When it was announced that Sacred Craft would be teaming up with the ASR this year there was a lot of gripes and grumbles. We have to admit, we had our doubts as well. Merging something with such an indie vibe into something so corporate is quite the gamble and to be honest it turned out to be a hit. Sacred Craft started a day after ASR at the San Diego Convention Center on August 14th-15th in the Sail Pavilion. We were honoring Simon Anderson and his massive contribution, the thruster, to surfing and the vibe was awesome. Brad was so amped that he went for back to back tarp barrels and made it out of both, check the pic!
We were involved in glassing demos with Stretch Surfboards, Stamps Surfboards, Greg Loehr from Resin Research, Entropy Bio-Resins, and Podunk Surfboards. We chucked hats, shirts, and stickers out to the crowd and even raffled off the Stamps 5’10” “Fuse” quad fin that had the new colored boxes from Future Fins as well as Stamps’ signature quad fin set. Whew, it was very generous for everyone to pitch in and donate a whole board and all the materials and labor.
On top of that there was plenty of shaping action going on around the show, between the Young Guns Shape Off and the Tribute to the Masters. They were replicating a Simon thruster. Matt Biolos of Lost Surfboards was deemed the winner of the Master Shape Off and generously donated the $1000 he won to charity. Although they didn’t win, Pat Rawson, Brian Bulkley, Larry Mabile, Jason Bennett and Michael Barron, put on a shaping clinic for the crowd. Luckily our booth was right by the main shaping booth and next to U.S. Blanks so we were right in the thick of it. There were legends of shaping, surfing and basketball all around us. Bill Walton was cruising around the show, or should I say towering above, not to mention, MR, Shaun Thompson, PT, Aaron Cormican etc...standing shoulder to shoulder with regular guys and gals, taking pics and enjoying the show.
Yeah the show is different, but if it weren’t for change then we’d still be clicking rocks together to make fire. Old school, new school, industry folk, the show had it all and the vibe was kicking! Scott Bass created a great environment that still brought out the best craftsmen, artists, and crowd from all over the world.
