sweet what's the story with your board? why did it have to fly?

It was a custom order from Robert August CA. I ve been using an older RA board (probably from the 80's-90's) Rob had at his house and I loved it although that thing was totally beaten up. I wanted the same shape but new so I contacted the people at the headquarters send them a picture of that board and asked for the same shape. In Japan you can only get some of the regular shapes, but it would cost me double the money and I am not sure if they could do a custom order like that. They had to ship it cargo once shaped because its too big for Ups or FedX to handle.

The older sister

Have you tried surfing Daryl?

Nice board Tsu. Why didnt you want a newer shape?

Like I said, I am sure Rob throws your board out into the weeds during the week and puts up his board (at least here is to hoping)

Can Ewoks surf? I thought they couldnt swim??

I ve tried a few other boards up to now, like a 9,6 Greg Noll 9.2 Donald Takayama etc, that I also liked. But what suit my style better was the older sister, so I went for that. It was also the board I learned to surf on so there is a sentimental link to it too.

Damn that looks great. I wish I had been there to take some snaps but my back was definitely not up for it - ended up going for a stroll at takao san and even that was a bit strenuous. Will you be down next week? Forecast doesn't look too wonderful but would like to get some photos. I went down for a few hours on sunday but didn't spend much time in the water as I was trying to be a good boy. Waves I think were not that great but even so I can think of much worse ways to spend a sunday morning:

wow they look really muddy and underexposed on my work monitor... hope it is the monitor here that is wrongly calibrated and not my monitor at home...

I will definitely go. Was planing to go from Friday, but I got a meeting with the Ministry of education guys so have to be in Tokyo.

Same day same time in Taito

Anything North facing looked like that or worst.
Onjuku was the place to be.
Sam checked Hebara on Sat evening and said that cross-winds made it a bit bumpy. Onjuku was smaller but better shape.

Its funny but going through the last season pow pics I realized that my stance on the board is pretty much the same as surfing!

.

Nice board. Bit of an investment too.

Get those arms down buddy, especially if you are souling with five on the nose.

(FWIW - I surf goofy foot and snowboard natural foot)

What does that mean?

Hakuba Alpine Guides wrote:

Get those arms down buddy, especially if you are souling with five on the nose.

that was the first thing that came into my mind too when Rob showed me the pic!

Rob has been my surfing mentor up to now and usually keeps an eye on me when I am trying to surf stuff thats not my level yet.
That said, the bastard put me into my worst wipe-out ever last year. Lessons learned though, so no hard feelings.

Have you tried surfing Daryl?

yes. currently trying to sell my board it in Canada... so i don't have to fly it over in November. would like to bring it, but bike, snow and surf board on one flight seems like a headache plus I have had some damage done to it on another flight.

Long or short?
I ve heard that very few companies would accept anything above 9 ft as luggage.
If its a sort-board you will be able to get a second had here for 1-20000 yen anyway.

That is funny how you are doing the same technique goofy and regular.

Being stoked is good. Glad on ya.

satori wrote:

tsondaboy wrote:

Hakuba Alpine Guides wrote:

Get those arms down buddy, especially if you are souling with five on the nose.

that was the first thing that came into my mind too when Rob showed me the pic!

Rob has been my surfing mentor up to now and usually keeps an eye on me when I am trying to surf stuff thats not my level yet.
That said, the bastard put me into my worst wipe-out ever last year. Lessons learned though, so no hard feelings.

and why are you always pointing mate??

Whatever... Gaylord.

Sincerely, it is time for the full face helmet to be laid to rest.

No way, if I could I would be even wearing it while surfing.
Its unnecessary and makes me look silly, thats why I love it!

That fullface is so over kill!

The full face is here to stay and of the story, lets turn this thread back to surfing plz.

This has turned into the why Tsu shouldnt wear a full face now!

Great BMX helmet dude, I used the same one when I was 11.

The surfboard is cheaper than the split actually. The split was 2000$ CAN while the long-board was 1400$ USD.
It also seems that the board was shaped by the top shaper in Robert August family Mike Minchinton, the guy that shapes the boards for August himself.
I showed the board to some local shapers and said its impossible for them to make a similar board in Japan.
I am so stoked now that I would probably pay double the money to get it.
I am actually tempted to put the board up the wall and get a second hand to ride.

Robert August is a legend man. When I was living in Hawaii Id watch surf flicks before hitting the beach and surfing and Endless summer, while not a hard-core ripping type vid, is epic...It shows the heart and soul of surfing at its purest form, and I have that movie still to this day, and watch it periodically. I would love to meet those guys and say THANKS!!! for all the stoke you provided me as a kid and it would be sweet to have a beer with those guys for sure!

I love surfing, just wish I had the means to do it more...

Glad youre stoked Tsonda!!!! STOKE IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT!!

Come up over Silver Week dude. Rob is gonna be away but he said we can use his house freely.

2000 bucks for a snowboard!!!!
1300 bucks for a new surfboard seems fair but that is a lot of bed to throw around.
Do it now before the wife wants babies.

She is already on my case, I wont be able to do it for long now...

Still think you need a new helmut!

Fuck a duck that is a bad helmut!
A nice surfboard though.

1400 hunny for surf board? hhhwat the fuck, I hope your good enough to tell the difference.

but ya like some one said somewhere ... stoke is all that matters.

New surfboards in Japan arent cheap that I do know!

1400 for a longboard is not much dude.
In japan you cant find anything new for less that 1200.
A RA board here would be around 2000 and wont be a custom order and most certainly not shaped by the top RA shaper.

where's rob running off to? i hope silver week delivers for us.

Dude that fucking meeting on Friday is killing me, waves on Thursday Friday will be a killer.
Lets hope for a similar typhoon path over silver week too.
Rob is off to UK next week to visit family and stuff, will be back in 2 weeks I think.
When will you go down this weekend, have you heard about Sams BBQ party @ his new place on Sat?
He asked me to do a headcount of people coming down from Tokyo, so that he buys enough food.
Everyone is invited of course.

satori wrote:

and why are you always pointing mate??

Because hes always rocking his Hestra Penguin mits. He loves those things.

agree with Daryl... i think you could've flown to Australia, bot a longboard, surfed the Gold Coast, stayed a week, and flown back for cheaper. surfboards less than 1/3 of the price here compared to Japan. no idea why they're so expensive in japan

Yes hitomi invited me and I already said yes... yeah we are going to lose badly not being able to get down in the next couple of days. nothing we can do about it though!

Or Hawaii for that matter!!!

just booked a trip amami oshima from oct 30 to nov 3, should be a lot of fun anyone welcome who cares for it.

Ive always wanted to go there King, so let us know how it was! Looks like a beautiful place - watch out for the Habu, they are pretty aggressive, I saw a few in Okinawa and they arent passive unlike Mamushi.

I would love too but no money for a trip to Okinawa at the moment. Also if I could do, I would be heading down to Tanegashima again.
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/okayo777pace/33436311.html
Top pic on the longboard is Mads aka "thunderpants" in SJ. He has a small bar in Minami tane, near the JAXA space center.

By the way, I wont have a car this weekend by, Mika wants to use it on Sunday. Are you also taking the train or renting a car?

Tsu time to buy your own car mate.

I wasn't planning on renting a car I think. Obviously it makes life a lot easier but I am hoping to somehow make it down on friday evening and stay to sunday, so renting becomes a little pricey. Of course that means would be limited to where we can surf... but looks like it will be pretty shit everywhere anyway

MTB looks sick for the weekend !

I am thinking to go from Friday evening too.
I prefer Tanegashima because there are friends down to surf with. Amami is definitely on my hit list, but will have to wait till next year probably. A bit of a problem would be the board in the plane...

FT, am looking at trying to get up for some mtn biking action the weekend of the 18-21st mate. I hope it works out Gotta bike bag now, but still havent tried it out though the bloke at the store says it will fit no worries with both wheels off. Ill play with it this weekend and see how it goes. You'll have room for me yeah?

I can pass you Mads conact if you like to check that out too. There is a pretty convenient flight from Osaka to Tanegashima, but nothing straight from Tokyo unfortunately. Last time I went down there I took the plane to Kagoshima and from there the ferry to Tanegashima. Not recommended, it takes way too long and its extremely tiering.
There is no flight from Tokyo to Amami, you transit at Naha, right?
How much was the package you booked?

there is direct flight to amami. but with JAL cancelling routes left right and centre who knows how long it will be around for? Amami is part of kagoshima just like tanegashima btw. Yeah that uncomfortable travel to tanegashima is not that encouraging especially when time is at a premium. Return flights where a shade over 60k.