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“…I just think that if you don’t have one in your quiver you’re pretty much blowing it.” — Josh Mulcoy

Stretch and Josh share their candid review on Josh’s new daily driver from 1ft slop to churning overhead dream barrels.

With the Jay Moriarity paddleboard race just around the corner Stretch has decidedly gone back into the shaping room to design the next generation of downwind dominators. A big chunk of 1lb. Marko Foam EPS and 17 hours later is the inception of the latest Stretch Boards creation; The 12′ Stock Class 2010 “Santa Cruz Special”

stay tuned!

A quick stop at In-N-Out, a brief stint of traffic in SB (even when they tore out Greenough’s old place there’s still always gonna be two lanes through Cito!) and we found ourselves at the Ventura fairgrounds. Our friend Nick from SOMA airbag designs was on board as well as our friend Tristan (a.k.a. “parasite” or “stretch’s new verbal punching bag”) crammed in for the ride as well.

With well thought out planning and a crew of 5 guys doing set up we ended up starting happy hour early and walked across the street for a quick session at windy C-street. I quickly realized that 7 Coors lights and 6 hours sitting in a car stuffed with a bunch of guys doesn’t make your surfing look all that smooth.

Good times were had. We surfed again in the morning, met tons of people at the show, answered a bazillion questions about deck channels and did a fun glassing demo (Check out the rad video Jimmy from Marko Foam made of the eps/epoxy enviro-glassing demo). We ended up having a blast and met tons of friends old and new. Can’t wait to do it again and if we learned anything from this experience it’s:

-never choose the seat behind Stretch when he’s driving with a cigar (unless you don’t like breathing)
-don’t have seconds on the beans if you’re carpooling with 5 guys
-always make sure the cooler is stocked
-show specials and discounts are cool but if you bring Stretch a cigar you get VIP pricing on any board!

here’s our friend Nick Palandrani shaping his Yater Spoon replica for the tribute shape off. I think Nick enjoyed Stretch heckling him through the glass more than Stretch did!

We like Primo Beer!

tag team lam jam at the Foam EZ, Marko booth:

Here’s a video for ya:

Check us out at the Stretch Boards booth and hang out, ask questions, enjoy a cool beverage, tell Stretch his cigars stink (or smell nice depending on your preference) and enjoy every Stretch Boards offering. We’ll be doing a live epoxy glassing demo, have boards to test out on Saturday morning and will house a plethora of boards for you to fondle at your leisure. It’s the entire Stretch experience short of walking into our factory in Santa Cruz. You can even enter the raffle to win a brand new Stretch! There will be towboards, kiteboards, longboards, shortboards, resin tints, penwork, pinlines and more. Not to mention, quads, tri’s, carbon fiber SUP’s, stringerless epoxy hulls (wait, did i just say that? aren’t we just a bunch of eps only quad freaks!?!) well, you’ll just have to find out for yourself…….

Sacred Craft is not your typical trade show by any means. It’s open to the public and costs less than a date to the movies. Go surf, cruise across the street and enjoy surf culture at it’s finest. If you consider yourself a surfer then thinking about going to this event should make you feel all giddy inside

find out more info here:

http://www.surfboardshow.com/

When Nathan came onto the team and asked Stretch to put them into his boards, I don’t think anyone knew what was coming.

For sure the sander, hot coater and laminator weren’t thinking that their workload just got gnarlier. Pick one up though and it feels soooooo rad! The reality of it is that deck channels aren’t in every board. Heck if you don’t have a Stretch or a Cole or specifically request them from your shaper then I’m pretty sure they aren’t in your board either. This fact merely assumes that if you don’t want deck channels then it’s perfectly fine. Your board might slip out of your hands when you’re on your bike. You might get throttled diving under a huge set and have it ripped out of your hands. Whatever. If you want to save some dough, have yourself a sick custom board shaped by Stretch and not want to answer the same question, “what’s up with those grooves in your board?” all the time, then by all means order your next Stretch without deck channels. It’s everything you need and nothing you don’t. For 2010, we’re even offering up a base EPS/EPOXY standard construction with additions so that you can customize everything from cloth lay-up to stringer color. A custom board should be exactly that, “CUSTOM”. Feel free to get the board you’ve always wanted. Don’t worry. The sander, laminator and hot coater won’t be bummed if you order without deck channels

The latest model known as the “THING” is the newest addition to the Stretch line up and is a tough little guy to categorize. Is it a quad? Is it a fishy little tri? Is it a novelty for surfers who can’t decide what to get for their next board? Well, I’d say neither of the above.

Having suffered a season ending injury with a broken femur, Nathan Fletcher never got a chance to test out his new 5′4″ THING last year. After spending time out of the water and contemplating designs and ways to progress his surfing antics even more, he eventually bounced back and pursued to push the limits on something many of us would consider inconceivable. A 5′4″ shortboard?!?! It’s not a fish. It’s not a grovel board. It’s not something we’ve come to conventionally accept but it does amazing things under your feet! A smaller and wider outline with a narrower tail than normally seen on anything of this length allows the ability to run a reconfigured fin cluster so that either a tri or a quad configuration can be accepted. That’s right, 5 fin boxes! Whether it’s 2 fins on rail or a trailer fin anchoring your centerline reference under the back foot, the choice for your next session can be handled with one board and a fin key.

Meant to be surfed hard and fast, the “THING” isn’t just a small wave wonder board. It’s a tightly packaged performance shortboard that just happens to be small. Designed to be ridden about 1/4″ to 3/4″ wider, 1/8″ thicker and 4-6″ shorter, the “THING” allows surfers to turn quicker and tighter with speed. It fits into bowly pockets with ease and stays glued to your feet through quick directional changes, skateboard-like rotations and snappy turns. No “flat as a board” deck profile, fat rails or pancake rocker. You’re not going to stand and go straight on a “THING”, you’re going to destroy on it!

So, are you a surfer who’s been riding thrusters only since the first time out? Dedicated to quads for the last 4 or so years? Not to worry. The “THING” can be custom ordered as either/or. The 5-fin set up works so darn well with the new tail outline that it just makes sense to offer it to those who want it. It’s one extra fin and multiple options. Aren’t you smiling already! Questions? Of course you have them! Look for Nathan, Rat, Charlie Ramirez and a handful of east coast, west coast and Hawaiian surfers flying around on “THING” models this year. In the meantime, feel free to call us at the factory and we’ll help you out with anything you need.

Why is this any different you ask? Now, performance shortboard shapes can utilize an all unidirectional, tri-band wood stringer construction in place of a heavier weight or thicker paraband stringer. Basswood is preferred for it’s strength-to-weight ratio, ease of shaping and appearance. Some other multi-ply wood stringers will have a perpendicular grain respective to the length of the board. With a triple laminate construction, your centerline stringer can be narrower while retaining excellent flex properties without compromising strength. This makes for a lighter, “poppier” board without the stress of buckling that you would normally get from a single ply 1/8″ stringer. Combined with Stretch Boards EPS TECH construction: deck channels, bias weave direct size S-cloth and Marko Foam, the result is a durable board you can feel has a pulse! To make your custom board even more unique, Appelcore stringers are available in a variety of color combinations. Be sure to specify Appelcore in your next board in lieu of the paraband 3/16″. Available in shortboards or doubled up into 6-ply 1/4″ stringers for boards over 7′.

For more info on Appelcore stringers visit:

www.appelcore.com