G-Mat 28 (AKA "Yellow Peril")

/

It suddenly dawned on me that I didn't have a Bullet in my quiver after my last one left me for another bloke.  With that in mind I knocked up this little lady.

G-Mat 28 (AKA "Yellow Peril") 70/70 G-Mat Bullet

I've named her Yellow Peril for obvious reasons but I really wish I'd waited for my wife to come home first. She took one look and said "Jasper" which is Cornish dialect for "Wasp".

Bugger...

70/70 construction with a little restriction in the airflow to keep some shape in the juice. The colour will help should I lose her in the early morning murk too.

The grip is Sikaflex... Stink-free. 

G-Mat 28 - Backlit. Idea for this lighting nicked from Jamie McClellan

Anyway, looks like we have just the swell for her tomorrow.

Excited! 

Cheers

G

Andrew Stephen Buck Interview

/

Ken McKnight has spent some time chatting with Andrew Stephen Buck in the latest installment of "Here & Now" on UK Mat Surfers.

ASB was able to supply some great shots of himself riding mats and boards, including a few of himself riding his latest G-Mat, "Slippery Dick". Really stoked to see these.

The interview is well worth a read:

http://ukmatsurfers.org/html/asb.html

Enjoy.

G

Andrew Stephen Buck by Will Adler

Andrew Stephen Buck by Will Adler

Ongoing Project

/

I've been putting thought and now time into a design idea recently and have come up with this 200/70 free-breather..

G-Mat 27. Full bellied goodness.

This is a mat more in the belly and less of a hook on the rail than other models mixing characteristics of the Bullet and Glider designs. Hopefully this will give a good all-rounder but needs testing.

G

Lambeau & Bluey's Big Adventure

/

I received some great feedback from Henry Marfleet about a mat from my quiver; an Ubercat named "Lambeau".

Henry posted his feedback on the UK Mat Surfers forum and said the following:

"Got back last week from a 2 week holiday in west oz.

G-Mat 19 aka "Lambeau" hitched a ride with me, as it needed to get over to east oz, and thought it would be nice for it to get a taste of west oz.

Was in the water 2 hours after arriving in Perth, and because it was small and the spot was shallow reef took the fatty out, nice to be surfing in boardies for a change.

Then down to the south west of west oz around the Yallingup region, to surf some proper waves.
Grabbed Lambeau, and never looked back, poor sod had no rest up as I surfed it for the rest of my time over there .

Surfed a variety of reef breaks, handled the steep take-offs, loved the fast walls, and held nicely into the barrelling sections.

It was just as happy in the hollow beachies, was slightly worried that it would not want to track and stay in the barrels but no worries on that count, slipped and stayed into them perfectly."

Sounds like Henry's scored himself some pretty sweet waves!

G

Hoth Monster

/

This is a mat for California's Matt Pierce named "Hoth Monster", a 200/70 Ubercat with a flat rocker. Gripped with Sikaflex. This mat is completely un restricted in terms of airflow but as the stablity of the Ubercat. The flat rocker should help to give it a wee bit more and I've done a little something to help to keep the nose in order without the need for asymmetrical corners.

G-Mat 26 (AKA "Hoth Monster")

G-Mat 26 (AKA "Hoth Monster")

Matt is something of a big hairy monster himself and has been looking for a little something to get into those tight wedges kicking around down there. Hopefully this mat will fit the bill being slightly undersized but with enough in the gut to compensate.

G

Jamie McClellan - Feedback

/

For those unaware, Jamie McClellan is a mat surfer of some note from North Carolina on the US East Coast. (Find out more about Jamie HERE). 

Anyway, Jamie has ridden a few of my mats (see the banner pic at the top of this blog!) and recently scored a G-Mat Bullet named "Lucky" which is the orange mat featured on the home page of this site. After a really long lay off due to work commitments, Jamie has finally managed to get a session in on Lucky.

Jamie McClellan riding G-Mat 13.

Photo by Dan Murphy

Jamie offered some brief feedback:

"Lucky did everything I asked of her and I didn't have to think about it which is a very good first impression. Felt great!"

Action without thought... Music to a mat builder's ears. 

Cheers

G

Boston Valves

/

I'm always on the lookout for new materials and after a good deal of pondering, decided to give a Boston Valve a go.

This performed well in some pretty heavy surf today, including being bearhugged on a trip to the bottom, rolling under a very heavy wedge which I took on the head. The advantages are two-fold: firstly, they look pretty good. Secondly, the valve has two parts, a small cap for inflation and deflation on the go, and a larger thread allowing the whole valve to be removed from the mat for rapid deflation.

I particularly like the fact that it is a screw-cap design. No need to be tugging away on the mat.

Cheers

G

Surfmat with Boston Valve

Surfmat with Boston Valve

New Model... The Glider

/

I managed to test out the newest addition to the range today in pretty sweet,  steep and hollow waves. The Glider is designed as the all-rounder (I considered calling it the Botham) and performed well on the smaller waves that came through, but also found some great speed lines in the bigger, steeper, racy waves that would normally be the preserve of more streamlined mats.


Most encouragingly, I traded with Scott, a local Paipo rider at the spot, who had never ridden a mat. He jumped straight on a 150 degree inflation and immediatly hooked into a screaming left, paddling back out with that look  on his face. He described the sensation as being "like making love to the wave". Great poetry...

Anyway, This is G-Mat 24 and I've called her "Merrick". More info on what's what with the Glider here.

Cheers

G

 

Little Black Limey...

/

Well, there's all sorts that could be said about the title of this post but that's the name the Andrew Stephen Buck has given to G-Mat 23. This mat is something of an experiment so could turn out to be great or could turn out to be terrible. (I guess there's 'could turn out to be so so but where's the drama in that, eh?)

P1060619.JPG

Essentially, this is a 200/70 Ubercat with a flattened rocker (perhaps its and Uberflat) and no rail hook so like I say, something of an experiment. 

Either way, I can't think of a better test pilot. 

 

Stay tuned... 

G

And we're off!

/

Welcome to my new site. I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out.  

Anyway, I'm extremely honoured to have built a mat for a true gent of mat surfing, Pete "Childub" D'Ewart.

Meet G-Mat 21 (AKA "G-Whizz"). This is a 70/70 G-Mat Bullet.

I'll be very interested to hear how Pete and G-Whizz get along as they tackle those long WA peelers (I couldn't make it Great White proof, sorry Pete).

Not an easy mat to let go this one. :)

Cheers

G