drift, perspectives in surfing

Words & Photos: Kent Turkich

Sunny Noosa. Seems there’s a wave at every corner…

Tonight the family and friends of Jordan Kelly will join together at Corduroy Boutique, along with the Grain Surfboards family, to raffle off a lovingly crafted 5′4″ wooden Waka Fish. Proceeds from the tickets will benefit the Jordan Kelly Memorial Fund, which will provide opportunities for at-risk kids to learn the art of wooden surfboard building through a partnership between Stoked Mentoring and Grain. Learn more about Jordan’s board and buy tickets after the jump.

Grant Newby’s Wooden Surfboard event back in August looks like it was a success. If you–like us–weren’t lucky enough to make it to the Gold Coast that weekend, you can now check out a little video after the jump to get a peek at some of the surfcraft that showed up. We’re partial to this one by Drift bud Rick Malwitz.

I first stumbled across Felipe Siebert during Floripa Cine Action in April this year. The classic beauty of his longboard and double-fin wooden fish showcased at the event captivated me, and made me think about how difficult it is to pigeonhole surfing as either a sport or an art form.

Master wood shaper Felipe Siebert and I are about to release a limited edition surfboard. This project is the first collaboration between an shaper and an artist here in Brazil, and I hope it paves the way for many more.

Alley Fish Fry organizer Grant Newby is putting together a wooden surfboard event at Currumbin Alley on August 9th. During the week prior to the get together, Washington State hollow board builder Paul Jensen will be on hand for a five-day workshop at the Currumbin Eco Village.

I have had a pretty good run for the last few years as a surfboard maker. Plenty of great customers have kept me busy and, because my overheads are very low, I have had the freedom to experiment. I have stumbled upon such innovations as using paulownia wood to build boards and new glues for putting surfboards together. I even made a line of hollow paulownia surfboards, from fish to 18 footers.

Monitor tans and office ass aside, technology is a pretty wonderful thing. Back in the day if you heard tell of a set of kookbox plans published by Tom Blake in the 1930’s there’d be a lot of leg work involved in finding them.