Pono House

A couple of weeks ago Diane got a new long lens for the Nikon–a 180 to 500MM. I just downloaded the pictures to my computer–some of them are pretty neat.
She put the long lens on our big tripod and this was the first shot she got:

Here’s the second:

Nice job, kid.
There’s a few more shots on [...]

What an odd day. I spent most of it sewing new sleeves for all the rack pads on the funmobile. the surf looked big, and I bet it was going off in a reasonable size on the west side (ho’okipa was closed out and very windy), but I was home sewing. And I thought the [...]

The surf looks really good today, but I wouldn’t know firsthand. I’m spending the first day since we got here out of the water. Doesn’t feel good, but there’s a lot of work to do to prep for the showcase. We spent time today checking on a bunch of logistical bits. I need to do [...]

I’m listening to Frank Sinatra singing “All or Nothing At All”. When I was a kid I always thought he was saying “caught in the undertoad”, never really understood what that meant, but I figured it couldn’t be good. Just like Garp (John Updike fans will get the reference). Today the Undertoad got me, or [...]

Been running pretty much non-stop since we got back to Maui. I have this frantic feeling that if I don’t spend enough time in the water, then I’m going to really suck when we do the Board and Paddle Showcase. It’s not as if I really think I’m going to become a good surfer in [...]

i need a shoulder strap on my board because i’m a skinny wretch and hardly have the strength to drag the thing 5 feet much less an inch further. the board in question is a 12-6 starboard. i’ve also performed a similar operation on my jimmy11. and now so can you (more [...]

All proceeds from the sale of this paddle will go to “Save the Children” as part of a charity fundraiser on Lumberjocks.com, http://lumberjocks.com/stc .
The auction is live on eBay. Help support it. Bid early and often….:)
The finished paddle

The blade with ptrographic artwork of humpback whale and calf

The handle with the mahogany mako inlay

Back of the [...]

I’ll be auctioning off this paddle sometime in the next couple of weeks for a charity event at the lumberjocks.com website.
I still need to epoxy and varnish the blade. Should be done this week. I’ll post it here and on a number of other forums when it’s all ready.
The paddle that the artwork has been [...]

I took a really long paddle today, went from the Sauvie’s Island Bridge in the Multnomah Channel up to the ship channel and coast guard station in the Willamette River. Almost all the way to downtown Portland. I figure it was at least six miles each way, maybe eight, so 12 to 16 miles roundtrip. [...]

Here’s some video from last weekend, demoing some turns and footwork in Nahalem Bay, OR
I put a higher resolution version in the .mac gallery here

I went to the Oregon Coast this weekend to do some surfing with my friend Paul and his son Tyler. Stayed in my beach house in Manzanita. First of all, let me get the most important aspect out of the way–Paul got thrown out of the Sand Dune Tavern in Manzanita. Unbelievable. I’ve been drunk [...]

it’s the cat’s meow. waves were lefts, good for me, a nice 3′+ and peeling. my first surprise was that the 12-6’s lateral stability didn’t seem that much different than the jimmy11’s. that said, it felt a lot more stable overall. it was high tide, with lots of backwash, and i [...]

You’ve got to see this series. Insane. Click here. The interface is a little confusing–there’s a blue next button at the top right of the images. For the multi-shot images like this one you can scroll forward and back by running your cursor sideways across the photo. Cool interface, but takes a bit of playing [...]

I got up early this morning to take a long paddle and found Portland socked in with fog. At our house it was clear and bright, but a hundred feet below my windowsill it was a flat white blanket all the way to the coast range. I goofed around and worked on my computer until [...]

well, bob was going to come visit me in RI and let me try his starbboard but it didn’t work out for various reasons. but the fact that he has one of those boards — and the fact that i saw someone in the lineup today cruising around on one — got me to [...]

I sent an email to C4 asking if they’d like to participate in the board comparison. I got a nearly immediate response from Greg Wunderlich saying that they’d be happy to participate and they’ll hook us up with their newest high performance boards. I’m almost certain that Jimmy Lewis will participate, though I probably shouldn’t [...]

Sorry for the non-Maui related post Bill. I know the readership of the blog goes far beyond though.
I’m looking for some company. Sometime in the next few weekends I’m considering hitting the outside of Chatham harbor if the conditions are good. It looks like a great spot that should be pretty empty. It looks [...]

I’ll shoot some photos tomorrow when I go paddling again, but I realized today (probably for the zillionth time, but with a memory like mine every day offers new insights) that you can pretty much do this sport anywhere. People waiting to go to Hawaii or California, or even to a coast are simply selling [...]

I finally got the paddles completed and was psyched to see Bill’s reaction when he saw them. The whole famn damily went to Lime Rock Park to see Bill race over Labor Day weekend. He was busy racing (and then frantically searching out clutch parts) for most of Saturday. I anxiously awaited his seeing the [...]

For those that are interested this is just a tease of the paddle I’m building for Bill. I’m actually building two. This is the handle of the 1st.

This is a test post just to make sure I understand the wordpress interface. If this works I’ll post the complete construction process sometime after labor day weekend.