Only Kelly can look cool with a t-shirt tied to this head! LOL!
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Oakley Dispatch, The Movie out now.
17/06/2013
From the pristine shores of Hawaii to the perfect point breaks at Jeffrey’s Bay to slabbing barrels in Indonesia and more, Oakley Dispatch: The Movie takes viewers on the road for 12 months with the Oakley Surf Team. Based on the acclaimed Oakley Dispatch Webisode series, the movie features never-before-seen footage guaranteed to make viewers pick up their boards and flock to the beaches.
This is a unique lovingly handcrafted Alaia made out of one single solid piece of Redwood. Cost is R4800 ex shipping.
As a material for surfboard making, you don't get much more of a distinguished record than that of the giant redwoods that grow wild along the Pacific North West coast of America. Legend has it that the trunks of these gargantuan trees floated as far as the Hawaiian islands along the ocean currents and when the gods of wind and sea delivered heir cargo to terra firma, the islanders would eagerly pounce on their gift. Redwood's innate suitability as a material for wave sliding craft was well understood and appreciated by the ancients.
In more modern times, along with balsa, it was the wood of choice for the pre-foam / fibreglass surfboards of the early to mid 20th century. The wood used in this Wawa Alaia comes from a small plantation in Knysna, planted around the turn of the previous century.
Coast redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens) were deemed the "everlasting redwood" at the turn of the century, because of their seemingly timeless life spans. In Latin "sempervirens" means "ever green" or "everlasting".
Relatively soft and straight grained with a moderately strong heartwood, Redwood is easy to work and does not lose its shape easily. The heartwood is light, decay resistant and has many uses. Among these uses are: structural timber, pulp, veneer, house siding, doors, sashes, window frames, coffins, wine vats, organs, and water tanks.
It was during a wood finding mission at Rarewoods in Cape Town, that Cobus Joubert of WAWA Wooden Surfboards stumbled upon a few pieces of Redwood wide enough to make solid Alaia's from. Harvested from a forest of Redwoods commercially farmed in the Eastern Cape since 1900, the single piece of Redwood used for the Alaia produced a board that is as scare as you can get. Feather light, the colouring and grain is too beautiful to describe.
If you can not get your hands on this practical piece of art, you can always do the Harkerville Trail outside of Knysna and hug the Redwoods growing in a small stand planted as part of a forestry experiment around 1920.
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