This blogspot is not co operating. As I try to input it won't so this is short. Grellboards, Snurfer, Novak, all original brands. Lets go. CJG

Ok, there it is, that little cursor on the blank screen telling me its ok to type now. I learned to type on a typewriter, it was a state of the art machine and the girl next to me kept me going. I never regretted learning to type, punctuation and spelling have always been a challenge. I leave that to the results of the Belgium experiment. Regardless, all this nonsense, has gotten met to where I am now.

The Snurfer Brand is back, I actually had the chance to see a photo of their new "Snurfer Truck", its not what I would have chosen but then they are trying to capitalize on what Sherman Poppen did back in the 1960's. I hope they built in a legacy program to help take care of some of the pioneers that brought them to this point. Lesson learned, there are almost 7 million snowboarders in this world, not such a big number as other sports but still substantial. If I has 1/2 of one percent of that market I would have to build 60,000 boards. Thats a jump from my humble beginnings. I'm sure the new snurfer brand has done its homework and is hoping to achieve Sherman's and Brunswick's success of the 1960's where the produced around 500,000 boards at a price of $10-20 each. I love the Snurfer, the last time I saw mine was at the SIA show in Las Vegas, Tom Sims had it on his old boards display wall, that's another story. As if anyone give a shit and reads my Banter. Tom was a good friend, employer, competitor and visionary. I miss our occasional talks, emails and seeing him. It makes me cherish my old friends all the more.

Anyway, what I need to do is sell boards. Give me a reason to have them built.

There are 3 models

G-42 for Kids
G48 for Adults
G-60 for big adults

Anne's Round three Chemotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplant starting Monday, November 10th

I don't know how to feel about this, it is inevitable that this is what has to be done. You go and get admitted into the hospital, you sign a bunch of forms, they find you a room and it starts. I'm not sick but my wife is, she has Plasma Cell Myeloma and with out this bone marrow transplant she would die within a year. So here we are on the eve of her transplant. They are going to give her six (6) days of intravenous Chemo, as the doctors explain it, they are essentially wiping out her existing immune system and replacing it with one from a donor. The transplant will take place on the 8th day and at that time she will be pretty wiped out. They will be giving her all kinds of stuff to prevent infections, graft versus host disease, anti viral, anti fungal, along with stuff to make her feel better. Can you say, Hickman catheter, allogenic transplant, a month in the hospital, then 4 months of house arrest with a full time caregiver. For me, I will do the best I can, try and stay focused on what lies ahead and to continue living my life to the best of my ability. Anne will be at the UCSF medical center in San Francisco. I will continue to build my boards and evolve my designs, while separating myself from all the BS that comes along. Enjoy every day as though it is your last, life changes and one must adapt of suffer. I chose to adapt. JG

.blogspot.com/-nd-WtKnSTek/VF5I8NK4AxI/AAAAAAAAAYE/pcLO4Pzx35M/s320/933.JPG" />

More trials of life and I'm still building boards

Just when you thing you've got things undercontrol, expect the unexpected. If you've been reading my intermittent posts on this blog you would have read about my brothers trials with diabetes, totally out of the blue and in retrospect, his timing was pretty good. My timing was pretty good and we got him the care he needed and now he is doing great. Fast forward another month and a half and Jay is doing great, still needs his insulin, but he up to #170 and feeling good. As all this transpires, I am still finding time to build a board here and there and continue experimenting. The new boards are the best yet and have the MST husk technology which allows me to build a 3 dimensional base contour with a Ptex base and get all the curves right. Then back to my story, we have a great trip to San Onofre to go spend time with family and friends and surfing. Two days later, Anne has to check into the UCSF medical center ICU, her multi myeloma has mutated into plasma cell leukemia. After much soul searching, a roller coaster of emotions and $400K in medical, a good reason to have insurance for all of you who don't; Anne came home, after Chemotherapy, Leukopheresis, bone marrow biopsy, quinten cather, pic lines and a view of the city from her room. Having a loved one home gives me good reason to build yet another board. Tomorrow or perhaps the next day that would be 9/23 or 9/24 she goes back to UCSF for phase two of her Chemotherapy, then in another 3 weeks she gets to come home for another week. Beyond that there is the transplant phase and that will take another 5 months and we need to find a place within an hour of the hospital as she will be undergoing an Allogenic transplant, that is donor stem cells from someone else, hopefully a close family member will be a match. Between visits to the hospital, time alone at home, some of these boards may be my best work yet. Love your family, hug your wife, your kids and cherish every minute. Chief JG

Trials of life

As the days passed by, Jay afterall got better from his unexpected illness. It was one of those trials in life that test what you are made of and with alot of support from friends and family things turned out OK. Now that the tough part is over, we are receiving the bills from the hospital, interestingly enough, when you rack up a $120,000 bill without insurance, they deduct %90. That is still around $12,000. Another thing to consider when you are traveling is travel insurance, but don't let them fool you, the insurance is only good for the dates specified by the initial travel itinerary, if you make a change they don't carry the insurance over to the next leg of the trip, be careful of that.

I am home and I am ready to get back to building boards. With renewed excitement and a trip to TAP Plastics, I can get back to building the next round of MST Husks and Grellboards combo. The new boards are UHMW bases, with an epoxy, carbon fiber, fiberglass construction. The new boards are super strong, lightweight, wider to accomodate a real foot size and flexible the way a modern snurfer should be.

Meanwhile, here in California, it is hot, dry and we need water. People are changing habits to conserve water, the latest thing I heard today is in Cambria, they are renting portable toilets rather than use the water it takes to flush the household toilet. Interesting happenings, this is the stuff that makes California great, alot of innovation ahead.
CJG

Outta there

As each day winds down, I look forward to what the next day will bring.
Today is the day that my brother gets released from the Swedish Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. It all started on Monday morning, what a ride its been over this week. A full range of emotions, anxiety all mixed together. Now my bursitis is back and my right knee is stiff. So if that the worse of it I'm doing pretty good. Jay goes home tomorrow morning, a flight from Denver to San Jose, Costa Rica. He'll be in loving arms by 2:15 tomorrow afternoon. Its been great to spend time with my brother, I know he can't wait to get home.
I feel the same, I get to restart my trip west tomorrow afternoon, my goal is to cross the rockies. After that Utah, then on to California. My route is about 1278 miles. It should take me two days, my goal is to be at the house on Sunday evening. We'll see how that turns out. JG

Road to recovery

What a difference a day makes, we got to the Critical Care Unit at Denver's Swedish Medical Center to find my brother awake, talking and realizing that he is in the hospital. Most of you won't ever know my brother but he is one of the most creative artists around. I don't even know where to start but to say I am relieved, he made it through a tough emergency visit to the critical care unit. It came on gradually and fast together. I didn't read into his symptoms early enough  and could have prevented some of this, if I could do it over... Jay lives. That's the most important thing and soon he will be home in his beloved Costa Rica and I know the country will embrace him and take care of him just like the good people of Denver have.

Once again something came up and we tackled it head on and prevailed. For many of us, we will never know when, where, how or why, just move beyond yourself and reach out and get the job done.
JG

Prayers for my awesome brother

It all started out with Jay arriving at New York LaGuardia, I found him waiting for me at the curb. It is always a great day to see my brother and I knew that we would get to spend a few weeks together in Bridgewater as we cleaned out mom and dads house. As it turned out it was a lot of work and we managed to get it all done. We never had any disagreements and we got it done and were ready to leave to take mom and dads stuff home to California. This past Friday, we had done all the heavywork and manage to hit the road around 10 am. We drove all day and made it to Ohio. Day two we got up early and left Ohio and made it to Illinois. Day three was the tough one and I started out driving. I found we were stopping more often than usual as Jay needed to relieve himself more than what I thought was norma. Anyway, at some point along the way, I realized that Jay wasn't %100, so I took over driving with a destination of Mike Troppman's house in Roxborough Village. I managed drive most of the 800 miles to get us to our destination and when we got there Jay was wiped out.
He went right to bed and I figured that it would pass and in the morning he would be ok, that was my first mistake. He wasn't better, he was much much worse. We managed to get him out of bed and to the emergency room. The Doctor on call did a great job and the next thing we know he was in the Intensive Care Unit at the Swedish Medical Center in Denver. The told me that typically anyone with blood sugar over 1000, should have died. Jay managed to get through that especially tough part and his levels are now under 400. They don't know what caused this and will get to the bottom of it in the next few days. Lesson here is don't wait when your loved ones are really sick, if in doubt bring them to the professionals and those few minutes could save their lives.