McTavish

The Two Robbies

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:57:00 GMT

We had a great visitor a few weeks back - Robin Kegel. He turned our factory upside down with his wild enthusiasm! We just love the guy!

Robbie is 'Gato Heroi' or Cat Worship!! Funky name from a Punky guy. He shapes radical re-do's of past eras, and rides them with 240 volts of life in him. He was the prime guy in the pigment/tint/wash/dip/splatter/ free lap/ revolution in glassing the past 5 years, out of his skunkworks in Newport California. Robbie stoked me no end that he was now living in France, in the attic in the incredible Barland factory near Guethery in France. Guethery is one of my favourite breaks in the whole world, and Kegel is now living there! It's an amphitheatre of old castles and classic buildings that stagger down the hills to the most elegant big peak on the planet.

Robbie marched around the factory with his credit card in his hand, yelling 'Grab it now, as I've got money right now! I may not shortly.' He ordered two boards, a 9 foot Plastic Machine like I took to Hawaii with Nat in late 67 - 'Just make it as rad as you like, I don't care how hard it is to ride. I just want to draw the longest biggest banked arc on the Guethery peak!'

The other is a reproduction of Nat's Magic Sam, his 1966 World Title winning board. 'I want full-on boat rails… just pull 'em up as much as you like!'

Robbie''s enthusiasm for the film 'Hot Generation' was also a real stoker 'You guys were true surf punks in those days. You just blew the established surf world apart! So Cool!' he dribbled. How can we not get super excited about making a couple of boards for Mr. Robbie Gato Heroi Kegel!!!

Stoked!

Bob

The two Robins - Photo Jack Belli

Leopard time

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 02:18:00 GMT

UFO name change

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:59:00 GMT

A few people have been calling in a panic this week asking 'what happened to the UFO??!!' - well its just had a name change so all is good. We had to re-name the board, and we decided on Vuelo - Spanish for flight. There has been no change to the board itself - only the name, so you can still find the board info here - and we'll have fresh stock online soon. In the meantime we're clearing out all the older UFO models - there are 6 left and they're currently on sale here.

Alex Knost

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 03:16:00 GMT

We had Alex Knost drop by last week. Dynamic visit. He rocked in with his favourite shorty of the moment… a 1971 San Juan shaped by my very good friend John Blanch. When Blanchy married a Coff's chick and moved closer to his other love… the snow… I took over his job in January 1972. This board was Blanchy's usual very tidy, very spot-on shape, with classy rocker and rails. Very balanced for the era, or for any era. Blanchy was a real natural.

The board he brought into Bill's glassing room caused a stir. Billy came over and checked it, identifying it as his glass job. Our glosser/fin installer Mal 'Buggo' Bugden piped up from the sidelines "I wet rubbed that board before glossing. I used to pop around after school and do all the wet rubs."

Bill pointed out the incredibly fine resin pin line. "That's a JT pin line for sure". JT, or John Thomas was the best resin pin liner in the land, and was a great friend until he passed away from cancer ten years ago. John also owned San Juan a couple of years after this sweet board was made.

Al surfed it at Noosa the way it deserved to be ridden… par excellence. It's so cool to see great timeless designs being appreciated again. Just a truly classy performer.

Bob

Bob and Joel

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:53:00 GMT

Hanging out this week in Byron.