Green Machine Be Safe, Be Seen!

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Meet Jeremy Grosvenor's new mat, Celeste. Those who know of Jeremy will be aware that he is a fan of a brightly coloured surfmat and Celeste certainly fits that category.  

Celeste is a Flying Carpet. I don't build too many of these but Jeremy was clear that he wanted one - 70/70, well vented and very loose and slippery. Perhaps a bit larger than other mats in his quiver but could be just the ticket for those East Coast, US waves.

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For those who don't know of Jeremy, I would highly recommend reading his interview over on UK Mat Surfers. That's a good place to get a look at his eye catching Neumatics.I'm hopeful that Celeste will find a place in that esteemed quiver.

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 As you can see above ,Jeremy's local looks like it's rolling out the red carpet for Celeste's imminent arrival so I'm looking forward to a ride report. 

Cheers

G

Matt's Sweet Tooth

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The latest mat to come out of the workshop is G-Mat 91 (AKA "Candy"). Candy is a Ute built for Matt Ayre, the man behind Polymath Surfcraft. Matt is a huge inspiration to me so I was stoked when he got in touch to talk about getting a mat.

Candy is a 200/70 Ute with elastic rocker. Matt surfs some good quality waves in his local area in the North East of England, but obviously has to also grovel in some ropy short period stuff at times so the versatility of the Ute seemed the obvious way to go. The rocker will help with turns and of course, Candy is red so that will add to the speed so all-in-all, I'm hopeful that Matt is going to be pleased with his mat.

I'm can't wait to see how Matt and Candy get along. Matt is a talented waterman who rides a wide array of craft so I'm confident that he will embrace the learning (and unlearning) needed to master mat riding. He plans to take Candy out in some decent waves so I am very excited to hear how they get on.

Stay tuned!

G

Feeling Slynky

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I'm sure people on the UK Atlantic coast have, like me, been enjoying the arrival of Autumn and the arrival of the first great swell. 

The air has taken on something of an Autumnal feel though so I thought it was time to roll out my new Slynk custom wetsuit, lovingly crafted to fit my Balinese physique. (When I say Balinese I mean that I have the figure of Balin the dwarf off of Lord of the Rings). 

My Slynk Wetty made me so happy my face inflated! 

My Slynk Wetty made me so happy my face inflated! 

So a bit more about it. This suit is amazing. Back zip (because I see through the chest zip sham) 2mm and lined with aero zirconium (AZ). AZ is a fuzzy lining which makes the suit super warm. Combine that with a custom fit and you wind up with a wetsuit that's super-duper warm! You will have seen AZ on parts of many a wetsuit but this one is for mat surfing and bodysurfing so I've had the fuzz put everywhere apart from the knees. 

My 3mm Slynk suit is so warm that this winter I'm planning to buy a hood and see how far through I can go. I suspect that I will ultimately need a 4mm with a hood (and yes, a chest zip) and that will be next on my list but you never know.

Oh, and not only does AZ make for a toasty suit, it also dries in about an hour, even when it's cold and damp. That is priceless in itself! Last night, I got out of the water at 7.30  pm. I hung my wettie in the back of the van overnight and when I put it on at 6.15 am today it was like climbing into a onesie. It took all my effort not to pump up a couple of mats and snuggle down for a kip!

Mmmmm...

Anyhoo, Slynk  come to us from Joanne Bennett and she can be found via the Internet at:

 http://www.slynkwetsuits.com/

I don't usually plug stuff on this blog from other companies but Jo is a kindred soul, creating quality custom surfing hardware so get on to her and get one!  

Cheers

G

Headwear

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After some serious faffing about with various samples, I've finally managed to add caps to the G-Mat clothing range. I'm really happy with these caps and the quality of the print. 

People buying mats can now also get flat and regular peaked Trucker Caps (pictured), cotton baseball caps and flat peaked rapper caps.  As with the tees and hoodies, the caps come in any colour with any colour print.

Cheers

G

Son of Stinkles - Bad H takes on the World!

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The latest mat out of the workshop is for Henry Hester. This is Henry's special take on an old model called the Glider. Henry's adaptation is the  XR corners at the tale. There's more on the ordiginal mats built to this design HERE.

Henry's favourite mat is named "Stinkles" so it only seemed fit for him to name his new steed "Son of Stinkles." S.O.S. is a 200/70 set up, same as Stinkles with free rocker. The one change is that Henry has gone for more grip than previously and this time has gone for Sikaflex EBT, rather than 11FC+.  The reason? Well, Henry has some significant travelling planned for this year, going to Hawaii and to NSW. Given that, he was keen to go with a mat with a more stable deck as an option for waves with some grunt.

I've knocked Henry up a double bag to keep his girls together on their travels.  Sounds like the three of them have a pretty sweet adventure lined up.

Have fun Henry!

Cheers

G

Fluffy Sunshine

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​Ladies and gents, boys and girls,  this is the next instalment of weird surfmats for Andrew Stephen Buck, following hot on the heels of Pacmat.  

G-Mat 89 (AKA "Fluffy Sunshine") is a free breathing 200/70 Ute with rocker. 

You may also have noticed that she has a little artwork.​

Fluffy Sunshine is a gift for ASB from his good lady, Olivia. Apparently she was quite insistent about this theme. Thankfully, Andrew seems to like it.

Whether or not the Rincon locals will get their heads around it is another question all together!   

In any case, we can be sure that there will be no missing ASB in the lineup and, should be lose his grip, Fluffy Sunshine should be easy to see. 

Cheers  

G  

G-Mat 88 (AKA "Eye Beam")

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Well kids, it's been a long time since I've built one of these.  This is "Eye Beam", a 70/70 Flying Carpet built for UK Mat Surfers web guru, Bryn Dampney.

Bryn has a bit of a fetish for black and orange which we first saw when he had his first G-Mat, Bombina.  With that in mind, Bryn has gone for pigmented grip on Eye Beam's outer pontoons. I've used Sikaflex 11FC+ so nice and pliable with grit added to help out with the durability and traction when worn down. I've also left plenty of the deck uncovered as Bryn has fine tunes, water chess in mind for this mat.

Bryn made the decision to go for a Flying Carpet with summer in mind. Of course, sod's law means that this El Nino summer seems to be sending us some munting swells (not that we're moaning) but there are still plenty of small shapely days and no shortage of wind slop, so I'm sure Bryn will find something to get Eye Beam going in.

Slippy-slidiness doesn't mean this gal will shy away from a little more anyhoo.

Can't wait to see how she goes. 

Can't wait to have a go myself!

Cheers

G