Cool Runnin's

This is a G-Mat Ute named Cool Runnin’s built for Simon Caddick. Simon lives in West Cornwall and is an experienced surfer who has riden a wide range of craft from standing to knees to prone.

Simon was looking for an all round mat to deal with a range of conditions. He also wanted a more predictable feel so we went for a 200/70 Ute. The venting is restricted meaning that the air moves through the mat more slowly than a free-breather or super-free-breather.

Simon was after low key colours so went for black top and bottom with black grip, but also with a large logo in green, yellow and red.

In addition, Simon wanted a bungee fitting to allow a leash. He surfs heavy reefs with little room for error so was conserned about losing his mat to the reef. Therefore it makes sense to have the option there. Simon and Cool Runnin's have been getting to know each other of late.

Simon went for a mat bag too.

Let's hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

Have fun Simon. Be good to hook up for some waves when life is a bit more normal.

Cheers

G

Little Wing

It's been a little while since I've built an Ubercat but when Claude Ricord got in touch that was exactly what he was after. What's more, Claude was after a 70/70 free-breather. Vroom vroom!

This is "Little Wing". Claude was unfortunately bereaved recently losing his wife to stomach cancer. Of course, Claude is grieving but he is bringing a real positivity to his life, mat surfing with his son in the breaks around their home in Southern California. 

Claude says that his and his wife shared a favourite colour scheme of green and white so this was Claude's choice for Little Wing. The deck has been acid dyed in 2 tone green with clear grip which is set off with a clear logo with a mix of holo and green glitter. Claude has gone for the option to have a leash just for those big rippy days.

It's been a real honour to build this mat for Claude. Ride on mate. 

Cheers

G

WHAT THE BUCK?!

Terrible pun I know but please enjoy…. Sr Buck riding his RB-JMC name Caligula at his local.

G

HI there Gigi!

You know that old adage “right place right time”? Well Mariah Ernst seems to be the sensei of that!

Mariah had a mat off me last year named Jamu Jamu when she was living in Indo. Jamu Jamu is the mat that I had to perform plastic surgery on to get back on the water:

https://customsurfmats.com/blog/2019/12/21/ding-monkey

Anyway, I rotate the time that I send out emails for orders and what do you know, Mariah has moved to Hawaii and managed to get in quickest again! This time around, Mariah wanted something to cover all conditions having already having a Nouveau Racer. Mariah decided to go for a RB-JMC.

We discussed the 70/70, neg rocker, super free-breather option but Mariah opted to play it safe and go for a 200/70 free-breather. Don’t get me wrong though… This is still a very fast mat!

Mariah has named her mat Gigi after the man himself (GG). Gigi is built with yellow 200d deck, 70d bottom skin, has clear grip and a sexy black and purple large rail wrap logo. As planned, she will really open up the bottom end for Mariah. I’m also pretty confident that the top end will be pretty high too!

It’s good to be building mats right now. My surfing has stopped due to our lock down in the UK so focusing on building rides for others is a pretty rewarding second.

Have fun Mariah!

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

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Photo by Tom German

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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.

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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!

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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

A Bit of Self Care... Lisha

It’s not long since I last built myself a mat but needs must. A little while ago I had my mat pulled from my hand on a solid day. I tried to keep hold with my right hand but it got yanked out, possibly breking my finger.

As always, I built Lisha over a weekend so nobody was missing out because of me doing this!

This also led to a strain of the muscles in my right fore arm which gets easily flared up even in small surf.

In short, I need to be alble to let go of my mat! My only options then were don’t surf, have a long swim after every wave or a leash. Given those thre then a leash seemed the best bet. I figured this was also a chance to try the RB-JMC design with a 200 denier deck.

Leashes are always a conundrum with mats. At low inflation they can interfere with things if not well managed and, more to the point, after years of riding without one they just feel like they get in the way. However, there is a need at times which then brings us to the other issue. The materieals, even a 200/70 construction, are lightweight. That’s great for performance but a challenge for attaching leashes. An eyelet will last a while but used over time or in heavy surf (just ask Henry Marfleet about G-Land) they will get pulled through.

So you need to do 2 things: Reinforce and spread the load.

When doing bungee fittings like this I weld a layer of 650 gram double coated nylon into the flange between the top and bottom skins. This gives a very robust strip of fabric across the nose. The nose of a mat is always fully inflated to it doesn’t make a huge difference to the pliability, altough anything on a mat is transferred aound the whole mat so it is noticable as reported by people who have two mats, one with and one without. The eyelets are fitted snuggly to grip the fabric well. That sounds obvious but loose eyelets will wear the fabric.

The next job is to spread the load. This is acheived by using bungee cord rather than rope. The elasticity of the cord soaks up a fair bit of the strain. Also, weaving the bungee through the eyelets and then attaching the leash to the middle loop causes the mat to conertina, spreading the load across the mat, rather than on a single point.

So on to the mat, as I said Lisha is a RB-JMC, super free-breather with negative rocker. The previous build have all been 70/70 which have been impressive in all conditions, including solid waves. It will be interesting to see what happens her then. Heavier decks reduce the overall pliability of mats (more hold, less speed) so in thoery this should have more top end.

Let’s see. I won’t be trying this in chunky surf for the time being as I need to let my arm recover but I’ll give it a crack in due course.

On the name, why Lisha? Well obviously, she has a leash but it insired me to name this mat after a sporting great of yesteryear (wierd phrase) Elisha Scott.

So there you go. Lets see how it works out and get well soon me!

Cheers

G

The RB-JMC Revolution Continues!

Well, that’s the overboard title out of the way but here is the latest of this new model heading out of the workshop.

This mat named Ricky Powell has been built for Santa Cruz matter and head coach of the MacMurray surfmat team. Jason is highly experienced and, having tried out ASB’s RB-JMC was keen to give it a go himself.

As is standard with this design Ricky Powell has a negative rocker. This design feature creates tons of lift and therefore speed,

Ricky is also a super free-breather being very freely vented internally meaning the the mat can change shape really quickly. The really surprise with this design from everyone riding it is it’s range. A 70/70, free breather with negative rocker isn’t what you’d expect to be the go for solid or hollow waves but everyone riding them has reported the same…

They go great!

Team MacMurray

So Ricky is en route now and should be with Jason soon. Looking forward to hearing the report.

Cheers

G