G-Mat 4 - Ta Daaaaaaaaaaa!!!

All finished. I give you...

G-MAT 4 (AKA "The Flying Banana")
Thanks to my boy Webbo for the name.

Over complicated grip if I'm honest. Much easier to get a good stipple with the two wider stripes. Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy.  Might get a test drive this weekend as the swell might not be quite as pump-a-licious as first expected I suspect.

Anyway, ride reports once ridden.

Cheers

G

G-Mat 4 - YELLOW IS GOOOOOOO!!!

Howdo.

Finished off welding G-Mat 4 and got stuck straight into dying (sorry Cookson).

I opted to go for yellow with this so got the appropriate acid dye.

You need acid dyes for nylon and the general consensus seems to be that Jacquard are the company to use.  I wanted a nice deep mustard yellow and the yellow sun dye looked just right for that.  So, 7 litres of hot water simmering away in a steel bucket and in goes the dye and half a cup of vinegar (the acid) to fix the dye to the fabric.

Not looking too yellow!  Still, in for a penny, in for a pound and in goes the mat. A bit of mixing and....

Looking pretty yellow!  In fact....

It looks REALLY feckin' yellow!!!  No chance of losing this one anyway!  :-D

So then, grip and logo's to do and then my small wave summer mat will be ready, just in time for Autumn!

Cheers

G

More from Chad

Here's another offering from Chad Stickney surfing Newport Wedge. A great demonstration of the power of the angled take-off for anyone struggling with getting going in hollow waves.

Surfmat the Wedge from chad Stickney on Vimeo.

Certainly motivating me to dust off mine. Question for Chad. Is this an HD cam or the old style? Screen res is 4:3 but definition seems good.

Cheers

G

G-Mat 4 Mat-build Pt 2

I've got on with the I'beams today.  All went well.

Letting everything press now and will fuse the edges and do the corners when I get a chance. Then it's on to dying.

*GULP*

G

Mat Movie Update - From Mr Dirk

Hi folks,

I took down the Mat Movie Forum today. I doubt it will be deeply missed *sniff*, but if you want to pause for a moment of silence, now is your chance.

Actually it was premature and probably unnecessary to start it in the first place. And when the Estonian cyberbots started pounding me with 20 or 30 account requests a day, I suddenly remembered why I originally fled the glamorous world of Information Technology (I went to the beach instead). The Gentleman's Enhancement industry will just have to plow ahead without the Mat Movie Forum's assistance.

Now, the film production world could still use a comprehensive project management platform. Maybe one exists of which I'm not aware. But for the time being, we all seem to be using variants of the same social media, and we share the same channels of communication, so we're in touch. As my own progress begins to gel to the point where I actually have a schedule for the mat movie production, then I'll depend on the blog to coordinate with the rest of you out there so that the message is more or less centralized and organized.

I hope you've been able to scoop up some footage over the last year. I have, and I've already gotten some great contributions from vyusher, kendog, and others, and I know there's more out there. 

The coming season should put us over the top. My lifelong predilection has been to surf alone, but the home team and I will be working together a lot more this coming winter (the season of best waves in my neighborhood), so I'm sure we'll score some solid sessions. And likewise, I'm eager to bear down on some of you as subjects for onscreen interviews (using voice mod and cast-shadow profiles upon request). The oral history of surf culture is, of course, the engine that converts sessions into legends, so tell your inner Homer that's it's almost time to sing.

Best regards, Dirk <>

MATMEET 8 - Dates Confirmed

UK MAT SURFERS

MATMEET 8

12/13 November, 2011

Hello there.

Thank you all for giving your availability for MM8 which is confirmed as above.

The plan is going to be to hold this in the Bournemouth/Kimmeridge area as discussed HERE.  Given the fickleness of the English Channel, we need a back-up plan, however, so Widemouth Bay (venue for MM6) will be Plan B.



So then, here's the plan:

Get these dates super-glued in your diaries NOW!

We check the forecast the on 7th Nov and call the venue then.

Use the comments section in this post, rather than email to confirm attendence and make arrangements to ensure we're all hooked up and singing from the same hymn sheet!

Try to arrange car shares in both directions so we can just go with whatever's needed.

Have a think about places to crash. I can accomodate some Cornish-folk as long as sleeping on blow-up matresses is OK.

There you go. We even have a business-b*ll*cks acronym... GWUTH!!!

We've done pretty well southside over the last few Autumn/Winters with decent long-period SW swells coming up from Biscay so it's reasonable to expect this to go off on the South Coast as planned.

ONWARD!!!!

Cheers

G

Coloured grip

I mixed up a couple of heaped teaspoons of powder paint into some white Soudal. The kind of stuff youd use as a kid. Tricky stuff to mix! Its been out on a few sesions, works well and is still on there!!!



A liberal coating.



Hand Surfa

Picked up this Hand Surfa from John at revolversurf.blogspot.com .Cant wait to try it out. I hadnt found much info on them until I came across this fellow mat surfer, and what a sound chap he is too!

http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/NelsNorene/NelsN_2010-0316.shtml

C-Box Chatbox

Hello there.

I've added a chatbox to the site so people can ask brief questions and the like. Let's see if it's helpful.  I see it as being used for things like "anyone surfing tomorrow?" and things like that but up to you.

Cheers

G

Beautifully shot and edited POV mat video

This cropped up on Vimeo.

Watch in HD.


Dream Slide in an Other Universe from Vyusher La Kali on Vimeo.

Fantastic dawn surf. Great atmosphere. Well done to Vyusher.

G

Surfing On The South Coast

Just lately seemed most of my surf sessions have been spent grovelling in 2ft onshore mush even the big pulse of swell at the weekend was more like big swell than waves and was starting to look enviously at the kite surfers thinking that,s the way to go on the south coast. That was until Tuesday session at Highcliffe it was big,at times brutal but most of all fun lost my mat twice got a good beating trying to get out in a shore dump with fins on but it restored my faith in surfing on the South coast and had another fun session on Wednesday when then had died down.

36 hours to end ocean clear-cuts

36 hours to end ocean clear-cuts

Hello there.

I just got an email from the pressure group AVAAZ.org which I though was pretty relevent for on here.  The crux of it is:

"Our oceans are being systematically destroyed, and we have 36 hours to raise the alarm. The seafood industry uses long chains of heavy metal disks to drag nets across the sea floor in search of fish, crushing everything in their path. This bottom-trawling is like clear-cutting a forest to catch a parrot -- and only our outcry can stop it.

In two days, UN policy-makers are meeting to review the impacts of this deadly practice. Pacific island nations are fighting to save the oceans and have appealed to Avaaz members to stand with them."

Avaaz are looking for 500,000 signatures for their petition which is growing by the second. At the time of writing it's at 369,968

Signing is simple and can be done here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_ocean_clear_cutting/?cl=1269065257&v=10241

Cheers

G

Emailing each other

A couple of people have mentioned that they would like to be able to email each other, kinda like the PM system on a forum.  If you want people to be able to email you, do the following:

1. Sign in.
2. Click on "dashboard"
3. Click "edit profile" 
4. Make sure the "share my profile" box is ticked
5. Tick "show my email address"

People can then click on your profile and will see a link to email you.

Cheers

G

New Mat Build

Right then.  I've got going with my next build. this is gonna be a  leisurely project doing a bit here and there.

No rush... I have mats to ride...

Basically, my plan is to build a mat to the same dimensions at G-Mat 2 (shown below). Prior to its untimely demise, this mat was an absolute delight to ride, particularly in the mush, with a good inch of extra length on G-Mat 3 which is made with chunkier, hollower waves in mind.

So, I've made a start and cut the deck and bottom, both out of 70 denier taffeta weave nylon.  

As you can see, this material is white, however I plan to use acid dyes to give the mat some colour. As of yet, I'm undecided on what colour it will be.  The white is ideal for dying, however I mark up my weld points using masking tape which is later removed. This works well but you go flippin' cross-eyed trying to see where the tape stops and the material starts!

Still, the colour options make it worth while hopefully!

:-)

Onward!!!!

Cheers

G

Selling my Da Fins

Hi y'all, i'm selling these coz they are just a smidgen too small when I wear them with wetsuit socks (they cramp my feet after about an hour)!

They are in good condition and I'll let them go for £30. They are size large. Any takers?

Bob's Birthday Surf

It's my birthday next week and I was hoping to get a celebratory session organised for sat 17th if any ones interested.

I'm looking to go in somewhere between MP and Widdy if the surf shapes up.

Another US Matmeet!!!

Our comrades in the colonies have been at it again! What's this now, US Matmeet 284829289?

Anyway, pics and report are on SURFMATTERS

Looks like a real blast.  Well done all!

Cheers

G

Fantastic Reading

An excellent post from Pranaglider can be found HERE

For those unaware, Prana is the genius behind the 23Breaths blog.

Cheers

G

North East Bank Holiday

Just got this in from Dan Crockett who spent the Bank Holiday on the English North East coast test driving his new DaFins. 

Lucky f*cker!

G

-------------

your fins are rad!

Southcoast Matmeet - time to get our heads together...

Hello there matters.

In recent times we've seen a real increase in the number of English south coast matters so it only seems fair that we sort a meet up in their neck of the woods. We'll have a couple of meets this winter so the question is, which do we have on the south coast?

November or February? Let's have your preferences.

Can people have a think. It will also involve a trek up for many of the Cornish contingent so places to crash will be handy.

We also need the locals to give us the benefit of their wisdom on this. We need a spot which isn't zooed and has a good filming position. Also, waves with a half mile paddle aren't really suitable unless somebody has a boat to film from.

So, let's have your thoughts and some idea of who'd be up for the trek.

Cheers

G