Of fins and other things.

When I bought my first single fin longboard at Noreaster surf shop, the owner Mark informed me that the price included a fin of my choice, either a cutaway or a flex. "What's the difference?" Mark gave me a quick rundown of the type of ride I could expect and I went with the flex fin, a True Ames L Flex, I believe. I haven't looked back since then.

At Larry Mayo's suggestion, I ran a Greenough 4a in his Softail model and on a whim, put a 4c in my Mini Zombie. For both, I dug the projection out of my bottom turns and the way it felt when I cut back. My name is El Meezy. I am a flex fin junkie. So far, I've tried the aforementioned L-Flex, and the two Greenough templates. My Andreini Sam has an Andreini flex fin. If I get another nose rider, I'll probably try out the Farberow Flex. What can I say? They suit my sort of style of surfing.

I was running a GL Flex in my Hot Generation but a recent session up North at a left hand point with rocks on one end left me with a fin in need of repair. Recalling the words of Brian Hilbers when I asked him about a good fin choice for the board and he opined that the HG is "disgustingly democratic with fins", I decided to compare and contrast and ordered up a new 4a in matte orange. R&D is forthcoming. Then again, the way it's been lately, who knows.

I just want a waist to stomach high clean wave. Is that so wrong? Actually, that's what the day up North was like but I surfed like shit. Meanwhile, Jay had a ball. Then again, he's a goofy foot(left hand slide).

More news and notes:

Apparently the work on the causeway up at my local is due to wrap up before the end of the year. Yay! Awesome that it only took them approximately three years on the damn thing. Unfortunately, they've already closed up the parking lot and won't reopen it until next May. I dig my local. When it's working, it's the first place we all generally run to. It's never all that crowded and over the past few years, I've had some fantastic days there. When I remember to, I throw a bag in my car to pick up trash after a session. I see a lot of other folks enjoying the beach in the "off season", not just surfers and I think it sucks that out of over 800 parking spots, there are maybe a dozen currently open to people wanting to get in there. I'm glad all the work they've done will be to further enhance the place but it pisses me off that access in the Fall and Winter months has been so difficult. Concessions of some sort should've been made.

Anyways...

The Fall has still not been epic. I'm grumpy.

New Voices

In the interest of not becoming one of those opinionated (slightly)older dudes that are always telling the younger generations that, "Our music was better, blah, blah."(As an illustration, check my step-father, "Mr. '60's". No explanation necessary I hope.), I do my best to seek out new tunes where and when I can. Back in my more technologically challenged past, this meant record reviews, zines, word of mouth, etc. These days, whenever I trip over something, I can hunt down the artist and see what's what.

"Newer" artists I've been listening to in the past couple of weeks include Gentleman Jesse(as seen in a previous post), The Heavy and this fella:



Sort of in the vein of other neo-garage acts(Black Lips, Ty Segall, etc) but King Tuff has his own thing going and I dig it. Really cool "The Sweet" sounding guitar riff in the middle of this tune. Check it.

PS - New King Khan and the Shrines album drops today. Aw yeaahh.

Missed it by that much.

"You're a good Dad but a bad surfer."

That was a comment from one of my fellow surfing dads. After at least 5 weeks of epic flatness, a bump appeared to soothe those of us dying for even the barest semblance of a swell. Friday was the day. New England definitely has these mysto swells that pop up and then are just...gone, so if one does pop up, you best be ready. I missed this one. Kid minding issues in the morning made a dawn patrol out of the question and a promise made to the boys made a sunset go out nil as well.

Instead, I pulled out the pig and the Hot Generation the next morning as the buoys were showing that there were leftovers. I was so damn giddy that I blasted past a cop doing 52 in a 35 zone. Thankfully, I got away with a warning. It wasn't all time. Knee high, slow and mushy was the special of the day but the pig was up for the challenge and I actually got some fun rides. For shits and giggles, I ran back to the car for the HG but the board likes a faster wave than the stuff I was fooling around on and even though I was catching waves, they were all a little lackluster.

The prevailing theme from the guys in the water and the dude in the parking lot and Tony was, "It was really fun yesterday. Best waves of the summer." Could I slam my head against a tree? I could but then I'd just have a sizable welt on my head and I know that the fall is just getting started. Right? That's what I'm telling myself anyways.

Let's Roque!

Last night was a school night and yet, I had to make a pilgrimage to my old stomping grounds in Somerville. The Upper Crust were playing Precinct and if you know The Upper Crust, you know they don't play out all that often. I'll spare you too much hyperbole except to say that if 18th century aristocrats playing Bon Scott era AC/DC style tunes(Lord Bendover sounds a lot like Scott)is your thing, then you owe it to yourself to check them out.

For the record...they killed and are also funny as hell.

Tales of infrequent sessions and new tunes.

There are supposed to be waves tomorrow. Please let there be waves tomorrow.

My last decent session was a couple of weeks ago at the local. The forecast looked promising. I got there to find Tony and another dude, Carl standing there not looking happy. A few minutes later a couple of other cars pulled up and everyone had this, "Damn." look on their faces. It was small. Ideas about heading to NH were tossed around and then a collective "Fuck it." was thrown out there and we all went in. At first, it was as advertised. Not much power, micronic stuff. Suddenly it got better. Not "all time" better but knee to thigh, long clean rides better. I rode the Sam for the second time and at first was cursing the fact that I didn't have the pig with me. When it got better, though, I found out what the Sam can do on a clean wave and it was awesome. Really fun climbs and drops. High line trim to bottom turn to cut back and back again. I can't wait to run it back out there again.

Tunes.

You like power pop? I like power pop. I've liked it ever since I discovered Cheap Trick in my elementary school friend Danny's, older sister Paulie's album collection.

I saw Gentleman Jesse and his Men a few years back when they opened for King Khan and the Shrines. I hadn't heard them before and they were really good. I was outside along with one of the guitar players and was complimenting him on the set. I believe I dropped the "Power Pop" thing on him and he cringed a little. My response? "Hey man, there's nothing wrong with that."

In the midst of all my music purchases, Gentleman Jesse kept getting missed and then I bought an iphone recently and was looking to add to the tunes on it. What had I been neglecting that wasn't easy to find on cd? That's right, Gentleman Jesse's first album. Think The Nerves, Nick Lowe, Paul Collins Beat, Elvis Costello, hell a bit of the late great Exploding Hearts. They're not re-inventing the wheel here but it's good rock and roll. Now I'm going to have to pick up the second album.

Dig it.

A respite amidst the flatlands.

I don't remember last summer being this flat. I know it had its spells, summer around here always does but there were enough knee high pulses to keep me sated. July has been bad.

I did score a bit on Sunday. I went down to RI for the dawn patrol and there was some decent enough short period wind swell to play on. It was around waist high with occasional chest(every 20 minutes or so) and I jumped at the opportunity to both christen the Andreini Magic Sam and also get some additional time on the Hot Generation.

Hour 1 - Andreini Magic Sam

It's a 9-4 but don't call it a "log". If you know the history, then you know that this is the type of board the Australians were on while the Americans were still on barges with trash can noses and doing the Quasimodo(not that there's anything wrong with that)and what Nat Young won in '66 on. The board is for hot dogging, carving, front third speed runs and even some nose time in the pocket. My first impressions? It's a decent paddler and cruises into waves smoothly. Aggressive bottom turns work. Flying in at an angle works. It's speedy, it's nimble and it likes a little bit of a push. I did a couple of pretty good cutbacks on it with ease. A bit of aggressiveness is rewarded. In short, I dug it, seriously dug it. I can't wait to run it up to a certain NH spot.

Hour 2 - Hot Generation

Fun, fun, fun. A perfect compliment to the Sam. As the waves started to wall up a bit, I decided I wanted to get a bit more maneuverability happening. Admittedly, I biffed a couple of waves settling in but once I got my timing going...it was off to the races. That thing is slicker'n grease.

Summation? Good day, although a bit more of a face on the waves would have been welcome. Again, I'm looking forward to seeing what these sleds can do with a bit more cleanliness.

What's in the box?!

A "Magic Sam" has been on my wish list ever since I got hip to the type of boards being ridden in "The Hot Generation". This mildly used Andreini turned up in LA and I made arrangements with the former owner, a very righteous guy, to get the board to Thing 1's godfather, Tom. Going above and beyond, Tom had the board packaged up at Aqua Tech in Marina Del Rey and then dropped it with the freight company I went with(Alliance) to get it to me. It wasn't easy getting it back here but it showed up unscathed and I can't wait to slide it.