Welcome.

Ahoy there. Welcome to my blog for the "Barrel Hunting Project." This is a joint effort between myself and Ryan Lovelace to detail and chronicle the life of a board which is currently in design and being worked on.

The idea behind this project is to expose a group of unrelated surfers, up and down the California coast and beyond, to a new board with a new train of though behind it.

The board is being built with a bunch of different thoughts in mind, be they (in somewhat of some order) :

- Environmental: The board is being built as environmentally friendly as you can reasonably build a board like this in the time period we're looking to have it up by. Ice9 sugar foam, paulownia, cork - who knows? We'll see with the progress of the board as it goes along. However, there is a definite "green" theme behind the board.

- Educational: Ideally, we'll get many people who wouldn't be riding a board of this size, shape, or design. Hopefully, we'll get to expose people to a new (to them) board and design and be able to get feedback.

- Social: As cheesy as this will come off and sound, an underlying idea of this project is to bring together a group of surfers who probably don't know many of the other people exist, let alone have a way to relate to them.

Hopefully, we'll be able to accomplish some other things along the way as well.

The project will, when beat down to the basic proteins of the idea, be Ryan or myself traveling with the board and documenting (be it by video, photography, blogging, or word of mouth) the adventures this board takes during its life. Anyone is welcome to contribute or participate (and you will be credited on this blog for doing such) whether they help video, take photos, give testimonials after riding the board, whatever.

This isn't an ad campaign for Ryan Lovelace or his boards, although I realize full well that it serves that purpose too. This also isn't a demo. The purpose of having multiple riders ride this board is to get feedback, either negative or positive, and share their experience with the board. No experience will be left off of this and we fully realize that this board won't perform in all conditions.

The board's tentative design is intended to be a barrel hunter - a board that will work in bigger, hollow surf. However, this board will see all conditions from small clean point surf in Malibu to big barreling surf in points unknown Mexico.

I have three trips planned for this board already and am not against adding more.

If you're interested in participating in this project, feel free to email me or post on this blog and I'll be happy to figure out a way to include you in the plans.


Aloha,

Bryan