June 24, 2007 - Veggie Oil Conversion Complete!

Well, I am glad to say that Georgie Boy is now running on Veggie Oil. As of 3:56 pm today, we made the transition from polluting the environment with harmful emissions to smelling up the air like freedom fries. Clark is amazing to say the least; that man knows his stuff. I am very grateful for the effort Jacob and Clark put into converting GB over. Below are some pictures of the last couple of days of the conversion. I have updated day 3 and today, day 4. Enjoy!

Veg Tank and Pump assembly.

Inside the engine compartment: (left to right) the injection thermometer, sensor for temp and pressure, solenoids for diesel fuel and veg oil (draw and return), coil heater

Instrument Panel (just like night rider) (top to bottom, left to right)veg oil/diesel/purge switch, veg filter pressure gauge, injector heater and temp gauge

Filling it up from the car boys for the first time. (55 gallon tank)

Finishing the filling process

Complete! Get to Green Eye Autos soon before the waiting list grows to several months out...


Thanks again guys! I had a blast camping in your parking lot for 4 days! Remember Clark, we have some waves to catch in September...See you then!

Heading to L.A. Talk to you all in a couple with updates of the road trip, collecting veggie oil and the redwood forest...

Peace and Grease!
Max

June 22, 2007 - Veggie Oil Conversion Part 2

Today was a great day around the shop. The day started early with some Guayaki Yerba Mate "magical mint mate" and set the mood for most of the day. Work continued around 9:30 am this morning. Clark and co. got the tank in with it's fittings, mounted the main filter system, tapped into the coolant system, mounted the solenoids, most of the coolant lines and one of the 3 gauges. Below are some of the pictures of the days advances...

Solenoids and heating system in engine compartment

Pump system filter (on right) and heated tank filter (on left)

Tools of the trade

One of the three gauges

Balancing the unbalanced fuel use of America


In other news, Rodrigo got back from Costa Rica yesterday. If I wasn't doing so much to make an environmental statement or traveling through Oregon for enjoyment, I would have been jealous as hell. Looks like they got some good waves in Costa. But when isn't it good in Costa Rica? Even when the swell is small, it's good...
Waxing up.

Secret Spot

Sammy Z and Rodrigo

At Playa Negra

Playa Negra (2)



In the area of informative documentaries, log onto www.VBS.TV and watch part 1 - 5 of "Toxic West Virginia" Completely outrageous! This has to be stopped and stopped now! We must make the shift to renewable resources, folks. Assemble, Educate and Activate. We have the power to create change. Take a minute from your busy life and make a change. Enough is enough! Time to change the ways we live! Think globally and act locally. Check out some of these links below and empower yourself!

VBS.TV "Toxic West Virginia"
Green Mountain Energy
National Biodiesel Board
Sustainable Waves

Think about it. Make a difference.

Stay tuned for more updates and rants.
Max

June 21, 2007 - Veggie Oil Conversion Part 1

I am writing you from Green Eye Autos in Eugene, Oregon. We started the veggie oil conversion on my custom 1993 Georgie Boy Encounter today. I am very happy to announce a co-sponsorship alliance between Clark and Jacob of Green Eye Auto for the West Indian Girl summer tour. Josh Bhatti and Ian McEvily have been supporting the tour on the East Coast by creating additional alliances in addition to this one. This is shaping up to be a great tour! We will announce the additional partnerships soon.

Below are some pictures of the process on day 1 of the conversion.
Georgie Boy

Pump parts

Veggie Oil Tank

Filters

All the supplies above have been provided by Green Eye Auto and vegpower.com Check their site out for anything relating to conversion parts.

I will have additional pictures and notes of the process in the days to come.

On another note, Rodrigo just got back from Costa Rica. He reports that they had consistent head high swell for the catalogue shoot. He will send pictures along soon.

In tropical storm related news, this what the forecasters at the national hurricane center have to say...

TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1030 PM EDT THU JUN 21 2007

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

A FRONTAL LOW LOCATED JUST OFF THE EAST COAST OF NORTHERN FLORIDA IS
PRODUCING SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORM MAINLY OVER WATER. UPPER LEVEL
WINDS ARE NOT FAVORABLE FOR TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION.

A LARGE AREA OF DISTURBED WEATHER CONTINUES OVER THE WESTERN
CARIBBEAN SEA AND PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. WHILE ENVIRONMENTAL
CONDITIONS DO NOT APPEAR FAVORABLE FOR ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT...
THIS SYSTEM COULD PRODUCE LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL OVER PORTIONS OF
CENTRAL AMERICA DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO AS IT MOVES WESTWARD.

ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE
NEXT 48 HOURS.

We'll keep our focus on the Eastern Atlantic for development.

Also, I will be departing on Sunday for L.A. and if any of you know of some SVO or WVO (veggie oil) that I can burn in the RV, drop me a line at (maxwell_morrill@yahoo.com) Every drop counts! Thank for the help!

Please recommend our blog to a friend, bookmark us and drop a line once and a while, we love to hear from our readers.

Stay tuned for daily blog updates...

Max

June 13, 2007 - Rodrigo in Costa Rica

Rodrigo flew down to San Jose, Costa Rica on Monday. With a 6- 8' swell sticking around through Tuesday, Playa Hermosa was still holding a medium size swell. As the swell leaves Central America, there doesn't look like much hope for them to score waves for the Ripzone shoot. Rodrigo has promised to send some more photos when he gets them. We'll see what happens.


We're leaving Hood River on Friday. Not much has been happening around here in ways of shooting. The weather has been cold and hot, the wind has been gusty and not. We've decided to set up our shooting schedule for August, their busy month. We hope it'll be much better then.

So, with that said, we are en route to L.A. for the West Indian Girl (www.westindiangirl) summer tour in July. I am offering my RV to WIG for the tour so they can travel in style and get out of the 15 passenger van for the Midwest - Northeast Coast tour starting July 12. We will be blogging daily on their blog site and on ours occasionally. In preparations for the tour, we are talking to www.greeneyeautos.com to see if we can convert the RV to run on veggie oil. Yes, that's right, Georgie Boy will be joining the alternative fuels revolution. We are hoping the conversion will take place in the coming weeks. As soon as all the details come together, we will send out the mass email with all the info.

We will be traveling the Oregon and California coast for the next couple of weeks and will update the blog often. Bookmark us and stay tuned often...

Peace and grease,
Max

June 06, 2007 - Eastern Surfing Association

Rodrigo Miranda
Last week Team Riders Rodrigo Miranda and Rob Fulmer competed in the 1st ESA comp of the season in St. Augustine. Rodrigo surfed away with 2nd Place Open and 2nd Place in SR. Mens, Rob took home the trophy for 3rd Place Masters. Unfortunately, Jimmy had to sit this comp out due to an eye injury but Rodrigo informed us Jimmy will be back strong to take on the 2nd comp of the season.
Rob Fulmer




Last week Northern Florida got a wake up call right on time. The first day of the 2007 Tropical Season started off with a soaker! Barry, the 2nd named storm of the season swept across Northern Florida Friday and Saturday. On the afternoon of June 2nd, around 4pm, the winds went off shore and created a wonderful session for Floridian surfers.




Here are the names for the season.
2007
Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dean, Erin, Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Noel, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy
Which one will be ours?

Rodrigo heads to Costa Rica on Monday for the RipZone International catalog shoot. Although they decided not to have us come down and film this year, we hope they get some good photos/film anyway. Will it be a repeat of the best swell in 10 years like the trip we had last year? Time will tell. But seeing as my lucky rabbit's foot will stay in the States this time around, we hope the best for you guys anyway. We'll keep the rest of you informed as much as possible on anything that develops off Central America.

In Oregon, we arrived in Hood River on Saturday. The weather was sunny and warm with steady winds. Saturday reminded me of how this place can be all summer. With a strong gradient settled in over the Columbia River, wind speeds topped out at @ 40 mph. Kiters were flying and cruising at various spots along the Gorge.




On Sunday it was a repeat of the same. The event site was going off with teams of windsurfers and kite boarders taking advantage of the steady, strong winds and beautifully warm weather.We are looking forward to an amazing summer in the Northwest!
Stay up to date with all the happening around the Gorge this summer here

Stay tuned! More to come!

Max