6th Annual Alley Fish Fry.

Another year rolls around and lo and behold I'm back at the Currumbin Alley Fish Fry again!
The brain child of the Big Fish himself, Grant Newby, the fish fry this year opened its ranks to all manners of innovation in shaping. Originally conceived in Oceanside California as a celebration of the humble twin finned fish, the Australian event is now host to all contemporary shapers to get together with their peers and share their inspiration and ideas.
The Papa ventured out early this morning with all the best intentions of covering the meet only to find that when he arrived his camera had been ransacked of spare batteries by the man-boy 'Chip', Arrgghhh!!!
This brief pictorial was shot before the last EverReady gave up the ghost.

Eden Saul's Dead Kooks, fully resin'd, massively logular, d-fin powered.

Diverse, Blue tipped resin heaven.

The Papa Represent! Papa Torpedo shaped by Grant Newby.

Shoji Muto's 3'9" Simmon's Paipo hybrid.

Grown, from Lennox Head NSW, hollow timber and red tint fury. A 5'8" s-deck round tail single fin that just pleads fun with a capital F.

The future is fantastic! Grant Newby's innovative epoxy vacum bagged timber simmon's quad. A board in Six Hours! No glassing required, just rubbed back with superfine grit sandpaper and oiled with Lanolin this baby is fast fast fast! Beautiful Japonese 'future' fin set up packs power and adds grace.

Rivet Queen Rosie in WWII Kodachrome.

Lofgren x Heritage Research.

There's a very good reason why John Lofgren's name is appearing everywhere in the bloggersphere of late and that is because his brand is fast becoming the label of choice for a discerning clientele the world over.

John's product draws it's inspiration from a style and a quality of another time, a time when substance and tradition were considered important and pride was taken in craftsmanship and excellence. John brings a carefully curated eye while focusing on iconic details underpinned by the highest level of manufacture.

Recently a friend of the Papa's pulled into John's Speedway store in Sendai and bought me a shirt as a gift. The garment in question? A magnificent collaboration project between John Lofgren and UK based label, Heritage Research. This combined vision produced a remarkable interpretation of an early century work shirt made in a printed cotton design of spades and aimed squarely at the burgeoning market towards speciality heritage garments.

All the essential features are there, combination pocket watch and ticket pocket configuration, fob button hole, tab collar, chain stitch french seams and side gusset construction.

This shirt is truly the perfect style for the contemporary track walker or the urban yard boss and John Lofgren delivers yet again with his amazing take on rugged individualism.

The Breach.

'The breach', 45 tons of exploding Leviathan!

The Sea is my Brother.

Four days off work and its rained flat out. Surf is onshore and with the amount of outflow from the waterways it would be trecherous anyway: all sorts of debris, logs, flotsom and jetsom. Nothing to do but paint and polish my shoes! This water colour I finished today and owes its inspiration in two parts, to Kerouac and Nobbs.

Papa's War Bag.

In 1943 the Papa's Papa sailed off to the Pacific Islands to engage the forces of the Nipponese. Signalman John Tesoriero NX134804 of the Australian Imperial Forces, Number 5 section, 2nd Corps Signals packed up his swag in his Commonwealth issue kit bag and set forth on the adventure of a lifetime that would campaign up through the dense jungles of New Guinea and the swamps of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands.

Fast forward 69 years and the Papa is digging around in the garage and discovers the duffel discarded in a crate. What to do? A duffel isn't exactly a practical item to use unless heading off on a long voyage and let's face it who travels like that these days. Faced with the dilemma
of what to do the Papa contacted Matt Shallenberger of California with the idea of rebuilding the duffel into something practical and useful, something the Papa can use every day something that embraces the legacy and celebrates the Papa's linage.

The result was to remake the duffel into a spacious tote. The vertical duffel panels were cut and laid horizontal to make use of my father's stencilling, these panels were then attached to a waxed canvas bottom and leather shoulder carry straps were added.

Matt Shallenberger, photographer, bag maker and surfer did an amazing job with this collaboration.

My father was a commercial artist before the war, working with a movie theater marketing department which was an agent for MGM. He hand cut the stencil himself and then was bitterly disappointed as he applied too much paint to the dabbling brush causing the lettering to run.

Matt used the round bottom of the duffel to make the internal pocket. This was also stencilled with the shipping transport number for 5 section signals.

The Union Jack flag was also found in the crate. Its all wool and made in England, thread bare and moth eaten it represents an era before all glory had departed.

Matt Shallenberger bags are available through his blog, mattshallenbergerbags.blogspot.com or at

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mattshallenberger.
Matt is also a very talented and accomplished photographer, www.mattshallenberger.com to view his portfolio, thank Matt!

Tapa Papa.

Another ode to Melville.

Papa Nui 'Boyington' wears the Segui.

As many of you may know, Patrick Segui of 'Riveted', has been turning out these amazing reproduction t-shirts the past month or so and again I was fortunate enough to purchase one. Patrick's proviso was that each customer had to send back a photo of the t-shirt being worn. To respect not only Patrick's wishes but also to do justice to the effort he makes the Papa enlisted the assistance of Giggles his sidekick with her newly purchased Fuji X-100. Together we spent the afternoon setting up the canvas and shooting a series of fun pictures with the aid of the Papa's surplus collection. Enjoy!

Papa Nui, King of the Sea.

This would explain why I haven't posted lately. Ive recently been exploring water colours after being very inspired by a re-read of Moby Dick. Im thinking there's a club jacket vibe about these designs or perhaps I should do some transfer prints on tees, hmmm, so whose up for a Papa leviathan t-shirt then??

A Great Lord of Leviathans.

Another water colour inspired by my recent reading of Melville's Moby Dick.