MORE SACRED CRAFT


Inspecting winning shape by Matt Biolos with replica 6'6 Bells board in the foreground on the floor.


In the shaping bay used at Sacred Craft with Gary taking a close look.


Gary MacNabb, Simon and Rusty Prisendorfer at Sacred Craft. Trivia fact that Simon did a stint shaping with Rusty in the mid 80's.

MORE SACRED CRAFT


Thruster tribute booth

Scott Bass, Sacred Craft Founder

Trav - WOW


Replica Shapes by Shaping Icons - Pat Rawson, Brian Buckley, Larry Mabile, Matt Biolos and Jason Bennett .

In honoring the 30th year of the Thruster design Sacred Craft organised a shaping contest where these top US shapers shaped from scratch my 6'6 81 Bells Beach semi gun board. They had 1½ hours to shape it from scratch using a power planer and hand tools. After viewing the board for a ½ hour they each had a turn at reproducing this board. It is a difficult task, I have tried copying this board many times in my own shaping bay and have struggled.

The 5 shapers had to work in virtually an open bay to allow spectator viewing. This caused unwanted light streaming in taking away crucial shadows that guide you through, normally showing up tucked under edges, deck lines and all other elements in the shape. Matt Biolos seemed to cope the best by continually taking the shape outside the bay to allow a fresh perspective. His interpretation was clearly the best and was duly awarded the championship.

Good work to all the guy's, it was an interesting exercise I think bringing to the publics attention the skill required to full shape surfboards.

SACRED CRAFT EXPO - SAN DIEGO


Simon and Shaun, North Narrabeen 1981 Coke 2SM Surfabout.



Shaun Tomson official opening to Sacred Craft Expo, San Diego Saturday 14 August, on Shaun's left Gary McNabb, then Jim Kempton and Simon.


Simon and Peter Townend 1976 World Surfing Champion.


At Sacred Craft exhibit.


WOW booth.


Luke Short, Darren Symes, Simon


Tim Stamps, Huntington shaper from Stamps Surfboards, with Simon, Lydia and Luke Short at Scratching The Surface premier of the Julian Wilson movie.

SHYAMA BUTTONSHAW - TAKES THE DROP

Shyama Buttonshaw takes the drop down South from Torquay coast on his XFC 5'11 18 1/4 2 3/16 Rounded Square single to tiny double concave.

Better late than never - Shyama's feedback on this board made about 1 month ago and the take off -"Was pretty hairy I ended up face planting the reef on that free fall. Just about knocked my teeth out ha ha. Boards are going great, haven't had any swell to surf the 6'1 yet (step up) but the short board (5'11) is sick." Thanks Shyama keep up the good work.




SIMON IN THE US - AT THE US OPEN 2010


BMX venue Simon's right VIP grandstand and surf beyond in the background.

Main entrance to the US Open 2010 with the heat draw for the men and women plus juniors.













View from the public grandstand including pier with replay screen on the right side.


Street scene looking up main street from the Huntington Pier entrance Saturday ten to 1

Mick on a DTS - window display front of the Rip Curl shop Pacific Coast Highway Huntington Beach

TEAM NEWS - NEW MODELS












TEAM NEWS

Adam Robertson has been sponsorless for 18 plus months even after making the final at last years WCT Rip Curl Bells Easter Pro. So we are very pleased to see that Billabong has signed Adam. Well done Billabong, Adam is arguably the 2nd best Victorian surfer of all time, behind only Wayne Lynch and maybe Tony Ray. Obviously it is expensive to do the WQS Tour and give yourself a realistic chance of qualifying to the CT level but now maybe Adam can fulfill his dream, good luck.

In the photo from the 2010 Sri Lanka QS Adam is surfing a 6'1 x 18⅝” XFC model with flat deck and chunky rails, but only 2¼" thick. The rocker is a very slight variation on the usual XFC TSR and was the most successful rocker/board for us on this years Australian leg of the WCT Tour.

We made a good one for Andy at 6'1 x 18⅝ x 2 5/16 rounded square tail, deep single with tiny double, fixed DL Soar fins. This board was a little thin for him however and he passed it on to Roy who has surfed it a few times on the CT Tour, all good.

Jay Thompson lights up Jay Bay for a brief moment in round 2 scoring a perfect 10 and backing this up with an 8 plus ride. The 10 was impressive, a long barrel then some committed turns. For me the 8 point ride was more impressive with a commanding lead in the latter part of the heat after securing the 10, Jay was able to take apart his last wave with power surfing that was as good as any seen so far this year.

Jay has been surfing a BF22 model all year (which is the new generation BX2?) but after bad luck and management and pretty ordinary surf for the first couple of CT events he was losing confidence on the boards we worked pretty hard to develop over the last 2 years I guess. So it was a relief for me and Jay to see him surf so well and get a little momentum and confidence from this one heat. Let’s hope he can go on from here and avoid the looming cut.

The BF22 is a flatter rocker than XFC, Jay is surfing 6'2½ x 19 x 2½ Rounded Square with deep single and tiny double through the fins area (just a high stringer really), there is a little vee at the tail hardly any, the rails are low volume and low soft, a little extra area in the nose plan shape but not the tail, with a pretty thin tail also. Jay and Adam are using Futures fin system, Jay prefers the HS fins and Adam is still testing.

NEW MODELS

I have been working on a model for the past 4 - 5 months called the Toe. Essentially this is a Mollusc style board but has a rounder nose and swallow tail. Also deep single to double concave through the bottom with vee at the swallow.

I like the vee at the back in small wave wide boards with concave because it brings a measure of control and assists in rail to rail turning (helps get the wide board up on a rail quickly). Luckily Don Norris was on hand the other day taking shots so I can bring you some surfing images that give you an idea of how the Toe looks and performs.Personally I like the Toe, it is helping me get up on take offs as I recover from torn rotator cuff shoulder muscles. The round nose gives you something to push against as well as glide onto the wave as you jump to your feet, and because of the extra nose area you can surf a shorter board making tight pocket turns possible.

The board in the photos is a Middle Toe at 6'4 x 21¼ x 2¾ and is best in 2 - 4 feet surf. I have a small wave version at 6'1 x 21¼ x 2¾ this is the Toe model for 1 - 3 feet, also I have made an allrounder version at 6'6 x 19¾ x 2¾ called the Big Toe for 3 - 6 feet surf.