Wednesday, July 28, 2010

John Cherry with his 11 foot balsa glider




John was kind enough to let me grab a few portrait shots as we talked about surfboard building and surfing in general. I think he was a bit startled and somewhat amused when i pulled out my duct taped, rickety old crappy toy camera out of my bag. I wish I had my rolleiflex tlr as these shots probably would have worked better had i had proper glass. That said i kinda dig the shot and I hope he is pleased with the photographs as it was an incredible pleasure to hang out with him and shoot his true art.

I am blown away with the work that goes into these beautiful boards- glued up "blanks", templated (rocker and plane shape), spot glued, shaped, disassembled, chambered (sp?), re-glued all before glassing. over 70 hrs per board- a true labor of love!!

If you have not visited john's blog check it here http://woodenshipsbyjcherry.blogspot.com/

3 comments:

Toddy said...

Rad rad rad.

Unknown said...

nice work - both of you
how much do these boards weigh?
carrying a longboard from Main beach to Granite Bay at Noosa can be rewarding in the slide dept but a bugger on the neck & shoulders

turtle said...

I like how his hands rest on the board. Ever since I saw Stieglitz's hand portraits of O'keefe, I have always been fascinated by the hands of artisans and the stories their weathering tells.