Live Surfboard Painting and Mini-Art Exhibit at FOAM EZ 20th Party June 1 2013

For the first time this year, Drew will exhibit some of his latest art pieces and will give a live surfboard painting demonstration at FOAM EZ’s 20th Anniversary Event.

***Drew will have time to paint 2-3 surfboards during the event, and one of them could be yours!

If interested, pre-book your Drew Brophy surfboard painting by calling 949-678-8133 or email info@drewbrophy.com.

Price depends upon size & complexity of what you want.  (Brand new, sanded surfboards only, please.)

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN OF THE FOAM EZ EVENT:

WHAT:  A fun day to celebrate the surfboard, fins and art!

Surfing’s source for all things surfboards, Foam EZ, is celebrating their 20th Anniversary Party – this is a family event, so bring the kids!

They’ll have:  Live Music, Surfboard shaping demos by greats such as Stamps and “Doc” Lausch.  Surfboard painting demos by Drew Brophy,  a BOUNCY HOUSE (for the kids only!), LOTS of FREE SWAG and raffles held every hour, and food!

WHEN:  Saturday, June 1st, from 10 a.m.  - 3 p.m.  (it’s FREE!)

WHO:  Everyone!  Bring the kids and anyone who appreciates surfing, art and a day enjoying both.

WHERE:  FOAM EZ, 6455 Industry Way, Westminster, California.  For info call 714-896-8233

MORE INFORMATION ON DREW BROPHY’S BOOTH:

GIVE-AWAYS:  Roxo, one of Drew’s newest Licensees, has provided some cool give-aways for kids!  They are wristbands with Drew’s art printed on “rocks”.

We will also be donating some awesome Drew Brophy art goodies for the raffles that will be held every hour.


LIVE PAINTING OF SURFBOARD DEMO:  Drew’s live painting demonstrations are where he generously shares his surfboard painting techniques that can be used by both the novice and the experienced artist.  His medium of choice is Uni-Posca Paint Pens.  Feel free to watch and ask questions!

Drew’s 10 x 10 booth will exhibit some of Drew’s latest art pieces, prints and other fun stuff.  All works will be available for purchase, as well as Drew’s books, DVD’s and art prints, priced special for the day.

Let Drew Paint your Surfboard!  Pre-arrange your own custom surfboard painting by calling 949-678-8133 or email info@drewbrophy.com.  Pricing is determined by size and complexity of the painting.  Only 2-3 surfboards can be painted that day, so call right away!

What Does Stamps, Surf Rx, And Drew Brophy Have In Common??? Foam E-Z 20 Year Anniversary Party...

Everyone is invited and here’s the latest on our 20 Year Party Saturday June 1^st in the yard behind

Foam E-Z.

Thanks to Future Fins for donating their “Fish Bowl” shape room, this will provide the opportunity for all guests to watch shapers at work.  Throughout the day Pro Shapers Tim Stamps and Jeff “Doc” Lausch (Surf Prescriptions) will shape boards in the “Fish Bowl” and those shaped blanks will be raffled off to lucky guests!  Drew Brophy will be joining us to do live art demos and paint customer boards. 

Live music, free food, and a bounce house will add to the ambience.  There will be free swag and raffles every hour thanks to donations by companies like: Future Fins, FCS, US Blanks, Revchem, Graphite Master, Hurley, and much more.  

During the month of May we’ll be giving away a FREE Shape Lesson on our Facebook page that will be carried out during the party!  Shapers and vendors will have tents set up for the crowd as well.   

Last but not least, we will be having a 10% OFF everything in the store sale.

All this and more!  Stay tuned as we announce more happenings throughout the month.

Look forward to an incredible day!

Foam E-Z's fuNKy FieldTrip to Procam Surfboard Machine Shop

Well we headed out for our latest Foam E-Z fuNKy FieldTrip and ended up at Procam, CNC surfboard machine shop.  When we showed up there was foam everywhere, EPS and PU alike.  Huge billets of EPS to be cut into surfboards, SUPs, and paddleboards were stacked to the sky!  Tucker came out to greet us with his trusty watchdog Devo.  Tucker then brought us in to show us where the redwoods of paddleboards get cut.  There were fourteen foot blocks and huge paddle boards reaching to the roof.  I couldn't believe my eyes at the size of these EPS skyscrapers!  They cut these boards for some of the biggest names in the industry. 

Next we strolled over to the ware house next door.  This is where all the crazy high tech business goes on and where the owner Brian resides.  In his office are the computer masterminds that convert and write the programs to make their machines run smoothly.  Brian and good friend Robert Colby started Procam back in 1996.  With the computer age really blowing up, easy to use surfboard specific programs were created.  Shape 3D and AKU are the standards now and all shapers have to do is send their files over and Brian can cut their boards.  The result is, shapers have become programmers. 

Getting boards cut on the machine isn’t for everyone, but computer savvy shapers can really fine tune and reproduce a “magic” surfboard like never before.

Thanks Brian for having at your EPS redwood forest!

Foam E-Z's fuNKy FieldTrip To Future Fins!!!

Last week we got a chance to visit 
and tour the Future Fin Factory/Warehouse.  Luckily for us their facility is only two miles from our shop so we get a chance 
to stop by often.  This time when we showed up we caught Vince Longo (owner) in his office working on some top secret stuff.  
Vince and his wife just had twins so needless to say he has been extremely busy for the last few months.  

After saying hello and a few words of catch up we headed over to the customer service department where Jacob Dildine greeted us.  Jacob, our tour guide, has been with the company for five years and has been moving up through the ranks.  


After saying hi to all the peeps in customer service we headed back to the warehouse.  I'm always blown away at the number of fins and fin boxes they have in stock, but then again they are a fin system company!  The sheer numbers are staggering as they have all their Thermotech fins on one side and all their Premium fins on the other.  There's a big rack holding the white and black fin boxes, the new totally bitchen brightly colored fin boxes, screws, fin keys, etc...  Complete fin system heaven!!!  All these items surround their shipping area where the guys are always busy packing stuff for their US and international customers.  


Future Fins also have a large manufacturing section where they build fins and boxes!  
They have these super high tech CNC machines to cut and foil fins and have a special screen printing machine to apply logos on their fins.  Within their warehouse they have a killer machine shop where they are constantly working on new projects, testing and improving their current systems, and just plain tinkering trying to come up with the next big thing in fins.



It's pretty cool this locally owned company has grown to be one of the big powerhouses in the fin world.  Some of the most popular and successful surfers in the world ride Future Fins.  This is a great testament to the time and effort these guys have spent perfecting their brand.  

We really appreciate them giving us the opportunity to go behind the scenes and see how this operation runs.  Great job guys, keep up the amazing work and continue to push this stuff forward.  Congrats on the twins Vince...

Foam E-Z fuNKy FieldTrip To Stamps Surfboards

I recently took a little skateboard trip down the street to visit Tim Stamps of “Surfboards by Stamps” fame.  When I rolled into his shop, he was glued to his lap top computer getting ready to watch Brett Simpson surf his heat in 

Intently Watching

the Burton Toyota Pro at Newcastle Australia.  Knowing Tim needed some support,  I pulled up a seat next to him and watched as Brett unfortunately didn’t get the waves needed to move through his third round heat.  

That’s the life and relationship of a pro surfer and a shaper to top ASP surfers.   Tim has been making boards for Simpo for the past few years.  After the heat was over, and a quick “F” bomb, it was back to work in the shaping bay.  Stamps had some deadlines to fill before he left for the Gold Coast of Australia.  He headed down under to support his other big named ASP surfer Courtney Conlogue as she surfs in the Quiksilver Pro. 

Simpo Boards

As I entered Tim’s shape room we chatted about some of the tools and the nuances of the different abrasive grits he uses.   Tim has been integral in helping us develop our line of shaping tools.  He comes to us with ideas and I go to him for feedback and testing before we launch and tools.  This way we know that what we sell works and we can stand behind it.

Stamps’ boards are made completely in house from the shaping to the glassing.  He employs some of the best guys in the industry to do his glass jobs and uses only the best materials.  By having it all under one roof, this insures that Tim’s boards are exactly to spec before leaving his shop.  Quality control  at its best!  Tim is a true craftsman, having learned his trade from one of the best shapers around - Rich Harbour.  

Fine Tuning

If you haven’t had a chance to ride a Stamps board, go check one out, or just tune into any ASP contest to watch Simpo or Courtney tearing it up on one.

GlassRoom

Thanks again for having us and we are rooting for Simpo and Courtney in the Quiky Pro!

Foam E-Z fuNky FieldTrip to Harbour Surfboards

This is the first installment in our Foam E-Z fuNky FieldTrips!  Last week we stopped in at Harbour Surfboards and visited with Rich Harbour, his shop has been in the same location since 1959!!!  This is an extremely unique surfshop by today’s standards in that there is a shaperoom on the premises that Rich doddles in on a daily basis.  

On this day we were lucky enough to stumble in on Rich putting on a nose block.  This is an arduous task to get it right but Rich has put a few on in his fifty some odd years of shaping.   Since he makes his noseblocks from scratch, he first has to acquire the nose block material (walnut, balsawood, red cedar).  The next step is to re-saw the wood to the appropriate thicknesses, then glue up the wood strips in the order desired, plane the block to square it up, miter cut the block at the appropriate angle and finally glue it together (ideally in a jig).  After all that work, the noseblock is finally ready to be installed on the board.  Now the trick is to cut the mostly shaped blank perfect so that the noseblock fits tight with no gaps.  He grabs some five-minute epoxy and glues the noseblock to the blank using tape to secure it.  He flips the board over a number of times making adjustments to be sure block is placed appropriately.  Once the glue dries Rich busts out one of his razor sharp hand planes and chips away at the nose block until it’s roughed to the final shape.  After sanding with a couple of grits of sandpaper the block is finished. 

It was great to catch up with this artisan craftsman in the midst of such a cool project.  I’ve seen him do this a number of times over the years but now that I’m older and more mature I just now realized the time and tlc Rich puts into each of these nice add-ons. Thanks Rich, it's always great to catch up with you.  I forgot to add that Rich is now taking up mixology on the side, creating his own Lemoncello drinks!!!

Stay tuned for our next Foam E-Z fuNky FieldTrip.

US Blanks Interview and Video

Shape Box 

Where: 6455 Industry Way, Westminster, CA 92683. Just outside of Huntington Beach and the hub of the surf industry.

Since: 1993

Contact: www.FoamEZcom  (714) 896-8233

Using US Blanks Since: 2007

Me and the Foam E-Z Crew

Foam E-Z was founded by Brad Nadell with the focus of supplying local shapers with board building materials. Over 20 years Foam E-Z has evolved and now supplies home builders worldwide via their eCommerce website. They have played an important role in Southern California’s board building culture and proudly bear the moniker of “The Original One-Stop Surfboard Supply Shop”. We sat down with Brad to hear about Foam E-Z history.

US Blanks: How did you get started in the business?

Brad Nadell: I grew up in Seal Beach in the early 80’s. We surfed Southside a lot and then we’d all hang out at Harbour Surfboards, guys like Tim Stamps, Chas Wickwire, Marty Thomas, Chad Wells, Dave Sauers, Ryan Simmons, Mike Morgan, Chris Sardelis, just to name a few, I could go on. So growing up around Harbour Surfboards I got to see the process of building a board from blanks being delivered by Clark Foam to Rich shaping them to the boards being laminated. So I started sweeping up around the shop, just to be around the scene. Then eventually I started “air-spraying” boards, that’s kind of where I made my niche at Harbour. I painted boards for 8 years until I was in

my 20’s.

Southside Seal Beach 83'

US Blanks: How did you transition from Harbour to Foam E-Z?

Brad: My good friend Steve Adler, may he rest in peace, presented me with an idea to supply the local shapers with blanks. At the time he had The Surfboard Factory which was super popular. This area of Westminster was a real hotbed for shaping. Guys like Mark Pesce, Chas, A-39, Poi Dog, there was a lot of big up and coming shapers around here. As a matter of fact, they were all shaping out of The Surfboard Factory, so we started supplying them all with blanks. Steve’s business was growing and he was busy with his glass shop so I ended up buying him out of the business. Since then Foam E-Z has evolved quite a bit. It used to be just focused on supplying commercial shapers, but there has been an increasing trend of home builders and so we’ve focused a lot of our efforts of education and supplying them with all the materials they need.

US Blanks: Seems like a logical transition. There was a need in the market and you’ve been able to adapt and fill that need. How do you define Foam E-Z today?

Brad: Foam E-Z today has grown a lot. We’re a worldwide supplier of foam, cloth, tools, basically everything you need to build a board. Obviously the DIY (Do It Yourself) builder, the home builder, has grown. More people care about how there board is made or want to learn about construction so we’re really happy to provide education and help people along with the process. And we recently built a shape room that people can rent out, which is fully stocked with tools. We have very good instructors. It’s been fun to see all the people who are interested in board building. We have Father and Sons coming in to build boards together. We can make personalized lams. We get the board glassed for you. We provide ding repair, shipping, pretty much everything. We still supply the industry as well, but that’s not our sole focus any longer.

Customer Service

US Blanks: Why do you use US Blanks?

Brad: Well, I chose US Blanks right when they started. I had relationships established with the the key people, whom previously worked at Clark Foam so I kind of put all my trust in them and had faith that they would be able to translate the superior quality of Clark into their new brand. And so far they've really nailed it. Their efficiently is key. The quality is great. They stand behind their product. I've always asked for feedback from shapers and customers and I always get positive feedback. They just provide me everything I need to be successful selling surfboard blanks. And the fact that they are made here in the USA is a huge slam dunk for us. That’s important to us. And lastly, they just do what they say, which is really important. I trust them and if I’m on a deadline, they always come through.

US Blanks: Awesome. Anything else you’d like to include? How can people find you?

Brad: www.FoamEZ.com has all our important information, but we’ve enjoyed growing our Instagram lately. It’s given us a new way to communicate with customers around the world and give them insight into some of the fine details of what goes on here. They can follow us @foamez. Also, we’ll be celebrating our 20^th anniversary this year. We’re throwing a huge party with food and tons of free giveaways and pro surfers and shapers. It’ll be sometime in March so please follow us to get the exact date and time.

US Blanks: Excellent. We’ll be there! Thanks, Brad.