OCEAN

In between storms the other day, we had about 5 minutes of these amazing colours on the clouds.

We finally got in all the stuff to start printing our own shirts. This is good for us, because it means that we can dream up and create designs all in-house. Same as we do with our wax. Now whenever we get inspiration for a new shirt we can take it from just an idea straight into production in a matter of hours.

Sometimes though, and idea comes through and it’s hard to decide just which one to pick (problem of too many options). Each one has its own merits to us, but we wanted to know what you guys thought and would want to see on our latest shirt. Let us know in the comments below, on our Facebook, or Twitter.

Ocean Shirt 1

Ocean Shirt 1.2

Ocean Shirt 1.3

Thanks for taking a look, and let us know what you think.

While we liked the way our old site looked, we thought it was about time for a change of pace. The new one comes with a cleaner, more minimal aesthetic that we feel better captures what we’re about. Along with this, we have a couple things in the works that will allows us to expand the brand making it more wholesome and inclusive. Expect these things to start coming around in the next few weeks.

Here was the sketch for how we wanted the new site to turn out. I think we followed through pretty nicely.

Movement, or as it was formerly and probably still better known as the Detroit Electronic Music Festival is held every year over the three day Memorial Day weekend. The line up is always something to look forward to, and with 5 stages going non-stop for 12 hours each day everyone is able to find something they like. Saturday for us was spent at the Beatport stage which was all but taken over by the M_NUS label who put together seamless sets from the likes of Hearttrhob, Gaiser, Marc Houle, and finally closing the night the man Richie Hawtin. Sunday was at its best with three energetic sets from Richardo Villalobos, the godfather Sven Väth, closing with Carl Craig one of the pioneers of Detroit Techno. As always by the end of it all you want to do is hang out and do nothing for probably a week after, but at the same time the countdown begins for one of the greatest festivals to kick off the summer next year.
Heartthrob
Marc Houle
Richie Hawtin

Last weekend we had the amazing opportunity to see Cirque Du Soleil. Real happy that it worked out, because they were only here for four days. Without one dull moment the best way to describe it was mesmerizing. The things people are able to do strength and balance wise are absolutely amazing. The ushers were fairly adamant about not taking any pictures as they didn’t hesitate to yell out to whoever was blatantly doing it, however I was able to snag a few without being noticed but they didn’t come out as good as I would have hoped.Missing the action, but with those tramps they would do this wall walking set getting to the top and then dropping back in.The set on the ring was probably my favourite, but thats hard to say when everything was so good.Art or just missing the shot?

We take a lot of inspiration from Oakley for how to conduct ourselves as a business. This piece here really puts into focus what they have come to achieve and stand for. As a brand we try to emulate and put into practice these same kind of ideals that companies such as Oakley have.

So, its been forever since the last post.  I was really going to try to stay out of the summer lull and keep it updated, but as summer was closing out and just so much left to do before everyone had to get back at it the blog kind of went by the wayside for a little bit.  However, while some may have been worried as no news was coming from this end I’m here to tell you thats not the case.  I’ve been working pretty hard, and theres some cool stuff that I’m planning on this winter that I’m really excited about. 1, 2, 3…

1. Had a great time producing the wax again this year.  I remember the first time doing it in 2009 and not being sure what the outcome would be. The process took me off and on throughout the end of July and August to get all the bars made.  I thought that by adding more volume to the melting process things would speed up a little bit, but since I didn’t add anymore molds it actually worked against me a little bit.  One thing I would like to show is after I switched a little bit of the formula up to give more structure to the wax, the result was this really cool ‘Tortoise Shell’ texture that appeared when the wax cooled.

2. I have been talking with a few shops about selling the wax this winter, and they all seem excited about it.  Nothing is final yet as they want to test the wax out first, and I wouldn’t expect anything less of them.  I for sure wouldn’t sell/endorse anything I hadn’t had any previous experience with.  More news on this will be updated as it happens.  Hopefully we can get it into all your favorite shops.  What we look for is boutique shops that have a culture about them thats unique to each of their locations.

3. I’m looking to start of the Ocean team this season.  I haven’t spoken with anyone yet, but we have a couple guys in mind, that I would be so happy to have on the team.  More will be brought up on this as it comes.

4. I updated the web store and we’ll now have Discount Codes this season, so look out for those and when we drop them.  Some will be put out in the open, and others may need to be searched for somewhat.  Better codes will go to those who take the time to look.  Also, in the next few weeks were going to start running an add or two on NewSchoolers.

Camping for the first time was quite an experience. To say the least. Overall it was an amazing time, but there were for sure some rough spots along the way. That could be the allure of it all though, depends who you ask. Being a proficient kayaker/canoer’ definitely helped a great deal, as the river was way low making it seem like we were like Sean Connery from the movie ‘Hunt for Red October’ as he had to navigate through that ocean ridge. Needless to say we ran aground, a lot, which was tough for the couple that weren’t so experienced. A definite down spot for me was when shifting my weight my kayak half flipped, allowing a tremendous amount of water flood in soaking everything. Including my camera, which was quickly disassembled and left to dry for the next 5 days in a bag of rice. Thankfully, its all good and back in working order, the autofocus may be a little slower though. It is a point&shoot, had my other camera got wet, I would have called for immediate air evacuation. I now wont ever take my gear anywhere like that without proper protection and insurance, I guess it only takes once to realize what could actually happen. Here are a few of the photo’s from the first day before my cam went under.

We though we picked the easiest side to go down, until we came to the end and it was completely blocked off. Had to paddle back up to this little crossing near the start.

Limbo was a necessary skill set.

This year I’m going to give a few behind the scenes looks as to what goes into making the wax.  Here is how the bags are made that the wax comes in.  It’s pretty self explanatory, so just follow along.

Step 1.Step 2.Step 3.Step 4. Step5. There you have it, 10.11 Ocean bags all pressed and ready to go.  Next little look into what we do, will be about the wax, I’m just waiting for a solid block of time to devote to it.

Something I had never done, was eat crab, or any type of shellfish for that matter other than the occasional shrimp.  Anyone who has had it will tell you its quite an ordeal to go through only to yield such small quantities of meat.  Pretty eclectic undertaking with all of the tools and utensils that only a veteran crab man can wield deftly, letting them easily take half the time as it took me for one crab.  This may be a little out there, but I’d be willing to bet eating crab is like eating celery in that more calories are burned, than what you’d get from the food.Night boating has been somewhat of a hot topic lately.