Thanks to the Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, Friends of the Foothills and all of the other organizations and individual supporters, the T.C.A. has stalled momentarily. We see this as a great time to spread the word even more…Grab a Save Trestles stencil and paint a trash can!

Please Come to the California Coastal Commission Meeting Oct 11
in San Pedro, California

The most important public hearing to Save Trestles will take place on Thursday October 11 in San Pedro (near LA) when the California Coastal Commission hears an application for the toll road through San Onofre State Park.

Please Visit SaveTrestles.org for more Information.

This IS NOT the time to be laissez-faire about the toll road issue. If we do not show our support at the Coastal Commission hearing, they will grant the T.C.A. approval to proceed.

After a very small break the T.C.A. has geared up for the war and YOU need to be there. We need to pack the house with “Save Trestles” supporters! The toll road item is scheduled to be heard after noon; so you can safely come after lunch to see the show-down. Visit http://www.coastal.ca.gov/mtgcurr.html to see the agenda for the meeting.

Please show your support by attending the meeting on Oct 11. The meeting will take place at:

Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor Hotel
601 S. Palos Verdes Street San Pedro, CA 90731

If you live in South Orange County or San Diego and want to take a memorable bus ride with other Surfrider supporters, Surfrider will be renting buses so let Stefanie know if you want space on the bus: SSekich@surfridersd.org Buses will depart from the Trestles parking area and Laguna Hills mall on the morning of the 11^th.

Vestal shipped in what looked like a Marshall “full stack” last week. If you’re not familiar with guitars or guitar amps, a Marshall full stack is the industry standard for uber-loud speaker cabinets. The kind that make your neighbors want to run if you hold band practice in the garage, also a great way to get back at them for calling to police on your last party.

Just about any concert you could possibly attend, will produce at least one Marshall cabinet, if not a whole wall of them (see Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC). The Marshall look-a-like Vestal sent us is actually a display case for Vestal watches, so no, you can’t plug into it, but how punk is that! (see photo below) Unlike a real full stack, the slant cabinet actually sits on the bottom with the straight cabinet on the top, slightly elongated, with glass windows to display the watch line.

For more on Vestal watches, click here for Vestal Men’s Watches or Vestal Women’s Watches or click here to see more Vestal products.

Bryce Hard At Work In The Shop

Read More From The NSSA Site:

http://www.nssa.org/newsmanager/templates/NSSAArticle.aspx?articleid=334&zoneid=1

It’s hard to think that just a few decades ago if you wanted a pair of surf trunks that would last longer then one session, you had to visit one of the very few places that could accommodate your needs by making a pair of custom surf trunks. The process started off by getting fitted. A fitting is the process where you get your measurements taken and I’m not just talking about your waist measurement, if you know what I mean. By doing this you could customize every aspect of how your boardshorts would fit you; waist size, how long, bagginess, etc.

Then onto fabric, in most cases you had two options; you could choose from what the “tailor” or “shop” had available or bring in your own fabric.

After your own custom fit and fabric selection, came design. In most cases, if you could dream it, then you could get it sewn. Pockets no pockets? Where do you want your pocket to go? Stripes? Where, horizontal or vertical, how wide, what color?

This was you! This was your identity! As you walked towards the water you wanted to stand out and be noticed, here I am! Not that the odd looking diving board under your arm wasn’t enough to get noticed back in the day. If you belonged to a surf club, chances are, you all wore trunks with the same design or at least had the same club jackets.

I know that in the last almost 50 years, there have been some pretty “creative” boardshorts that have left this building. That’s the story of how this surf shop got its start. Local surfers where buying swim trunks (made for a pool) from department stores, using them to surf in and leaving the beach in em“bare ass”ment.

Back in the 50’s, Walter and Nancy Katin were in the business of making custom canvas boat covers and were approached by a local surfer who needed a pair of trunks that would last more then a session or two. Using the same heavy canvas fabric (used to make boat covers) and the sewing equipment to sew through it, the Katin’s made their first pair of custom surf trunks.

Walter Katin & Sato Hughes with Customer (circa 1967)

Sadly Walter Katin passed in 1967 and Nancy Katin in 1986. The Katin’s left the business to Sato Hughes, the seamstress behind the legendary custom surf trunk name.

Today Glenn Hughes owns the surf shop and it was (and still is today) Glenn’s mom Sato Hughes who has been the technician behind the sewing machine all of these years. I caught Sato with her latest custom surf trunk creation …and it was a photo waiting to happen.

Sato Hughes and customer designed custom surf trunks

Through the years, one can only imagine the crazy styles and colors of boardshorts leaving this building.

I asked Glenn, having grown up in the shop, “What’s the wildest pair of custom trunks you remember”? Thinking he would reply with something like “bear skin” or “cow hide”, he cracked a huge smile and said, “See through!” A customer was fitted for a pair of custom trunks and brought in his own fabric, which happened to be see through. Now that’s individuality and can only imagine that this would cause way more attention on the beach then bear skin or cow hide.

I receive calls and email everyday about “long distance” custom surf trunk orders with questions like; “Can I email in my measurements?”, or “can I have my tailor call you with my measurements?” But just like your favorite restaurant or tattoo artist, you have to visit us.

Let see if this place, on this day (April 11th 2007), will make it into the mags. I didn’t see anyone else taking photos except one guy from the water, (who I didn’t even know was there until I looked at the photos on my computer). The mags had to have someone on this right, being that they are also located in S.O.C.?

Ironically it was Wednesday, does giant surf just hit Wednesday’s like a magnet or what?  I haven’t seen a place light up like this for a while, here are some photos. A few more can be found in the Photo Gallery.

Clean, Clear Water - Thanks Surfrider!

Set Wave - Yes Those Are People

Don’t Get Caught Inside (you’ll put your eye out)

O.K., normally we wouldn’t blog about a product, but we just received these new sandals from Reef and I had to spread the word.The sandal is called the Dram, and if you’re under 21 years old please close your eyes and cover your ears. The Dram features a flask like type of “liquid holding device” in the heels. Reef calls this a, “Polyurethane encapsulated canteen in heel with screw cap“…we just call it cool!

Now, I don’t want to give anyone bad ideas or condone anything unruly, but these babies hold enough to make a few “mixed drinks”! Following in the heels of the immensely popular Fanning Sandal (which offers a bottle opener concealed in the heel), the Dram goes the distance helping us all become drunk and disorderly.

Not sure how much “liquid” you have left, flip the sandal over and check out the cool handy visual gauge (1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, and 7/8) embedded into the sole showing how much “milk” is left in the heels of your sandals.

The Dram features a screw cap (located on the side of the sandal) which opens with an included Reef church key / fin key. The key alone is amazing, not only will it help you open and close the Dram’s cap, but it’s a fin key and a bottle opener…how James Bond is that! The Dram also comes with a miniature funnel to make sure every little bit makes it in to your new best friend.

Right… the sandal part, the Dram features;

• Water friendly synthetic Nubuck upper
• Contoured compression molded EVA footbed with anatomical arch support
• Polyurethane encapsulated canteen in heel with screw cap
• Cap opens with included exclusive Reef church key / fin key
• Unique shaker icon molded Reef rubber outsole

This is a shot of the flask - canteen, from the inside of the left sandal.

Here’s another shot of how the flask - canteen fits into the heel

Here’s a shot of the included church key / fin key and mini funnel

Here’s a shot of the bottom, you can see the Dram’s visual gauge on sole.

So, by now I’m sure you can imagine all the possibilities…

Imagine going through the security check point at your local airport, as you throw your sandals into that plastic bin thingy, then watch the place light up when the people sitting behind the x-ray jump up and start screaming.

You can check out other colors here Dram Sandal

So, last week we’re looking through the new Hurley Young Contemporary (Hurley Girls) product images for Spring 2007 and noticed “Tessa” from MTV’s
Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County doing some modeling. We thought we’d share some of the photos with you.

Nice job Tessa!

Hurley Girls: Twelve18 Hoodie

Hurley Girls: Palms Hoodie

For those of you living under a rock or in a time warp, The Duel is comprised of twenty cast members from previous episodes of MTV’s reality shows Real World, Road Rules and Fresh Meat. The Duel takes place in beautiful Brazil where alumni cast members compete against each other for the chance to win a half of a million dollars. Apparently a few of the cast members have been seen wearing Katin clothing and by the photos emailed to us, more then a few of you watch the show.

So, here’s a few screen shots sent in from the show;

In this screen shot Eric models the Kontender surf trunk - boardshort, the most popular surf trunk - boardshort ever made and going strong. We affectionately call it the “159″ and it’s been around since the mid 1950’s.

In this shot Diem is sporting a plaid Katin trucker hat, complete with Katin “toe nail” patch and the Icon Sherpa hooded sweatshirt.

I hope MTV is nice and does not sue us,

Keep the photos coming…