Blog : Joe Curren

If you’re in the area and you want to see a good surf flick by Patrick Trefz and some interesting boards designed by Carl Eckstrom and Hydrodynamica, head to Richard Kenvin’s 9th Festivus event tonight in downtown San Diego.

Kenvin and Skip Frye with a gift for Richard, a 7-foot Frye long fish with modified wings

Carl Eckstrom

Eckstrom — surfboard and furniture designer, inventor of the “flow rider” and the assymetrical surfboard and the only man my father Pat will trust to glass his valuable wooden boards — pictured with a model of one of his shapes. Before production, Eckstrom makes a model of his designs at ¹/₄ scale or smaller.

When I was in San Diego a few weeks ago I also spent some time with surfer/filmmaker Richard Kenvin, staying at his place near Wind N’ Sea in La Jolla. For the past couple of years Kenvin has been working on his mini Simmons designs which are based on the boards enigmatic shaper Bob Simmons made and rode in the late ‘40’s/early ‘50’s. Kenvin explores Simmon’s influence on the evolution of modern surf board design in his work-in-progress documentary film, Hydrodynamica. It was an inspiring couple of days …

Discussing assymetrical mini Simmons with shaper/designer Carl Eckstrom

Kenvin and Coronado’s John Elwell with the board that inspired Kenvin, an original “hyrodynamic planing hull” made by Elwell’s old friend Bob Simmons in the early ‘50’s

Logging footage for Hydrodynamica

rk — faithfully compiling the facts

Wind N’ Sea

This spread is in the latest Surfer’s Journal. The big shot was taken at Rincon by Mike Kew. It’s featured in a story written by Richard Kenvin about the mini Simmons replicas he’s making for his new film Hydrodynamica. The boards might look funny but they are really good to ride. They do the best bottom turns ever.

More info here: Hydrodynamica

Photo: Mike Kew

Photos: Todd Glaser

In early December a big swell hit Santa Barbara and the entire state decided to come here for a surf. Sandspit was too crowded and inconsistent. I thought that the bottom of the cove at Rincon was the best spot on this swell. This was the first real swell of the year so all of the sand that had built up over summer was still intact. People were kicking out of waves that would double up and reform into big sandy barrels. It reminded me of groyne Kirra in Australia before the Super Bank. Richard Kenvin came up from San Diego with a couple of his Simms fishes. They are designed after the original Bob Simmons twin fin that he made in the ’50′s. He is working on a film called Hydrodynamica which details Simmons history and the evolution of the fish design. Here’s a couple shots of me on the Sims fish. Both shots are of the same wave.