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

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

View fullsize

Photo by Tom German

View fullsize

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.

View fullsize

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!

View fullsize

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