HB Mat Meet

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David Song, Bruce Cowan (23 Breaths), Matt Pierce and James Sowell hooked up at Huntington Beach in some solid looking surf.

David snapped a couple of shots of Matt Pierce who said:

Challenging conditions for the HB mat meet! Had fun flying Phileas and Cali King [Matt's G-Mat]. Wedge session soon! It was a tough day with the waves sweet spot out running us constantly. just getting left behind a lot but got a couple sweet little barrels...

Pretty solid stuff! The paddle out looks a laugh a minute! 

Far more manageable was James' session back at Wiggums earlier in the week. Here are a couple of screen grabs from video shot by Scott Reeder..

I do believe this Cali leg is going rather well. 

G

Word from Mattitude

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James "Mattitude" Sowell has taken over the reins and has got into some waves with Phileas. As you will remember, he got in on the un-photographed session at Wiggums with Scott Reeder and Ken McKnight.

James didn't really feel the love on his first go out. Obviously he rode well, being one of the world's very best mat riders, but he described Phileas as feeling a bit full.  Second session sounds like they developed an understanding:

phileas and i had a good lets get acquainted session today .

took her out to north side hb  pier down at taco bell reef.
surf was a good combo swell with alot of windswell from the  north. breaking a good  2+ feet overhead in big  mushy tapered peaks that were connecting to the shorebreak.

it was  kind of big no channels  and my first thought were phileas i hope you like ducking !
i adjusted the air much lower then when i rode it at wiggums. ended up well  under 180 more like 200-210.  i could grab a big corner of the  mat while it was 180 and it still was not tight.my first wave was a big outside right  i pivoted a turn off the top and highlined it. the  mat took off like greased lightning.
as i came across the face i hit a  pretty big  chop while up on the rail. I braced myself for a big chop hop but to my surprise phileas sucked it up and absorbed the  chop  enough so i did not get thrown.
I had it at 180 at wiggums and  that was  way to much air all the negative feelings i had at wiggums disappeared at the lower inflation .
was able to make some connections that surprised me doing some dolphin kicks as i  was connecting to the shorebreak.

phileas was able to climb some  foam on a wave that was  sectioning on me  down the line  turned sharper then i have felt before on a mat .

it was not  as rail to rail feeling as  my last impression of it  with more  air it  just turned  fast and sharp. and best of all i  made a shorebreak tube with  so much authority. was not even expecting to make it  but had such a strong speed thrust as i entered  it  came busting out after about a 2 second tube totaly blew me away.
I am so stoked to have had a chance to ride her I Really connected to the magic today with the g-mat.

there might be a ride or  two on the 17th street cam today but i have not checked
i drifted through the cam  area between 9 and 10-45 am

stickneys gunna go crazy when he rides this  thing.

should be a beast on the  river waves

No pics then, and I have no idea how to check said cam!!! Jamo has had another sneaky go out since which looks like a great session:

James says:

phileas took a  boat ride today.   got a few nuggets   much more to come 

Judging by Matt Pierce's Facebook activity it looks like a matmeet could be on the cards.

Great stuff!

G

Presenting the San Diego video.

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Phileas the travelling Surfmat hits the US West Coast. First stop, San Diego and lodging with Scott Reeder, the perfect host. Phileas had a huge adventure which you can read about here: http://customsurfmats.com/phileas/?tag=San+Diego Surf-wise, she hooked up with a load of local riders including Scott, his wife Pam and son Maz, mat meisters Kendog and Mark Miller and local legends Peter St Pierre and Cher Pendarvis.

Enjoy!

G

Farewell from San Diego

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Well, it's been a lengthy stay in SD but what a stay it's been. Scott Reeder has sent over his last report as Phileas sets off to her next stop:

Phileas has been shipped off to Mattitude, and I already miss her. 

I hauled our girl pretty much everywhere I went, including regular rounds through the medical machine. I’m dealing with a rare cancer, thymic carcinoid, triggered by a rare gene mutation, MEN1, and it’s a full-time battle. But what timing: Phileas arrived at the beginning of a three-week break from energy-sapping, nausea-inducing meds. And we sure did make the time count.

Her first couple weeks here, I had a blast documenting friends riding Phileas, each with his or her own flair. Then, more than halfway through her stay, I realized I hadn’t actually ridden her much aside from a few waves here and there. So we spent some quality time in the water.

I roamed the coast for more than a week straight, surfing Phileas every day in various conditions at various spots. Mostly reef breaks. San Diego County has loads of reefs, with some better suited to mats than boards, in my opinion. Of course she loved the good days, but I was really impressed with how well she glided through the smaller stuff and the slop. What a great all-around mat!

Scott on one!

Though Mark [Miller] was able to make it for a couple of these surfs, I was usually alone. I tried to self-film, but the results are ridiculous. I’d aim the camera at the lineup as best I could, hit record, then rush out there. But our little Canon usually shuts off after 10 or 15 minutes. Much of that time is often used up doing the rock dance just to get to the lineup. There are entire clips where I never even make it into the viewfinder. Or if I do, it’s either as a speck off in the distance or as a quick streak in and out of the picture. Sometimes the camera quits mid-wave. My favorite is when the damn thing shits out eight seconds into my best session.

Nevertheless, it was always fun to plug in the disk at the end of the day and see what I got, if anything. And there were a couple nice surprises.

"...a quick streak in and out of the picture."

"...there were a couple nice surprises."

For me, the highlight of Phileas’ stay was the first of what ended up being four “Farewell” sessions, when I got my wife, Worm, and son, Maz, back in the water for the first time in months. It was 98 percent closeouts at SD’s most famous beach break, but we had so much fun screwing around, running into each other.

Sacred times, mate. Savoring it all. With some heavy treatments fast approaching, I’m so grateful to have got all this in the memory bank. Thanks again for including us, G. Can’t wait to see what she else Phileas gets up to along the West Coast …

Thanks again for being the perfect host Scott. It's been a joy to watch this adventure unfold. I'm stoked to see how Phileas' tats are coming along. Looking amazing!

Reeders go Geordie!

Scott has taken stacks of photo's. I've added a few below so enjoy them. The SD video is great so will be out there soon as a stand alone movie.

Cheers

G

Kendog

Mark Miller

Blacks

Blacks

Maz at Blacks

Point Loma Lighthouse

The perfect house guest helps with dinner.

Getting Back to Basics - Pt 2

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Following on from her epic boat trip, Scott Reeder took Phileas to meet a couple of other friend, Alex and Cher.  Scott picks up the story:

Later, I ran into our good mate Alex, the mellowest New York native I’ve ever known. Alex is a dedicated mat rider and a top bloke. One evening I lost my mat and ran out of breath trying to swim out of a deep channel. Alex rushed over and slipped me his mat before swimming in. He’ll give up his surf time to chat with curious elderly folks on the beach. Once I saw him use his very last piece of thread to sew the the wing back on an ailing gnat …

Another great thing about Alex is his hair. It’s perfect. When he gets out of the water, the way it dries looks more the work of a sculptor than of the wind and sun.

Alex's amazing hair

Alex making a meal out of a morsel

I’d tried to get Alex on Phileas the week before, but conditions completely fell apart. This day wasn’t much different. Yet Alex found some good ones. Cheers, friend. 

The next day I was super jazzed to meet up with Cher Pendarvis, busy artist, writer, matriarch of the local surf community and more. Hip pain had kept her mostly out of the water for two months, so this was a special day. She returned to the ocean aboard Phileas. And she did great. She grabbed an insider, then kicked way out the back. Despite some lingering pain, she took off as deep as possible on some good sets and locked into the sweet spot all the way through. Cher and her shaping guru husband, Steve’s [Pendoflex Surfboards] wave knowledge freaks my beans. 

The next day she was back at it on a 6’4”, with plans to bodysurf, mat or ride a board the following morning. Yeah, Cher! Inspiring stuff. 

Thanks to Scott, Alex and Cher for more fun. Phileas isn't quite done in SD but she's going to be homesick for the place when she finally moves on.  I just wish I'd packed myself in the box!

G