CHECK OUT THE VIDEO HERE
Josh Kerr flying high on Surfing Magazine's Surfer/Shaper Mentawaii trip Imagine an island loaded with a plethora of surfboards, surrounded by the world’s best waves. All kinds of boards –– all shaped by the world’s best. Quads. Fishes. TL2 SurfTechs. Parabolic stringered experiments. EPS and PU blades. All on an island with the men who shaped them and their most trusted test pilots. Imagine it with shapers Timmy Patterson, Rusty Preisendorfer, Glen Pang, Greg Geiselman and Phil Byrne all posted up in the wave infested Mentawaii islands with Josh Kerr, Mikala Jones, Phil Macdonald, Pat O’Connell, and Eric Geiselman; all at the beautiful Kandui Resort to find out where we stand in surfboards design and development. To brainstorm, conduct roundtable design forums, drink Bintangs together, talk surfboards and surf the best waves one the planet with their team riders. Imagine it, then imagine SURFING Magazine making it happen. Which is exactly what we’ve done. We’re literally bringing the shaping bay to the lineup to get to the bottom of the rapid arms race taking place in surfboard design at the moment and to find out what it all means. So we’re here, surrounded by perfect reefs, playful punting grounds and glassy faces to put the latest in surfboard design to the test for our 2007 Surfboards Issue. And so far, we’ve been scoring.
Shaper Timmy Patterson with a little research to go along with his designPat O’Connell got a tube so good on his Timmy Patterson 5’10’’ TL2 he claimed it over four times. Literally using four different methods: eyes covered, double fists in the air, camera look and camera point. He’s actually still claiming it as I write this. Josh Kerr has turned the playful rights at Pitstops into an airport. Mikala Jones’ tube prowess on any kind of board is absurd. And Eric Geiselman is showing that when your dad shapes your boards your whole life the outcome can be rather beneficial. His all-around game in any kind of surf has been incredible. Unfortunately for Eric though, he’s waiting on a boardbag full of shapes and different technologies that hasn’t arrived and his PU quiver is vanishing rather quickly. As is everyone’s PU shapes (a testament to the limited durability standard PU boards possess). The Geislemans have snapped 2 clean in half and Josh Kerr demolished the rail of a freshie during the third duck dive he’d ever done on it. And we’re only two days in.
Mikala JonesBut keep checking in with us at Surfingmagzine.com all week as we put the surfboard industry to the test. Kerr’s already writing certain boards off as “a hoax.” Mikala and Glen have been brainstorming up new boards with the help of peach vodka. And Pat-O can hardly sit still among all these surfboards. He’s already logged more water time than most of the island combined. A shaper/surfer tag team event is in the works, as are surfer-conducted interviews with shapers. Kerr instigated Poker night is forthcoming and the swells are stacking up in the Indian Ocean. We’re just getting started and the outcome of this trip should give us an interesting perspective as to where we are in this currently exciting and rather turbulent time in surfboard making. Definitely keep checking back in at www.SurfingMagazine.Com for the latest at the Kandui Resort.