Anything But 3 Surfboard Gathering '09

Attended another super fun surfboard gathering this morning, the annual 'Anything but 3' event held this year at Oceanside Harbor... Had a blast this morning. Showed up before dawn to reallyfun peaky surf up and down the beach. Rode a couple of incredibly fun boards as well. First I took out Kaser's Zamora mini-Sim. At 5'7", I didn't think there was any way my 6'3", 200+ lb. frame would catch waves on the thing, butthat board pics up waves like something a foot bigger.Soooo fast right out of the gate, causing me to outrun abunch of waves, but had a blast on it and could see reallydiggin one of those as an alternative shape. Also trieda Pendoflex that was not nearly enough board for me, butseemed like it would have been fun in good waves.Then tried a Zippi twin keel that was 5'9". Again, thoughtthere was no way it would be enough board for me, but aslong as the wave stood up a bit to get into it, that boardkicked serious ass. Fun, loose, and playful in a small package. So many insanely nice boards all over the beach today andgreat people to chat with, made for one hell of a morning.Great to see and surf with many of you again. IMO,this was a much better venue for this type of event since people could spread out to all different peaks and catch10x the waves you could at Crowdiff. Was really bummedI had to leave around 9 to go to a family event in the OC.Stopped by the Fish Joint around 4pm to see some great livemusic, chat with a good group of people, and see some awards given out by the good folks at Ice9.Great day...thanks Shawn, Tony, JP, JJR, and anyone elsethat was involved in putting this together.

Tried and true, or alternative materials?

It's funny to me how surfers, who most like to think of as open-minded, free-thinking folk, are often extremely close-minded when it comes to alternative forms of surfboard construction and production. What I'm talking about here is the steadfast commitment of some to the old standard 'poly' surfboards along with their complete degradation of other techniques such as 'sandwich' construction, vacuum-bagging, EPS/epoxy, XTR/epoxy, etc. Don't get me wrong...I've been plently happy with the resin-tinted, gloss & polish 'poly' boards I've been getting of late and think many simply prefer the feel of what they've grown up with and are used to. I just think there are so many cool new forms of technology in the surfboard industry that haven't quite caught on due to the reluctance of many to try something new. I read an article recently where Bill 'Stretch' Reidel (sp?) was quoted praising Surftech's technology, and it made me think about how much these 'popouts' are slammed by so-called purists. I've had 2 boards in Surftech technology, and both were really fun, positive feeling boards. I owned another board (Cobalt) in a similar technology that was one of the funnest longboards I've ridden. While I understand (and agree with) many arguments that surfers should support their local shapers, I find it pretty ironic that just about every other product most of us use while surfing is made elsewhere without so much as a whisper of the contempt shown towards 'popout' surfboards. I dunno...just something that strikes me as odd. Needless to say, I'm plently happy with the 'poly' beauties I've been getting from my local shaper. I think there should be a bit more open-mindedness towards alternatives at the same time. Just my $.02.