G-Mat 184 - Jathy
/It’s always a pleasure to build a mat for someone I regularly surf with so I was quietly stoked to see this customer’s name pop up in my email to say “you have received a deposit from Mark Underwood”. “Mark Underwood?” I thought… “I know a Tom Underwood”… As nickname’s go, Tom is an interesting one. It’s because of this photo by Alex Williams of Tom (Mark) skating - He looked like Tom (Tom) Inouye it was said by local legend Steve Daniel.
Photo by Alex Williams
Tom is a really experienced surfer and something of an icon around these parts. He has travelled the World surfing in places such as Oz, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Indo, the Maldives and others as well as all over the British Isles. He worked for many years in the surf industry, building boards under the Natural Rhythm label as well as working with Nigel Semens at Ocean Magic Surfboards in Newquay. He started life surfing thrusters, then logs, then moved on to fish before SUP’s.
Photo by Alex Williams
Photo by Tom German
Photo by Liquid Destination
And finally… after all that… HALLELUJAH!!!!!
Tom riding his 5 Star General in South East Cornwall. Photo by Tim Ciasto.
I didn’t know Tom before he found mats but know alot of people who knew him and they all said the same thing… “I hear Tom Underwood has started riding mats. I’m guessing he’ll be amazing on them like he is on everything else”. I met up with Tom (who funnily enough lives within 10 miles of me) when he bought a 5 Star General from MatSurfers.com, after surfing a 70/70 Ute named Richard owned by our mutual friend Graham Bracegirdle, and we have become good friends.
And yes, I can confirm he has really quickly become a very good mat surfer!
Tom sharing a wave with me in South East Cornwall. Photo by Tim Ciasto.
So that’s Tom covered, let’s move on to his mat. Tom has ridden my RB-JMC and was keen to give this a go, having also ridden a 70/70 Rubber Bucky. Having already mastered 200/70 wheezers it was time to drop the restriction and up the pliability so a 70/70 RB-JMC was the go with super-free-breather venting.
I currently have some 70 denier blue material in. It’s 70d tafetta the same as the white and black I have but has a pretty open weave giveing a really pliable feel when welded. Tom was keen to go with a really light mat to compliment the rest of his quiver so we went with the blue throughout. I suplimented that with a light weight grip job. Add all that to the venting and this mat is gagging to go fast!
Tom has named this mat “Jathy” and Jathy is one of those mats you build and think “man… I’d like to keep this one.
Luckily I will be able to get a few waves on Jathy when the current craziness is over!
Cheers
G
