Surfers’ dream…

Today Jay posted this 5-minute video on Instagram:
www.instagram.com/p/CO1Kf7dp11o

To know what you are going to draw, you have to begin drawing.
–Pablo Picasso

Some photos from the building of a Suzuki copper camper by Jay, Foster Huntington, and Lane during the summer of 2015, at Foster’s treehouse hideout in Washington.

Go to Jay’s Instagram account for more photos of the building process.

www.instagram.com/jay

I’m doing a joint presentation with Jay Nelson at the Mercado Sagrado Fair in Big Sur this Sunday June 9th, on nomadic vehicles — called Hit the Road, Jack.

Jay will show and talk about his many road vehicles (including this rig he designed for Patagonia).

I’ll show slides from Tiny Homes on the Move, and we’ll talk about homes on wheels.

• From @lloyd.kahn’s Instagram

I stopped by Jay Nelson‘s house in San Francisco Wednesday on my way to Santa Cruz (to check out the sliding doors on his shop — for the sliding doors I’m about to build on my curved-roof shed), and this was parked out in front. The body is made of wood, and there’s a copper roof which lifts up.

The vehicle is a Subaru Brat (which, in Subaru-ese) stands for  “Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter.” 4-wheel drive.

According to Autoweek:

“The BRAT came with one engine at launch, a 1.6-liter flat four mated to either a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission. Two trim levels were offered, DL and GL. The GL had four headlights, the the DL had two. In 1981 displacement was raised to 1.8 liters while power grew from 67 hp to a whopping 73. In 1983 an optional turbo engine was offered with 93 angry Japanese ponies. Early models had a single-range transfer case; later models came with a dual-range unit. The strange Subaru Baja eventually came to continue the legacy, but only 30,000 were sold in the four years (2003-2006) it was produced.”

We are doing a new book, Hit the Road, Jack: Adventure Rigs, and Jay’s unique vehicles will be featured, along with those of Mike Basich and other creative builders.

Note: if you have anything to contribute, or know of cool road rigs, contact evan@shelterpub.com.

Jay and 3 surfers are on a surf/photo trip on Vancouver Island for a Surfer’s Journal article, traveling in a camper Jay built. Yesterday they visited Godfrey. In this photo (Jay at left), they’re looking into the cabin of Godfrey’s latest sailboat. I’m hoping they get a chance to visit Godfrey’s best friend, master builder and surfer Bruno Atkey.

Both Godfrey and Bruno are featured in our book Builders of the Pacific Coast.

Jay’s San Francisco home is featured in our forthcoming book Small Homes.

Photo: Godfrey Stephens