Media...
Ok, most of the news and pictures are spreading through the web nowadays... hence is still good to see riders with RT surfboards appearing in printed magazines!
Lately I spotted the RT rooster on a couple of them:

The first one is the italian magazine "SportWeek", featuring a Leo Fioravanti interview (funny the photo with my dog Livarot!)

The second is the #309, April issue of Surf Session:

It starts with a double page interview of Tom Dubos, from Martinique.

Pauline Ado got a nice pic...

Romain Laulhé, PV Laborde and Kelly Bikoumou went to Senegal last February and scored.
The magazine published an 8 pages article on the trip, even if, from what I heard, the pics are not as good as the actual wave is...
PV Laborde got the opening double spread...

and a good sequence:

Kelly got a nice pic as well

Paullou Laborde
The board with the green spray is a C-max 6'0" x 18.20" x 2.25"
The board with the orange and green stripes is a  C3 5'10" x 18.20" x 2.13"

Tristan Guilbaud interview on "Xookazine"

http://www.xookazine.nl/sexy-surfer-van-de-week-tristan-guilbaud/

Sexy surfer van de week: Tristan Guilbaud

This sexy Protest teamrider originally came from Vendee where he grew up and started surfing. Eventually he moved to Bayonne to train at a federal training centre for 3 years. The naturel-footer loves to be in the water ‘surfing allows me to free my mind, to have fun and to push my boundaries’, Tristan says. Surfing is like a drug to him and when he’s not in the water, he is spending time with his girlfriend, friends and family, gettin’ out of the surfing bubble just to take a breath…
1. Name / age / hometown
Hi! I’m Tristan Guilbaud, 22 years old from Vendée ( North-ouest coast of France )
2. When did you started surfing?
I started surfing when I was 10, on a board that my dad shaped in the back of the garage.
3. Name one of your best memories of a trick or trip?
The best memory of a trip was in Reunion Island. I spent 2 months last year with my girlfriend and best friends, surfing everyday in boardshort, in crystal clear water. I had the best lefthand barrels of my life in secret spots with only a couple friends in the water. What
more can you wish for?!
4. What’s your favorite after surf dinner?
My favorite after surf dinner will start with a big mixed salad then a whole fish with basmati rice to finish with some fruits.
5. Anything you want to give out to girls who are surfing or want to go surfing (tips)
Never forget to enjoy being in the water, smile, stay positive and keep trying as hard as you can.

Barrel fest in Hossegor

feat. (among others) RT riders Romain Laulhe, Paullou Laborde, Tristan Guilbaud, PV Laborde...

Victoria Vergara & Tristan Guilbaud 
A new edit by Tristan, sharing some waves in Costa Rica with his girlfriend and surfer Victoria Vergara...
Tristan is mainly surfing a C-small 5'11" x 18.50" x 2.25" swallow tail

Shit happens, machine upgraded
As sometime happens, a failure finally ends-up with an improvement!
All of a sudden we experienced a crazy streak of different minor problems with our shaping machine that poisoned the production for almost 10 days.
Well went through some headache to sort it out, but as a result we have now a new engine and some new parts that make the machine more reliable and the cut more accurate with an even closer tolerance to the final shape.
Production is on!

  

Titouan Dubos
Titouan is 14, from Martinique.
I love to see him progress and bring his surfing to the next level, while we share ideas and feedback to create boards that follow his progression and growing...
He surfs here a C-small 5'4" x 17.50" x 2.00" swallow tail

The new flick of Aldric God
by Andy Benetrix

Harry de Roth
A little video of Harry surfing at the scholastic championship last week-end...

Leonardo Fioravanti interview: Il Giornale
Here is the interview of Leo on the italian newspaper "il Giornale".
You can read it on the web at this address:
http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/interni/909122.html

Tristan Guilbaud, Vendée...

Tristan Guilbaud Bud

To read the full article:
http://www.thebottomturn.fr/news/973-tristan-guilbaud-session-vendeenne.html

2013 British School Championship
Harry de Roth stormed through both U16 and U18 division but came short in the finals getting respectively 2nd and 3rd. A good result nonethelesss for Harry, who was surfing a Module 5'8" x 18.65" x 2.25" swallow tail.
Here is a selection of photos from the event (credit Rob Tibbles):

Steeve Seilly in Central America

More reinforcements
Spring is blossoming with new options... here are the last tail reinforcements: carbon fibers and colored glass available in 4 different colors.
We are testing the boards to evaluate how they react and subsequentially make the better use out of each reinforcement.
Work in progress...

PV Laborde one wave bomb
One big barrel scored by PV last wednesday...
Looks like he is still using the trusty 6'0" he used to win the RipCurl Pro trials in Portugal last October.
The board is a C3 (mix) 6'0" x 18.06" x 2.13" round tail, with a FCS convert set-up.

A fresh quiver for Pauline Ado
After more than two month off for the Austalian leg of CTs and QS, Pauline is back with plenty of ideas and upgraded needs. After a good talk and an interesting check of a couple of good boards she got in Australia, I shaped a new ''test'' quiver tweaking here and there the shapes she's used to surf, attempting to improve them.
Various depth of concave, changing entry rockers, different outlines and tail designs make for different shapes while using pretty much the same measurements for all the boards.
She got as well the new screwless FCS 2 system...
Left to right:
Module2 5'8" x 18.20" x 2.13"(actually an unusually narrow Module with the tail outline borrowed from the Verdi)
C-small altered 5'8" x 18.20" x 2.13" (this one is really a patchwork: the rocker and bottom contour are from the C-small, the nose is from the Module and the tail from the Verdi)!
C3 test1 5'8" x 18.13" x 2.13" (these are pretty much regular C3 with some still secret alterations...)
C3 test2 5'8" x 18.13" x 2.13"

I have no idea whether the boards will work or not (I assume that some will and some other will not, as usual) but as I was looking at them all together I couldn't help to think that after decades of shaping I'm still thrilled, excited and amped by the view of a fresh new quiver ready to be surfed. I'm pretty positive now that this "disease" will last for life..!  

We've got some new screw-less FCS system to test since the end of the 2012 summer and it looks like everything is working good. 

Here are a couple of new Pauline boards equipped with the new fins and boxes. No need for the screws, the new fins snap in and hold. 

Still you can insert the screws to use the old fins in the new boxes...

The system isn't yet available for production, but it shouldn't be long before we can offer it... stay tuned!   

Art
A couple of boards decorated by Ste Atzori.
More to come about that...

English boards 
Here are a couple of mini quivers that are going to England.
The first two are for English champ Jayce Robinson.
Starting from the shapes he likes to use in small to medium conditions, I played around changing some details that I hope will eventualy make the shape even better.
He's trying some new tail reinforcements as well...
Left: MODv 5'7" x 18.50" x 2.20", a "normal" Module, with a different bottom contour, finishing with a Vee off the tail
Right: MOD2 5'8" x 18.50" x 2.20" all the Module specs mixed with the pulled-in tail outline of the Verdi

The four boards quiver is for Harry de Roth.
As a young, up and coming surfer, I think he need to try different styles of boards in order to feel and recognize the type of shape he's more comfortable with.
I shaped 4 different models hoping he'll get some good feeling out of them...
Left to right:
MODv 5'8" x 18.65" x 2.25"
C-small 5'9" x 18.50" x 2.20"
Verdi 5'10" x 18.20" x 2.13"
C3 5'10" x 18.20" x 2.13"

Crevettes tour 2013
I'm happy to see Kilian winning with his brand new board!  
I'm wondering if he even got the time to test the board before the contest, but it looks like it's working!
Kilian is surfing a 4'8" x 15.65" x 1.75"

Tail reinforcements
In the endless search to make the boards better, stronger, lighter, etc... we've been playing with tail reinforcements lately.
Here is an example of how things can get interesting: for the boards pictured in the top photo we placed the the reinforcements with the carbon fibers to follow the fiberglass pattern (roughly with 0° and 90° pattern); for the boards in the bottom photo, we got the carbon fibers crossing with a 45° angle.
The boards are out now to be brutalized... and consequently analyzed.
To be followed...