Benji Weatherly's "Little Humans Surf Contest" rolled up on D-street last weekend. Unfortuneatly the surf was meager (just as it has been most of the summer) but with ASR, The Trestles Contest, and The Surfer Poll awards all happening in the last week, there were no shortage of Pro's hanging out and rooting on the all the groms competing.



Rizal even made the trip all the way from Bali to attend ASR and take care of some biz over on this side of the planet. (pictured with my son Mason aka "Jojo the idiot circus boy")

In a time when it is easy to criticize our Govt. it's good to see that there are people whom still remember those whom served and those lost in battle both now and in the past. Check out this paddle and benefit for not only Vietnam vets but any Veterans of our Military. A big THANKS for your service and commitment to our Country! Click here for more info

Maku in September Riviera San Diego

Just a quick image from Johnny’s Riviera San Diego debut.

Gillian and her team do an excellent job of giving company’s that are based locally or have a strong local tie some extra help.

Having lived in NYC for a number of years, in addition to reading more than my fair share of magazines due to the nature of my job, I can tell you the Riviera team holds their own with the best of them editorially and from a production standpoint.

Besides featuring a giant picture of infamous West family pooch Diego, the article also gives props to local retailer Grounded and the Maku's favorite shaper Cole Simler . If you've never checked out one of Cole's boards, do so. Real beauties that even kooks like the PR guy can appreciate.

BTW – Maku is in the Riviera SD version, not OC. The covers are the same and some bookstores carry both, so look out before you buy.

Riviera Magazine Had their 3rd Anniversary party a few nights ago at the JetSource Hangers at Palomar Airport here in Carlsbad. The party was off the hook! Gillian and crew definetly know how to rock in high end style - Ferrari 308 Spider Gt's, Bentley's, and of course what party would not be complete with out a $23 million Private Jet sitting off to the side for all the attendees to chill in... I figure it would take about 4 stops on that thing for us to get to Bali! maybe one day... :)

Here some pics taken with my cell phone, sorry for the poor quality.







By the way, HUGE THANKS to Gillian and her editorial staff for the profile of myself and Maku in their 3rd anniversary issues. It's on news stands now so go get yourself a copy. Autographs are free.... hahaha!

Logo placement!

Check out these 2 killer shots from TW Surf of Rizal and notice the Maku stickers on his board... SWEET!

Riz @ Padang Padang (that wave is so good you gotta say the name twice... hahaha!)


Riz and his wonderful wife Chandra in their backyard.

Goggle gone green...

Check out this new Eco friendly search engine. http://www.blackle.com/ Pretty rad that it can save so much wattage by just having a black background... Hmm, there might just be something to that look. paging Josh our web developer guru!

Flat waves and busy days...

WOW, I can't believe the last 2 weeks have gone by so fast. Sorry for no updates... Lots of cool stuff happening, too bad that there is nothing happening with the surf this summer. This is for sure one of the flattest summers in the last 10 yrs! Although the water is a balmy 77 degrees as told by my trusty suunto watch while I was out groveling on a longboard trying to catch a few knee high nuggets, the surf has left a lot to be desired and there are plenty that are jonesing for a good surf session. Fortunately, it looks like waves are on the way. Check the surf forecast out!

So lots to report, new production arrived and it looks great despite the drama in getting the container here (long story...) We continue to get more partners on board at the retail level and our cool little furniture project is picking up steam!


One of our newest partners is 2modern.com and you can check out all the Maku stuff at 2modern by clicking here . The crew @ 2modern did a killer write up on their blog giving Maku some serious props, thanks guys stoked to be on board and working with you!!

When I look back a short 15 months ago and look at what has been achieved in such a short time it's pretty cool. We've got almost 15 retail partners on board (check the Maku site for a list of all our partners which we will update this weekend) . We have also been spec'd for a few really cool projects and I will update pictures on those in the next few weeks.

The next big thing for Maku will be the Casual Living and Accessories show in Chi town this September. Chi town is one of my favorite cities in the world, not only because you can walk around O'Hare Intl with a beer but because of the great skyline, people, architecture (think FLW) and that my favorite Mother In Law lives there and she is kind enough to let me stay at her place for the week instead of a stuffy hotel.

If you are an industry cohort and planning to attend the show let us know and we'll set up an appt to show you the collection - designers, retailers, media. We just get stoked on talking to everybody about Maku!

Check out The Lazy Environmentalist, I just did a super fun interview with Josh Dorfman the host of The Lazy Environmentalist on his sirius radio show on channel 114 / Lime. It's pretty cool when you meet a group of people that share the same ideals and passion as you do. As I mentioned previously, Josh is also the founder of Vivavi one of our newest retail partners. We talked about everything from Jake Brown wadding on the X-games Super Kicker to how we ensure sustainability in our products to taking the steps and actually creating a company. It was a super rad interview and I couldn't be more stoked right now!

Check out Design Public, these guys are rad and I am really stoked to be working with them! Talk about passionate lifestyle and design enthusiasts; Drew, Sina, James and the rest of the DP crew really embody this mantra that is such a huge part of what Maku is all about.

You can also check out their Blog "Hatch" for the latest Design Public happenings as well as everything else going on within contemporary design.

By the way, I did a photo shoot with a very cool Southern California magazine today that is doing a profile on myself and Maku! It was pretty fun and I can't wait for it to come out. Sorry, can't let the cat out of the bag just quite yet...

Sorry for the lack of updates, things have been hopping here at Maku HQ!

Check out our newest retail and ecomm partner!

Vivavi (vee-va-vee): combination of the Latin Vivir meaning "to live" and the stem Avi meaning "sign"

Josh Dorfman and his crew at Vivavi have an amazing contemporary program that is surrounded with eco conscious products and philosophies! They develop forward thinking ventures designed to enable modern green living and you should not only check out the Vivavi site and buy something from them (hint -Maku!) but their sister website is a great resource - Modern Green Living

Aside from running the Vivavi Showroom in NYC and their websites, Josh is also known as The Lazy Environmentalist and has written a book of the same title as well as hosts his show on sirius satellite radio. Dwell Magazine says The Lazy Environmentalist is "... a guide to going green without resorting to birkenstocks and brown rice casserole.."

All of us at Maku (ok all 2 of us...) are really excited to be working with a group that is truly at the forefront of sustainable design and green living!

Kassia, Keir, and The Riz!

Longboarding in France, Snowboarding at Mt Hood, and Huge Barrels at the Mexican Pipeline. The Maku Lifestyle Ambassadors Kassia, Keir and Rizal have all been super busy the past few weeks.

Check it out,

Kassia is in Biarritz France right now for the Roxy Jam World Longboarding Championships. She just advanced to Round 3 and word has it she is killing it! Good Luck Kassie!



Keir just competed in the Burton Abominable Snow Jam 1/2 Pipe at Mt Hood and pulled off the best trick with a huge alley-oop mctwist! Congrats!





And last but not least, Rizal jetted away from Beautiful Bali to the Mexican Pipeline of Puerto Escondido to compete in the X Games Surfing Event for the World team.

A BIG high5 to Charles and crew down at Mixture in San Diego. They are our newest retail partner. I am honored and really excited to have them on board!

The really cool thing is they are in the old Taylor-Dykema skateboard factory. TD was pretty much the original and largest domestic skateboard factory starting back in 1978 making boards for Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and eventually for companies like Girl, Chocolate, Crail Tap and a slew of others. TD also had a snowboard facility down by the Coronado Bridge and a super cool guy named Ernie DeLost ran the factory. Ernie taught me everything I know about snowboard manufacturing as TD was the factory that made all of the boards for Lamar back in the early 90's when I first got into the snowboard industry. Pretty rad how everything comes full circle! Here is a great History of snowboarding by my friends at Method Magazine

The Morning After Mess...

The Surfrider foundation, Sun Diego Boardshop and Billabong put a beach clean up together for July 5th. Again this year the kids and I (As well as 50 or so others) went down to our local beach "Ponto" and spent a couple of hours cleaning up trash leftover from the 4th of July. We actually topped last years number (77lbs) with over 100lbs of junk between the 4 of us! The good news is there were far less Cigarette butts to clean up this year but I am still curious as to when the Carlsbad City Council is going to step up and join the rest of the Coastal Communities in SD county and outlaw Smoking at the beach. Hello Mayor Lewis and council are you listening...!?!

By the way, cigarette butts are the number one item found in urban runoff pollution. For those of you that smoke do us all a favor and hold on to your butts!


Mason, Ally, and her friend Averi reaping the rewards of some Billabong goodies after a long morning of picking up trash.


The Bounty of bags, pallets, and other assorted trash we gathered.


The crew from Billabong gave away lots of goodies throughout the morning, many thanks to So.Cal rep Gary for the donations.

Maku on cover of Decor & Style

Greetings from Maku PR!

I think most of our close friends know this already, but for those who we have not had the opportunity to bump into during the course of the last two weeks, I wanted to let everyone know that Maku is on the cover of the July issue of . Johnny and I are both extremely excited about this as it's our first cover for Maku. Inside we have a nice little picture of the arm dining chair, along with credit info for our two SD retailers, Mixture and Grounded .

Special thanks to D&S's Georgette and Nadia, who have helped champion Maku internally over there.

More good things to come from Maku in the news.

Back from Indo!

After a brutal 24+ hours of travel I'm finally back at Maku HQ. Albeit a little jet lagged.... Overall a great trip and it's pretty incredible to be able to combine living the way you want and working with a brand that reflects that lifestyle!

The production guys in Java are doing a great job
and the product is looking better than ever.

(hahaaa! sorry Jeff, couldn't resist putting the Monkey picture up...) In all seriousness, the crew is doing an incredible job with production and I am confident that Maku will continue to set the bar for quality in the outdoor furnishing marketplace. Better get your's soon or we'll be sold out....

Of course all work and no play makes for no fun right? After a few days of working away in Java my good friend and neighbor Dave joined me back in Bali for our annual surf trip. The funny thing about surf trips is you always have a "crew" of 4-6 friends that are excited to go each year but somehow after all is said and done that "crew" ends up being just another buddy to travel and surf with. Which is cool because as the saying goes, "Too many cooks in the kitchen..." Great waves, warm water, and the most hospitable people on the face of the earth make Bali truly a special place.

Here's a few shots from the trip

"Impossibles" doing it's thing!


The Barrel Machine that is "Bingin"




Just your average local Balinese ripper!


Sunset Session at Kuta Beach