Florence

A mat headed to Oz for the super-mat-stoked and very skilled Johanna Brebner. Jo is a Kiwi who frequents the breaks around Byron and Noosa and surfs boards and mats to a very high standard. Jo took Derek Hynd's mat, Donald Campbell out for it's maiden voyage and texted full of joy, particularly because she was on the list to get a mat herself. Certainly made the design job easier... Just build that!

OK...

So this is Florence. Like Donald Campbell, Florence is a 70/70 RB-JMC. She has a negative elastic rocker and is a super-free-breather. In other words, an unrestricted, highly responsive mat designed to fly like a dementor guided by the subtle manipulation from an intuitive surfer... Perfect.

Jo was particularly taken by a mat named Selin built for Helen Derici and opted for the same colour scheme. A lovely choice for sure.

I stopped short of signing off with a daisy and in the name of individuality opted for a fat Yellow and white mats just seen to demand such things.

Anyway, Florence and Jo will be hooking up soon. I can't wait to see how they get on.

Have fun Jo.

Cheers

G

Ambrosia

OK then... A quick replacement for the super-talented Chris Cravey @cat.chinwaves after his RB-JMC named Nepenthe was disemboweled by a scaredy-cat logger who turtle rolled right in front of him at his home break, Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz. Thankfully Chris wasn't disemboweled too but a close call!

With the same theme in mind, Chris has named this mat Ambrosia. Other than replacing black grip with clear, the rest of the build is the same with Ambrosia being a 70/70 free-breather with negative elastic rocker and an extra bit of fairy dust. Having seen how much versatility Chris gets out of the niche Ubercat model I'm drooling to see what he does with Ambrosia.

Have fun Chris and watch out for the looks!

Cheers

G

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

Zawn

Here is a mat built for west Cornwall-based mat surfer Matthew Geyman.

Matt surfs way down west getting into some of the short, sucky beach breaks down that way so wanted a mat that would get in and get hold quickly. Matt has a 4GF Omni from PG so we settled on a Nouveau Racer to concentrate on hollower or bigger days. Matt opted to name her 'Zawn'.

Matt says:

“Zawn is named for those secluded places along the Far West’s remote North Coast. Coves accessible only via a scramble, or by canoe, are a treat to explore. Packing a mat on a summer coast path walk, in the hope of spotting an unexpected wave is real treasure hunting. Originally a temporary way to stay on the water after a back injury, mats quickly became a source of joy for my whole family, often replacing more traditional craft: boards and hand planes. Because a mat’s so easy to transport, its rewards were multiplied.

Our closest break (a lesser visited spot in the far west) has waves better suited to short craft and bodysurfing. We snag treasured family memories here: daughters hooting and skidding on mats down the face of Christmas Day growlers, with no other soul about.

‘Zawn’ joins a stable including a 4GF Omni, Catherine’s G-Raft (a birthday gift when she fell out of love with surfing), and a behemoth Redback with chunky handles that the kids love (a great summer mush machine, sent by my brother from some godforsaken town near his home on the east coast of Australia). A mat’s joined the annual Morocco pilgrimage a few times in 20 years, but usually stays rolled up as it’s unlikely to replace a board for the long paddle out to Killers. Zawn will feature more heavily and it’ll love Cathedrals.

After a life in the water, it’s only a surfmat that makes me giggle uncontrollably and I’d do anything to keep the maniacal cackle factor.

Cheers n gone

Matt”

— Matthew Geyman

Zawn is a 200/70 Wheezer. We had some debate around elastic rocker versus free rocker. The new red material kinda made the choice for us being pretty inelastic. I suspect this might loosen up after a surf or two. I'll be checking in with Matt. Matt has also gone for a bungee for long Moroccan swims!

Have fun Matt!

Cheers

G

Black Pearl

So here's the third in the run of three monochrome mats; a G-Mat RB-JMC named "Black Pearl".

This badgeresque beauty is a 70/70 super-free-breather built for California based matsurfer Johno Ross who lives around San Clemente.

I asked Johno about his journey into mats and he said:

“I got into surf matting because I like to go fast! The quality of ride seems to be in the 8-10 point range all the time. An eighteen inch wave is essentially overhead. You can fly on the water and still do extreme maneuvers. It is cheating! I have never had a bad session on my airbag; I believe that is impossible to happen. You can still feel the speed and glide from simply going straight. Hydroplaning in big waves is incredibly fun. I love riding my mat, it’s the best!”

— Johnathan Ross

It is the best mate. No argument there.

Johno is a good mat surfer and was keen to get on a RB-JMC. We have gone for the neg rocker set up to maximise speed. A lightweight and technical ride.

He's up to it.

As I've said before I really do love the clean lines of monochrome mats. Reminds me of my days as a black wetsuit, white board kinda guy.

Black Pearl is in transit as I type. I'm looking forward to hearing how Johno goes.

Have fun mate. Arrrrrrr!

Cheers

G

Patronus

My good friend and mat surfing veteran Matt Pierce got in line for this run of mats. I'm stoked to finally be able to hook Matt up with an RB-JMC and when he said he wanted all white my monochrome vibes got all tingly (I did say I liked it). Matt didn't just want a white mat to paddle out in hardcore lineups, cross his arms, avoid eye contact and never smile.

No...

He wanted a white mat to attach LED's and light that fecker up like a bleddy UFO for night surfing!

Lovely stuff!!!

With that in mind Patronus has a gap in the grip on the central pontoon so a strip of lights will go down there. Matt is going to attach velcro for this. He has already done this a bit with an orange Ute I built him named El Gnaranja and it looks bonkers, particularly in some of the river waves Matt surfs.

Apart from that though, Matt is a really good matsurfer so I'm super excited to hear what he makes of the RB-JMC. He's one of those reactive, controlled-chaos looking watermen who just pull rad shiz out of nowhere and brings a lot of fun to his mat surfing. I have had the honour of sharing waves with Matt and James Sowell at Doho and it was a real laugh.

Onto Patronus, she is a 70/70 Super-Free-Breather with negative rocker. I think Matt will notice and love the completely free spot movement in this mat. It's not for everyone but I really think it will be for him. He has gone for a deck valve. The grip is clear to maximise the light up factor.

As for the name a Patronus is a mythical protective creature from the Harry Potter stories. Matt says his animal is a pelican so again, perfect colour scheme.

Light shows aside, Matt is due to take a trip to hang out with a lovely long right hand point break later this year and Patronus is just gonna love that! Can't wait to see it.

Have fun Matt! It's weird shipping a mat to Idaho!

Cheers

G

(Re) Introducing the Chino Racer

Had a fun surf in the wave pool this morning with Ryan Akins which was a good opportunity to try out the reincarnated Chino Racer model. The one I'm riding here is a 70/70 free-breather named Ponk. You will notice that Ponk is numbered 300. This is the first time I've jumped forward in the numbering but I wanted to get this mat built to get the testing done, have a load of mats to be getting on with so wanted to get this one out of the way and also wanted number 300 for myself...

Cake and eat it! 🍰🙂

Anyway, as I've previously mentioned, I think it's important that builders of any kind of craft take time to properly explore the properties ofwhat they build. With mats, tiny differences in dimensions make huge differences in performance and direct experiential feedback is essential, alongside feedback from other people.

I've now ridden this extensively in 200/70 Wheezer and 70/70 free-breather and super-free-breather set-ups in all sorts of waves, so I feel I have a good sense of how the design behaves in different conditions and configurations. The Chino Racer is now back in the G-Mat range with a renewed sense of optimism and joy. 🙂

70/70 super-free-breather named Grubby Blanc (l) & a 200/70 Wheezer named Chubby Noir (R)

Here's what the description on the website says:

---

The Chino Racer is an all-rounder that gives a very different feel to the Ute and RB-JMC. Having an additional central I-beam, the Chino racer does not have quite the same level of morphing potential as the 4 I-beam/3 pontoon mats and Being a 4 pontoon mat the it feels much flatter and squarer than 3 pontoon models which means it naturally surfs much flatter. As a result this is a very fun mat that leans towards drifting turns, reminiscent of some of the older mats such as Merrin, although it is definitely a more advanced ride.

Despite this drifting tendency the Chino racer holds a line well and has good down-the-line speed. In 200/70, the Chino Racer feels very stable, particularly with a more restricted internal venting set up. As a 70/70 the drifting nature of this design is maximised and this might be the favoured option for more experienced surfers who are looking to add this style of ride to their quiver.

---

I have now retired the 5 Star General. With Tom building the G-Mat RFT range there is no need for me to be building stock mats so if you have one of the couple of hundred or so out there then you own an extinct species! (There is a one off white one somewhere that I did for Sean Starky for a Yucca raffle and a red one I built for Jim Newitt too).

Anyway, I'm going to carry on riding Ponk as my go to mat for a bit. Good fun! 🙂

Cheers

G