New ASMR "Exceptional Fun" T-shirts

Having diced "Magic Carpet Ride" as the name for the blog, I have redesigned the "Exceptional Fun!" t-shirt to include the blog's new name "Australian Surf Mat Rider".
It also includes a stylised image of the Krypt MT5 as it is the only high performance surf mat designed and marketed here in Australia.
I have not created this t-shirt specifically to market but if you do feel you might like one then it can be arranged on an ad-hoc basis at cost plus whatever the postage to your door amounts too. This cost varies depending on the discounts currently offered by the supplier.

The Reef Project

Next week Michelle and I are hoping to get to Perth to see The Reef which I recently posted about here. This has suddenly become dependant on whether we both manage to throw off the flu we have been suffering since our winter holidays started. I am feeling ok today but it keeps bouncing back to bite me every time I try to actually do anything and I just want to feel my usual self again. In the meantime, I happened to check director Mick Sowry's blog yesterday and was delighted to discover they had basically finished editing the footage. This has been all the more difficult as there are precise timings to be considered in order that the footage fits with the live music that will be played. Anyway. Mick included some stills in the post including this great one of Warren Pfieffer on the 5GF I imagine, being the mat that he deemed worked the best for him in those pretty gnarly conditions. A bit hard to judge from the pic but there is plenty of size and aggression to that wave and the following footage will give you an even better idea of what the conditions were like.

Ironman practice, finless musings and jazz!

MattJ emailed me recently with the news that he had managed to score waves in our capital city Perth, a difficult thing to do, I may say. Apparently, the dumper usually to be found at Scarborough Beach was producing it's occasional good waves for a change like the pic from another day shows. So good in fact that he was able to put some time into practicing the "Ironman" on his Blue Streak Standard. Here is what he had to say.
 "The 'ironman' made an appearance at scarb this wknd, spent a session trying that manouvre whenever I could and noticed a couple of things. it seems to be a little less forgiving ie if you have to control the mat in a situation where you are adjusting or correcting your line like in a less than perfect bottom turn etc it can be tough but - in an ideal situation where you handle the take off bottom turn nicely (in normal rider position) and you drift up toward the shoulder and in front of you its walling up perfectly for that beautiful glide, then as long as you're far enough forward then that seems like the perfect time to pull out the ironman, had a couple of really nice runs like that, completely unobscured vision and felt really cool too, got a couple of stoked looks from people in the whitewater when I was doing it too so thats a good sign:) also the MT5 probably lends itself to the ironman better with the square corners easier to access if you need to firm up the mat etc."
"I was revisiting some ideas on finless surfing this wknd, design etc not that its any priority because as Pranaglider has mentioned before, surfmats really seem to be the most advanced wave riding craft out there and I havent ridden standup since shortly after getting on one!! but I was searching round and on vimeo there is a video with Derek Hynd and Andrew Kidman, and its not bad, its titled POV II Derek Hynd part two or something similar and it goes for about 9 minutes, I thought if you havent seen it you might find it interesting because a lot of what he is talking about is applicable to mats, he draws a quick analogy with music (jazz) and toward the end at about the 8min mark he's describing a moment at J bay and what is quite the revelation and a bit groundbreaking I suppose is something that as a concept at least, is already a familiar idea or experience to a lot of matriders - 4th gear!!"

 

"I also came to the conclusion this wknd that matting gets better the longer you do it...!"
How right you are my friend. How right you are!

World first tandem surf mat ride at Lennox Point

Back in December I posted about MT's grandson Jakey having a great old time learning to ride a surf mat with the help of his grandfather. Jake has continued his mat riding lessons and has become quite waterwise and understands already which waves to go for and how to turn the mat. He is also used to wiping out enjoying the flogging game that he and MT play.

"Was that a flogging Pop?"
"Yes. Jakey that was a flogging!"

As you can see he was really starting to get the hang of riding a surf mat. Jake has continued his mat riding lessons and the other day, in front of an understandably worried photographer mother, this 4 year old became the youngest rider ever to surf the point at Lennox Head. Check out the 5 images below.

Shall we do it Jakey? MT mentioned that Jake holds the mat when they go in off the rocks making the decision when to jump in himself with Pop following afterwards.

Yeh. Let's go for it Pop!

Get your head down Jakey!

Cover up!

Can we do that again soon?

A 5th 2012 Tube Ride of the Year entry

Rider Andrew Stephen Buck and photog Seth De Roulet.
Keep them coming folks.
It is going to be really interesting which ride gets voted as the best by you guys and gals at the end of this year. Don't forget there is a Series III Krypt MT5 surf mat for both the rider and the photographer for the winning shot. Here is a link so as you can view all the rides that have been submitted so far.

Justin Spittle

Second off the rank after mattj in the who are you, where are you, why do you etc Aussie mat rider series is:

1. Justin Spittle.

2. Krypt MT5

3. The Bra in Sydney. 

4. Beach break and reef (when it works).

5. Normally surf (5,2 Simmons, 5,6 short board, I'm 6ft) and Paipo. Of late I hurt my back (14 weeks bad) so no stand up, so lots of bodysurfing bit of Paipo . Only been matting for 6 weeks.

7. No other mat riders, no other body surfers and no one on a Paipo. Four ski riders and a couple of longboards. Rest shortboards. Bodyboards not many, and not loved. 

8. The challenge, fun, speed and to get my back right. 

9. While on the mat it has alway been positive in the waves, even with crew that you wouldn't want to drop in on. How could any one get angry with a mat rider. Had some hoots and smiles after waves but.

10. Keep up the work on the blog it's looking great and about to hit Vanuatu in two weeks with the mat so will try a get a pic for ya.

Thanks for that great response and great images Justin. Looking forward to pics of and hearing how the Vanuatu trip went. I am particularly keen to hear from you younger guys that have taken up mat riding if you can spare a few minutes to answer these questions and tell us about yourself.

Mat Meet with mattj

Yes finally I get to surf with another mat rider!
Matt Jessup sent me a txt a little while back to say he was planning to come down south to catch some waves. Last week I received a txt saying he was on his way down on the weekend so finally my lone mat rider syndrome was going to be temporarily redressed! Rapt barely describes my feeling and I could only cross my fingers and hope for conditions that might improve on the fairly poor ones we have had of late since a storm passed through and deluged our fair town.
Matt is from the Central Coast of NSW originally and has surfed all sorts of wave craft for more than 20 years. He had developed an interest in finless craft, and being a fan of Derek Hynd, he happened across Musica Surfica. He noticed that Warren Pfieffer was doing as well if not better than everybody else so he just had to get himself a surf mat.
Matt's quiver contains a Roundtail Tracker, a Blue Streak Standard and he also bought a beautiful looking Tom Wegener alaia with him too.
The alaia didn't get any wave time but we managed two sessions over the weekend on mats. The waves were not that flash but compared to what Matt has been served up with in Perth of late I think for him they were a dream come true. From what I could see he got heaps of take offs, cover ups and even some rides with a bit of length to them on the Blue Streak. We also had the pleasure of sharing a wave together which was a lot of fun and it was really such a buzz to have another mat rider in the pretty crowded line up. Overall I think Matt had a good time and having discovered he could also get a great coffee at Ravens has decided he will be back again soon. Fantastic and I hope we manage to serve you up some better waves next time.
So if you are out at Scarborough or Triggs in Perth and you see a guy on a mat or alaia it will probably be Matt so go say hi!