How important is music?

Music… Music… How can I not shape without music?

I put on my work headphones, queueing up my favorite playlist.  Some 650+ songs.  Growing every day.  Music that has found its way to me and fills my ears daily.  Each song has a beat and tone, lyrics making me conscious of existence and this odd gift of wave riding.

If you’re like me and can not live without music or an audiobook, or maybe your favorite podcast, then I’d [Ben} love to recommend to you our favorite pair of work headphones.

The 3M Work Tunes Connect.

When I [Ben] started shaping I tried my best to work with the planer, and other power tools, without work headphones.  Just a pair of Apple AirPods crammed in my ears at full blast.   The music trying its best to compete with the loud din of planers and air compressors.   The AirPods worked for a bit, but my ears were starting to hurt a bit from the noise of the tools and the noise from the headphones.  I tried a pair of my dad’s old gun range headphones over the AirPods, but that just made it worse, the headphones pushing the AirPods further in my ear.  It wasn’t the best set up but I needed music.

When I couldn’t take it any longer I headed to Amazon’s started scrolling through their choices for Bluetooth work headphones.  I needed something comfortable, I’ll often wear these headphones all day if I’m in a good musical groove.  I came across the 3M WorkTunes Connect + Gel Ear Cushions.   They looked perfect, comfortable, and something that would hold the extra noise at bay.  The price wasn’t bad either, when I purchased mine they were about $80, but at the time of writing this, I see they’ve dropped down to $58.00.  I ordered myself a pair and haven’t looked back.

Ben’s 3M WorkConnect Headphones

What I love most about these headphones is the gel comfort cushions.  If you’ve ever worn over-the-ear headphones for a long period you’ll know, like me, that after a bit the squished ears hurt, but with these gel pads I can go all day.  The noise canceling feature is also awesome, I don’t have to have music up at full blast to quiet out the noise, but the noise canceling isn’t so loud that you lose the sound of your power tools.  This is important, when something goes wrong or you aren’t cutting something right the sound lets you know it.

All in all, I am super stoked about these headphones, I couldn’t recommend them more and for the killer price, I certainly wouldn’t wait to get a pair for myself or for someone you know who works in a noisy environment and needs music to live.

Grab yourself a pair at the link below and let’s rock out.

3M WorkConnect Headphones

The Surf Network

The Streaming Service Every Surfer Should Have

We live in an age of endless information readily available for our consumption. Countless movies, music, books, and applications. It is all right there. Everyone seems covered in this streaming media society.

Unless you’re a surfer. Surfers seem left out of a lot of things. Movies often portray the Hollywood idea of what surfing is and how we are. Blockbuster films are great. Don’t get me wrong. I love North Shore and its campy late 80’s stylings. Or what about Point Break? You can’t beat the triple threat of Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, and Gary Busie.

Utah. Get me two ✌🏼

However, that is not surfing and we know it.

So what is a surfer to do to get his saltwater fix when they want to just chill on the couch?

That’s where the Surf Network comes into play.

The Surf Network is an amazing streaming service that I can’t remember how I came across, but now it’s a staple. For a reasonably priced $5.99 a month a surfer can get all their fill of all the authentic surfing ever caught on film.

Let’s just do a small run down so you get an idea.

The Endless Summer (A classic and a must), the Life of Doc Ball, Bustin’ Down the Door, Lost & Found, and Boardroom - Legends of Surfboard Shaping, the long list goes on and on. With movies categorized into easy-to-navigate genres, it won’t take you long to find a movie that hits just right. This service really is the Netflix of surfing.

The Surf Network is also mobile, offering an easy-to-use phone app that lets you take your favorite films anywhere you go. For $5.99 a month, this offer can’t be beat.

So if you’re looking for a little more ocean action when the tide takes you away from the shoreline then I can not recommend the Surf Network any more than I already do.

— Ben

Tape it down

Dings suck but they happen in surfing. You can’t avoid it. From epic collisions, cars running over your board, or just a slip of the hand and it’s down.

If you’re brave enough to handle your dings then this little tip is for you.

When I started my dive into board building and repairs I’d come across this annoying issue. The repair cloth would always seem to slip and move while being laminated onto the board. The rails were the worst to try and repair. It was frustrating.

Then an awesome friend, Nik Tanski, gave me this great tip. Tape it down he said.

It was so simple how could I not think of this?

When you’re fully laminating an entire board the cloth is held in place by the weight of several yards of cloth draping over the board, but with a ding repair it’s usually small pieces of cloth, the weight just isn’t the same.

Once you have the cloth cut and ready to laminate you can use a couple of pieces of tape and tape the cloth in place. I recommend using Indasa tape for any of your laminating or ding repair work. Once the lamination is halfway cured you can pull the tape off and boom your cloth is stuck in place.

From there you can repair your board as you normally would.

I hope this helps you with any ding repairs you might have in the future.

All the best,

Ben

Doheny Crazed

by Chuck Bassett

Everyone dreams of the golden era of surfing, that idyllic time in American history when everything seemed so carefree and easy. Sunny summer days spent along perfect beaches—the young days of teenage youth without a care in the world.

I often scour used book sites or eBay for unknown surf books.  I’d seen “Doney Crazed’ by Chuck Bassett floating around.  I had to give this book a read, Doheny is my favorite break.  Luckily a member of my surf club, the Doheny Longboard Surfing Association, gave me a copy.  I was stoked.

The book itself is an easy and fun read.  Like sitting around a campfire listening to a friend or older relative recant the memories and adventures of their youth.  Nothing over flowery yet everything is beautifully and simply described.   If you’re an Orange County native you’ll enjoy reading the book.   You’ll see street names and shops, high schools, and directions to spots that are so familiar to you but so different in this book.

The main focus of the story is the 27 days the author and his friends spent camping along the river bed at Doheny.  The Polio Pond Boys is what they called themselves.  The Doheny of the book is a different park than what we know today.  Cars parked on the sand, log curbs the only thing stopping them from rolling into the sea.  Or the way the kids had to sneak onto the Marine Base to surf Trestles.  What an adventure.

The book isn’t just filled with surf stories, but you get into a little bit of the boy’s lives and in the end, see where they end up.

All in all, this is a pretty fun read and a beautiful glimpse into time long passed.

Get your own copy of Doheny Crazed by Chuck Bassett here

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to our blog.

Here you’ll find everything from book and movie reviews, surf spot stories, how-to from ding repair, to the lessons we’ve learned from building boards that might help you along your board-building journey.

Pretty much anything we can think of that has to do with the joyful act of surfing. We hope you find some information useful and if there’s something you’d love to share we’d love to learn from you.

So thank you for coming along on this adventure with us.

Much Aloha,

The Sotos.