fron the shape) it the venting. The RFT is a restricted breather (wheezer) where as this mat is a free-breather with extreme venting (what I call a super-Free-breather). Fast, sensitive, malleable and inclined to carve through turns. Nice... Oh and we have dyed her with scarlet acid dye. Hamish was after hi vis but not garish and I think this fits the bill nicely.

I asked Hamish about his journey into mats. He said:

“As a bit of a nerd, and a hard core surf and surf history nerd, I have always sought to have a variety of experiences on as many and as varied craft as possible. Not infrequently, I will ride as many different wave riding vehicles as possible in a single session.

I first started dabbling in mat riding around 2013 or 2014. I had watched Crystal Voyager a number of times, and was excited by the challenge of something new.

Some friends had started riding mats, and I saw them having fun, and thought I’d better see what I was missing out on.

I bought the most accessible mat that was on some kind of sale at the time, and started trying to ride it. After 20 or so years of regular brine time, this allowed me to reach a new level of humility and humiliation in the line up- there’s really nothing like sliding out and missing a section on a perfect wave, that you know you could make on almost any other craft you own. It was a strange combination of devastating and wonderful. Some brief low friction, high speed moments punctuated by moments of complete helplessness, getting flogged in the impact zone trying to hold onto a wet plastic bag cross to a balloon, and I was kinda hooked, like a beaten lover in a bad relationship. Clearly I had room for development.

Rather than slash a hole in my wave riding vehicle so that no-one else reach the subterranean depths of ego that I had been able to experience mat riding already, I decided to limit the humiliation to once a week. Once a week the morning session had become a prone zone with bodysurfing being the prone activity of choice. I added in mat riding as another horizontal humility building pursuit.

Fast forward to a trip to NZ; I wanted to take a quiver, but didn’t want to carry a quiver. I took a board, and a mat, and enjoyed a few lonely sessions with seals, started to get the hang of things, and with only seals to laugh at me, I was able to learn a few skills from them; they learnt nothing from me. I rode the mat most days for about 10 days. I improved slightly, but only slightly.

I continued to ride my mat intermittently, with another breakthrough coming on a 70km coastal hike where I decided that the mat was to be my only surf vehicle.

The last few years we have had some excellent mat riding conditions in the areas I frequent, and I have found myself using a mat more and more, and hoping for good conditions to ride the mat. It’s become the vehicle I am often most excited about riding. I’m enjoying the constant learning, the dynamic approaches to wave riding that are afforded a the mat, and the child like glee that comes from riding a wave with your mates new and old. ”

— Hamish Kent

Lovely stuff and a testament to the words of Greenough to ride your mat and nothing else for at least 10 sessions straight when you first start out! Speaking of George, his influence on Hamish is clear with the name of this mat... "RV Krystal Voyager".

At the time of writing I'm waiting for Hamish's hoodie to arrive (Lilo Life print by Ry Akins @ry_akins) and then RV Krystal Voyager will head south.

Have fun Hamish. It's been a pleasure mate.

Cheers

G

Monk Seal

Here's a mat for Blake Snyder-Rogers named "Monk Seal". Blake lives on the Big Island of Hawaii and was after a mat "for riding big gnarly waves"... Roger that.

The Nouveau Racer is a model I worked out a few years ago. It's had some minor tweaks to the base design and we are on the third iteration. The key thing is that it feels very dependable in bigger waves, when other models might start to feel skittery. That's a pretty reassuring feeling! The Nouveau Racer definitely has a bottom end so is a model compliment an all rounder. Blake is covered on that front as he already owns a G-Mat RFT2, the stock version of a 70/70 RB-JMC built by Tom Jennings.

So on to the build, Monk Seal has a 200d deck. I only build the Nouveau Racer for big surf as a 200/70. Combined with restricted venting and the fact that the mat is narrower so the rider gets more deck coverage, this all adds to the stability of the mat overall which on a larger mat would need higher inflation levels to compensate. Blake was also keen to go with a good grip coverage to keep himself stuck to the mat. This also adds to the stability.

Blake asked for a bungee. I get asked about these a lot and honestly, leashes and mats are not a good mix. Although I heavily reinforce the front flange, they tug on the mat and get in the way. I sometimes think people have got so conditioned to just letting their surfcraft go and all in all, learning to hang on is better.

There are exceptions of course such as physical issues, surfing wave pools and, of course, "... for riding big gnarly waves" where losing the mat finds you stuck offshore with the sharks!

As for the colours, Blake asked for a grey deck (so popular these days!) with purple logo and grip. The grip is purple, despite my camera trying to convince you otherwise!

Finally, Blake asked for positive elastic rocker to help to drive Monk Seal through turns.

So, Monk Seal is heading off to the Big Island to hook up with Blake. Have fun man!

Cheers

G