Custom Pintail Grebes

A really great couple from Cardiff, CA just stopped by yesterday to pick up their Custom Grebes. Nice stringers, great colors, all volan cloth, deck and tail patches, clean and classic looking. Gonna be hanging toes in no time down at Swamis! A special thanks to Doug Fletcher at the Santa Cruz Board Builders Guild for laminating these for me. He does such killer work. His: 9'6" x 22 3/4" x 3 1/8" with a custom stained glass fin by Rainbow Fin Company. Hers: 9'2" x 22 1/4" x 2 7/8". Thanks for Migrating!

Social Media Blitz

Hey friends and fellow Migrators! We are on a social media blitz! We've now started accounts on both Twitter and Instagram. Follow along on our journeys and musings on Twitter @migrationsurf. On Instagram, visually stimulate your sliding senses by following migrationsurf. Also, if you're not already following us on Facebook, make sure you get on board. Get the word out, friends! Let's take this thing called the Internet by storm! Hahaha!

EP's Custom Plover

A while back, EP caught a few waves on a borrowed Plover from one of our buddies. In the short while that he was on the board, we watched him carve beautiful turns, hit the lip with ease and fluidity, and fly across sections that others were forced to kick out of. Needless to say, we were floored by how well the board was working under his feet. He was sold and so were we. To customize his Plover, he opted to ditch the baby swallow and go with an arc tail instead. Also, we rounded out the nose to make it look a little more classic. The resulting Plover is thing of beauty. We can't wait to get this board wet! Dims are 5'4 1/2" x 22 1/2" x 2 3/4".

Just like EP's board, we're happy to customize any aspect of your board to your desire. If you're interested in learning what a custom board can do for you, feel free to email me at migrationsurf@gmail.com. Thanks for stopping by!

Boards En Route to TCSS

Two more beautiful HP longboards are currently en route to Third Coast Surf Shop. The green one is a 9'0" x 22 1/2" x 2 15/16" and the blue one is a 9'6" x 22 3/4" x 3 1/8". Get there and check them out for yourself. Ride a better board and take your surfing to the next level!

Proper Loggin'

 EP finding a comfortable perch on his custom step deck Crane and winning the Big Chill Out at Linda Mar earlier this month. Yeah buddy!!!

Performance Longboard

If you know my style of surfing and shaping, you know that performance longboarding isn't really my gig. I'd much rather be cross-stepping on a singlefin log when I'm riding a longboard. With that said, this custom performance longboard came out pretty exceptional, and even got me dreaming of big carves and floaters in some solid surf. 9'3" x 22 1/2" x 3". Migrating to Chicago as we speak!

Pure (MI)gration

Pure (MI)gration. Photo: Keenan May

Rod from Sleeping Bear Surf and Kayak putting the Grebe through it's paces on a nice little freshwater peeler. Photo: Keenan May

How quick the time has gone! It was a great (and HOT) summer back on the Great Lakes. We saw lots of people, made some new friends, reconnected with some old ones, did some networking, and dreamed up some sweet sleds for freshwater sliding! Oh, and we definitely got our share of freshwater waves, which is always a good thing. It's clear that the surf scene on the Great Lakes is as vibrant as ever, and we are proud to be serving up great boards for Great Lakes surfers.

While our time in MI was wonderful, we are excited to be back in action in CA. We have several custom boards lined up and we are sending two more performance longboards (a 9'0" and a 9'6") to Third Coast Surf Shop for the fall season. Be looking for them by the end of September! In addition to shaping, we are eager to get back into the salt water, and are stoked that there is a solid south swell ready to hit just in time for the Labor Day weekend. See you all out there!

Migrating Milwaukee Plover

A new custom Plover just migrated to Milwaukee. Really dig the clean look of this board.

Clean. Classic. Crane.

In a break from my normal resin craziness, this board deserved something much more classic. Clear volan cutlap w/ a resin panel in the step deck. That is all. I think it highlights the wedge stringer and redwood tailblock nicely. The ride reports are coming in VERY positive on this one. Thanks to the quality folks at the Santa Cruz Board Builders Guild for finishing this one out for me.

Custom Step Deck Crane

Hello fellow migrators! Trying out a few new things lately. For this board, we took the Crane in a slightly different direction. Instead of rocking a deep nose concave on the bottom, we reversed it and added a step deck and kept the bottom flat. Came out looking really nice! If you don't know too much about this design, scooping out the nose allows the nose to flex more as you step out onto it and flattens the rocker to generate more speed and trim while noseriding. To amplify this flexing characteristic, we ordered a custom cedar "wedge" stringer, which means the stringer is narrow (1/8") at the nose and gradually widens out to 3/4" in the tail, which allows the nose more flex than a stringer that is the same width all the way through. We rounded this board out w/ a beautiful redwood tail block. It looks really classic! Contrary to most of my boards lately, we're going real simple with a clear glass job and a turquoise/blue resin panel inside the step deck to really highlight the beauty of the stringer and tail block. I sent this one off to the Santa Cruz Board Builder's Guild right before I left for MI and am anxiously awaiting to see the finished product. Thanks for checking in!

In Stock at Sleeping Bear Surf and Kayak (Well, kinda)

Hello fellow Migrators! I've just returned from a family vacation to the pinky region of the Mitten. I've literally been going there since I was born and that place still holds a spell over me that I've never been able to fully express. We have AMAZING friends up there that own a quaint little surf shop at the end of M72 in the small village of Empire called Sleeping Bear Surf and Kayak. If you head up there, you've got to visit them. They are such great people! Anyway, they asked me if I would build a couple boards for their shop a couple months ago and I happily obliged. I built a 9'6" x 23" x 3 5/16" Grebe noserider for them that I stocked in the shop last week Saturday. I'd love to tell all of you to race up there and get it, but their surf instructor decided to snag it on Wednesday before anyone else, so it's already been sold! Not to fear, we are going to stock them with a quad fish very soon and hopefully going to replace the longboard not too long after that! So in the mean time, enjoy the pics and keep Migrating!

Back In Stock at TCSS

We have 4 brand new surfboards back in stock at Third Coast Surf Shop as of this afternoon. Swing by and check them out! I'm really stoked on how they came out and I think you will be too. Get Migrating!

The Xyloband Inspired Board

5'3" x 21 3/4" x 2 7/8". Quad. The idea was to take the Plover in a slightly different direction to handle some more critical waves. The grey is a sanded gloss, while the other colors are buffed out! Looks sweet! Color work inspired by Xylobands. If you know what they are, you'll understand!

Jonathan Stowers Makes Great Music (w/ Update)

 My buddy, Jonathan Stowers, just released his first album called Kicking Up Leaves. I have been listening to it quite a bit lately and am so stoked on it I wanted to spread the word. Stowers and I have similar stories in the fact that we are both originally from West Michigan (me from Holland, and Stow from Coloma, near Benton Harbor) and both adopted Santa Cruz, CA as our current residences. He's one of those friends that I rarely get to see, but always enjoy his company when we're together. I hope you enjoy his music as much as I have! You can find his music on his website, iTunes, or Spotify.

UPDATE: Stowers contacted me and let me know if you go to his website and use the discount code: migration, you can get 35% off his new album. This is awesome!

The Crane Noseriding Sequence

Here's a sequence of Ryan Gerard of Third Coast Surf Shop gracefully putting our Crane model (bit of a modern pig) through the paces on a nice little peeler at Rincon a couple weeks ago. The Crane loves to be ridden on the nose. Photo sequence by Mark Lucas Fiolka. Photos courtesy of Great Lakes Surfer Magazine. Thanks fellas!

A True Migrating Plover

                                                     6'4" Plover on the beach at Rincon

                                   Same board seeking waves in South Haven, MI (photo: E. Holt)

The Piping Plover is currently headed north through the Mississippi flyway on their way to their breeding grounds on the Northern  Lake Michigan shoreline. Much like the board's namesake, this 6'4" Plover has recently made it's way to Western Michigan to bask on the waves of Lake Michigan. What makes this one special is that the customer picked it up at the Rincon Invitational last weekend and took it back to my hometown of Holland, MI where he lives.