9-2-Go

I was going to wait for my special day but sod it. This is a mat for my birthday named 9-2-Go. She's an RB-JMC Ultralight 70/40 Super-Free-Breather. I was planning to build myself one of these having given my old Ultralight away to Jamie McClellan but I hadn't meant to do it just yet.

I'm just getting through the last few mats before the next run and I did a little experimenting with dye techniques. I asked everyone in the remaining bunch if they wanted this deck skin and they all said no, politely letting me know they thought it was horrible so here we are!

Anyway during the horrendous weather we've had over here of late I took what would otherwise have been play days to weld up and grip 9-2-Go. Ultralights are a build you probably only get out of the mat bag two or three times a year but summer is on its way allegedly and I adore the featherweight feel of these mats. So fast too!

9-2-Go is wrapped up ready for me to open on my birthday.

Anyway... Cracking on.

Cheers

G

PS Birthday matmeet at The Wave, Bristol, UK: 20th April 8am Expert Turns on the left. All welcome so get booked

Unburdened & Becoming

Here's is a mat for Mark "Tom" Underwood that I built during a week off in February.

Tom has been after a mat for a while and with the upcoming Wave meet coming up on April 16th (still a slot or two available by the way. Advanced level, 11am on the right) he was keen to get a mat with a bungee set-up for a leash. Also handy for long-swim avoidance on some of the sketchier reefs on big days. Tom is a big fan of the 70/70 neg rocker RB-JMC having been riding one exclusively for some time. He's a fine mat surfer (fine everything surfer to be honest) and really does fit the performance of the RB-JMC.

Tom has called his mat Unburdened and Becoming saying:

“It’s a song lyric line by Bon iver. A band that me sons all went to see live. It resonates with me. It’s positive and life affirming, like matting.”

— Mark Underwood

Tom has been out and about with Unburdened and Becoming in his local area of South Devon and South East Cornwall on the seemingly endless run of swell we're having. With this cold snap the Arctic camo grip is pretty appropriate!

Have fun Tom!

Cheers

G

Warchild

Here's a mat for Joe McEachern over in New England on the East Coast of the US of A. Those with eagle eyes might spot that Joe got in on the last round of builds and I was pretty surprised to see his deposit roll in. What are the odds?! Well it turned out he was stood at the beach with Ryan Kleinert when the email dropped and Ryan clocked it! Joe jumped in on the act and there you go. If only he'd been quicker. I could've shipped his and Ryan's mats together!

Anyway, Joe's first mat, Red Rider was a 200/70 wheezy Ute which he has been having a blast on. He wanted to move things on this time and "Warchild" was conceived. A 70/70 RB-JMC free-breather cut with neg elastic rocker. Perfect stable mate for Red Rider and I reckon a mat that will open things up for Joe.

Joe tells me Warchild is from the movie Pointbreak. (I watched it about a million years ago and thought it was rubbish so don't recall... Deal with it! )

So Warchild is off to the US East Coast. A pretty healthy mat scene growing over there you know. Great to see!

Have fun Joe!

Cheers

G

Bucca Dhu

Wazzon ‘ere then bey?!

Bucca Dhu is the Cornish God of the winter and the dark. So what better name for a mat for the Cornish Lord of Darkness himself, Ian “Piskian” Wraith. Ian is a fine mat surfer and one of my oldest mat riding friends. A mentor to me when I first started out in the journey of flaccid flow. Bucca Dhu sports Cornish black and gold colour scheme with the 15 balls of the Cornish coat of arms on the rail. All in all, pretty Cornish this mat!

Ian is a fine mat surfer and one of my oldest mat riding friends. A mentor to me when I first started out in the journey of flacid flow.

So what’s the deal with Bucca Dhu? Well, I’m building a handful of prototypes to send to a few people to test. Two in Oz and then Ian. These are 70/70 ULW (40) construction; Standard 70 denier deck, 70d ultra lightweight bottom skin (very thin TPU coating) and 40d I-beams. Also a super-free-breather with negative rocker.

I have already built myself one of these proto’s (see G-Mat 238) and it goes great. Feels similar in weight to a 70/40 although a little crisper but also so far, no leaks at the seams although it is early days.  This is why I am sending out a handful to different riders who ride mats well but also very differently and in different conditions.

Ian is coming back to the UK from Japan where he lives with his family in early November so he can grab Bucca Dhu in person and we can share a few waves. It’s been too long so I’m looking forward to that!

Cheers

G

Jambo

Say hello to “Jambo”, an RB-JMC built for mat obsessed Scotsman, Gary Villa.

Gary got into mat surfing a couple of years ago or so along with his partner Helen. A very experienced surfer of many years standing, Gary is a man after my own heart… Find something really hard to do that you know other people do well and then commit hard to learning it.  It is a route to fulfillment in the end to my mind. Picking the high-hanging fruit.

I’ve surfed a few times with Gary as he lives in Cornwall these days. Each session I’ve had with him I have noticed a significant improvement in his mat riding ability and when he managed to get in with a deposit after several attempts it was clear that there was an obvious choice of mat for him. To be honest, had Gary got in earlier he would have had a less advanced mat than he has now so maybe fate (but more likely luck!)

So, then onto Jambo.

We discussed what Gary was after and a burgundy(ish) dye job top and bottom was the go. The end result was more purple but that’s the joy of acid dyes! The photos took a fair bit of editing to get the colour right. I don’t know what it is about this colour but it was hard to photograph. This is a close  enough match. With Gary’s level of ability now it was time to step up from his 5 Star General.

Gary rides his mat with low air and likes the sensitive feel so a 70/70 was the go. Gary was initially being a bit cautious but I talked him into going all out with a super-free-breather and neg rocker and when we met to get him and Jambo together (all be it in very small waves) he had no problem getting Jambo going and he really noticed the difference.

Always stoked to build a mat that I will see ridden in the flesh. Have fun Gary. Let’s hope we get some proper waves soon!

Cheers

 G

Mehve - Glide On

Here is a mat named “Mehve”, built for Aussie mat surfer Ben Zubkevych.

Here is a mat named “Mehve”, built for Aussie mat surfer Ben Zubkevych. He has chosen to name his mat “Mehve”.

According to disneyfandom.com:

“The Mehve (also known as the Möwe) is a small and fast one-person powered glider that appears in the Studio Ghibli film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. ”

— disneyfandom.com

All in all I’d say that’s a pretty apt name!

Ben has been riding mats for a while now, regularly surfing with mat maestro James Tanner over in Noosa so wanted a mat to really make the most of what he has on offer down there.

Mehve is a 70/70 RB-JMC with super-free-breather internal venting to maximise morphatasticalness on the go. The skins are cut to give a negative elastic rocker to further maximise down-the-line frictionless glide and speed. In summary, Mehve is going to fly on those endless point waves that Ben is so keen on:

“I grew up on the mid coast of South Australia and started surfing as a kid cause my dad surfed. I wasn’t super into it, as it was competitive and everyone rode stupidly narrow boards with lots of rocker (the early 2000’s was a great time for surfing haha). I still kept surfing, but mostly skated in my early teens, getting back into it through seeing some videos of people riding fishes and logs.

I first noticed matting in Thomas Campbell’s Sprout, wanted one right away, but didn’t get one until years later when I found a Krypt on gumtree for $80 in 2016 up in Noosa (where I’m living now). Actually, funny cos I realised my dad had a copy of Fantasea when I was a kid, but I don’t remember ever seeing surf matting on it!

I popped the Krypt a few months after getting it, but was already hooked. I had been bodysurfing heaps around this time at the open beach near my house, so getting on the mat at the points felt insane! The same low-to-the-water speed feeling of bodysurf minus all the drag (which means so much speed!). I got worked a lot haha, but once you get a wave where you line everything up right and just speed through sections you don’t think you’re going to make it’s pretty hard not to get addicted (and somehow spiral into collecting old swim fins etc. haha).

I’m usually riding mats at the points at Noosa whenever it’s breaking. It’s my go to for cyclone swells, but also anything over 2 foot. The points have perfect mat waves (minus the fact that it gets so crowded), but wave count doesn’t matter as much on a mat and I usually just let the waves come to me instead of hassling with everyone else. I have a few friends to share waves with, James (who has a few of your mats and is a guru and great person to learn from/get tips off), Matt (we spent a few weeks matting in Sri Lanka, which was amazing), Gus (when our schedules align haha), Joseph (who is also from Devon) and my partner Rachel who has recent been bitten by the mat bug.

If I’m not on a mat at the points I’m usually out on my free friction board or a log if it’s little, and a fish or just bodysurfing at the open beaches.”

— Ben Zubkevych

Mehve went over to Austrailia sharing a seat on the plane with Rachel Scarff’s mat “Circe”. I’m really looking forward to seeing some party waves!

Have fun Ben!

Cheers

G

God of the Sea

I’m rolling with the new hybrid mailing list/waiting list system and it seems to be going pretty well. Here is the latest out of the workshop, an RB-JMC built for Phil Cahill up in Wales.

Phil is of Irish descent and when I asked him to name his mat he replied with the following:

“Ah flippin hell, I’ve had a few names knocking about in me head but trying to decide has melted my head!

Okay, it’s going to be called Lir. Lir is s god of the sea from old Irish Mythology.

Lovely, decision made!”

— Philip Cahill

Very nice… Phil wanted to nod to his heritage without being to blatant with it and asked for green pigmented grip and orange and white logo. You’ll notice I did add a bit of an Irish Tricolour to the dedication.

On to the mat, well Phil has taken to the less mainstream ways to ride a wave influenced by a friend who has become a full-time bodysurfer. He has tried various craft, including the mat and… well… you know. When the bug bites.

 Phil wanted to go with the RB-JMC but wondered about the full super-free-breather, especially when moving to his first 70/70. Given that we settled with a standard free-breather configuration which will add a bit more stability. She’s a quick mat though and Phil is looking forward to embracing the challenge of switching to a much lighter and more vented mat.

I’m looking forward to hearing how Phil gets on. I’m pretty keen to get up to South Wales this Autumn to hook up with some of the growing mat crew up there so hopefully will get to share a few waves with Phil at some point.

Have fun Phil!

Cheers

G