‘My quiver is a 5’2 and a 7’0, and there’s nothing in-between…’
Rob watches himself surfing the Seaside and Beyond, his new LFT shape (on video in the show notes for this episode), and recognizes he occupies a strange space on the surfboard design spectrum.
Around 5’6 and shorter, and 7’0 and longer… nothing inbeetween. And barely anything between 5’2 and 5’6. Mostly just a 5’2 (Helium Seaside and a 7’0 (LFT Seaside and Beyond).
He pontificates further in this new episode of The Wire Podcast, discussing his new board and his new film and his new music festival.
Taylor Jensen went to Texas with Surf Ride's Josh Bernard and pulled an aerial we don't see too often, especially on longboards.
Kevin Whilden is a permafrost geologist who as a child collected rocks everywhere he went whether playground or Yellowstone Hot Springs or Catalina Island and even Antarctica in 1995 when he was a Graduate Student student studying Periglacial Geomophology (WTF?).
“Look, I like rocks” he says “because they tell a story that’s interesting. Geologists are essentially crime scene investigators.. rocks and fossils tell a story of the past in a way that helps us envision the future.”
His curious obsession with rocks is something he suspects his son might be inheriting, saying “Today my son steals rocks from the neighbors yard here in South Bay.“
It’s here in South Bay just up the road from El Porto and Manhattan Beach, the Southern Californian Beach Breaks where he surfs daily, that he helms Sustainable Surf with his partner Michael Stewart.
Much more in the Show Notes for this episode at:
http://www.firewiresurfboards.com/the-wire
Chuy Reyna is the Man in the Demo Van - he runs the demo program in California but also does much more, often pushing 'the button'; Firewire speak that translates to: 'Chuy says the board is perfect and we need to release it to surf shops everywhere.'
Much more in this episode.
Ben Skinner grew up with Jeremy Flores under the tutleage of Tom Carrol and Gary Elkerton.
He was first sponsored by Quiksilver at eleven years old and was immediately put in to a grind by the “Sandhill Warrior” Rob Roland Smith, the legendary personal trainer employed by Quiksilver to train the brand’s most promising young athletes in the 90’s and early 00’s, nicknamed for his interest in making groms run up and down sand dunes until until they fell over.
Ben at the time was surfing shortboards and he was ripping.
He was traveling to Morocco and winning contests.
And then he switched.
“I just got so frustrated on small days in England in weak waves, I wanted to surf every single day, and longboards let me do that.“
Born in England and raised inside pubs and breweries by parents in the hospitality industry, Ben is a 11X European Longboard Champion who, as a child, seems to have downplayed the wave quality in England.
Today he rides incredible waves, some off them with barrels big enough to stand in, and all on surfboards 9 foot plus. You'll see video footage of these waves in the show notes of this episode.
Timmy Reyes took a well deserved break this summer, staying away from his usual fare of thirty, forty, even fifty foot waves or bigger.
On this episode of The Wire Podcast Timmy talks about the injuries he needed to rehab, and the sessions that make up Love Letter - Timmy's new feature film chronicling his sessions on the Hydroshort 'somewhere down south'.
Always coy about the locations he scores, Timmy shares stories in this episode that will make you want to surf somewhere isolated. And cold.
Tristan Sullaway has been tubed at Cloudbreak, and once surfed G - Land for eight hours straight. He has stickers on his board but also graduated college. He's a lifeguard who is 6 foot 3 and maybe still growing. He rides Dan Mann's boards (and Tomo's) and actually borrowed Dan Mann's paddle board once to paddle 32 miles from Catalina Island to Manhattan Beach. He's with us today at Cafe Moto, Dan Mann's favorite Coffee shop in San Diego.
Taylor Jensen is on The Wire to recap the unexpected way he surprised his competition, his audience and even his wife at the Relik Malibu Classic. We cover much more in this quick and fun episode.
If you haven't yet heard the story about the person who approached Rob Machado one day at the airport, moments after Rob got off a plane from Mexico, then you haven't yet heard one of the most memorable tales of hilarity that a pro surfer has ever told.
It shocked us. It shocked SWITCHFOOT too.
You'll hear the story at the beginning of this episode featuring Rob and his longtime friends from SWITCHFOOT Jon Foreman, Tim Foreman, and Chad Butler.
SWITCHFOOT is from Encinitas, California and they go back a long way with Rob. This episode reveals many funny and surprising elements from their shared past and we think you'll love it.
Love SWITCHFOOT? Their new album Native Tounge was just released on January 18th, and you'll find them on tour starting February 14th. For more, visit SWITCHFOOT.com
Hendo is a huge human who rips. He rides a Seaside. A Cymatic too. When it’s really small, a Baked Potato. He is also one third of Pro-Lite, a company that makes what many of us at Firewire think are the best surfboard bags on the planet, for example, The Smuggler, a collaboration with Firewire team rider Timmy Reyes, designed to hide a third board during airplane travel in a board bag that looks like its only holding two surfboards.
Pro-lite has a sustainability initiative centered in part on recycled materials (for example Session Day Bag) and centered entirely on making things that last long and stay out of landfills.
It's common for Hendo to hear about Pro-lite bags that have endured endless travel over more than 25 years of use.