It’s Festival month… That’s right, the Noosa Festival Of Surfing is almost upon us, bringing with it the usual barrage of tourists and pro loggers – and it’s barely mellowed down since Christmas – when will we get our point waves back to ourselves?! Anyway, this issue, given it’s timing, we’ll take a look at performance boards – the perfect craft for the comps… ___________________ This Issue: Built To Perform – Who says longboards are for pension-collectors & beginners? These are the high end of performance 9-pluses, every bit as racy as your average 6’0”, 18 ½”, 2 ½”… Core Blimey – More about boards – this time we go subcutaneous, looking at what’s under the skin of boards. Vive le Français - Benoit is our jack-of-all-trades, and pretty masterful at them all too. Fitting fins, sanding and polishing and nursing your battered boards back to health, the Frenchman is a man we can do without… (Photo: © Benoit Gonon)	Newsletter :: March ’09 :: ___________________ When Long Goes Short There is a dividing in the ranks of longboarders, in fact surfers in general, in the purpose and application of a longer craft. On the one hand, more traditional loggers bare the view that if you’re going big, make it classic – single fins, soft rails and heavy glass all the way. On the other, shortboarders are of the opinion that mal riders steal all the waves and those on performance boards should just bite the bullet and get a shortboard. But when you think about it long and hard, these are very head-in-the-sand, naïve comments, made as much from envy as from any practical standpoint. If a board can slide you into waves early, trim the flat sections but still whack the lip, hold a tight line and get you slotted at speed, why doesn’t everyone ride one? Well, be it down to arrogance, prejudice or simply a matter of personal preference, we’re here to enlighten your views on the benefits of high performance boards of the lengthier persuasion…
	The Performer: This might not be our most imaginatively named board but, as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The Performer model is exactly that: a true performer. A full rocker from nose to tail, coupled with a pronounced double concave in the tail, gives this little beauty exceptional pivot and a responsiveness that is second to none. Though not the best noserider, the Performer remains versatile, more at home in faster, holler waves but still adept in mellow point surf. This board is the template for the rest of our performance stable due to its proven success. The 4567 model is flatter through the middle with a fuller nose, the Sunrise is the thoroughbred, all about speed. But the Performer gives you both: a shade more volume but exceptional speed and performance, and it is this all round versatility that makes it the perfect board for competition.
Internal Affairs: Surfboards come in all shapes and sizes, from the longest log to the most refined thruster and all manner of variations and anomalies in between. But even with identical boards, all manner of variations can happen under the surface. A highly refined, phenomenally baffling science, here we offer a surface-scratch of what makes the core of a board. - The industry standard in surfboard construction is polyurethane (PU). Inexpensive, easy to create, readily available and convenient to work with, it lends itself perfectly to surfboard production. - PU has several advantages including being very easy to repair. It is far easier to fix your own bingles on a PU board than the majority of other materials. - PU’s downsides are its toxicity when in dust form (when being sanded by shapers), its fragility, compensated to some extent by the addition of a stringer, and its susceptibility to water damage. - Epoxy boards utilise polystyrene (PS), a lighter, more durable material that doesn’t deteriorate in salt water to nearly the same extent. - Not requiring stringers and more aerated than their PU counterparts, the PS blanks are significantly lighter and more buoyant, offering exceptional capabilities in performance equipment. This however produces a, sometimes undesirable, ‘corkiness’ to more traditional craft. - A fundamental drawback of PS is its difficulty to repair. Polyester resins, as used on PU boards, will dissolve a PS blank. Epoxy resin needs to be used, which is both trickier to source and a far more sensitive material, needing precise quantities and temperatures to be used. Added to all of this, the majority of factories aren’t equipped for PS repairs or manufacture, making it even harder to get those pesky dings mended. - Timber is a more expensive, yet far more durable, longer lasting material. Though heavier on land, it is far from sluggish in the water and many comment that there is nothing like the feel of a wooden board. - Carbon fibre and woven aluminium are space-age alternatives to the common products. Again, exceptionally lightweight, the nature of the material allows the creation of an entirely hollow board. Unique flex gives a carbon board a very different, responsive feel. Californian Christian Wach won last year’s Noosa Festival noserider division emphatically on a carbon fibre board and could not rate the equipment highly enough. - Eco-materials have been experimented with, including rice-based foams, bamboo laminates and several others. All, whilst in minimal production, have as yet failed to prove themselves worthy, but with research still thriving, it isn’t going to be too much longer before a truly green alternative is available. Next Month: Facts On Wax: It may seem like just a block of gunk to smudge on your stick, but there’s more to the goo than meets the eye… Classic Malibu Cnr Gibson & Eumundi Rd Noosaville QLD 4566 Ph: (07) 5474 3122 www.classicmalibu.com.au Email: info@classicmalibu.com		The Quad: Developed in collaboration with local rippers Mitch Surman and Brian Thompson, the Quad is in the highest echelons of performance longboards. With indefatigable down-the-line hold and phenomenal release out of turns, the Quad can be thrown as hard as you can throw it but still won’t be dead in the water. The four-fin set-up allows for heightened turning capabilities, offering greater hold on rail-to-rail transitions and accelerating through and out of the rotation. CM team rider, Grant Thomas, has ridden the Quad extensively and is a huge fan. His one criticism is that the nature of the fins and their extra hold diminishes the board’s capabilities on a vertical trajectory, but then how many of us can go vertical as well, as fast or as hard as GT?!
	Benoit - Australia’s Finest Import - There’s more to making boards than shaping and glassing, though that is usually all everyone sees. Sanding, polishing, fin-fitting… all are essential for the perfect end result. It’s not everyone’s idea of fun and lacks the pseudo-glamour of being a “surfboard shaper”, but without such well-trained, hard-working individuals, your surfboard would simply never hit the water. A world excursion brought Frenchman, Benoit (pronounced Ben-Waar) Genon to the dusty doorstep of Classic Malibu one day and the diminutive Gaul slotted straight into a job on the front line. (Photo: © Benoit Gonon) Benboit first got munched by the pesky surf-invertebrate at the age of ten, living in France’s south near Marseille. Heading to Europe’s surf Mecca of Hossegor at 17, he got to shaping his own boards, keeping head above water and baguettes in the belly with sanding and ding-fixing jobs, as well as taking to the glassing bay for a friend. But with itchy feet, Benoit soon migrated again, this time to Guadeloupe, Cape Vert. But, flighty more than a wandering albatross, he took off again, hitting Tahiti where his thirst, and is flair, for lensmanship was ignited. Selling his shots of the local environs, the budding photographer soon landed a job with Va’a Tahiti magazine, an outrigger publication for which he produced a wealth of water-based imagery. Two years passed, the idyllic island providing a home and testing ground for Benoit, both in his surfing and behind the lens. But, with tinea playing up again, those piggies wouldn’t stop itching. In October of last year, Benoit came to Australia and walked straight into a job with the CM team. Sinces then, he has been impressing with his tenacious ability for board-patching as well as applying keels of all shapes and sizes to boards and putting that final gleam to our finished boards. The whole while, the young fella has been taking to the water of Noosa’s points and producing a pretty spectacular portfolio of work. So what will this nomad’s future hold? “Travel, travel, travel!” he proclaims in his halting English, never to return home and, hopefully, remain in Australia until his next whim takes him. For enquiries on Benoit’s images, please contact him at: benshooting@yahoo.com Next Month: Sexual Equality. Sydney-based team rider, Claire Norman, stands tall as one of our female representatives. Her diverse talents encompass a range of boards and are exhibited in all manner of conditions in diverse locations around the globe… :: STOP PRESS :: STOP PRESS:: STOP PRESS:: STOP PRESS :: We are giving away boards all over the place this month :: - Tewantin Yacht Club is holding a raffle over the next several months. To enter, all you need do is rock up, scoff down a plate of their fine cuisine and keep a hold of your ticket. Winners will be announced later in the year. - Bushfire Appeal Auction – Coconut Grove, Wednesday, 25 Feb, 7pm. Might be a bit late on this one, but it’s for a worthy cause. Head on down if you’re local and throw down some much needed finance under the gavel for the victims of Vicco’s devastating fires. - Reef To Beach Longboard Classic, Agnes Waters 6-8 March. We’ll be raffling off a board during the event for competitors and the general public so get on over to Aggie to be in the running. - Noosa Festival Of Surfing, 18-22 March. We don’t know yet how we’re going to do it, but we’re going to be giving away a board during Noosa’s internationally renowned festival of surfing. Stay in touch and head down to our stall at the Festival Village in Lion’s Park for more info closer to the time.