Official Waterman Group

Visit our new blog

2009-07-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

Visit our new, mo betta blog
www.officialwatermangroup.com/blog/

Aloha!

Thanks for visiting!

Our first Grom fan letter

2009-05-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Super Cool Griffin! Thanks for the fan mail.
Good luck this season!

Techniques on stopping on a longboard skateboard

2009-05-06T13:07:00.001-07:00

From http://boardsportszone.com/headline/longboarding-tips-stopping/
Cool information on stopping on your longboard skateboard. Always useful when heading down a gnarley road.

Stopping on a longboard is one of the most crucial steps to becoming a better longboarder. It may take awhile to learn some of these techniques but it’s well worth it for your safety. Besides who actually likes getting road rash?
1. Air Braking - Standing straight up with your arms out to increase wind resistance and lower your overall speed.
Wind braking is a very effective technique to decrease your speed (to about 25-30mph if done properly) and is extremely useful when doing downhill. It’s nice to be able to shave some speed off so you can take a turn easier or avoid a potential obstacle.
2. Footbraking - Taking one foot off the skateboard and dragging it along the pavement to increase friction and decrease your speed.
Footbraking is one of the most effective ways to stop and is fairly easy to learn. You simply take your back foot off the board and press it down lightly increasing the weight slowly on your dragging foot so you don’t eat asphalt. I recommend learning footbraking as soon as you start longboarding, it’s extremely useful and can save you a lot of skin.
3. Carving - Turning across the road back and forth.
Carving is probably one of the first things you’ll learn when first starting to longboard. It is one of the best ways to reduce speeds but is pretty hard to come to a complete stop when going fast. The more aggressive and wider the carves the more your going to slow down.
4. Running it off - Jumping off your longboard and trying to run off the speed.
This is probably one of the worst and most dangerous ways to try and stop when going fast. For a new longboarder this is the first thing you think of doing when you start going beyond your limits. It’s very easy to underestimate how fast your going so be sure to know you can actually run the speed off. I certainly don’t recommend this method and your sure to eat some pavement if you make a habit out of it.
5. Sliding - Breaking the skateboard’s wheels out in a controlled movement.
Sliding is hands down the most effective way to stop when longboarding and learning how to do it will make you a much better rider. It is the hardest method to learn but it is well worth it if your going to be going fast. The most popular kinds of slides are the Coleman, Bert and Standup.
6.Rolling off the road - Rolling from the road to another surface to cause friction.
This method involves rolling off the road onto some other surface such as grass or dirt to try and kill off any speed. It certainly is better than running off the board but it can be a bit risky and should only be used as a last resort.
7. Ride it out - Staying on your longboard till the road flattens and coming to a stop naturally.
The best and usually easiest method of stopping. When doing any downhill runs always make sure to scope out the bottom and make sure you have ample room to ride it out and slow down.
So get out there and start practicing these ways of stopping.

Slingshot Kiteboard Team

2009-04-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

Slingshot Kiteboard Team is falling in love... with their surf-furs! They found us in Kiteboard Magazine and figured it would be a cool product to try out. Ed Hansen wore it to the beach two weeks ago and the whole team was stoked to get one of their own!

"It is hands down the best product. We put our embroidered patches on the coat and it looks great. The kiteboard team is falling in love with them. You guys made a really cool product!" said Ed Hansen of Slingshot Kiteboarders. They wore it up North all Winter in the wind and rain. It held up to all the elements. Thanks for your support Slingshot!

What is the Surf-fur?

2009-04-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

It is a warm, soft, fleece parka. However, it is not like any other parka you have ever seen! The fabric and design allow it to be really, really functional and versatile.

The fabric qualities allow it to be wind-proof, water-proof and breathable. The two layers of polyester fleece are bonded together by an inner membrane that gives it its' wind-proof and water-proof qualities and it also allows it to be breathable so you don't ever sweat in it.

The design has several "additions" to make it really functional;

1. It has a nice big hood that is moulded to fit the shape of your head so it won't blow off easily in the wind.

2. It has inner pockets that allow hands to go through to pull down wetsuits or dry clothing.

3. An Ipod pocket with Velcro from top to bottom so you can put your money, jewelry, and other valuables in there and they won't fall out.

4.The hem on the back goes down a bit further so you can "Bend Over With Confidence."

5. Big front pockets to hold goggles or surf wax.

6. And, it is completely reversible! We are the only reversible dive parka or stadium coat on the market.

7. It is really cool looking! A really cool surf team helped us out with the "coolness factor" for our design.

We are like a Stoked up Snuggie!

Official Waterman Group

2009-04-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

The Surf-fur is finally getting it's own blog! Poor fuzzy guy has been out of touch with all those watermen out there who need to get warm and have a place to change in privacy.

We have been developing hard core gear for 7 years now. The intital idea came to us when we were out surfing at Ponto beach on January 15, 2003. It was barely light out and completely freezing. To get our bodies warm, we got into our wetsuits at home, put our bed quilts around us to warm up, and blasted the heat all the way to the beach. When we got into the water, we were actually able to stay out a little longer since we heated up in the quilt. We didn't think about how we were going to get home with our wet wetsuits and cloth carseats!!!

We decided to design a product that would be warm, soft, wind-proof, water-proof (so we could just put it on and go home to a hot shower and not have to worry about our carseats getting wet) and really cool looking. The bed quilts were not too sexy.

We spent about 5 years designing and re-designing our main product, the Surf-fur, and figured out a way to make it in a cost effective manner so that we could sell it to surf shops and dive shops all over the world. We are currently selling our product all over the world. Mom was right, if you work hard enough, you can be aything you want to be!