MATSURFERS.COM NEWS - DECEMBER 2019

HAPPY WINTER FESTIVE PERIOD MATSURFERS!!!!!

So the holiday season is with us and we have some fun stuff to take a look at this month. We have something to spend your Christmas money on, another phenomenal piece of writing from Bruce “Pranaglider” Cowan and not only a photo/video of the month, but also photo/video the year!

MAT BAGS

Ian Jermyn and his creative noggin have a host of schemes in the pipeline and the latest to reach fruition are this limited range of hand crafted surfmat bags. These bags are made from upcyled materials, are beautifully dyed and will safely hold and protect a couple of mats.


They are priced at a very reasonable 40 EURO including shipping (which is extremely low!) and can be got by getting hold of Ian directly HERE.

Get them quickly. They won’t hang about!

LEAVING OUT THE MILK


Bruce “PranaGlider” Cowan gives us another wonderful piece on his 23 Breaths Blog.

Leaving Out The Milk is a fantastic journey through the life of a matsurfer. From first session flounders to high speed glides, Bruce absolutely nails it in this piece.

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

 This months photo of the month comes from @nilusism shared on his Instagram account.

PHOTO OF THE YEAR

So here we go… Our Photo of the Year is…

Actually a video. Trevor Gordon’s fantastic Bodybag bodysurf footage from Sandspit in April.

Congratulations Trevor!

So that’s it for 2019. Roll on the New Year.

HAPPY FESTIVITIES MATSURFERS!

As always, we welcome your feedback and contributions.

Thanks

MatSurfers.com

MATSURFERS.COM NEWS - NOVEMBER 2019

Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us!

Welcome to the November Newsletter. We have some celebrations this month, a UK fin cooperative, some great new media added and a phenomenal video of the month.

Does it get any better? Nah….

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Well we are very proud to recocognise the 10 year anniversary of this site in it’s various iterations! That’s right, 2009 saw the launch of th original UK Mat Surfers forum. Early doors this was all about hooking up a small and disperate group of surfmat riders which culminated in Matmeet 1 at Polly Joke in Cornwall.

10-years-anniversary-golden-label-with-ribbon-vector-1204492.jpg
L-R Andy Cooke, G, Ian Wraith, Mat Cox - Photo by Henry Marfleet (also matting)

L-R Andy Cooke, G, Ian Wraith, Mat Cox - Photo by Henry Marfleet (also matting)

From there things have really developed with a (comparitively) huge number of mat surfers all around the globe and, in line with that, this site has evolved to be a global website. We have kept that key spirit though and doesn’t that photo just sum it up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATSURFERS!!!

ANOTHER 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

And here’s another 10 year anniversary. In fact, it was recognising the date of this that made us realise that it was our Birthday! It’s 10 years since the publication of You Ride a What?! How Cool is That!

Dogtown Surfmat

Bruce Cowan (AKA Pranaglider) is a legend who hosts the 23Breaths blog wrote this article and was shared on Facebook recently, you could really sense two responses:

  • Those who were there at the time often surfing alone as the freak on the raft, becoming misty eyed and recalling the impact this piece had on them when it first landed.

  • Those who are newer to the craft going “wow!”

We were so proud then when Bruce gave us the thumbs up to share the article on the MatSurfers.com site. So ladies and gents, join us in celebrating our shared craft with this wonderful piece:

https://www.matsurfers.com/you-ride-a-what-how-cool-is-that

YET MORE NOSTALGIA

Whilse we’re on the subject, another piece was shared on our Facebook Group recently which we realised hadn’t been added to the MatSurfers.com Library so we figured it should be added to the Mats in the Media section of the site.

The Mat Professor is an extensive interview that Graeme Webster did with Surf Simply on all things surfmat back in 2015. You can get stuck in to it HERE.

VOIT FIN COOPERATIVE

Speaking of G, he’s looking at getting a few people together to bring a few pairs of Voit fins (UDT’s and Duckfeet) in to the UK. There is no distributor for these fins outside the US so really, a bulk buy is the only way to do it.

Untitled-1.jpg

This isn’t a business move from G. This is just getting a bunch of individual mat surfers together to get fins in to the UK at an affordable price. Last time, it worked out as around £75 including tax and shipping. G needs to get an idea of numbers interested to work out the cost.

If you are interested in getting involved then email G via his website HERE or reply to his post in our Facebook Group HERE.

VIDEO OF THE MONTH


Well, well, well what has Nolan Hall been up to now? Well, taking off on some pretty big waves is what! These waves look really fun with a very solid drop. Well done Sir.  

As always, we welcome your feedback and contributions.

Thanks

MatSurfers.com

MATSURFERS.COM NEWS - OCTOBER 2019

Welcome to the October, 2019 MatSurfers.com Newsletter. We have stacks in store for you this month including news of films, weddings, matmeets and clothes as well as some amazing mat art so get stuck in kids!

NY MATMEET

 Matmeet alert! Not a ton of notice on our part but maybe a reminder for some. Our good friends over at the Matsurfing Society of New York are holding a wee get together at Rockaway Beach (Rockaway 77th) on 26-27 October. Lets get a good showing over there mat fans!

MATSURFERS.COM TEES

We’re pleased to launch our MAtSurfers.com teeshirts. These are made out of super comfortable SoftStyle cotton and brinted with sharp, vynil. These sell at £28 GBP and are available in light blue or kiwi.

We’ve discovered that US sizing tends to be bigger than European sizing so if you are from the States and like a bit of room in your tees, consider a size up.

Cick on the picture to get yours.

Tees.jpg
sale

MATS IN THE MAINSTREAM… AGAIN…

This comes up from time to time with main stream surf media giving surfmats a nod. This time, it’s the most main of streams with Surfer Mag!

https://www.surfer.com/features/8-unconventional-surfboards-to-try-this-season/

As you can see in the comments, the mainstream seems to be interested so lets all be ready to answer any questions with openness, love and joy toi welcome a few off board!

Good to see 4GF in the mix.

WEDDING BELLS

Yes, yes, yes!!! One of mat surfing’s old timers (although he’s actually pretty young), Matt Pierce has been made an honest man by his wonderful new wife, Katlynn

Jamo “Mattitude” Sowell has put up a video of the day on his YouTube account for those. Thankfully, the dude in front of the camera got out of the way just in time foe the “I do’s”!

We’re sure you all want to join us in saying congratulations to Matt and Katlynn. We love you both!

SALT IN THE BLOOD

Not a matsurfing film. but a film featuring a matsurfer and absolute legend (in all senses of the word), Tom Carroll.

G-Mat 144 TVC (4).jpg

This is a beautifully crafted film by Christopher Ireland, who spent time with Tom exploring his collection of photographs taken over many years on his years travelling the worls as a professional surfer. The full movie is available on YouTube and is a great watch.

Check out more of Christopher Ireland’s amazing work here:

https://christopherireland.net/

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Well, slightly cheating here with the photo of the moth being a photo of paintings of the month. Mat Clown, Pete D’Ewart sent us this photo of 5 surf mat paintings by Kevin A Short.

An artist of considerable renown, we would have to say that these are tremendous collectors pieces. Pete has quite the gallery over there!

Have a look at more of Kevin’s work on his website: https://www.kevinashort.com/sunburning.html

As always, we welcome your feedback and contributions.

Thanks

MatSurfers.com

MATSURFERS.COM NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2019

So as we roll in to another season we can take a look at this month’s happenings in the Surfmat world. We have a fun video added to our YouTube page, fresh from the shores of Baja, an interesting approach to deck grip, a new (old) article and a prper cute dog video! The stoke is on!

JOHN ADKINS IN BAJA

San Diegan mat surfer, John Adkins, shared a fun little clip of himself in Baja in the Facebook Group and we loved it so much that we just had to ask for it to make a proiper little video.

John tells us that he was completely unaware of the So Cal surfmat scene so be sure to hit him up if you live down that way!

GRIP EXPERIMENTS FROM JERRY

Jerry Phillips sent us in an email and some photos of his experiments with gripping his new 4GF Blue Streak using a combination of Sikaflex EBT and glass micro-beads. Intersting thoughts from Jerry. It will be interesting to see how this works out in the long term.

“Until now we only had the choice of Canvas decks found on 4th gear mats or polyurethane adhesive decks both have there pros and cons canvas decks don’t always have enough grip for some riders, I have never had this problem and would be happy to ride canvas deck mats but the mats themselves are not as durable as their Blue streak counterpart. Adhesive decks offer all the grip you could possibly want but the downside is they wear with use and need topping up both are not very face friendly if you do a lot of duck diving.

My new mat has a new experimental deck which uses a combination of Sikaflex EBT and glass micro beads which so far has proved more durable than just EBTand has a strange tacky feel when wet and gives tons of grip. The downside is the mat feels heavy but this was my first effort and now I would use even smaller micro beads in thinner strips. Future could be a durable grippy deck tailor made for the individual rider.”
— Jerry Phillips

Here are some photos of Jerry’s handy work.

Jerry followed up with some info on a second grip job:

“Thought I would not find a buyer for my second Lotus so I have given it a deck. I have used even smaller 0.07mm micro beads the advantage was I only needed a very thin EBT coat and needed a different technique to apply the beads but have ended with a grippy deck that still leaves the mat very flexible and the grip can now be waxed if you wanted.”
— Jerry Phillips

For those who remember it, this looks like a similar effect to the Blue Streak mats that we did through our store in partnership with PG at the beginning of the 2010’s which were gripped with a PU sealant called Tremflex with rubber crumb added. As the sealant wore down the rubber was exposed giving grip but we moved away from this because of the weight issue and to prevent rubber beads getting in to the ocean.

Interesting work from Jerry here. Thoughts are more than welcome in the comments section.

NEW ARTICLE ADDED TO OUR MEDIA PAGE

We have just added a great article from UK based Real Surfing Magazine by Steve Griffin.

CLICK HERE for a full PDF of this excellent article.

VIDEO OF THE MONTH

Yes, we think John’s video is amazing too but you have to go a long way to beat a dog video, so a doggy mat video… Are you kidding me?!?!?

Amazing stuff! from @matman_jpn

Give him a follow. One of our favourite Instagram accounts.

As always, we welcome your feedback and contributions.

Thanks

MatSurfers.com

MATSURFERS.COM NEWS - AUGUST 2019

Welcome to the MatSurfers.com August Newsletter. This month we have news on Mark Thomson’s sentencing, some and some sexy looking tees on the way from Organic Devolution. We pass on our love to one of our brethren recovering from an op and, of course, look at the photo of the month.

MARK THOMSON SENTENCED TO COMMUNITY SERVICE


Krypt owner, Mark Thomson was found guilty of assaulting Jodie Cooper after dropping in on her a Lennox Head as we reported in last month’s newsletter. He has gone back to court and according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald has been given a 2 year Community Corrections Order with 300 hours of Community Service.

A further report on the Beach Grit website suggests that “online bullies save surf-mat king from prison…” with the article saying that:

In sentencing Thomson, who is fifty-four, Magistrate Karen Stafford noted the offence was in the upper-range of seriousness and that Thomson had form in the surf-fight game, referring to another incident at Byron Bay in 1998.

However, Stafford took into account a submission from his lawyer Andrew Sochacki who said Thomson had suffered psychological distress as a result of online “abuse”.

“Disgusting and horrifying,” Sochacki said.

PAFF_0101818_cyberbullying-609x419.jpg

“Surfmat King” indeed? We didn’t know Greenough was a suspect! We also didn’t realise that MT was so sensitive but it seems so. In any case, we’re hopeful that this whole sorry business can be put to bed and the focus on Surfmats can be redirected to where it belongs and that is on the real Kings and Queens of mat surfing and that’s you. The people who love mats and love no-nonsense simple fun in the surf.

ALL HAIL THE SURFMAT KINGS AND QUEENS!

FORTHCOMING TEES FROM ORGANIC DEVOLUTION

Ian Jermyn of Organic Devolution and collaborator with Matt Feddon over at Warpmats is hard at work cooking up a range of really fun looking surfmat themed tees. He have be working hard on the lino cuts which look great!

Ian say:

A while back I picked up some Gamblin's lino printing ink for textiles - Drive By Black. Now I've finally finished carving this piece I'll endeavour to get a test prints done. The plan is to do a limited edition run of this print on 100% organic cotton tees. Classic black on white.

We’ve spoken to Ian who is unsure on the timeline but these will be with us and when they are, we will let you know… Keep an eye out for these. It looks like they’re going to go fast when they land!

GET WELL SOON PETE!

On to another talented matsurfer and artist, Pete Misson has bee in hospital having a hip replacement op. Petes made of stern stuff as his Facebook Post attests to,

Pete says:

“Hello Dear Friends, I AM AMAZED!!! 6 days after hip replacement surgery, I’m walking with one stick after struggling with a walking frame only 4 days ago. I’M GOING HOME TODAY! 😁 NO REHAB HOSPITAL! 😁 I’m not completely mobile & I will have a visiting nurse until the stitches come out. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR THOUGHTS & PRAYERS 🙏🏻🌟🌟🙏🏻 Namaste 🙏🏻 Namaste🙏🏻 God is good.”
peter misson.jpg

When asked about getting back in the water, Pete replied:

“i still have my eye on Capbreton 🌊 in October, we’ll see 😁”

We can’t imagine he won’t be there.

Get well soon Pete!

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Well it was a tight one this month with August being a great month for mat pics. The winner though was this one by Dave Fox of Dion Agius trying every dirty trick to catch up with Harry Bryant on his mat!

So then, that’s us for August. As always, we welcome your feedback and contributions.

Thanks

MatSurfers.com