Finishing Teak on the Leap Day

Noe likes helping me refinish our teak lanai furniture. Yesterday we cleaned the chairs and the little table. Lots of scrubbing and more scrubbing. This afternoon we finished the long laborious project by applying the teak oil!!! Slowly but surely I'm knocking off items from the 'to-do' list. This poor set of furniture has seen abuse all the way from when we lived in Japan - especially the crappy 'all-in'one' foaming teak finish I used in Oxnard (I was still scraping that stuff off yesterday...). It really feels good getting these chairs finally finished correctly. They might need one more coat of oil tomorrow (they were thirsty). Why is this amphibious you ask??? The teak oil and teak cleaner are from West Marine. West Marine has that stuff because boats have teak. By the commutative property, these chairs are boats.

The Re-Annointment of the Hooked SUP

BEHOLD!!! From the clutches of under-utilization due to family separation, then compounded by house hold goods shipping halfway across the Pacific Ocean, unpacking and organizing a new home, and finally (last excuse) having to re-glue down the deck pad-so-why-don't-I-just-go-ahead-and-install-the-masttrack-box-while-I'm-at-it - emerges the new and improved Hooked SUP!!! Marlon and I paddled SUPs out around Flat Island around lunchtime, and I brought along the whipping setup and a kayak spinning rig. I did manage to get a visual on two follows (papio), but unfortunately I didn't get to set the hook. I'm going to have to find the sea anchor I have so I can slow down my drift and spend more time casting. I'm looking forward to exploring the near shore zones with this board - especially under sail!!!

Marlon on Dawn Patrol

I got this young man out on the dawn patrol this morning! I'd say he had fun. I used the GoPro on a long selfie stick - I turned it back on me a couple of times. The "stick it down the back of your pants" method I was using didn't work well for taking live action surfing pictures - but I did manage this one ;)

White Plains Pau Hana Surf

Hit the beach after work - fun fun fun!!!

Now It's All Pau

I cleaned up the deck pad, cut the new hole for the mast track, and fixed the gap between the front and back pads. I can't wait to get this board back out on the water!!!

Hooked SUP Rehab All Pau

I got home with a couple of hours of sunlight left so I decided to get as far on the Hooked SUP rehabilitation project as I could. I got the mast track box opened up and beveled the edge. I even applied some touch up paint to some 'loved hard' spots (check the prior blog entries on the wind storm at Maryland on our Trail Manor trip - Summer of 2014). The paint didn't match exactly, but it adds tremendously to the character of this board. And with only a few minutes to spare, I was able to get the entire deck pad back on. The only shortfall was the pad had shrunk in it's several years of use. Lining up the important parts (Scotty Mount holes, logo pieces, leash plugs, etc) left a 1/2" gap in the front and back sections. I've got maybe an hour of additional work on the deckpad - mainly trimming and preening - but this board is ready to go!!! I can't wait to land some bigger fish from this thing!!!

Pattie's on Taco Tuesday

We went to the Patagonia shop up in Haleiwa tonight to check out a book tour stop Dylan Tomine was making. His book is a series of stories over the course of a year in his family's lives - with a focus on how he brings his kids outdoors and gets them excited about finding their own sources of food. I actually thought it was a fly fishing movie premiere - but a book reading is cool too. Grab a copy and enjoy the stories (fishing!!!) Anyways - I got to take a closer look at the store decorations and came to the realization that we actually have stuff that is cooler than the stuff at the shop... with the exception of this really cool old map: It has the commonly found reef fishes on the bottom and their names in Hawaiian. Oh - I forgot to mention that since we were in area, we decided to just have pupus at Cholos for dinner. I used to eat breakfast post North Shore dawn patrol all the time, but I hadn't been back in years. I used to love this place - primarily because the island was a little skinny on mexican restaurants - but several wonderful burrito shops have opened up since those old days... Since moving back here and bringing the family out, it has been really fun taking La and the kids to the places I used to hang out at. It is the coolest surfing with them all though - time has flown but I'm hoping these fun times in the water and enjoying life on an island are the things they remember.

I Gave In

Despite coming home later (west bound Oahu traffic) and my previous thoughts on a second layer of fiberglass capping the mast track box, I went ahead and placed it. Primarily I did this to prevent any second guessing over the life of this board. Cheap piece of mind and more reason to go hard on the board!!!

General Cleanup and the Cap Sheet

After surfing, we did minimal errands and headed back home so we could get some stuff done. La has been working on home school preps and I turned to finishing the epoxy work on the Hooked SUP. I ground the edges and high spots down from yesterday's box setting. I also decided to maintain as much of the track box as possible and just feather in the foam-to-board transition. These pictures are the finished product prior to me placing the cap sheet of fiberglass. I ended up using a single layer of 6 oz cloth instead of two 4 oz layers. I don't intend on sailing this board in high winds and the force will never be lifting "straight up", so I took the lazy route. Hopefully my hunch is correct and this mod will be sufficiently strong for what I'm looking to do. The bottom of the box is way stronger - 3 overlapped layers of 4 oz cloth - this and the sides are where the forces will be directed, so I feel better about this overall distribution of fiberglass and epoxy. As I pick up some spare time during this upcoming week, I'll feather in the cap sheet, start re-applying the deck pads, add touch up paint to some previous scuffs, and replace all the hardware (bungees and Scotty mounts). I'm looking forward to getting this board back in the water (and using it to track down, sneak up on and land some big fish!!!)

Family Surf Day at Flat Island

We packed up the van and headed over to Flat Island. The wind was offshore and light (at the beginning of the session). La paddled out on the Starboard Element, Marlon on the Wavestorm and me on the ULI Lopez Special Edition (Noe stayed back on the beach with Camille, Henry and Charlie). Small day but totally fun - especially with La out there talking smack and getting to see Marlon take on a new break!!! I'll let the pictures do the talking. What a perfect day!!!