Timshell

A mat for Mark "Tom" Underwood named "Timshel". Tom is a good friend whom I surf with a lot. He has been riding mats for years now. A talented waterman and South Devon surfing legend, Tom has brought his standout skills to the mat and is a great matsurfer.

A few years back I built Tom an RB-JMC named Unburdened & Becoming. She was a 70/70 Super-Free-Breather with negative elastic rocker and Tom rode her to death. I'm using the past tense because UAB has literally been ridden to death, taking her last breath in one of the storm swells that the UK has been enjoying recently.

Tom was pretty clear that he wanted the same set up, and I originally planned to squeeze a rebuild in over a week off I have coming up. However, as I had to wait for for materials to be delivered for my next build I squeezed Tom's new mat in quick! UAB had an arctic camo grip but fancying a change, Tom went for brown grip on an all white mat. It's a good combo.

As for the name of this one... "Timshel". From East of Eden, Timshel challenges the dogma of 'thou shalt" or "shalt not" and instead refers to "thou mayest". It's about free will, but also taking responsibility for how it is exercised. In the current polarised World where we see people being increasingly polarised by rage-bait, hate-bait and endless bot accounts, this seems like a great little reminder to act thoughtfully and own our sh*t. Anyway, that was pretty heavy but there we are. Perhaps Timshel the mat is also a reminder to have fun and make friends. Mats really help us to do both!

I'll hand deliver Timshel to Tom if he ever gets over the bug that's going around our part of the World.

Have fun Thomas!

Cheers

G