Mikey's Homemade Shred Stick

Guest blog spot!

My friend Mike shreds the ocean for reals. He decided to take his mad skills of board repair** to the next level and shape his own board from scratch. If that's not shred-worthy, I don't know what is. Here's what he wrote about his recent experience:

"ok friends... so last week i went up to york (maine for you out of towners) to spend a week at grain surfboards (ah ok, i'll plug em: http://www.grainsurfboards.com/ ) to learn how to build my own wooden surfboard... pretty spendy (and i even slept in a tent every night), but definitely one hell of a week. i learned a bunch, and at the end of the week i walked out the door with my own handmade stick (a 5'4" steve lis inspired retro fish- 5'4"x20 1/2"x 2 5/8"), some info on a few semi-secret local surf spots, and a few good contacts/new friends within the industry (the owners of corduroy surf shop in portland maine, the entire 3-man grain board building crew, nick lavecchia (local surf photog who's beginning to blow it up on the national/international scene), and cyrus sutton and ryan tatar of korduroy tv who are doing some pretty cool things out of oregon)...

i still need to glass it, but i'm confident i can do that, and i'm pretty stoked on the whole thing. things went really well, and the grain crew was pretty impressed with my work. hopefully this is the beginning of something really cool and really big (for me)...

attached are a few pics of the process (pretty much one/day) over the course of the week.

shred free or die!
- mikey/tio pepe/el hobbito"













** Tio Pepe's board repair, while in developing countries involved some extra work, like having to go to Heladeria Arenas Blancas to eat popsicles for the sticks. It was hard to not eat Trits! Here is some photographic proof of his hard work. He seems to work on fish a lot.


Mikey and the rest of Team Jobless gets down with some helado in Mal Pais June'07


Mike working on Skully at the now defunct Blew Dog's, June '07


Mikey back to work on the the Porch of Las Brisas, Bocas Del Toro January '08

Rich and Single

CNN Money recently posted a story online about the top places to live if you are rich and single. Hermosa Beach, CA is apparently the number one spot.



Here's what they had to say:

"1. Hermosa Beach, CA
Hermosa Beach, CA
Population: 19,414
Single: 47.2%
Median family income: $137,941
Beach babes ride the waves and bask in the sun nearly all year long in this Los Angeles paradise. You'll find sun-kissed singles roller-blading along the Strand bike path or surfing. Beach volleyball is Hermosa Beach's unofficial sport, so claim an open court, round up some nearby beachgoers and start a coed game. When you've had your fill of sun and sand, stop by one of the many bars near the Pier Plaza for an ice cold beer. "

I call bullshit! Where are the single people making $137k? I think they unfortunately added in the income of the super rich people who own mega-mansions on the Strand when they were doing their median income calculation. (It does say family income, too.) All the people that I know either make about the same amount as we do or less. They also make no mention of the fact that many of the people making this money are a-holes. Or maybe they're, like, 50 years old, living at the beach and they just can't let go.