PRO-SHAPER PROFILE- Jason Hoffman by Grizzly

Here I am with this month’s Pro Shaper Profile and I’m proud to say we have a video interview with Jason Hoffman. We are highlighting the artisan board builder which Jason and business partner Casey McCrystal truly define. Like many other shapers over the past five years, Jason has been building his boards from start to finish in house. He used to shape out of a room he rented at Foam E-Z and just crank them out and then drop them off at a glass shop. Since times are tough he made the move and bought the glass shop next door to the old Foam E-Z location and has been building his business even during this crazy time. As I mentioned before he has teamed up with Casey McCrystal to form a company called Ricochet. They are hands on and build each board from start to finish, that’s right, they take your order, shape it, glass it, and even hand it off to you when it’s done.

It’s been great knowing and working with Jason over the years so take a second to check out the conversation I had with him on this video. Check out their websites for more information.

Seal Beach - Big Waves, Friends, Crowds, and Chaos!

Yesterday Sunday February 28th 2010 was one of those days in Seal Beach history when everyone you know is out and about. The waves were the biggest of this winter, the weather was perfect and everyone was in a good mood! As usual when the waves get big and the tides are high all the local news vans show up and prepare for flooding etc... Sometimes it is a bit of a false alarm but yesterday didn't disappoint. The water flowed from NorthSide over to SouthSide and filled up the area between the berm and the houses, in some places it was up to four feet deep. Mitchy Dejarnet even got the opportunity to paddle from NorthSide down to his house at Twelfth street (check the pic in our slide show). On Saturday there was a Tsunami warning from the terrible earthquake in Chile. It obviously never arrived but the tidal surge along with the big surf, and high tide made for this flooding. These are days that remind me of my youth since they only happen about every five to ten years with the most exciting one being back in 1983. That was the year when the Pier came down along with Esther the oil Island. They say it's an El Nino Winter maybe it's true!?

The images for the slide show were given to us by Jim "J.B." Boswell. He takes some pretty amazing shots of the local surf, check out his site JB Photography.