2 crows Freestyle Style Free Blog

Daniel Jones Surfing Rocky Point

2012-03-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick video of Daniel Jones surfing Rocky Point on a little Mini Simms turned into a quad... or now called a Quadini. It has the same template of a mini simms but tuned up for tighter turns to go with the quad fin set up. Looks like the board is a lot of fun.

Polishing surfboards

2012-03-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Buffy Buffy. I started out a polisher. In High School going to work at the factory after school. Polishing. I learned from Scott O. He was an amazing polisher and really fast. I remember one day him comming in to the shop to do some boards. The other polisher was there and whining about Scott taking all the work. I only did about 7 a week at the time so I was no threat to the work load. "Ill buff circles around that fucking guy" Scott said about the note the other polisher had left about sharing work. Ill always remember Scott with those blood shot eyes "Buff circles around that guy" So Classic.

Chris' new medium simmions

Two Crows Freestyle Style Free

Stripes on the fins

My new mini simmions... but always for sale

Toots' new chocholate dipped stick

Back and forth

2012-03-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

Man we are keeping up a pretty frantic pace these days. When we first started this project it was pretty leisurely. I would hang out in Hawaii for a month or so, then fly back to Santa Cruz for a while. After a few months Nick would need more work and it was back out there to freestyle around with him. Now we've got shops, rents, dates, spreadsheets, deadlines and time tables. They say you spend half your life working, so you better be doing something you love. Nick and I are lucky. When it gets tough we still enjoy it... even when we are arguing about who was supposed to polish those two minis that got shipped to Santa Cruz... it's really not that bad, considering.

Who knows what this is? :)

I brought back a couple Minis for Ryan and Gus this trip. Ryan's is this 5'0" and Gus's is the Yellow 6'0".

Love that yellow... looks like butter. -Carl

Shaping Machine

2012-03-06T05:00:00.003-08:00

The new Two Crows Shaping machine is epic. Portable and "green" this machine does not use gas or electricity to run. Although it putters and mummers quite often, it is quite reliable. Its an older machine. 32 years I think. Plenty of boards under its belt, and the blades are as sharp as ever. Its caliberd just right and there is no ghost shaper needed to clean up the machine marks after its cut. It even signs the boards when finished.

Here is the shaping machine mid cut. Powered by burgers and beers.

Mike dropped off a 12 pak sunday morning for us. It was a bit early for us to crack a beer, but they were all consumed after dark. Thanks Mike!

Carl the shaping machine busting out... ;)

we are saving the end pieces for some R and D we want to with the strength of fiberglass variations. We know the outcome but thought it would be fun for everyone to see a scientific experiment come out of it. Coming soon...

The shaping Machines vacum system. Keeps the dust out of his eyes. I mean the dust out of the machine.

Malia's kid's board. Tiny. Such a little grom board.

Carl is a machine and may shape nonstop for 4 days but I got nonstop work for the next month.

Some of the art pieces getting finished up.

"One Mega Shaka" for you.

Chris' new medium simmons. You can see in the painting behind it where the leftover resin went.

Two heads are better than one

2012-03-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Nick's pretty burned out today. He's currently sitting behind me complaining... about pretty much everything. He's hungover. Last night was a big night, he moved out of his van into a nice "plush" room in a real house.

The room is only about 80 square feet, but it's like a mansion compared to living in a van.

The night was celebrated in Two Crows style. TOo many beers resulted in a loong day at the shop. Still got everything done though.

Here's some art Nick's been working on...

More art

Some egg

a mini simms ...for toots

Got the news that one of our groms in Santa Cruz- Barrett won the High School league championship this year. Major props- I remember those days- that's a great accomplishment! Yeah Barrett! -Carl

Freestyiling

2012-03-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

I got inspired today to attempt a new method to the freestyle. Something that I have been wanting to do for a while, just haven't had the right board or frame of mind. The Idea was to use a solid color over some squeegee work to tone back the colors then go in and rework it. Well I did it and it came out pretty cool. I will definetly be playing more with the technique.
Here is some pics of the boards going through the shop.
-n

Here is the preliminary work on the foam. A little more than just the spray paint get applied.

The two mini simmons getting a fin Job

Here is the freestyle with a light tint over it to mute out the colors. I like it.

Stripy Stripy

Tip T!me

2012-02-29T09:31:00.000-08:00

Man if you are into nose and you haven't seen this video, pull up a chair and press play. The new generation is insane...

Have you realized that it's leap year this year? I just did about 5 minutes ago. Sweet

Gave me an extra day to get everyone's board done. If you have a board on order in Santa Cruz, it's either in the glass room or further along at this point!

A small order of business before pulling out to the Hawaii shop was working on this, the last of the boards from the fire. Couldn't get all the soot off, a little extra red helped... or did it. Either way, someone's getting a deal

Jessica's board is looking great, wish the camera would pick up that bottom color better though. Can't figure out the stupid flash either. Welzie's way better than me when it comes to making the camera work... funny cause I'm supposed to be the electronics guy

Here's another of my current favorites going through the shop- Brian's little Rocket. 5'6"... I want one blown up to my size! 6'? Sweet -Carl

New Boards and New Art

2012-02-28T05:00:00.002-08:00

A few boards heading out of the shop as a couple more start to get glassed. Jumped into some new art as well. The Mural has a pretty good coat so I figured I would dump the resin somewhere else.-n

Jason and his new Yardstick. Sugar Mill Cream.

Old friend Sara getting her first two crows surfboard.

A little art happening. I had some wood laying around from the last series and thought I would get back into it. It's been a while since a did a few pieces. Feels good.

Another piece in the process.

A couple mini simmons getting laminated. Gus' yellow one and another Neopolitan Ice ream sandwich. Chocolate Strawberry and vanilla.

"toots" travel board getting the deck glassed.

Seth Bowman, Shaping, Cloud board

2012-02-27T01:54:00.001-08:00

Great picture sent in to us by Seth Bowman surfing at his favorite photo studio on the W/S of Santa Cruz. He's riding his new camo-freestyle 9'6" you can see it in this post here.

Nothing too interesting going on in the SC shop, just foam mowing and more foam mowing. I'm heading out to Hawaii on thursday, so all mainland orders will be in the glassing room before I leave.

Pretty cool 3 color lam on Jessica's board... you can't really tell in the picture but the tail is a cream opaque. The shape is a 9'4" pintail lady log. Really looks good.

Another shot of the nose. Looks like clouds on mushrooms or something. ;) -Carl

Greenough edge spoon part 5: Finishing

2012-02-26T05:00:00.001-08:00

This is a continuation of parts 1,2,3&4

Once the shell was moulded, adding the foam was next. It's a 2 part mixture that once mixed, you have about 30 seconds to mix and pour. Once poured it rapidly foams up, so I made a cardboard dam to kind of hold it in place and keep it from running all over the place as it went off. The foam is the same stuff that conventional surfboards are made of, polyurethane.

A lot of shaping later- mostly with a handgrinder and sandpaper, the board really takes shape.

Then the board got layed up with heavy uni-directional fiberglass, the strength was mostly needed in the nose to tail direction. Instead of building up layer and layer of normal 6oz, 20oz uni was used.

Here's the fin, made of an old Noserider fin. Rad

The board completed and sanded. Note the base on the fin. Made for easy mounting though the deck with a couple bolts.

Front view.

9 lbs total at the end, with hardly any foam in it. The first time I threw it in the water it sank so that it sat vertical in the water and just the tip of the nose was floating above the surface. Shocker. -Carl

Greenough edge spoon part 4: Making the shell

2012-02-25T03:44:00.000-08:00

This is a continuation of parts 1,2&3

Making a spoon isn't too bad once you have the mould. It begins with waxing the mould with special wax to aide in removing the finished shell. It is done very liberally, the last thing you want to happen is have the shell stick to the mould and ruin it. Once the mould is properly prepared, glass and resin are laid in, 4 layers of 6oz in this case. Pretty fun stuff because you're actually building the board at this point.

Taking the time to do it right.

After the resin kicked, a little trim work around the edges before the shell gets popped out with compressed air.

Look at that. A perfect beginning to a board. Bottoms already done!

You can get a feel for the foil of these boards in this shot. Stoked. -Carl

Greenough edge spoon part 3: Mould making

2012-02-24T05:00:00.001-08:00

This is a continuation of Greenough edge spoon part 1 and Greenough edge spoon part 2

I wish I had taken more shots of the mould making process. I got really sucked into it and all I could think about was completing the project and blew right through it. My mind gets like that when I'm covering new ground- tunnel vision. The mould was build with polyester resin and fiberglass layed over the plug that you saw built in the previous post. The basic process was polishing out the plug, coating it in mould release wax, buffing it, repeating the wax process about 5 times and then coating the whole deal in a mould release film that hopefully would aid in the separation of the plug and mould. This picture shows the first layer of glass going on...

Here's what it looked like all layed up. There's about a solid 3/16"-1/4" of fiberglass and resin covering the whole plug at this point.

A little bracing- I was so deep in hour wise on this project at this point I wasn't going to take any chances with possible twisting of the mould or anything like that.

The moment of truth. This really doesn't tell the story of myself and a friend prying and fighting to peel the mould from the plug until our fingers were bloody from the shards of fiberglass. It took over an hour to pry it loose using compressed air and wedges. But it looked amazing when we finally pried it loose.

A little trimming of the edges and a trip outside to the sun. Beautiful if you ask me. All that work sanding, painting and polishing the plug really paid off in the end when the mould was finished!
Next up, laying up the spoon! More tomorrow... The fun part! :) -Carl

Greenough edge spoon part 2: Bondo time

2012-02-23T05:00:00.004-08:00

This is a continuation of greenough edge spoon part 1

After the foam plug was shaped and glassed, it was time to build up the edge (and ignore the work staked in my doorway) ...Bondo was my choice to build it up. Bondo is just Polyester resin (Good old surfboard resin) mixed with cheap filler. It's great stuff if you want to make a mod to a board, it goes on quick, builds well and drys fast. I drew a couple guide lines to get things started...

Mmmmm Bondo!

Probably about a gallon of the stuff went on the bottom... heavy

Lot's of filing with the old surforms

And lots and lots of sanding

This red stuff is sort of a thick primer that fills in all the nicks and scratches that you can't get out with the Bondo

Here's the finished product ready to get painted. Did I mention this is only the plug for a mould? Crazy amount of work

Yep... all painted. Pretty awesome. Looks like a UFO. Next part of the series will cover making the mould. Check back- Carl

<--End part 2

Greenough edge spoon part 1

2012-02-22T05:00:00.002-08:00

In 2006 I got really hooked for awhile on learning about George Greenough's edge spoons. Not to be confused with Velo, the board that everyone knows so well. You know, that iconic red railed see-through spoon that the world copied the fin off of in the mid 60's? A lot of people still ride that fin to this day, it is known as the stage 4a. It seems though that few bother to follow the genius of Greenough past Velo into the 70's and further. Very few realize that he turned away from the concept of flexible fins by the early 70's- a concept that his name is synonymous with. Because of over crowding at his local breaks, by the early 1970's George had drastically modified his boards to work better in less than idea surf. They were called edge spoons and George would continue to build the concept into pretty much everything he made, including sailboards.

You can see in the picture above the distinct edge that was added to later spoons. This was to help them plane better than the original Velo style spoons. Careful tuning of the edge allowed for a board that would work in in much worse conditions than the Velo spoons.

I stumbled on these boards in 2006 and couldn't stop reading about them for many reasons. One being the fact they are so forgotten by verbal history books of the surfing/shaping community. Another was the wonder if George had been onto something and never bothered to mention it to anyone after seeing what happened when the world got their eyes on Velo.

I've got a tendency to get obsessive over things that make my mind turn and it wasn't long before I was gluing random scraps of EPS block foam together to make a rough blank for a edge spoon.

The template was built to include the rocker and was designed after pouring over everything I could find on the internet.

Nothing like a nice rocker template to get you honed in just right. I've always felt that rocker is one, if not the most crucial part of a surfboard to get right. Who knows if it's just a residual feeling from my mentors, but it always plays a big part in my surfboard design.

Here's rough template cut out.

The first bands always set the tune for the rest of the shape. Because I had never seen an edgespoon in person, I decided to follow what I thought was the logical progress for George. Build a spoon such as Velo first, then add the edge later.

Here's the shape all smoothed out almost ready for glass. I only needed to shape the bottom of the board, because it is used to make a mould for the fiberglass shell that becomes the spoon.

And here it is with a single layer of glass on it. The seams are from the different pieces of foam that got glued together to make the rough blank. I took so many pictures of this project that consumed so much time, hundreds of hours, that this will have to be a multi-part project. Tune back later for the next part.

End part one ---> Carl

Another day goes by

2012-02-21T05:00:00.003-08:00

"Carl? Carrrrl??" Welzie making a call to the mothership at the Wet Art show. Surely one of those phones can connect him.

Insanity aside, here's a preview for Andy of his 7'1" Frankenspud copy...

Close up shot of Robins new EPS/Epoxy Log... just a teaser. Those drips are from the hotcoat on the deck, they get ground off before the bottom is hotcoated. A thorough sanding comes next.

David came by this evening and grabbed this green tinted log and was one of the first in Santa Cruz to get one of the new Black&White fins.

And getting close to completion of Brian's second board, he's getting that all black asymmetrical that you've seen before. This one is a little 5'6" Quad with a Rocket Tail. Can't wait to see these all black boards finished up. -Carl

A Little more

2012-02-20T04:33:00.000-08:00

A few more images from the show, here's two crows and a bro...

Alot of women made suits into dresses.

Gigi's piece

Sanders

sea shells... at least they didn't smell like resin

Also got some finished board pics, here's Johnny Smiths

nice

Annie's full freestyle

Debbies

-C

Wet Art Show

2012-02-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

Last night was the Wet Art show... It was so much fun that we didn't get a chance to blog about it last night, so here I am doing it late this morning. It was quite a successful show, many props to Gigi and her crew for doing such a good job putting it together. Tons of food and alcohol was flowing in every direction. Many interesting pieces but only a few as dramatic as Welzies fully fiberglassed freestyle piece.

He decided to do some last minute touches at the show

Here's another submission by another artist that was pretty cool. Since everyone had to start with a wetsuit donated by a surfer, it was interesting to see what direction each particular artist went.

Of course the night dissolved into mayhem at the end... Here's Paulie Steinberg having a great time! I'll put some more pictures of the show up later this afternoon. -Carl

Wet Art Show

2012-02-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

At Carl's birthday back in September our friend Gigi was explaining an art show she was putting on with O'niell to benifit the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz. 30 surfers were to donate their wetsuits for 30 artists to do their work on them. In a drunken state of G and T's we managed to get Gigi to get me Waylon's wetsuit. Originally I was going to paint it, then I soberd up and decided up and decided to cover it in resin. Oh, and put a couple llama heads on it. Turns out the art show should be a pretty fun party on Saturday night. If I make it that long, it's freezing.

-nick

Barreling

2012-02-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

I came across this picture of myself and these two old friends tonight and got nostalgic. In the orange tie we have Kyle Buthman and in between is Noah best. I've been building these guys boards since they were just wee little groms. I'll never forget having to give Noah the boot from one of my parties because he was too young to be drinking and had the nerve to ask me if it was OK if he did. Of course not! It was too late that he realized that if he hadn't asked, I would have never "noticed" ... but now he holds his beer with ease. And the pretty girl is Kyle's girlfriend. Couple of big grown-ups now. Good stuff.

It inspired me to dig around and find some pictures of those guys... I've always got something stuck somewhere... Here's Kyle

And Kyle again. Look at that style! I swear it's straight out of the 80's... He's getting rad!!

Here's a link to a surf flick that Kyle filmed and produced a couple years ago

Get Rad 2010 trailer (You gotta buy the full length deal, but you get the idea :) There's a second one too...

Get Rad 2 trailer

Mr. Noah Best getting shacked. I've always signed his boards for Noah #1. The Best

Mr. #1 still getting slotted....

And one more. Backside attack force..! -Carl

Glossy Eyed

2012-02-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Last min is always the way to go. We had known about this art show for months, working on the piece for the show the last time I went back to Santa Cruz. We knew the dates, been checking flights. The founds to be used were circulating in the floating world of board building. The greens got to our hands and it was time to book a flight. Carl text me last night "when you thinking of coming". I have all my work planned for leaving thursday, but the ticket on that day has doubled since the last time I checked. "Ah, you got to leave tomorrow if you want to come". Shit. looks like I am leaving in 15 hours with 30 hours of work. Luckily you can sleep on the plane. Sometimes its the only place where my mind can relax. With a computer battery that holds no charge, the plane is the only place I can really not worry about the work I should be doing.
-n

Just thought I would throw this picture in real quick. I have been a surf guide in the Maldives the last 5 summers, making a lot of good friends over there. I leave my quiver and just about everything I own to the surfing crew. They are just so stoked on surfing and everything about it. Here is a pic Arjey just sent me of one of my old boards heading to the beach. All the boys share the boards, keeping everyone stoked.

Malia's board getting glossed. Ill be working on this thing till I jump in the car to the airport.

Toot's new mini simmions. getting the deck glossed.

My new 6'9 egg. It was a stock board to sell but I have always wanted one, and well, sometimes you just got to treat yourself. Right?

Our old friend Sarah Stewert's new board ready to be polished. I had a little crush on her in high school I got to admit ;)

Jason's new yard stick getting the deck glossed. This board is coming out so clean. Simple sugar mill cream. Small simple logos. Nice.

I love our egg fin template. Smooth.

Fin Foiling

2012-02-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Got caught in a pinch I had to foil out some fins from some marine ply I had laying around. Came out nice enough that I figured I could post them up. It's alot of work, but it's always rewarding. Here's the templates drawn on the scrap ply. Old trusty fish template from 2003 that never lets me down...

Then a little quick work with the old jigsaw

Looking good already, nothing like a 5500 rpm grinder to smooth out those curves

Unfortunately the ply was 3/4" thick, I only needed 3/8" ...needless to say alot of wood had to turn to dust. In this picture I'm checking the taper of the fin from base to tip, the first step in setting the foil

Here's another shot of the taper

Now a quick line defining a rough 30% to keep the foil true...

Setting the foil... an art in itself, I could go on for pages talking about this subject :) It's just like shaping a little mini surfboard though

Looking pretty tasty. Now all I gotta do is cut the base off and do it all over again for the opposite side.

Once the other side is done, they get a couple layers of fiberglass and then get glassed on the board. Simple right? Make a set! -Carl

Weight classes

2012-02-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me about the correlation between weight and surfboards the other day and it's been riding in my mind. I figured I'd post a bit of a graphical representation of how weight affects surfboard design.
Weight affects momentum, simply put more weight allows for a board to carry its forward motion better. This is desirable in boards where the rider seeks "glide" ...down the line trimming ease. Noseriders, 12' glide machines, trim seeking longboards and a lot of the more retro designs often have this characteristic. It is analogous to a freight train moving down the line, and it also dampens the affect of bump and chop in a wave.In the same way the weight of a train pushes the tracks down as it creaks along causing the ride to be pretty smooth, especially considering that trains have no rubber tires to absorb the little bumps and chatter you would normally experience along the roads.

Weight is all fine and dandy until you get into performance oriented designs. Modern shortboards, fish and longboards all rely on quick acceleration and maneuverability to achieve the high performance seen in modern surfing. Weight affects inertia, the more weight there is in a board, the slower it will accelerate. This is in turn analogous to the formula one cars of today. Breaking into and accelerating out of turns at high speeds is very similar to the way a shortboard performs. Linking together turns on a modern shortboard is just that, speed up , slow down, speed up, slow down... this is why lighter is often most favorable in these types of boards. Considering that they shave every possible ounce off of formula one cars... lighter is always better in the minds of these multi-million dollar racing teams.

So the amount of weight in a board is always based on the application. A 20 pound shortboard is going to ride like a beast, heavy and unwilling, and a 6 pound noserider will flick around, even when you want it to sit still. Weight can be a good thing and a bad thing, but as usual it is always up to the rider and how he/she feels about it and what they are trying to achieve. It never hurts to experiment in any direction, and it always pleases me to see people trying new things. As my late friend Mike Croteau once said... Tape a brick to the nose of your board... and you will begin to understand weight. :) -Carl

The lam side

2012-02-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

The third stone factory is always exciting, something new always in the works. After an epic body surfing session I headed back to the shop to polish out a couple boards. Sure enough Third Stone Steve arrived after smashing out 10 lam jobs up at Monstah Glassing. Our beer fridge was stocked and well, we decided to have a few. Meeting is what some corpos call it. After a couple dozen beers and a random puke from steve the stars are aligning. There is no place like home.
-n

a nice little blue egg for some lucky soul.

Johnnys board getting polished

Third Stone Steve. the man behind the curtin

Toot's Mini Simms

Inspiration/procrastination

Santa Coors & Happiness

2012-02-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Santa Coors delivered a couple cases of our favorite tonight. Not quite sure how to schedule these guys into the weekend, but I have ideas... Definitely one reason to be happy this evening.

Here's Tim, stoked about picking up his new 5'8" epoxy quad fish. He's happy

And Ryan doing his best super stoked grom impression. He's extra happy! I'm bummed you can't see the super stealth swallow tail on his board. Dammit!

Kevin's 7'1" pork chop... He's a pretty big dude and has been playing around with different board designs in the never ending quest for something smaller that still paddles good. Here's to hoping he's happy. ;) -Carl

FINS!

2012-02-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

We just got our first batch of custom box fins in! They came out perfect. We did one half black and the other white. Freestyle and style free. There is the CA noseriders, Copy Cats, Yard Stick, Lady Log, egg and lowrider fins. Modern Classics. Soon to be available at our online store and Surf Garage.

Stocked up and ready to go. Fins for all!

The white side...

The Middle. you can see the white and black sides

The Black side. Clean. 50 50 Freestyle Stylefree.

We had these fins made right here in the sugar mill. You buy your produce from local farmers why not by your fins from local fin foilers. Made with the highest quality of Island Fin Design.

Resin Resin Resin

2012-02-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

We got four more boards coming out of the shop here pretty soon, been sanding away in the rain and wind.
Shop is still getting a "extreme makeover" as steve cleans up the old room and the surf shop keeps moving forward. The racks are full in the glassing room as John's, Pam, Sarah and Malia's boards are all approaching the glossing stage. Spending the day in the sand room is no easy task. I learned how to sand from legendary Charlie Walker who likes to block sand everything out. This means you get a piece of 40 grt and a piece of wood and use good old fashion elbow grease to get the boards flat. Its a lot of work, but there is something to be said about the energy put into a board and the life the board takes..... whoa, that sounds a bit hiipyish. I think I just like to get the boards flat.

The Broken up floors from the previous glassing room. You think we do a bit of color work?

I am getting my old art studio back in the mill, can't wait to start doing some other art out side the fumes.

The post are because the roof leaks. A little freestyle leak protection.

John Smith's board with a little Greg Noll infulence. I remember polishing Greg Noll's redwood boards when I was 17. He had them glassed at the Arrow factory and I was the polisher at the time. His son Jed was working there then as a shaper as well. I feel so lucky to have worked with those guys on boards.

Malia's new little fish. I love the white on black. All jail house style.

My retired resin shoes, I figured I would screw them to the wall.... why not right?

Here is a pic of John Smith, the guy getting the greg noll themed board. Here he is in the latest Surfers Journal getting shacked at China Walls.

-nick

Iphoneness

2012-02-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

The Crows are spreading. I found some pics last night of some I phone photos people have sent us over the last few months. Hey If you got some cool Two Crowzy photos, send um this way and we will put them up.

Sam tagging up a sign

Tom and Jojo snowboarding out in Taho

steve, the owner of the factory, pozing next to the verbal dhiarhea painting.

welzie getting busted not knowing what he is doing. pic by Super C

freestyle... pic by Super C

resin covered skate deck

Art show pic

USO

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Ever get sick of vanilla ice cream? I love vanilla. You love vanilla. Everybody loves vanilla. It's easy to like. No commitment, simple and goes with pretty much everything. It never goes out of style and never gets dissed. Well... it happens that's also an "industry"" term for clear shortboards. Maybe we just made it up... but either way, you get the point.

Once and a while though, you stumble into 7-11 while coming down off a night of who-knows-what, you dig deep back in the refrigerator and come up with something that you've never tried. A mish-mash of flavors that who knows came up with. Ben and Jerry? Who are those guys anyway? But somewhere in your ransacked mind you say- F**K it and decide to give it a try. Well, here you have exactly that- straight from his living room based personal Stonehenge- our friend Brian's Unidentified Surfing Object. Something different. Something theoretically delicious, but at the same time potentially terrible. This is the risk you take when you make the commitment. But for a true freestyler, it's all the same. Fail or win- taking the chance is where the success lays.

Man I can't wait to get this baby finished. Wait till you see where the fins go! :) -Carl

Bonzer Finished

2012-02-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

I finally finished up the Bonzer, sometimes the personal boards get done quick, sometimes not. Weve been working on this thing for a while and they sure are a lot of work. The deep concaves to shape, then glass. Getting the fins right, then at the right angle. Luckily after its all said and done, Duncan Cambell of the Bonzer brothers gave it a thumbs up. Coming from the creator of the Bonzer it's a good compliment. After Carl and I were talking concaves we decided the best way to feel what a concave does is to ride a Bonzer. So we made one. Can't wait to give it a go. Here is some pics...-n

2012-02-06T05:00:00.001-08:00

Man the waves have been so good in Santa Cruz the past few days. Don't tell anyone! :) Finally got around to designing a new middle fin for those 2+1 setups. Sure gets messy quick, but it's always fun digging through the archives and stirring memories. Every fin template has a story.

Collins board got polished today. Simple green tint, looks good.

Here's a little rocket that I shaped for Brian today. 5'6" by 21 1/4.

Super bowl was yesterday. I turned up at my brothers party to watch it, but I really felt that this sticker summed it all up for me! -Carl

Back in Black

2012-02-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy week at the shop, Carl left a bunch of shaped boards behind. A lot of cool boards getting glassed. Barry picked up his board the other day, a black beauty with a little freestyle pink and green. Black is probably the hardest color to polish out as is shows all the scratches, luckily I got a few tricks, the board came out great. 2+1 set up with black boxes...stealthy

-n

The new indoor hang out area. Check the art on the wall by Drew Toonz, pretty killer. It's classic when someone is sitting there. I think were going to nail a tall boy in his hand :)

Johns board. The white is going to get some big black stripes. He wanted a Greg Noll theme and green which I thought was a pretty sick idea.

A close up of some art on the wall, or is that a board?

Daniel Jone's little Mini Sim Quad thingy. It's a 4 '10

Carving

2012-02-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

While Welzie carves up the picnic table, we've been finishing up a couple of sweet rides up for friends.
But here we have a picture of Cathy Mayerhofer, one of our shredding women rippers...

And here's her housemate Debbie's little full planshape fish-egg-shortboard-mosquito thingy. Almost done!

And Collins board, almost done. Tomorrow we should see the crows on it and a nice gloss and polish to make that green pop! -Carl

Grom Party

2012-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

We cleaned up the shop yesterday after a couple friends moved out of their old house. New picknick table, tent, couch and more. The North Shore provides. A full on factory face lift. last night was it's first celebration. Cody and his family were hanging out, then Sam came by with his family to pick up 2 new boards. Soon enough we had a grom pack running around the shop and on top of cars. Classic. Kids can make me feel old and young at the same time. The Coors Light was flowing, music going, walkie talkies talking and piazza getting eating. A good night at the mill. After a long day of glossing and polishing there was now better way than to spend the evening.
-nick

The groms getting crazy. Notice the rubber glove I put on his head to make him look like a chicken.

Daniel and her new longboard. I love the colors on this one. The yellow and the brown are such a good contrast.

Sam and his new quad, a 5'6". He was lucky to get this one out of the shop as a few pros had stopped by to pick up their boards from steve and were ready to take it off the racks.

Face Book Give Away

2012-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Facebook...Bookface. I have avoided facebook for as long as possible. Thinking it was a waste of time. Now Two Crows has one and we started doing these prize give away. Now I look at it almost every day.

The Two Crows Prize Pack goes out every 25 "likes" we get on our facebook page. We put the names in a hat of all the "likers" to the post and send them some hats and shirts, stickers, whatever we have at the shop. Mateo just won this last give away. Like us on facebook and maybe win some stuff.
-nick

This prize pack includes a hat, shirt, a coors light tall boy, cigarett and a lotto ticket. Just remember when you win millions, where you won first :)

We put the names in a hat and pick one out, nothing fancy but it gets the job done.

Bay Day

2012-01-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

Another long day at the mill, got some sweet boards finishing up. Here's a little egg for Surf Garage.

Welzie has been working his ass off getting boards done. Here's a batch of Crows with fresh gloss coats sitting on the racks

Something about black on black just looks awesome...

Somehow we managed to talk our friend Dustin into being a test-pilot-crash-dummy on this 10'3" we made for the Bay. 15-18' today, props to him for getting out there. :) -Carl

New fins are coming

2012-01-30T03:18:00.000-08:00

We just got our new screen burned for a big batch of fins that we've got coming! We took a look at the half finished batch today and they are looking sweeeet, can't wait to show off what we've got cooking. :)

Here's a picture of our team all-star Waylon in a clean little "cheater" five at Steamer Lane. Welz always heckles Waylon for those 5's- probably because Way can post them as easily as standing up. We've seen him pop-up into a five on numerous occasions. I personally think that the way he is dragging his hand to bleed off speed through a racy section shows an awesome amount of skill. Either way, the water looks amazing in this photo- yo can hardly tell it's freezing ass cold nor-cal and not Hawaii. :) -Carl

All work, no play

2012-01-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today was all work and no play. Except for a quick run to Waimea to watch Welz get pounded in the shorebreak for a while. Should have brought the camera for that. Back to the shop this evening and here we are. Nice Hotcoat...

Two for two...

Sam's little mosquito is looking excellent...

Shaped blanks, today's work- not as neato as the pretty colors in the glassing room, but a good sign of more to come...

Shot of the Quad futures going in on Sam's board.

Apparently Cody the printer is also a master rubik's cube solver. At least that's what he tells us.That puzzle looks totally solved. :) -Carl

Just your average normal day at the Mill

2012-01-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

Fail by the shipping company today- Send a 7' long van to pick up a 10' long box. Note the wire that we had to give to the pickup guy- he had no rope, no bungee cords... no tape... no nothing. If he looks baffled, that's because he was. At least he had a good sense of humor about it.

Interesting way of filling the can holder part of the fridge if I do say so myself. Not sure who was responsible for this one...

Perhaps it was Cody, our resident screen printing expert.

Or maybe it was the same culprit that was involved in whatever happened to these fins.

If it was him, I'm not saying anything, because the boards keep getting cooler and cooler... The camera just doesn't do this board justice. The colors are a lot brighter!

Right about now is when you glance over to your quiver and wonder why you didn't get a mini for Christmas. Time to go argue with Santa. :) -Carl

Bad Boys

2012-01-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

There's something about the cops showing up at a surfboard factory that makes your heart beat a bit faster than normal. There's a certain amount of sketchiness that is required at all times to keep the whole operation legit. So when the cops show up for any reason, it gets a bit nerve racking. Lucky it was just a mild problem in regards to a stolen car this time- but it still made everyone in the shop nervous.

Something about this freestyle tape job, camera to tripod warranted documentation in itself...

The all black door to the Two Crows Glassing room. Children not allowed

A board that's almost done for Steve.

I'm not quite sure who's been drinking up all the Coors around the shop, but it surely can't be me. :)

Is the wall camouflaging the board or is the board camouflaged? New quad mini for Daniel Jones

A board for Annie, almost done. <(") Carl

Boards, Burgers, Beers, Blanks, Barrels

2012-01-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

"You're going to Wahiawa? Now?... Wait. Drive behind us"
It's always better to have a buffer car behind any unregistered vehicle. Steve is headed to go glass some more boards right there next to the spot where we go get blanks.
" Carl, looks like it's time to go get blanks."
We arrive ticket free to meet up with Andy, the blank guy.
"Oh no, its the Crows"
Its been a while since we have seen him, looks like he got bored and rearranged the shop. We make fun of each other for a bit then go blank shopping.
After a couple failed attempts at blank rack bobsledding, we leave with a stack of blanks.
Back at the mill we install Carl's vacum system into his shaping room. When you do 15-20 hand shaped boards in five days the foam adds up.
Problem solved.
Carl's room is dialed in, he is ready to shape.
Perfect.
Im pretty much caught up, so there isnt much real important stuff for me to do.
"Wanna go body surf Pipe? It looks good" a text from a friend reads.
By Carl. See you later...
After a hour or so of some fun barrels I end up back at the shop. A handfull of people there drinking beers and eating food.
After everyone leaves we realize we got to do a video interview for an upcoming art show.
Time to smash some beers and get loose enough to not look too awkward for the camera, yah right.
Always awkward.
All in a days work.
-n

If your not on FaceBook dont start. Were giving up a hat shirt and stickers for every 25 "likes" we get on Facebook. One lucky commenter gets a crow pack sent to their door.

The new 6 horsepower vacum. She's a sucker all right.

Carl explained how nice a vacume is. I didnt realize it till I saw him planning with it. Crazy clean. Doesn't look like frosty the snowman after 10 min in the room.

The old Clark foam vacume kit.

The Croows Light Screen, all ready to go. Still waiting for some shirts to come in...

Smuggling contraband

2012-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

The baggage conveyor has stopped.
"Unzip your bag sir."
...I knew that there would be problems coming though security with half a planer in my bag.
"What's this..." Pulling out the plastic bag that I've stowed in my carry-on containing my planer and some bits of my vacuum system.
"It's a tool, I removed all the sharp bits so I could pack it in my bag..."
"What kind of tool?"
"A power planer..."
She's skeptical. This doesn't happen often.
"And this?" She pulls out a latex rubber hose that's halfway to being a slinky...
Hmm... "It's a hose."
She glares at me.
"It goes like this..." I start attempting to assemble the unit in the middle of the San Jose International Airport.
"Ok sir, move on..." Hastily...
She doesn't smile, obviously I must be some sort of threat that she hasn't quite figured out, but I'm glad to be on my way. I smile, reflecting on a time when I got stopped in HNL with 10 longboard fins taped together with about 30 blank white T-shirts packed in my bag. And that was it. I'm pretty sure they thought I was smuggling cocaine the way they acted that time.
Ahh... the adventures of the traveling surfboard builder.
Just 8 hours before I was attacking a yellow resin panel that went south on me with my grinder. Minor, but still a reality shocker when you're standing in line at the airport being grilled over your stripped down power tool.

All that aside, cool board for Seth Bowman just finished up last night- Pretty sweet camo freestyle.

Made it to Hawaii.

And here we are. Sitting around in the shop in a "meeting" :) Good to be back. -Carl

Taking Orders In Hawaii

2012-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

We're doing our first batch of boards in Hawaii for 2012. We've got a new glassing and shaping room so we're all set to crank some boards out. Spring time surf is just around the corner, so get your orders in!

Finless Foray

2012-01-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Left my camera at work this evening, so I thought I'd post some pictures of a finless board I built in 2006. It was designed by a friend of mine, Dale Solomonson in the mid 80's. He never built it, but posted a drawing of it on the online shaping forum Swaylocks. I took it upon myself to constructed it and wrote all about it here http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1020900 in 2006. One of the coolest boards I ever made. :) -Carl

Crows, Kai and Shortie

2012-01-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

Friends are always sending us pictures of 2 crows. So rad, we love it.

Great picture of Kaizer surfing Pleasure Point

Here's a little shorty that just finished up for Ryan, I know we don't post a lot of pics of conventional shortboards, but we do 'em. :) <(") Carl

Just a quicky

2012-01-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

I came across this video of Edward Sharp @ Aloha Tower and got all nostalgic tonight. Looking forward to getting back to Hawaii, I always start playing this song... heck the whole album gets put on repeat as I start counting down the days to departure. Heres a better version of the song for those of you who've never heard it...

<(")Carl

Headcolds, handles and hang tens

2012-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

Man I finally caught the headcold that's been going around lately. They say the average adult gets 2-3 a year, so I guess it was gunna happen sooner or later. I mentioned that it was slowing me down to Welzie today... he told me to take a tablespoon of cement to "harden up." Couldn't help but laugh at that one. Stayed out of the shaping room today, something about all that dust floating around is really unappealing when your sick. Gotta get well fast, heading over to Hawaii on monday. I did fabricate a new handle for my rebuild on my soon-to-be hawaii planer. I love metal fabrication, it comes in a close second to working on surfboards in my book. :)

A little grinder action... not smart to do one handed while taking pictures...

Here's all the pieces cut, bent, ground, and ready to be welded.

Weldy weldy

A little flat black paint makes everything rad

Vintage Clark foam planer... I wonder if it's worth anything on ebay...

I randomly stumbled across one of Waylon's Thick foiled fins while tinkering around in the garage... probably an inch thick. I think I was supposed to fix this thing for him or something...

Sweet template! Reminds me of an Orca.

Planer's starting to take shape. Maybe I should paint the body on this one...

Speaking of Waylon, here's a great picture of his 220lb frame defying all odds at Malibu. Legend

Here's one of Welzie. Liability <(") Carl

Stripy Stripy

2012-01-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

A new stock fish all done yesterday. I like the red black and white.

We got two boxes all ready to go. The big one to Australia and the little one over to maui. Luckily I packed a lot of boards working for Pearson Arrow as a grom. Got it wired.

as single as a single fin screen. Going to be printing a bunch of new shirts in the next few weeks as we got about 8 new screens made. So stoked.

A piece of wood waiting to get some fiberglass and resin on it as I start to lam the last board till Carl gets back.

Daniel Jones's little Minnisimms/quad/ something rad. This board is a 4 10. Tiny.

I was into making creatures for a while. Here is some sort of resin eating animal that found its way into the glass room.

Something about me and two headed creatures. Another little buddy I made a while ago that now watches over the fin jigs.

I got this beer sign at the thrift store. After buying it and hanging it in the lam room I realized Cutter is Coors' non alcholic beer. oops. Still looks good though.

Running down a dream

2012-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

I should have posted a pic of this board when I was rambling about asyms. I've had it sitting on the wall for a while, just waiting for the right day... asymmetrical bliss

Package came in the mail yesterday. What could it contain? It turns out our buddy Everett is so good at packing boards that he managed to cut the shipping cost in half. Two Crows Bisect

He wants a copy of his magic board. Smart man, he sent his broken board up via UPS to be in the shaping room when the planer is on.

Last of Arrows. Selling one of my last boards branded with Arrow Logos. Now that I've moved on it's a bit outdated. If anyone wants it hit us up via email... you'll have to beat the craigslisters though. :) You can only get these babies through Two Crows now. Don't even think of hitting up Arrow ;)

I'm prepping one of my old workhorses for Hawaii. My most faithful planer I've owned, over 2K boards alone on this little piece of green plastic. Stripping down these planers is second nature. Usually they break at the worst times... when you're rushed, the waves are good and you're tired. A brush goes out, the cord shorts, switch dies... you name it. In an attempt to prevent this, I like to keep mine in tip-top shape, and this one was due for a tear down. I'll post some pictures as it comes back together. <(")

The Satchel Gogurt interview

2012-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Ok so this is kinda random post but it is pretty classic. A friend mine from years ago made me a cd of music he was working on. He was super stoked on it, which made me put it to the CD player on a late night drive home from town. The CD was mostly of him rapping to beats he made, which were good but track 6 really hit the spot. Matt, the one who made the CD did a mock interview of a pro surfer from Australia, kinda mocking the whole pro surfer thing. Its a pretty Hilarious piece of work if you have the time. Matt was an amazing artist and one who always followed his passions. He ended his life soon after he gave me this CD and will always remembered. Long live the Hive!
-n
all I had was an audio track and the only way I could post it was with a video, so let it play while you browse the interwifiweb

Baja

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

2Crows Ambassador Cathy Mayerhofer reported in from her most recent rip down to Scorpion Bay today. She makes the trip solo down to Mex several times a year, pretty fearless if you ask this Crow. She's cut from a different mould no question about it. I always look forward to her tales of the feral life.

Sketchy whale painting, wouldn't want to mess with this bad acid trip...

I lived with this dog for a year. Don't let her cute looks fool you, she is a feral Mex local. Cathy originally found her during a trip to Scorpion. She will kill attempt to kill all the defenseless small animals in your yard, jump up on you, eat the food off your plate and sleep on your bed.

Here's a picture of a Coyote that decided to check out the party. Sketchy

Yes there were waves

Colin James Jones III ...The most talented longboarder to walk the nose in Pleasure point in years. It's rare that you see a picture of his face... More pictures of the perfection. It's almost torture, I can't wait to join Welzie in Hawaii next week. -C

Too Much Fun...

2012-01-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Making surfboards isn't easy, constant strain on the body, toxic chemicals and most people who make boards are weirdos. But you know what, it can be pretty fun. The crew we got here at the Third Stone Factory is pretty awesome. Owl Chapmin, Duncan Cambell, Third Stone Steve, Cody of Royal HI, Ikila Aipa (Ben Aipa's son), Reno Avallera, Gordon Quigg (Joe Quigg's son) has been hanging out. A pretty star studded cast if you ask me. It can get pretty entertaining as well, especially after dark and the beers start flowing. Last night Cody busted out some walkie talkies to connect the upstairs to the downstairs. After plenty of shit talking over the airways we decided to use them for emerginceis only.... to get more beer. Needless to say work came to a halt, and the hide and go seek games almost begun. A bunch of big kids making surfboards. Having Fun. -n

The Mural is still growing...

Crows Light.... Soon to be a tee shirt

I got some frames from the thrift store and started to get some doodling done on them. As single as a single fin.

I have been body surfing a bunch lately with my good friend John. We are always cracking jokes while getting pitted. This came out after a lost fin and ended up a single fin session. This doodle came out latter that day.

Two more screens coming out. Carl gets back to Hawaii in a week. It always gets me motivated to have some shit done when he gets here so he doesn't think I spend all my time playing hide and seek and drinking beers.

Cam over on Maui new board. Came out sick... I want one. Its alot like the CI neck beard Model, but way cooler cause it's not made in China :)

Mini Stonehenge, Asymmetrical Minis, Other stuff...

2012-01-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Cool stuff coming out of the Santa Cruz shop this week. First of all a quick thanks to Tim and Andy for stopping by with some much needed refreshments after a long day the other evening!

Stopping in on my buddy Brian I learned about focusing energy via a mini stonehenge he's got assembled in his living room. Getting weird, our type of guy. We discussed asymmetrical boards, finless boards and various other concepts that would expand anybodies mind.

I got right to Brian's concepts in the shaping room.If you want your board quick come up with something in a mini stonehenge and your shaper will probably jump right to it.

I love asymmetrical designs, they make so much sense. Think about weighting your heels vs your toes. It's an asymmetrical feeling, why not make your board to match? Also consider the side of the board the wave is on verses the side it's not... coming off the bottom vs. coming off the top? Always different sides of the board, always gets my mind turning... great stuff.

A quick shot of our friend Debbie's board. Cool template, looks like so much fun. User friendly boards for friendly users.

Then of course there's this pic that Gigi and Jeni sent in from Kauai... just in case I was boring you guys with all that board talk. <(") -C

New Shirts coming soon

2012-01-13T06:25:00.000-08:00

We have been working on a bunch of new shirt designs and our new Two Crows store. Most of the designs come straight off the wall in the glassing room or from random doodles on stuff laying around the shop. A pretty good way to kill some time when the resin is going off. -n

Here is the Two Crows health care plan shirt. It's pretty much all we got when it comes to medical expenses.

Here is the "surf board builders die younger" screen. This idea was inspired while I was working as a surf guide in the Maldives chain smoking ciggaretts all day. I liked the warning on the front of the pack and thought I could put a bit of a 2 crows twist. Originally it was just photoshoped from a photo, then I decided to Doodle it to give it a more organic feel. As organic as smokes can be.

The Bonzer getting its fins put on. Check the concave on that thing, cant wait to try it!

A little side note to the blog post below by Carl. He was tripping when I started to do the color work. Carl has now learned how to be comfortable out of his comfort zone ( a freestyle philosophy). It was pretty funny watching the bead of sweat on his forehead when I started adding color to his nice clear board. Luckily he let me do my thing, otherwise who knows where we would be now a few years later. Viva La Freestyle!-n

First Board

2012-01-12T00:56:00.000-08:00

This is the first Two Crows board that Welzie and I did together. Believe it or not, it even had the crow logos on the bottom, even though we hadn't even thought of actually making any more than this one board. I figured I'd share a few other pics I randomly have from the building of this first board.

I was actually just visiting Welzie in Hawaii and it happened that all I had brought were semi guns and the waves were flat. He convinced me that we could build a log in a couple days so that I could get some waves. I ended up shaping the board in a tiny little shaping room up by Sunset. I love that this picture, the first one ever taken of a Two Crows being shaped- you can see a Coors can in the background. Awesome.

This is a pic of me riding down the Kam in the back of Welzies truck at night, holding onto the shaped blank to keep it from blowing out of the back! That was a pretty sketchy ride, from Sunset to the Sugar Mill

We glassed the board in the legendary Charlie Walkers shop. Charlie's one of the nicest guys I've met in the mill- but you gotta know him. At this point he hardly even looked at me. Welzie had been working with him for years though. The board was supposed to be glassed clear. Little did I know at this point that "clear" wasn't actually a word in Welzies vocabulary at this point.

Here's a shot of the board getting prepped for hotcoat. These are all the pictures I have of the first board and the experience. We hadn't even considered the idea of working together until after this board was made. Freestyle! -Carl

A few from the Archives

2012-01-11T00:32:00.000-08:00

Digging around on my computer tonight I found a few good pics that I thought I'd add to the timeline...

Probably one of the best from the best from the fish batch, hanging up at a show in Berkeley

Betty, I love you

Bettys dash

Everyone sends us pictures of 2 crows, here's one from this summer :) That's a chip bag that I "modified" into a non-glass beer container... freestyle

Sweet little mini owned by Kaitlin Maguire who ranked #1 for ASP North America Womens Longboard in 2011... Not bad at all :) That's the wall at Malibu if you're guessing

Dunno what happened to crooked leash loops, they were all Welzie talked about this summer. :)

Savors Score

2012-01-11T00:13:00.000-08:00

After a long day of heading into the concrete jungle, dropping new boards off at Surf Garage and picking up materials, I headed to Savors. Good idea. I needed some new cloths as I hate doing laundry and everything I own gets covered in resin. To my suprize I found an old Bever tail wetsuit in the racks. Its a bit thick and stiff, I probably wont wear it but stoked to know there are still some cool finds out there.

I know it's not that big a deal for most big surfboard companys but for two crows getting a drum of resin and a drum of acetone is pretty awesome. Here the stage gets taken over by the biggest purchase two crows has made in a while. Comming up :)

The Bever tail I scored at Savers. Only 14 bucks how could I pass up.

Cam's board getting its hot coat, should be shipping out to Maui in the next few days. This board is basically a neck beard model Dane Reynolds rides. Way cooler with the Crows and Stripes.

The wall just keeps growing by the board. You can see the colors in the boards match the colors on the wall.

New Boards and more

2012-01-09T12:17:00.000-08:00

This board is from 2 years ago. it sat under my friends house while I went on a walk about and finally got done. It was made for me to use at jockos, but it just got sidetracked for a while. Cant wait to wax it up...unless someone wants to buy :)

The mural has started, ill keep posting pics as it grows

More and more art is filling the walls, starting to look like the two crows art gallery

girls love the crows

a yard stick for surf garage

a new stock mini simmions

Coozies

2012-01-07T18:27:00.000-08:00

Our screen printer Cody suprized us with with some coozies to keep our beer cold and this awesome mouse pad so stoked! Keeping those Rocky Mountins super cold. Here is another pic of Toots I just found, pretty sick shot.

New Freestyle Lam Room

2012-01-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of the changover to the new Freestyle glassing room. The previous guy left the place a total mess but we got it sorted out pretty fast. The best part is the wall space for a new mural and even better is the stage. We built it for the resin drums, but after a few beers we realised it's a perfect stage. With so many characters going through the shop we thought it would be funny to record them and their stories in a somewhat more formal setting. we will se how it goes. -n

Laying the ground work

2012-01-04T16:17:00.000-08:00

The shop is looking good. New tar paper, rearranged racks. There is so much room and rack space. It's like the Cadilac of lam rooms. Well everything seems bigger than my last zone which had 1 lam rack and 5 wall racks. Now we got 12 wall racks and 5 lam racks. Upgrade. More wall space too. I finally got a place to hang some resin art, and the big wall will be coverd in resin in no time. Should be ready to work on boards tonight or tomorrow morning.

The sanding room before the clean.

Swept up and ready to lay down the tar paper.

Its always good to lay down some carpet or padding under the paper. When you spend enough time on your feet, the concrete doesn't do the joints any favors.

tar paper down. I couldn't help but start tagging the walls. The Logo is on an old coffe table, it will look a little more 3d when the mural goes up.

This is my favorite part. My color mixing station. Nice and big with plenty of room for pigments and cups. PLus a stool so I dont have to sit on the floor like before.

New Year and New Room

2012-01-03T13:50:00.000-08:00

A pretty trippy new year... Our friends held a new years eve dance party across from Off The Wall. Too much fun. After a full day of recovery we started clearing out the new glassing room. No easy task. The previous glasser left the place a mess. No worries though, between Steve (Third Stone) and I we have broken our share of resin floors in our day. Cody our screen printer upstairs just moved into another room too, so were having a "room off" who can come up with a cooler looking work space. Im sure Ill win :) we will keep you posted. -n

The before picture of the room. As you can see there is a lot of resin on the floor. Luckily we had some beer in the fridge to keep us going.

Gerald's new board. I am so stoked on how this one turned out. He wanted a Smoke tint (the hardest color to do) but it just looked to plain for a two crows. I threw some stripes on there to liven it up a bit. I love it.

steve looking at the aftermath. Looks like we will be spending this weeks beer money on dump runs.

Weighing in on Noseriders

2012-01-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

When I came across this great picture of Waylon Olsen at Malibu it got me thinking about the affect of a riders weight in relation to what he or she chooses to ride size wise when it comes to noseriders. Often riders are unwilling or unable to experiment with major alterations when it comes to surfboards. Nodding to whatever is in their friends quivers or what they've always ridden puts them in a loop of dependance that doesn't always result in the most optimal board for an individual.
When Waylon first started surfing in the competive longboard collaltion contest scene he was riding what many of the day would have considered the norm for someone of his size. 10' x 19" x 22 1/2" x 14.75" x 3 1/8" give or take a few 1/8's of an inch here or there. Surfing in heats against guys weighing 150 lbs was frustrating. At 220 lbs, it was far from an even battle, we just didn't realize it at the time.
Sitting on the beach with Waylon at Malibu watching the Jr. Men surf their heats, surfing on basically the same size boards as Waylon, subtracting perhaps 6" in length got us thinking. Watching those kids perform led us to consider the simple idea of putting Waylon on something more equivelant to what they were riding sizewise. A simple ratio of weight vs. board size told us 220 lb Waylon should be riding a 16.5' long by 40" wide board if he wanted to be equal to a 120 lb kid on a 9'x 22" wide board of the same thickness. Unbelievable. Suddenly we were scrambling to make the widest possible thing we could come up with. "Cheater" was the word CJ Nelson once used to describe Waylons board. Not stopping to consider the huge weight and general size difference between himself and Waylon would lead to that thought.
Have you ever seen a little kid stand up on a longboard and just balance on it? Ever stop to think about why you can't do the same thing on the same board? In this static enviroment you can begin considering height and weight in relation to stability. Removing the wave from the equation helps one zero-in on simple design principles with more focus.
First of all, the simple reason you probably cannot float on the board is because it is not buoyant enough to support your weight. This is key to considering how large of a board is required to float a full size adult. Buoyancy is a simple equation based on the mass of an object and its density. Standup paddle boards come to mind. They're huge... giant. When considering the scaling effect of weight vs. boyancy you can start to see a clearer picture of how much it should be considered. Remember, a gallon of water weighs 8 lbs, and a 5 gallon jug weighs 40. So a person weighing 190 lbs is carrying that 5 gallon jug of water with them vs. a person weighing 150 lbs. It makes a little more sense how the effect of even a little extra weight can be pretty dramatic.
Moving forward in this hypothetical situation and suddenly you can float on the surface of the water. You find yourself teetering to the left and to the right, trying to maintain your balance, while our grommet friend is simply standing there. This brings in another thing to consider: stabililty. It's relative to the width of your board and because your center of gravity not only is heavier, it's higher up. The width of your base isn't enough to keep you errect. Think about what happens with your chrismas tree every year. Too narrow of a base and you're having an argument with the wife about why it almost topples over ever time she puts another glass globe on a branch. So the simple solution is to put a wider (larger diameter) base under the tree. Once again we find ourselfs at the extreme, SUPs at 28"-32" wide. Even the most amateur of surfers can balance on them.
We consider the widths that Waylon rides. 25 1/2", sometimes 26". They don't seem so extreme when we consider the kid balancing happily on his board in the lineup. The volume of his boards still revolves around 3" because thickening them results in a lack of sensitivity that he hates. But after seeing him surf a SUP as a normal board durning a session this summer, I'm beginning to question even that. <(") Carl

Stories from the road

2011-12-31T15:50:00.000-08:00

Nick's delighted. Somehow he's managed to procure a couple ambian, a vicodin and a supersized frosted pot brownie. Climbing into the car, he explains me his upcoming strategy. "The ambian and the vicodin are for the plane flight back, and the brownies for Malibu!" Right. As long as his heart dosn't stop on the plane flight back, I'm fine with it.

Days later Somehow that plan has slipped my mind. Pulling into Malibu, Nick's starving. We didn't pick up any food since waking up from a hard night in Ventura. Scavenging around in the glovebox he's discovered breakfast. Pulling out a tupperware he peels back the lid revealing a delicious frosted brownie. With sprinkles. I silently salivate. He's halfway through it when he stops suddenly.

"This thing is probably pretty strong..."

He reflects on the individual that he procurred the brownie from.

"He deals with some strong stuff..."

I nod in agreement. If I even touch it, it'll be a nibble.

Fast forward 3 hours later. Nick finds me hiding in the car with a towl over my head.

Apparently even a nibble was a little too much for me. The seagulls started talking to me.

Nick digs out the remaining bit. Laughs something about never letting me touch the stuff again and wanders out into the parking lot. I take a nap.

It's always an adventure on the road. <(") Carl

More Fin Mania

2011-12-29T22:45:00.000-08:00

Today I found my self sorting through the rubbish that I hauled out of my old shaping room at Pearson Arrow. Inspired by my last post about Tanner, I sought out an old bag of fins from a period where I was studying thick foiled fins and their cause and effect in coordination with noserider design. I was operating on a hunch that you could alter the amount of drag on a given board by simply thickening or thinning the foil of a fin.

One of the problems with a building a proper noserider is it is often difficult to really hone its over all speed into a particular break or rider weight with out building a few boards. Often referred to as "dialing in" this process can be expensive and frustrating. Especially because once a board is glassed, making alterations to the rocker of a board, the only other heavy influence on a noseriders speed, is pretty much out of the question. Unless you're willing to pick up a saw and cut off the tail and reshape it. I did that too, but simply put- attacking the fins was a much simpler and cheaper solution.

I was messing around with wing-like templates at this point because angular lines are much easier to correctly proportion the foil shape and thickness so that I could be sure that it was the foil affecting the flow of the water and not some other unseen variable. Adding thickness to the fin created a more "true" foil shape. From these experiments I realized something that seems pretty simple now, the more correct the shape of the foil to nature, with no flat spots like you see on modern "plate" fins, the smoother the fin felt to ride. The thickness had a definite cause and effect to over all speed, as probably seems obvious looking at these pictures, but it was the smoothness that I became captivated by.
This led to several other fins...

The red one is actually a noserider fin too. Its foil was accurate to the point of using digital calipers to double check the over all foil shape and flow though out the fin. Pretty wild I'll admit. It was an experiment to see what happened when you keep the foil shape true but then reduced the over all area of the fin dramatically. The blue one is left over from experimenting with CAD designing the fins and foils and CNC cutting them, then moulding them. The wood one is a master plug that the mould came from. The idea at this point was perfection- how does it feel when the foil shape is mathematically correct- and eliminating hand foiling at this point was the only logical step. At this point I had gotten sucked into a few tangents and was just playing around with different ideas. I had stumbled into a project building an old Greenough flexspoon and was really wrapped up in what he was doing with the shape of his fins. Alot of people tend to look at the Greenough 4A and think that it was all about the template. His templates were amazing and way ahead of their time, exactly the reason we are still generally riding the same thing today. I suspected though that he was way past the template and the foil shape was something he was concerned with.

Revelation was struck when I got a package in the mail from Paul Gross, a longtime Greenough disciple. In it contained the schematics for building a true, period correct Greenough fin. You can see in the pics that the base flares out, but the bottom foil is just a scaled shape of what the overall shape of the foil was. There was a letter contained with the schematic, and Paul had told me that George had struggled with getting his boards to position themselves correctly in the "neutral" part of the wave, the part I suspect would be what we would consider the optimal place to position our noseriders. It turned out that George had discovered the same thing as I, only 40 years before and had honed his foil in to solve this problem. The term is "aspect ratio" and it refers to the thickness of a foil in relation to the length. It is often referred to in percentages and is commonly overlooked.
I still continue experiments to this day, but in a lesser capacity- but with a much firmer grasp of what happens when you "cut" though the water with a fin. Simply filing the leading edge of a fin blunt will slow it down dramatically, and conversely thinning it out or sharpening the leading edge will speed the same board up. These solutions seem so simple now in reflection, but the foil- a term that is often thrown around with abandon, is one of the most important aspects of a board. At least in the opinion of this shape geek. <(") Carl

Ph.D

2011-12-28T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's funny having a blog with someone 2500 miles a way. I love clicking on it to see something new. I read it hunched over the screen thinking it will get me closer to the action. Carl and I are definetly two differnt people. one spell checks the other doesn't (guess which one) One uses numbers and formulas, while one seems to wing it hoping for the best. Together its a pretty good duo. I remember the last time I was on the mainland sitting at carls house going through all the R and D photos he has done over the years. Pretty amazing. I had always heckled him for working at Arrow being a ghost shaper. See I always thought he could do it on his own, he has the skills. Going through all his fin reserch, composite boards, finless etc. it came to me. He has a PH.d in board building. You can see it when he shapes, but more so when start talking theorys of differnt designs and eras of boards. He is not a guy who built one finless then moved on, he built dozens, modifying and tweaking. He can foil the shit out of fins, and when you discuss a certin composits in surfboards, you see the mad scientist. Anyway I told him he should be posting some of his reserch. To him it's boring. In the past. But for me it something I never got that deep into. I was just a sander. I don't know where I am going with this, all I got is some pictures of doodles and some floatation devices. I just like colors and doodling, luckily someone on the team has some credintials.

-n

Here is a holiday mix CD from our friend Lan. She printed it up all nice in a little custom packaging. Notice the song selection. I wonder where the inspiration came from.

A high tech fin placing system in place. Developed by NASA and used in the glassing room.

Two Crows going green, recycling beer boxes for stencils.

A couple new boards for Surf Garage

"How to prevent a fire" a little doodled inspired by... well you know the story :)

Tanner Beckett

2011-12-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

Recently a friend of Tanners contacted me to make a copy of one of his old personal boards (the Olsen/Arrow seen in the picture below) and I had many old memories wash through me during the making of it. I thought I would reflect a couple of them.

Tanner was the first person that ever ordered a board from me, we were just punk ass kids that surfed the point all the time. I'll never forget that first board we made together. We called it the "Cosmic Pig" and it was an orange & blue resin swirl fat fish twin fin board that he ended up surfing to death. I'll never forget polishing the thing in the morning before class while he stood outside my makeshift shaping room in his wetsuit. I sent him on his way, headed to school and spent the day of class dreaming and worrying about what the verdict would be. Would he love it, would he hate it? By this point he was already an established ripper in the scene and so many uncertainties flooded though my mind that I had pretty much thrown in the towel by the time I made my way home from school and checked the surf. I was shocked to see that he was still out. Stoked, I ran home and grabbed my stuff, I was in the water in 10 minutes later. Paddling out through the channel, I saw him take off on a nice wall and started heading down the line, coming right at me. POW, He chucks a huge front side air right in front of me. The verdict was obvious, he loved it.

After that we built piles of boards over the years, refining and tweaking mostly fish designs to his always curious and stoked taste. The fish that you see displayed on this page is probably the most recent design that we developed together. It's at least 7 years old, coming out of the "fish movement". Tanner rode a Skip Frye Steve Lis style fish for a few months when they were becoming popular but really wanted something that was more maneuverable, more "shortboardy" ...this board was it. It's basically a shortboard disguised as a fish... the rocker is modern, the fins are modern, and the outline is actually just a shortboard template that was pushed out from the stringer with a swallow tail and the nose pulled back in to the tip.

A giant concave runs down the center getting deeper out the tail tip, so that the rocker down the center actually does the opposite of what it does in most concaves- it doesn't get flatter, it actually gets curvier. This is because the board was meant to run on rail like a modern shortboard, performance was always the name of the game for Tanner. We spent years just figuring out the fins on this design.

Most of the time, we would just focus on the templates like everyone else. But we noticed that there was something more afloat with the design of one particular design, it turned much better than all the other boards and had much more drive. On a whim I had foiled the fins in a particular way, so that they were concave on the inside, just as an experiment. Below you can see how I was taking molds of fin foils at this point, totally focused on what was going on with the foil aspect of the fin.

Here's another great picture I found in the archives. It's the actual foil from the original magic board with the inside foiled fins. A better term for it would be "cambered" and it opened up a whole new world of design theory to obsess over. The fins turned out to be very hard to replicate- I built endless copies trying to hone in on the design and understand it, a whole other story in it's self.

In the end, because of the complexity involved in building just one set of fins for a board we settled on putting a quad setup on the design. The feeling was similar, and the price to the customer was better, and no one really seemed to care about the complex foils of the fins anyway. Except Tanner. Hopefully the current board he has will last him a life time so I don't have to foil another set of those fins. :)
Here's a couple of shots of his friends board. It's fun to see the shape stay the same and the brand change. Out with the old, in with the new. <(") Carl

Doodle Mania

2011-12-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get caught up working on boards. For me they are fun, colors, creativity and then some. I get my creative juices out, enough stay sane, but dooddles are medicine for the brain. A pen and cardboard, a beer and a tune, I can doodle all afternoon. I little idea can go a long way. Nothing fancay.

"As Single as a single fin" Resin Painting available at Surf Garage

A merry Christmas Minni Simms

The History of Two Crows in doodle form.

I have been looking for an RV to cruise around/ live in. This one I thought would be the one, but has a bit of mold damage. Changed my plan now looking for a school bus.

" I like my toes Hungover" Doodle on cardboard

X-mas 12'er

2011-12-25T16:43:00.000-08:00

Managed to finish up Waylon's new 12'er in time for Christmas delivery!

Awesome Two Crows license plate frames from my sister for Christmas... Might have to have a few more made for the other rides!

Merry X-Mas

2011-12-25T00:17:00.000-08:00

Shaping. It never ends. Here's a little clip of that new planer in action.

And a couple pix of a CA Noserider that just finished up. Love those freestyle bands!

And a shot of a pair of sissors from Welzies art. We're contemplating turning them into a T-Shirt... The piece was the result of an argument between Nick and I about a broken pair of sissors...

Presents boards and doodles

2011-12-23T23:40:00.000-08:00

Steve, the guy who runs the Third Stone Factory was handing out Christmas presents today. Brian King ( the real Turtle) got a Kentucky Derby Poster (he's a fan) Cody the screen printer got some Pabst Blue Ribbons, Jamie the cute artist chicke who rents studio space got a water jug ( always complains there is no drinking water) and well myself, I got a fire extinguisher. I am so stoked. We hadn't had one in our glassing room so not only was it a funny gift, but more practical than using a sweatshirt covered in sanding dust. I am thinking about wearing it as a neckless for ultimate safety. safety first.

Geralds new Board. I dig those stripes.

Safety First

Christmas stock

2011-12-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

Stop by Hotline and take a look at the boards we've got in stock. They're all on sale for X-Mas

EVO

Asym Mini-Sims

Midrange

Lady Log

5'8" Fish

Weird little fun Egg thing. 5'11"

X mas Rushing

2011-12-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

Thirsty????

Juan's new Quad

Freestyle Jail house striped fins

Team Rider Toots ripping in town.

If you want to see board builders stressing out a good time to do this would be the week before Christmas. The Sugar Mill shop is bustling 20 hours a day. Everyone in the shop is to their elbows in resin, running around each other like chickens with their heads cut off. It's all good though everyone is in the same boat and more than willing to help get the job done. A pretty good example of hurry up and wait. Shoot a past then wait eagerly for the resin to go off (not too hot of course). I only got two more boards to do before Sunday so I have been lucky enough to sit back and lend a helping hand with a beer in hand. Big thanks to Josh and Juan for stocking our beer fridge for the holidays, everyone at the shop has been tapping the Rockies once the sun goes down.

Coffin display case

2011-12-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

Just finished up another Coffin, you'll be able to find it at Hotline tomorrow!

The Rocks board

2011-12-21T00:27:00.000-08:00

We just finished up a board for our good friend Rocky, a.k.a. the Rock. :) Loved the brown freestyle band with the white opaque. Rock is taking it straight down to Baja CA for a few weeks of fun in the sun. Here's to hoping he and his girl get plenty of waves down there!

Two Crows Planer

2011-12-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

I've just finished tweaking on my new planer. I've shaped thousands of boards with these little green Hitachi planers. While the Skil 100 is well known as the workhorse of the surfboard industry, many production shapers choose to use the Hitachi because of it's cheaper cost, better availability and lighter weight. Clark foam used to manufacture a modified version of the Hitachi that was distributed at most places that you could find surfboard building materials. They would change out the bearings for better ones and modify the front shoe adjustment for more "on-the-fly" action. After they shut down, the planers became harder to find. I've resorted to building my own from scratch. I cut off the handle, and fabricate a custom one from steel that closely matches the skil 100. In the process I also remove the trigger switch and replace it with a simple toggle, because I leave my planer on most of the time when I use it. Also I cut out the crappy little dust chute and fabricate a nice over sized one to facilitate the easy removal of large foam shavings. The front end is modified to more closely resemble the skil, much easier to hold onto.

Here's a stock Hitachi

And here's mine. I can't help but paint everything flat black.

Time to get shaping. -Carl

Coffin, shirts, 3rd Stone Stock boards... Hawaii

2011-12-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

A few pictures of what's going on in Hawaii right now. We've been hard at work taking care of everyone's Christmas presents. Keep your fingers crossed that someone in your life might surprise you with a new Crow under the tree. :)

First up we have a picture of the new coffin POP display for surfshops that we've been working on.

We've been focusing on new t-shirt designs, and here's a quick sample of the ideas that have been circulating in the mind of Welzie...

Carl's a machine, here's one day's work, all handshapes.

Bruce's yardstick

John Coffee's mosquito

A stock 6'0" Mosquito that's for sale at the 3rd Stone shop in the sugarmill

A Stock 10' Lowrider

A stock CA Nosrider

John Coffee's copycat- Full freestyle artwork

One more on display at the 3rd Stone shop

Welzie in the glassing room

2011-12-18T02:53:00.000-08:00

Coorsmas

2011-12-12T23:18:00.000-08:00

Great picture sent in by our friend Rachmo, Celebrating in a style that we can definitely relate to. Awesome!

Also got some more hats in...

Hot Rods and 2 headed Llama People

2011-12-10T23:04:00.000-08:00

This is Welzies Dad's sweet rod that he's building. It actually sits right where we glassed our first two boards over a decade ago together... see resin on the floor? :) Awesome.

Here's an art project that Welzie put together for an art show in Feb. I think it has something to do with Llamas...

Coors Light or Salvation?

2011-12-10T22:51:00.000-08:00

We stopped by the regional Coors distributor in Nor Cal. We had an opportunity to tour their giant walk-in fridge... it was the entire storage area, as cold as your fridge at home. You guys that enjoy Coors light as much as we do will enjoy this batch of pics.

Luckily, Welzie managed to restrain himself, I was worried that he'd just grab a 30 pack or a pony keg and make a break for it.

Man that sign would look great in the Lam room.

Fire safety check

2011-12-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

I remember being annoyed when my Pops came down on me about the possibilities of a fire happening at my first shop, laid out in the back of my parents yard when I was 17. He made me install fire sprinklers and I thought it was so lame... I remember the dorky sprinkler hanging down right in the middle of my main shaping room like it was yesterday. Running all the pipe was the biggest inconvenience to my extremely important 17 year old reality I could imagine. I wanted to be building boards, surfing and hanging out with my cute girlfriend... I didn't have time to cater to my lame parents paranoid ideas. Fire? Yeah right.

If you have a time machine, I need to go back and smack my stupid ass.

Tuesday night was a reality check, we actually had a fire start in the Santa Cruz shop. Stoked there were fire sprinklers and all possible horror scenarios were avoided. The fire dept didn't get to play with their toys. Remind me to tell my Pops how right he was, he'll love to hear it. Sure there was water damage, floors that had to be ripped out and replaced plus some soot damage to a few boards, but the sprinklers saved the day and the shop is back to business after only a few days of cleanup. Here's a token pic of the firetruck rolling our scene.

Sadly though, the few boards that were damaged by the soot and water were really nice. Here's a couple pics to commemorate them. Man, Welzie looks pretty cold... Can't wait to join him back in Hawaii on Tuesday.

Planer Mods

2011-11-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

Carl's been modding the hell out his new Hitachi planer. Custom welded handle and new dust chute modifications. Check back for updates

Merry Crowmas

2011-11-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

Merry Crowmas! Two Crows Surfboards is doing one last batch of boards before the year is done. Get your orders in so you can wake up x mas morning with a new board. call or text 931 0845 or email at twocrowssurfboards@gmail.com

TOOTS SURFING QUEENS

2011-11-23T14:20:00.000-08:00

Printing and more

2011-11-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Spent the week surfing fun waves up here on the North Shore, making boards and printing hats. Not a bad life. The resin paintings have been coming along, here is a couple pieces I made hoping to get them up at Opal Thai's new restaurant in Haleiwa. So much for that idea, wanting to see a portfolio, I quickly get discouraged. I'm not that organized. Someday.

We got some new boards down at Surf Garage in Honolulu, a 9'3 Lady Log and a 9'10 CA Noserider, Full Freestyle along with a little 5'8 Mini Simms that looks so fun I almost kept it for myself.

Hats and stickers are now available from Two Crows. They will be available at our online store and Surf Garage pretty soon, but feel free to email us if you want one now and we will send it out.

"I Like My Rice Sticky Iky" 2' x 4'

"Fork VS. Chopstick" 2'x4'

"Roll Those Spring Rolls Tight" 3'x4'

"Chicken Curry In a Hurry" I have used this chicken before in another piece, but I like it, so I used it again. 2'x4'

The two Styles of hats we got, Freestyle and large Crows. Printed on Otto caps so you know they are good.

Stickers, Stickers, Stickers. Even though I am not a grom anymore I still Love stickers. We stepped it up and got some quality die cut stickers in both black and white in two sizes.

And More Boards

2011-11-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Boards are being done left and right out of the Waialua Sugar Mill. Two Crows is located at the Third Stone Surfboard Factory right at the front of the mill. Feel free to come by and check out some of the boards we have in stock.

A pic carl enjoying his pile of foam

Phil's Single Fin Mellow

A stock Mini Simms for Surf Garage

Rima's Twin Keel Fish

Mark's Longboard

Mark's 6'8

John Coffy's Mosquito

John Coffey's Boards being glossed. Soon to be packed up and shipped to Australia.

The wall has grown to new proportions

More art comming out with every board...

Boards boards and more boards

2011-11-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

Lots of new boards coming out of the Santa Cruz Shop.

Here's the Art on Feli's board.

Kevin's new EPS/Epoxy Egg

Sam's new Mini Sims

Bottom of Sams Board... Nice red fins

Shogo's board before it gets shipped to Japan

Bottom of Shogo's board

Fin on Shogo's board

Cam's board was a lot of work, but worth it

Cathy Mayerhofer's new Sky blue Noserider

Cathy's also got a new shoe

Here's the bottom of the shoe, one of her favorite designs.

Lastly, Mark Bohn's 10' Noserider

The best beer of my life

2011-11-08T23:24:00.000-08:00

Roosters. Cocks. Chickens. Call 'em what you want, but I'll tell you one thing.
They're f**king annoying.
5:00 in the morning and they start up, calling out to the frying pan in my mind.
Apparently there's a farm next door, they raise Cocks. Fighting cocks to be exact. Seems to be a popular sport in Hawaii.
I can usually handle the early morning wake up call and squeeze my eyes shut for another couple hours to get a decent nights sleep.
Not this morning. I think it was the fact that I was up till 3:30 the night before. Not getting enough sleep makes me pretty annoyed. Getting only a couple hours really makes me annoyed.
Welzie stumbles in around 8:30. He's hung over. The tequila the night before didn't do him any favors either. Coors light and Tequila, some spicy mexican food, combined with a couple hours of sleep makes for an amazing way to start the day.
Sweet.
We have to get to the shop early. There's another shaper jockeying for the room I use. He gets in the way. Luckily He doesn't make the 5 am wake up call.
...
Fast forward. 9 hours and 40 minutes forward to be exact. Long day in the foam. Drinking a lot of fluids is a good idea when you're on your feet all day walking in circles in a hot room.
I didn't do that.
At least Welzie was kind enough to bring me lunch. One half of a chicken and some rice. He's a saint in my mind. I savored every bite of the greasy sweet revenge. I hoped it was a rooster... but somewhere deep down inside, I fear it was a hen... so sweet and succulent.
The sacrificial chicken still didn't cover the fact that I didn't consume enough fluids.
Drained. Dehydrated. Parched.
I air hose the dust off and stumble down the stairs. The whole day has gone to dark in the blur of 4 longboards.
I reach the refrigerator, silently praying that Welzie has stocked it with some freshies.
Salvation.
As I grab the coldest looking one- closest to the freezer section of the fridge I feel the frost come off in my palm.
Bingo.
The mountains are so dark blue, they're almost purple. Two-stage cold activated.
It's not frozen as I pop the top. You can always tell because they instantly froth over.
Liquid gold. It's gone in three gulps.
Worlds most refreshing beer. They can keep that trademark. I love you Coors Light. -Carl

Art Show Video - Aporia

2011-11-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of the art show last week. The owner of the building lets us put on art shows in his vacant retail spots till they get rented out. Good for us and everyone else.

6 hours of daylight

2011-11-04T02:38:00.000-07:00

"Oh crap..! Oh crap...Ohh crap!"

Nicks hands are shaking. It's either because of the two cop cars that are parked along the side alley we just swerved down, the lack of registration stickers on the van that we are riding in, or the 3 cups of coffee he apparently decided to ingest before picking me up from the airport this morning.

Probably a combination of all three.

We're now driving by the cops as inconspicuously as possible. The van has its wheels spray painted black and two giant crows painted on the sides. Super stealth.

A guy owes us 280 bucks, we sold him a board back at the last Malibu contest, he told us to pick up the balance from him in Hawaii. Luckily I had his business card stuffed into a crack in the dash of old Bets back at home. Now Nick is intent on recovering the money.

"Man we are running through the gauntlet right now..."

He's trying his hardest to keep a car following us in order to obstruct the view our plates from curious police officers. I'm fumbling with google maps on my phone, trying to hone in on our destination.

Freestyle.

Just an hour before, I was leisurely sitting on a plane as an aspiring business owner, chatting with Carol, an engineer from Lockheed Martin discussing everything from the meaning of life to the hydrodynamics of surfboard fins. Now I'm apparently on the lam with Nick. How life has its twists.

After cutting down some side streets, we make it to our destination. Nick pulls over and directs me to hop out and find our guy. There's another cop car parked about 50 feet up from where I get out.

"If I'm gone when you come out, I'm circling the block!" Nick mouths through the window of the van as he points a shaky finger at the cop car in front of us.

Running through the rain I scurry from shop to shop until I find the guy. Sitting in his thatch hut, Dave smiles when he sees me. "How'd you find me..." Are the first words out of his mouth. But he's got the money, awesome.

I say a fast thanks and run back out to the van. I've been in Hawaii for a total of an hour.

...

A couple hours later and we're standing around talking to Andy. We'd give him employee of the year if we ran Fiber Glass Hawaii. This time, not only does he help us out with the normal blanks & materials, but comes out and gives us some tips on how to make the van run better. Quickly, we're assembling a cardboard and masking tape contraption to replace a missing part. He also makes a recommendation about the aesthetics of the grill on the van. A can of black spray paint is procured.

As soon as we get on the road, we notice an increase in horsepower coming from the engine. Awesome.
...
After a stop at the shop to assess the next batch, we head down to Pupukea for a surf. I end up passing out on the beach. 2 hours of sleep the night before didn't keep me going all day. We've got a dinner party to head to, so it's great to get the rest.
...
I'm spacing out on the upcoming evening when the van sputters.
"Come on..."
Nick's got that steadfast look he gets when the going gets tough. Like he's trying to will old Betsy just 100 more feet, up the hill and to the gas station.
We coast onto the side of the road within plain sight of the gas station. No way we're going to push her up the hill. Luckily we keep a gallon of gas on board for this scenario.
I hop out and pour the gas into the tank.
The van doesn't start. Crap.
"Run up and grab another gallon of gas..." I figure this is a good idea, there's nothing else to try anyway.
I return and pour another gallon in. Still doesn't start. It's getting dark. The van's also hanging into the road. I doubt Nick has triple A. Dammit.
Under the van, I'm searching for the fuel filter with a flash light. Pulling off the hoses I notice that there is no gas getting to the filter. Must be an obstruction in the line... probably in the rusty old tank. I relay this revelation to Nick as I crawl out from under the van.
"ROCK THE VAN!" We both say this out loud together as we realize that it's our only chance of shaking whatever it is in the line, loose.
Nicks turning the engine over as we are shaking the van as hard as we can. Literally hopping up and down on the running board. Betsy sputters a little and gives us the hope we need. We're hopping as if our lives depend on it. The engine catches and comes back to life. High fives and hoots all around.
...
We make it to the dinner party with stories to tell. The food is amazing. Our friends are awesome. Life is good. -Carl

Art Show

2011-11-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

The stock pile of booze for the bar.

We pulled of our 14th art show this past friday night at the old Circus Gallery. It was a bit last min and a lot of work but we made it happen. Some nice work was shown by Duncan Cambell, Aaron Loyd, RED, and Christen Vidonavic. The art show openings usually turn into a slosh fest and this one was no different. Staying up to the wee hours on red bull vodkas, it got pretty hilarious for the last few standing. A halloween costume by Steve from Third Stone led to a gallery covered in toilet paper. His costume was the king of shit talking and had a toilet paper neckless inspired by one of the pieces I had up in the show. Here is some pics of the new resin paintings I have been doing.

Gallery, surfboards and art.... and beers and more beers

2011-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Paint resin sand paint resin buff resin color resin. It's all the same, a constant progress. Moving. Making things. Working towards something. The week has been one I am used to. Deadlines. Deadlines. I seem to function my worst and best in these times. New paintings and boards, new art gallery. Covered in resin and paint from the moment I wake up till I wake up again. Always moving and thinking.
The gallery space is crazy. Big, high ceilings, open beams. One any artist would wish for. Walk through space with stairs and more. I love it. The owner of the building lets me put on art shows in his vacant retail spaces untill they get rented out. It works out perfect. We go in, make it presentable, then put all kinds of art you wouldn't see in any place else. The gallery is pruley to show and inspire. Sales are just a bonus. No overhead means no commericial art. Viva the Freestyle.
Myself and photographer Dave Bjorn spent the last three days buffing over the previous tenants horrible choice of greens and reds on the walls. Now it is as white as snow. People ask why we put so much work into a single two day show. I don't know why we do, but we love too. We paint, build, fix things etc. The whole time talking about art related stuff, getting high on creativity and inspiration. I am always hesitant to call myself and artist, I just feel like a pre-Modoana if I do. I just make things. When I am painting everyday, working on an art show, getting things done, I somewhat feel like an artist. I guess I just feel like everyone is an artists in their own way in some form or another.
The show will be up Friday and Saturday night. About fifteen artists in total, actually probably closer to 20. All new stuff. Red who moved to Maui to do tattoo is coming back for the show which is exciting. He was always a huge help, not to mention a show stopper every time. So many friends we have made doing the temperarily perminent shows, it' great to get every one back under one roof to drink some beers and enjoy each others creative side.

The Circus Gallery getting a new paint job. Dave Bjorn cutting in way in the back.

Busted.... Stienlagers in the picture. Free beer is free beer. I get a lot more buzzed when straying from my CL norm.

Derrick's full freestyle

I am probably the luckiest board builder on the planet. People have been dropping by with beers for me just about every time. Derrick here with his new board and stoked.

Derrick went the extra mile and provided 42 mouth watering Coors Light beverages that will be consumed this evening at the art gallery BBQ tonight. Thanks Derrick!

Here is Sam's 4'11 Mini sims he picked up the other day. Tiny little thing but looks so fun. A few of the pro's who stop by through the shop wanted to steel the thing, luckily I know Kung Fu ;)

Sam was also so kind to keep the creative juices flowing with Coors Light. I don't know how everyone knows I love drinking beers, especially CL's but it is working out great for me. Thanks everyone.

Art Show This Month at the CIRCUS gallery

2011-10-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Two Crows Surfboards presents Aporia. An underground art show in Haleiwa of all the weirdos and their new works. Come by Oct 28th to check out some interesting art. Located at 66-145 Kamehameha Hwy Haleiwa, Hawaii 96712.

Come By Friday Night for misconception reception after sundown till....

Aporia (Ancient Greek: ἀπορία: impasse; lack of resources; puzzlement; doubt; confusion) denotes, in philosophy, a philosophical puzzle or state of puzzlement, and, in rhetoric, a rhetorically useful expression of doubt.

Artsy Fartsy

2011-10-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Realizing I got a bunch of resin left over with each color, I started painting the wall. Its growing. Too much. I got some wood and started throwing the excess resin on it instead of in the trash. I had done it before but the pieces are taking a better route than in the past.
I got Anne's from Rock Shop Hawaii's board and Jim's CANoserider to them this weekend in town. Jim was kind enough to suprise me with a twelve pack of Coors Light which was very refreshing before a quick surf at bowels.
Here is some pics from the last few days....
-nick

Anne's board

John Coffe's board before it got its resin work.

Mark and Toot's boards after coloration

The wall before it got even bigger

Lets get organized...orginized

John's board and a canvas for the excess resin

Some resin pieces in the process

Driving the van through town is no fun. Here I am happy to make it out alive after a stressfull mission of trying to find a place to park for the night. I got over it and headed back to Waialua for a evening of margaritas at Cholos with some good friends. Good call.

This-and-thats...

2011-10-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

Waylon, owning it at Malibu CA. Photo by L.A. Solano

A couple of shots of a 5'4" Lis style retro fish for Ryan. Twin keel fin delight!

This is a 5'8" quad for Erron, I wish FCS made black fusion plugs...

And of course, my current love affair. 7'4" full volume wave catching machine. Paddles into anything and turns a lot better than an HP longboard. Where have you been all my life lovely! :)

-Carl

First boards done!

2011-10-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

Been busy the last few days pushing boards through. Two boards are now finished, with two more I just need to polish out, four others ready to sand. Just sprayed two more, which will get started here tonight. Busy busy busy. It's crazy how my new log managed to be the first one done ;)
-n

Jim's board in the polishing room

Jim's board again

My new log

the bottom

Late Night at the Shop

2011-10-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

It can cant pretty creepy being at a shop in the sugar mill late at night. Plenty of ice heads running around looking for opened doors. I spent the night sanding my board and Jim's to weird noses and always looking over my shoulder. With a large exhaust fan going and ear muffs on, it can be pretty easy to be snuck up on. I managed to get out of the shop by 2 am, with the final gloss on two of the first boards to be done. Should have some pics up of them tomorrow.

Freestylin

2011-10-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Resin fumes.
fume tombs.
Color Pigments.
Hand drawn laminates.
I am in the Freestyling stage. Its a good one. After ten hours in the glass room I finally got into my groove with my Coors Light muse. Colors. Colors. Colors. Nothing can be guaranteed but happy indeed. Loose. Controlled chaos. -nick

Mowing Foam

2011-10-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Slave labour. Carl Olsen.

Usually I hold a grudge or a chip on my shoulder for shapers. Usually they are pretty full of themselves as they tidey up their machine shaped boards. Growing up as a sander I have delt with many self proclaimed shapers and personal legends. Sanders always got the blame for everything. Teaming up with Carl has slowly changed my mind towards the shapers of foam.

This guy mows foam.

He is fast and percise and consistant. No soul hand sanding or clunky moves. Carl is plowing through foam like its his last day on earth as a shaper.

17 boards in 4 days.

By hand.

No complaints.

There is not that many board builders his age with this type of productivity. Its a dying breed. Some guys are buying shaping machines before they learn how to sharpen skill 100 blades.

Style Free.

We spent most of the last 4 days at our new location in the Sugar Mill, the Third Stone Factory. It is perfect. Home sweet home. There is a ton of action around and things happening. Brian King. The main attraction of the place. He glasses across the hall. We worked together for years, years ago at Charlie Walkers. Brian is probably one of the most abstract creative thinkers I know, not to mention an extremely original talented artists. Dane Reynolds would probably give him a blow job if he saw the drawings Brian was doing. His glassing and shaping logo are always changing but his current is the best. Special Resin. I got to take a picture of it. Its Hilarious.

Cody upstairs does screen printing so we mucked around with hats while I was waiting for resin to kick. Shirts and hats are on their way. I love it, everything is in house. We stay past midnight one night, after waiting a half day for the shaping bay to clear. In one of the photos you can see the large pile of foam and the tiny one to the right of it.

Shapers.

They are all different and the same.

We crash in the van so we can get a early start before the other guys show up to use the room. 2 days to go and time is running out. 9 boards left. No worries. Two Crows is the king of busting out. We get 'em done.

We're done.

He's done.

My work has begun.

Time for a week of solitary confinement in the fume tomb.

-nick

Clean Lines

Notice the little pile in the Right corner with the stringer foam... notice our pile. Board Builders vs. Tinkerer

Blurred resin vision

Strippy

Lamination Station

Carl working on Mark's board

The Third Stone Surfboard Factory

The van in the Waialua Sugar Mill

Cody Making two crows Hats

Planer Mods

2011-10-03T00:46:00.000-07:00

So we spent most of the weekends huffing fumes and shaping foam. Carl has been planning away like his life depended on it. I got to mix up some colors today for Anne, she wanted blue but I decided she liked florecent pink. Just kidding Anne. Any way it's on. Carl was mowing with his newly modified planner, knocking out boards more effective than a machine. John's Copy Cat and Mosquito were the last boards to be finished this evening before we decided to get some beer. We had to switch teams though. Coors Light 12 paks were overpriced so we went with Kiren Ichiban. 12 for 10$. Score. Back into it tomorrows as we get blanks for Mark and the rest of the gang with good old Andy in Wahiwa. - nick