Recently I was contacted by someone representing a company called Clandestino, and she asked me if I wanted to try out some of their surfing candy.  My first reaction was, “what in the world is surfing candy?”  I read a bit further, and it became clear that it was actually a small energy bar made from bananas.  Now, I absolutely love bananas.  They are my favorite pre and post surf snack since they’re packed with good stuff, and are pretty easy to carry around with you.  So, I decided to give these surfing candies a try.  I received several different varieties in the mail, as well as a brochure featuring several surfers with their faces covered wild-west style with bandanas.  The first type of candy comes in a white box, and it’s basically a small bar made from what seems to be dehydrated bananas.  It’s actually pretty tasty – a bit more sweet than a regular banana.  There are also chocolate covered varieties – milk chocolate and dark chocolate.  At first it tasted a bit different – I wasn’t sure.  But after having a few they’ve grown on me quite a bit.

I recently participated in the Revolt Summer Surf Series Pier II Pier Pro Am in Pacific Beach, and I didn’t bring enough food with me to the beach.  After surfing my first heat and making it to the finals, I didn’t have enough time to go back to the car, get money, and go buy a snack.  I also didn’t feel like running around the streets of PB in the hot sun.  After walking around the contest area I noticed a few cartons of Clandestino bars at one of the tables.  I was pretty stoked to find them there, ate two, and surfed my way to a pretty decent result in the Women’s open shortboard – placing 4th overall out of 12.  I don’t know if the bars made me surf better, but they saved my butt big time as I was pretty hungry, and I hate surfing when I’m starving since my blood sugar drops and I bottom out.

I’ll tell you what, the dark chocolate one is pretty damn good, and they are kind of fun and handy to have around.  Bananas just don’t keep very long, and sometimes I don’t have a chance to run to the store before a surf session.  These are fun alternatives, and at only 90-109 calories (for plain and chocolate), they are still pretty healthy.  A typical banana will run you around 110-120 calories.  I’d rather eat one of these things than, say, a Quaker Chewy granola bar, or a handful of pretzels or chips.  Since these are made from actual bananas (according to the company, they are Ecuadorian bananas), they aren’t just empty calories.

If you’re looking to try these out, you can buy them at the retailers listed at their website here.  For more information, you can head to the Clandestino website.

Product Review: Xcel DRYLOCK 7 mm Mittens

I recently bought myself a pair of new winter weight surf gloves.  Well, actually mittens, I’ll use both terms throughout this article.  But I am talking about mittens.  I purchased the Xcel Drylock 7 mm mittens from my local surf shop and had my doubts about how I was going to like them.  But I was wrong, for those that are just skimming, these mittens are my ATF….forever.

On and Off – The Xcel Dry Lock Mittens are hard to get into and out of, until you read the box and follow the directions.  I did not at first since, well, they’re just gloves, right?  Wrong, the box tell you to roll or fold your wetsuit up at least three inches above where it will sit when rolled back down over the glove cuff.  Next, fold the glove cuff towards the finger tips taking as much of the cuff as possible with you.  Leave the fingers of the hand you are holding the glove with, behind the fold in the cuff, then jam/squeeze/struggle/strain the hand you are trying to glove, into the mitten.  Try to get the thumb (widest part of your hand) past the cuff (which will be the tightest point).  Keep wiggling/writhing your hand deeper into the glove until you get your thumb in the thumb hole, and your fingers as deep as they are going.  Roll the cuff of the glove up your arm, and roll the wetsuit over the glove cuff.  Repeat with the other hand, which, will be a little harder since with an already gloved hand.

Getting out of these mittens can be frustrating as well.  But, again, if you just reverse the steps used to get in to get out, you should be OK.  Roll the wetsuit back until the upper edge of the cuff is exposed, get a thumb under the cuff, try to get it folded all the way around the wrist over the fat part of the hand, then slip your free thumb under the glove and use your legs to keep pressure on the glove pushing away from you, the glove will grudgingly slide off.  Don’t pull from the tip which stretches the glove material, this will cause premature degradation of water resistant nature of the gloves.

Are they Warm? -  Without a doubt, this mitten is the warmest hand covering I have used to date.  I live where the water has been in the high 30’s for almost a month, and will stay there until the end of February.  The hassle of getting them on and off is worth it.  Once in the water, my hands aren’t usually wet at all for the first half hour or so….and when my hands do get wet, I sincerely believe it is my own sweat that is the culprit.  I surfed comfortably for almost four hours yesterday.  I was definitely cold at the end, but that was due to long intervals between sets and a strong northwest wind.   My hands were toasty.  7 mm Xcel Drylock are the warmth ticket.

Dexterity – Dexterity was not a big issue with these mittens.  Certainly if I needed to play a cello or something, I’d need to use fingered gloves, but short of getting my key out from my truck hiding spot, dexterity was never an issue, and the warmth more than offsets any inconvenience that might be associated with having less dexterity.  The only action I need to do is get my leash on and off, and that was not a problem.  As long as you do not get a back zipper blow out while in the water, you shouldn’t have any problems with wearing mittens.

Price – The Xcel Drylock 7mm mittens were in the $47 range, and fortunately for me, my shop (Surf and Adventure in Sand Bridge) was having a December Wetsuit 20% off sale which was extended to all wetsuit products.  To include gloves and booties, hoods etc.  So I walked out the door with a new pair of Mittens (which I now love) for $38.  I paid $50 for my 5mm Xcel gloves last year, so this was an unexpected bonus for me.  The shop also carried another brand of lobster mitten, where the forefinger was separated from the other three fingers, they were at least $20 more expensive before the discount.  Also, the lobster glove seemed like the forefinger was too tight, I can see that finger getting very cold.  I liked and therefore bought my Xcel’s, I’m glad I did.

Durability –  It is too early to tell for sure, but these mittens seem to not be degrading at all over first two months of everyday winter use.  I noticed last year, that by the end of a full year, my Xcel drylock fingered gloves were leaking in a significant way.  But, by that time (six months of daily use), the water was no longer in the 30’s or 40’s.  If my mitten removal technique of getting them on and off helps extend the life of the mitten, I’m hoping that I can get this season and part or all of next season under my belt before they begin to leak.

Propulsive Effects – This glove gives a significant advantage over an ungloved hand in the way of providing paddle power.  But a fingered glove gives a slight advantage over the mitten.  This is more noticeable when the mitten eventually becomes full of water, it becomes more round and hence just  a little less thrust is produced.

Drawbacks - The only drawback besides being hard to get on and off (All thick gloves are hard to get on and off) is that after an hour or so, the sweat or water that does seep into the mitten, begins to deform the glove so it gives less propulsion, this is easily remedied by rolling the wetsuit towards the elbow, getting a thumb under the mitten cuff, and squeezing and manipulating the gloved hand to force the water trapped inside, out of the mitten.  Then resetting the cuff and rolling the wetsuit back down over the cuff.  I can perform this action to both hands in a minute or so.  I might only have to do this operation once or twice in a four hour session.  So, this will not likely be a factor for most surfers.  My only recommendation to glove makers is to put little durable pumps in them to draw interior water out.

Overall – When this pair of Xcel 7mm Mittens wears out, I am positive I will replace them with another set exactly like the ones I have.  Great job Xcel!  I may have to try your heavy wetsuit.

Building a quiver is one of the fun parts of surfing.  It’s great to have choices.  However, storing all those boards can be a pain.  If you are like me, you have already exhausted every available space in your garage.  Longboards, shortboards and all those odd in between shapes.  What you need is a good rack.  Or perhaps a “Nice Rack”.  The folks at Nice Rack have engineered a very simple surfboard rack and were kind enough to send me one to try on my quiver.

While I waited for my rack to arrive I decided to take a look at their website.  First of all, they have kept it very simple by only offering one product (unless you want a t-shirt or a hat).  I always agonize over choices, so the simplicity was welcome.  The site is very straight forward and includes a very helpful FAQ section if you click on the Support button.

I was very happy to learn that they are making the racks out of 100% recycled ABS plastic (I’m not sure why we don’t see this with all surf related companies).  Also, all packaging/shipping waste is recycled, and packaging materials used for shipping are re-used materials.

A single rack goes for $29.95, but if you order the quad rack (four racks) the price is only $95 and you get the shipping for free.  They also have an option of ordering additional racks with the quad at $20 a piece.  That means that you can get a seven board quiver off the floor for just over $22 a board and not have to pay shipping.  I love a bargain!

My rack arrived and I decided to install it on the side of my house so that I could clear at least one board out of my garage.  The package contained very easy to follow instructions.  It’s pretty much a no-brainer, but I thought it was really cool that they explained the 16” distance between studs to help people like me find them when working on drywall.  Even though I was installing on a wood exterior, I decided to stick with the suggested 32” stud spacing.  Installation was a breeze.

It was obvious that the Nice Rack could easily hold a shortboard, so I started off with some of my bigger heavier boards.  First was my 7’ 4” fish weighing in at just less than 18 lbs.  The fish was very comfortable on the racks so I switched it out with my heaviest board, an old beat up 9’6” longboard weighing in around 23 lbs.  The rack was holding up nicely, although now I could see some visible flex in the arms.  I felt uncomfortable attempting the 40 lb weight limit suggested on the website, so I contacted Nice Rack and was told a more conservative weight limit of 30 lbs.  I started placing weights on top of my longboard until I reached 30 lbs.  The rack was holding, but definitely showing a lot more flex.

9'6" 23 Lb longboard on the Nice Rack system

Simple is good.  The racks are lightweight, well made and easy to install.  Each rack is nicely padded to protect your favorite boards.  However, I don’t think I would go over 25 lbs. on the rack (but I doubt too many of us are lugging around anything that heavy anyway).  The website mentions using the rack for snowboards, wakeboards and kiteboards.  I could see myself using it for brooms, gardening tools, golf clubs, etc….  Bottom line, if your quiver is all over your garage, this is a great way to get organized while protecting the boards, and it looks cool.

Check out their website at The Nice Rack – Surfboard Wall Rack System

Check out their page here.  We should be putting out  a more in-depth review soon!

First of all, I signed on for the intro price which was .99 for the first month.  I figured that was ok, even if I stayed on for another month.

The system works by allowing to choose three different types of fins and then they will mail you the first available set.  You can choose longboard fins, futures, and FCS.  The selection is huge, to their credit.  Pretty much every fin under the sun is in their inventory.  This is great if you’ve got a bunch of different boards to try fins on.  For me, I’ve got a longboard, a quad, and a regular thruster, so I have a ton of experimentation to do.

The fins come in the mail with a paid envelope that you put the fins in when you’re ready to return them.

Right now I’m checking out some future F3 Hex fins for my Merrick Flyer.  The fins I got seem brand new.  No signs of wear and tear.  So far I’m loving them, but I need some jucier waves.  Luckily the swell seems to be shaping up for the rest of the week.

The system seems great, but there are a few kinks I think they need to iron out. First of all, it takes them a few days to get your fins in the mail.  I can’t really see why this should be the case, but it bleeds days out of your monthly payment.  Second, you’ve gotta keep 3 fin selections in your queue, and there’s no way of specifying which fins you want first.  So, it’s a little random in that sense, and you might not get the fins you want.

I suggest trying it out for a month.  However, if you’re going to do this make sure you’re going to be surfing!!  The problem with this system is that surfing isn’t like other activities…ya gotta wait for waves!  It seems that every time I get a new piece of wave riding equipment the ocean goes flat.  Superstition?  Probably.  But I would have been better off starting this off in the summer rather than in the late fall (which is when I signed up).  Try this out when you’re going to be able to get in the water a lot, even if the waves are small.  The good thing is there’s no time limit on returning the fins.

Check it out at http://www.thesurfboardwarehouse.com/finatic/

If you’ve tried out the Finatic program, leave a comment below with your thoughts.