Field Notes 03
Welcome to episode three of our short film series, Field Notes, filmed and edited by Jack Coleman. In this episode we're joined by some very talented shredders Makala Harmony Smith and River Covey gliding with style on some new Gato Heroi sleds! Makala is riding her dashing, abstract resin tinted 9'7" Fluer while River takes to his crisp, clean 9'8" Californian. These boards are incredibly fun for a diverse spectrum of waves. Robin Kegel, the shaper behind Gato Heroi, has been building boards since he was a teenager, first getting his start here in Costa Mesa as well as Dana Point, Kegel is now in his 30's and widely known for pushing the envelope of surfboard design on an international level (amongst other things like working with Acne Studios developing fashion campaigns). He travels from country to country shaping massive batches of boards for lucky folks in California, Australia, Japan, Italy, and his home base in France. We're beyond jazzed to currently have a large stock of Gato Heroi's available in our shop to purchase new or demo through the Daydream Research Center.
Kegel pulls a lot of design influence from surfing's Transition Era of the late 1960's to shoot for a well rounded approach to dynamic logging allowing the surfer to ride the board from nose to tail and surf each wave with a speed oriented flow. There are few better cats out there to demonstrate the proper way to approach surfing Gato Herois than Makala and River. Makala really exemplifies the effortlessness of rolling her Fluer over from rail to rail off the beautifully arching pin tail with style and grace wile keeping her feet actively dancing around on the board. River's similar clean flow on the Californian is juxtaposed by his unpredictable lines from taking off fin first and hanging five off the tail to switch stance noseriding with full control. Gato Heroi has a great group of advocates to illustrate the creative intersection of historical surfboard design influence with a contemporary refinement that Robin Kegel employs.
A special thanks to Jack Coleman, Makala Harmony Smith, River Covey, and Robin Kegel for all being so talented at what they do.