Riding a wave of Tappy

We love it when Takuya “Tappy” Yoshikawa comes to visit, although this time was a flying visit that became a flurry of activity resulting in some absolutely beautiful boards that are now going in to adorn our rack.

Tappy is the embodiment of a Japanese master craftsman. In true sensei style everything he does is meticulous, well thought out, and of course, has a ton of planning that’s happened well in advance. Even though we’d been communicating for weeks prior to his arrival, it is still incredible to see him arrive at the Temple and plough through all that foam to make so many beautiful and practical boards in so little time and without any superfluous effort or time, he did get as many surfs as he could daily while here.

We are just going to look at five of the boards he left us here, all of which fall into the log category, and all of which are heavily glassed with two layers of 6oz. Volan across the top and a single layer of 6oz. across the bottom with a generous tail patch where the fin box lives.

Four of them are his sought after Goliath models. And we wanted to make something of a set from these four. Playing with a bright pallet, we have glassed them all with the decks in a solid bright coloured opaque resin then to mix it up, we have added a tinted resin to the bottom. Take a look for yourself, they all came out bloody amazing.

The fifth log he made for us, in as yet unnamed model, had to be something really special, and we really think it is. For the deck, we came up with these incredible red and blue deck panels giving it an awesome retro homage while the bottom shows off the surprising subtle green colour that Volan glass brings to a clear resin finish.

Like all of the boards Tappy has shaped for us over the years, these will not last long so if you want to see them up close, make a beeline to the Deus Temple of Enthusiasm in Canggu, Bali.

Images by Andy Mac