Once upon a time, though just a month ago. In a land far far away, amongst the rice fields in Canggu Bali. Noosa shaper, top bloke and all round gentleman Thomas ‘Doc’ Bexon and his cape crusading pommie partner in all things fibreglass, Jake Bowery, came to the laboratory to mix up a shape made for the break at the bottom of the road. The resulting concoction is the ‘Tugu’, named after our local break. It’s a double ender of sorts with a slow burn rocker. Added to that a subtle concave in the nose that tempers to a smidgen of a roll before finishing out with a panel vee through the tail. Sweet 60/40 rails chart the outline giving … View More

Today we got to see a rare side of the Deus Temple of Enthusiasm in Canggu when a good friend of ours, Errol, rocked up at the Deus Temple in Canggu. We know him from the Ombak Surf Film Festival http://www.ombakbali.com/2012/ a yearly event held here in Bali. He was on a different mission today though for under his arm he had a contraption that resembled a flying saucer more than a remote control ‘copter. He wanted to see what our sheds in the rice field looked like from high up. Who are we to argue? Aerial photography, once the plaything of companies & millionaires requiring full sized planes or helicopters, production crews and of course a catering budget to get anything … View More

We’ve been looking for a place to hang our hats in Jakarta, for some time and finally found a little niche in Kemang. A fashionable, eclectic part of town, the prescribed heart of urban living in South Jakarta. You can find similar places in most metropolises’, its reminiscent of Oberoi in Bali, Abbott Kenny in LA or Chapel St in Melbourne. There’s a plethora of unique art galleries, mixed up with very slick pads in traditional designs, and they have spiced the brew with a healthy dollop of laid back, the sum of the parts equalling a chilled oasis in the big smoke.  It’s a good fit. Like what we’ve done before it’s a campur of what we love to … View More

With a handful of flat track “events” (calling it racing would be a bit much at this point) under our belts we figured it was time to learn a thing or two about what it is we’ve been attempting to do. Dave Ehrhart is a tried and true flat track racer. He’s got a sister who lives in Big Bear, CA, and every once in while she drops her kids off at good old Uncle Dave’s for a weekend of man instruction. She sends all of her kids to Dave when they turn ten to learn how to ride motorcycles. This particular weekend it was Nephew Jake’s turn. We’re not exactly sure how it happened but we managed to weasel … View More

Throughout the Sumatran expedition Salsa and Chris put the new clothing range through its paces…from the Canvas Board-bag and RuckSack to button ups and boardies. Salsa said that basic idea behind the collection was…”A line of product that was designed to travel the backroads of Indonesia. I chose the tonal colors based on the type of stains I was likely to acquire….Rust, Dirt and various spicy condiments. “joking aside…It’s basically a low key travel series that doesn’t draw attention…I tried to find the perfect balance between lightweight enough to be tropically comfortable and hardy enough to go the distance….and think we kinda nailed it” During our trip  we had epic time exploring the southern Sumatra coast line. Here is a … View More

Fresh off the coat tails from a previous Lombok trip, a swinging SouthWest swell convinced us to venture a little further away from home…To the island of Sumatra. Since we were heading quite a distance from Bali’s shores, it was the perfect opportunity to do a bit of R and D for Salsa’s new travel inspired clothing line…”The Rucksack Revolution” We jumped on a plane and next thing you know we were enduring a beautiful but painstaking 13 hour drive through the Protected Sumatran Rainforest. We arrived, pitched up at our base camp, wolfed down a quick breakfast and basically spent the next 5 days hitting shore breaks, chunky left handers and shallow reef passes. He is a quick taster, … View More

After weeks of way to much work in paradise it’s good to skive off to a little hiddy hole and recharge. Gilli Trawangan is that perfect spot. For those who have never been, Gilli T, as it’s affectionately known, is one of three little islands nestled together off the west coast of Lombok. The islands are famous for their pristine, hurt your eyes if you do not have good sunnies on, white sand beaches, bountiful patches of coral, which equates into a multitude of dive spots and perhaps our favorite, none of the islands have any vehicles on them. I know, weird for bike lovers eh? But here everything is either by foot, bicycle or pony driven cart. Oh, one … View More

Living surf legend Bob McTavish has been hanging around the Deus Temple in Canggu Bali getting his hands dirty. We originally thought ourselves bloody lucky just to entice him to Bali for a spot of early morning surfing and afternoon shaping then got, what they call in racing circles, the trifector, when his dates lined up like the planets with our ‘Deus 9′ & Single Log Fest’ a couple of weeks ago. He arrived on a the Saturday arvo, we had him waxing lyrically on our veranda that night in the Shapers Forum and Bob being Bob, it wasn’t much more than a day later before he’d sniffed out the resin and foam making his way down the back of … View More