Hey guys. This Friday, February 2nd at 5 pm SLT… we’ll be getting together to surf the brand new pipe waves at Chi (122, 205, 22)… come watch, come surf, come with your friends…

Sally and Poid, the owners of the full surf sim at Chi have graciously allowed us to descend en masse and try out their newly landscaped beach and newly installed surf waves. Many of the Namiko Team Riders will be out in force goofing off in the waves and trying to keep from getting crunched into the sand. Come surf with us… or if you haven’t been initiated into the life that is surfing, IM Malcolm Sydney, Seano Osumi, or Caly Sleaford for a surf lesson!

Send an IM to any of Keala Mimistrobell, Caly Sleaford, Blue Alonzo, Inara Tokyo, Suzy Shenzhou, Malcolm Sydney, Surferjoe Wind or Moin …

Things happen so quickly in SL. Just this morning, I talked to Poid Mahovlich about running our surf demo at Chi… and ended up deciding to take shop space too. So, we have a new shop location in Chi (186, 135, 30) now:

The new bikinis and surfboards are here now… come visit!

Huzzah… we have new stuff for girls this week. One of our team riders is going to Indonesia in RL next week for surfing and I got all… jealous. So instead of dwelling on that, I designed new bikinis…

Sumatra Ikat bikini set in Fuschia Gold Band

Inspired by the traditional textiles of Indonesia, these bikini sets are based on the fabrics of sarongs and selendang (shawls/slings) worn in the Palembang area of Sumatra. Executed in ikat-dyed silk, these fabrics are often trimmed with supplementary gold weft threads in ornate patterns.

These new bikinis are available at both our Toowoomba and Laguna Beach Club locations in-world. Each individual set is $195L and includes a patterned top, patterned bottom and plain bottom so you can mix and match if you like. Or get the ‘Everything’ set with both colours and patterns (a total of …

Phew. All done. Malcolm Sydney commissioned a couple boards from me earlier this month and I just had a sec to get them done. These three boards were delivered last week:

From left to right, the boards are called: Quan Li, South China Sea, and Emme B

You can see them up close and personal here or in-world.

The ‘Quan Li’ board is, of course, inspired by everybody’s favourite surf spot ?¬¢‚Äö√ᬮ‚Äö√Ñ√π Quan Li. The design on this board includes in-world photography and Keala’s handlettering. This board was a gift from Mal to Emme… ((cue: awwwww…..)).

The ‘South China Sea’ board incorporates a detailed photo taken in the Imperial Gardens at the Forbidden City in Beijing as well as a Chinese character taken from a temple in the south of China. The photo depicts some relief carvings of dragons in the white marble walls …

Late last night, Heather announced a brand, spanking new full sim pipeline setup at imagiLearning East.

Created by Virtual Bacon, the sim is hosted on a new class 5 server and should be able to handle plenty of surfers. In fact, we were thinking that this might be a great spot to host a future Namiko Surf competition

Malcolm… TP happy, was the first surfer to arrive at the new sim following Heather’s announcement

Seriously surf-crazed, Malcolm was the first surfer to TP into imagiLEARNING and ride the waves. For that, he got his photo posted on the beach!

Keala and Heather with new surfboards at imagiLEARNING

Heather has set up some new surfboard vendors here too, so you can buy or rent a surfboard on the beach here. You can take a look at all our board designs here or check them …

ATTENTION ALL NAMIKO SURFERS:

Max here. How would you like to show off your skills as a surfer? I’ve got a few ideas in my head, for a surfing demonstration. But I need YOUR help. I need some feedback.

So far, this is what Keala and I have been thinking…

It will feature SL’s top surfers doing what they do best.
Maybe take place on a Friday afternoon… maybe a 1 pm or 3 pm SLT time slot… everybody seems to be goofing off at the beach at that time anyway, why not get a little productivity in there too?
Introduce the idea of regular, scheduled surf lessons to help bring more residents to our beaches and waves…
Demo the new boards and the new tricks that Heather and Seb have designed
Model the new swimwear coming out soon for the guys and girls.
Location to be determined… …

Outside my window, it’s freezing cold and snowing intermittently… but here, I’m working in the perfect, warm sun at the beach in a bikini. It just doesn’t get better than this…

Keala positioning the surfboards next to the film screen

Vali and Keala hard at work…

Can I say, ‘I love my job’?

We’re getting set to host a simultaneous live feed of the upcoming Sundance film premiere for ‘Four Eyed Monsters’. Vali has done a gorgeous job of building out the stage platform and the collection of palm trees behind the screen. I’ve added several surfboards to the set, and we’ll be having some friendly surfers and team riders hanging out on stage before the film. In fact, two of our newest team riders, Emme Bourjade and Malcolm Sydney, will be hanging out before the show… they are both super friendly, take wicked …

PRESS RELEASE ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù FOUR EYED MONSTERS:

The Sundance Channel is presenting a screening of the PREMIERE of the INDEPENDENT film ?¢‚Ǩ?ìFour Eyed Monsters?¢‚Ǩ¬ù in Second Life on January 9th 2007 at 5 p.m. SLT (PST).

The Laguna Beach Club is proud to present a simultaneous live video feed of the film and Q & A with the filmmakers Arin Crumley and Susan Buice at our beachfront location ocean side and under the stars in the beautiful Laguna sim (175, 55, 23).

Try the Sundance Channel venue first, but if you can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get in, the Laguna Beach Club is the place to be. Relax, mingle, and sip a virtual cocktail in our tropical paradise with your SL love while you catch a full presentation of the film that has captured the spirit of virtual love and romance in the world today.

To celebrate this …

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been busy setting up a second location for Namiko Surf Co. at the Laguna Beach Club. It’s crazy busy around here with a sim full of nude beach residents and me trying to put up shop posters… but it’s all coming together!

Keala working late at Laguna

The exciting news is that I’m working on developing a dozen or so new surfboard designs with Sebastian Saramago that will be available for sale at the Laguna shop in a few days or so… For a preview, head on over to the shop and see the sample boards… (Laguna/183/87/22)

Exterior of the new Namiko Surf Co. Laguna Beach Club location

Inside of the shop so far…

There is a new collection of boardshorts (for guys or girls) called ‘Slash’ and bikinis called ‘Cocoa Beach’. Each collection features five new colours derived …

Yesterday, December 16th, was my one-month birthday! And what better way to celebrate than to be a part of your very first fashion show…

Keala… on her one-month birthday

Through a friend, I met Aki Clutterbuck, the owner and founder of a new sim called Silva Mura. As a part of the grand opening for Silva Mura, she arranged for a fashion show, DJ, arts and crafts fair and afterparty. I was really fortunate to be one of the designers featured in the fashion show. Namiko Surf Co was the first up in the show.

My uber-talented friend, Joe, came to take photos of the event:

Joe, Extropian and Keala watching things get set up at Silva Mura

Princess, Pre-Show

Calisto, Pre-Show

Inara in Camo Boardshorts (Slate)

Inara in Camo Boardshorts (Stonewall)

Princess during the show in Shibori Clouds Bikini Top (Indigo Light) and Camo Boardshorts (Granite)

Calisto and Keala, …