Moon Glider

My new 9'0" Chris Christenson 3 fin glider.

Chris shaped this board out of a beat up, ratty and yellowed blank he had hanging around the shop. He took a pass with his planer and to our surprise the foam was as clean as snow.

I know what you are thinking, that looks like it is going to go straight. And it does! Really fast too. But it actually turns good (there isn't much margin for error).

Gary Stuber did a fantastic glass job on it with 6 oz and 8 oz volan cloth. Kenny Mann sanded it, Mark Donnellon glossed it and I wetsanded it down to 500 grit. This thing is clean!

Marlin Bacon of 101 Fin Co made and glassed on the bamboo fins. The center box fin is the first bamboo prototype fin Marlin made last year.

I'm having fun on it during these 2 ft hot and glassy January days. Point and shoot!

This board is buttery smooth. It has a great weight under the arm and surfs light and lively. It's actually a joy to paddle in smooth glassy water. I'm stoked I finally got a glider style surfboard and now I'm looking at 1 foot surf in a whole new light.

We are calling this board the 3 Fin Surfy Glider. If you are interested in getting one too email me for more info.

See also, previous post Surfy Surfy: Chris Christenson Small Wave Seeker

I GOT THE POWER!

Resin Stripes

Hobie quad Fish: 5'8" x 20 1/2" x 2 1/2"


Gary Hanel quad Fish: 5'10" x 20 1/2" x 2 3/4"
Both boards feature the trippy "tiger stripe" resin tint technique and both are available in the Moonlight showroom.

Blue Bonzer 1999

Scanned photo of a 5'11" Bonzer5 that Malcolm Campbell shaped for me in 1999. Nice pinlines and airbrush by my Dad Peter St Pierre. I ended up giving this board to a surf stoked Mexican ripper named Abel who was in town that summer working 3 shitty jobs so he could afford some surfboards, leashes, boardshorts, etc.

Yeeeesssss

I loves getting fresh Journal in the mail.
www.surfersjournal.com

Floater Wars II: Electric Boogaloo

Ian from the McKevlins blog locked in battle.
See: Surfy Surfy Floater War

Visitor from the Future!

Floater War

The Retro-Future Hanel Project

This is Gary Hanel aka GH. He has been shaping my surfboards since I was 15 years old (1985).


Here are a couple of pics of me riding GH's when I was 17. Photos by Jeff Nelson.

This is Tyler Hanel. Tyler is the oldest of 4 Hanel brothers (all goofyfoots who rip). Tyler runs the KKL shaping machine service. He is really good at math.

Here is a surfboard Gary Hanel handshaped for Tyler. It is based on the 1980s boards GH used to make for us, but with modern updates to the rails and rocker. I was pretty stoked when I saw it so I asked GH to shape me one too.

Tyler laser scanned the board and made a digital file of it. Tyler and GH then scaled the board to my size and weight. This is GH manning one of the machines at KKL.

To mix things up a bit we decided to go with a stringerless blank. My friend Jason in Venice had recently hooked me up with some carbon fiber, so I thought it would be cool to do carbon fiber rails. Moonlight handyman Dave Dvorak glassed the rails.

When you have a special project like this you want someone with knowledge and skill. Here is Gary Stuber glassing the board with 4 oz S glass. The glass work came out immaculate.

After the board was hotcoated, fin boxed and sanded I thought it should get some snazzy red pinlines to finish off the rail cutlaps.

The finished board looking tight.

The Lokbox fin system shown here with the composite Taylor Knox fins.

The dims: 5'10" x 18 1/2" x 2 1/2"

I'm not big on traction but I do like these backstops from my brother-in-law's company, Destination Surf.

I rode this board during last week's run of good glassy surf. It really wails. Believe it or not but I haven't gotten a new thruster since the summer of 2000. The thruster is a stable platform and easy to surf. It's not as fast as some of my other boards but it's great for some basic old school wave thrashin'.

Usually the waves are bad when I get a new board but I got lucky this time. I snapped this pic after session #2 and before session #3 of the day.

A close look at the carbon fiber rails. I had a number of GH surfboards glassed with a variety of carbon fiber back in the 80's so this board is quite the retro trip for me.

The Breakdown:
*Stringerless polyurethane blank by Just Foam.
*Shaped and designed by Gary Hanel, Tyler Hanel and HAL the komputer.
*Carbon fiber supplied by SciArt, Inc. They do custom weaving. Ask for Vince, ph# 949-788-1709
*Glass work by Dave Dvorak and Gary Stuber using low emission polyester resin.
*Hotcoat and Lokbox install by Dave Kerr.
*Sanded by Kenny Mann.
*Pinlined by Peter St Pierre.
*Glossed by Mark Donnellon.
*Wetsanded matte finish by myself.
*Traction and leash by Destination Surf.
*Fins: Taylor Knox template for Lokbox.
*Logo design and screenprinting by Jon Pankopf at Factory 101.
*Made with stoke at Moonlight Glassing in California, USA.

"That's Primo Bonzer"

Via the Bonzer Front Blog.

This Just in...

We just acquired this mint condition used Bonzer3 Bumblebee stub.
6'1 (and 1/2") length
21 1/2" width
2 3/4" thickness
Only $500
contact bonzersurfer@gmail.com
*SOLD*

A Family that Shapes together,

Tim Orr and his 10 year old daughter Melia shape surfboards on the Big Island of Hawaii.

101 Quads for Lokbox

Hi y'all. I've got some bamboo quad sets for the Lokbox fin system by 101 Fin Co available in the Surfy Surfy online store. I will be adding more fins to the store all week. We are still sold out of the bamboo Bonzer fins. L and XL Surfy Surfy shirts are sold out but I have a dozen XXL shirts left so if you know any big dudes let them know. We are almost sold of Moonlight shirts too. I guess we better call the screenprinter soon.
Thanks for your support!
Surfy Surfy online store

Kid in a Candy Store

Tim Orr, a shaper from the Big Island of Hawaii has been sending me some great photos of his surfboard habit. He has over 250 boards that he has collected over the last 20 or so years. Sometimes a man's swell surfboard collection turns into a full blown museum. I'll post up more of his pics in the coming days.

Let Them Feed You

Tim Crozier is a new customer at Moonlight. He lives and shapes in Leucadia under the label Black Bird.

Waxed and Ready

Do you need this 6'7" Bonzer semi-gun? If so contact us at bonzersurfer@gmail.com
*SOLD*

Between the Lines

My friend Scott Bass made an excellent film about surfers in the Vietnam war called Between the Lines and the film just won an award for best documentary at the X-Dance Film Festival. Way to go Bassy, Ty Ponder and Troy Page for creating an incredible piece of work. I recommend that everyone check out this film.

Dave at 40 mph

This is my oldest surf buddy Dave Thomas towing into near impossible beachbreak closeouts in Mexico last weekend. A lot of people don't like tow-ins but this spot goes unsurfed otherwise. Here is an online story I wrote about Dave and his tow bros back in March of 2005, All About Surf: Underground Tow Teams.

CC in B&W