This video was proudly featured on the homepage for a few weeks.  If you’ve been around, you might have watched it already.  Otherwise, this is your chance.  You won’t want to miss one of the best videos in my 2010 drum series.

Surf Green is a modern surf rock song inspired by Miserlou by Dick Dale. This is an original piece written by me. I recorded the guitars using an American Ash Stratocaster HSS and an Ibanez Jet King II. The amps used were a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Classic with Vintage 30′s for the clean reverb parts and an Egnater Rebel 20 for the distorted lead parts and the outro. The bass was done with a Warwick Rock Bass plugged into an old Line 6 TonePort UX2.

Enough! Let the video do the talking.

I produced this promo card for Velauno in 2007 to help promote the sale of surf, kite and windsurf products by Dakine, Bic Surf, Thule, Cabrinha, Best Kiteboarding and Surftech.  The cards were printed on thick stock cover, full color on both sides.  These were handed out at races, beach events, malls, and also sent out with mail orders.  The success of this promo led to the creation of other similar cards soon after.

At the time I designed these, the surf industry was big into grunge art.  There is a lot going on in this piece which is characterized by busy visual elements and the lack of clean straight lines.  It’s a lot harder than it looks to get this style of artwork right.  The thing I like most about grunge is the vast amount of possibilities.

A couple of months ago I wrote a review of a 6’0″ …Lost Stealth FST surfboard made by Firewire.  Click here of you want to read that post.  Recently, I’ve been really getting into Rapidfire technology also by Firewire.  A buddy of mine was interested in my the FST Stealth so I sold it to him and ordered myself the RF version.  I had to wait a few months as these new boards were still in production at the time.  I would be receiving a board from the very first batch that landed in the US.

The Rapidfire boards are made with epoxy and EPS foam.  Different than the FST constructed boards, the Rapidfires feature carbon fiber rods inside the foam rather than parabolic balsa rails.  The carbon rods sit inside the foam a couple of inches from the rail so they are technically also parabolic.  The other difference is the skin of high density foam that the FST boards have on the deck is replaced by a bamboo top.  This thin layer of bamboo not only looks good, but it’s very strong and adds it’s own signature touch to the boards flex characteristics.  The bottom does not have a skin of high-density foam.  This makes the bottom a bit more vulnerable to dings than FST tech, but it’s still stronger than a standard polyurethane (PU) surfboard.

The board rides similar to the FST version I had apart from a few subtleties.  I adjust pretty well to the difference in feel, so I’m happy with either FST of Rapidfire tech.  However, I do have friends that swear by one or the other only.  I really enjoy the look of the bamboo but I admit I miss the beautiful and clean white finish of an FST board.

For fins, I first set it up as a quad with FCS TC Aqualines in the front and AB-Tow side fins in the rear.  For the second session I opted to change the Aqualines for a pair of FCS Goods-1.  I liked that setup a little bit better for some reason.  Mainly just feel.  The AB-Tow fins are staying in the back for now.  Those are made out of G10 and are top quality fins.  The traction pad I opted for is a FCS T-1.  It fits the board perfectly and I really like how it enhances the “stealthy” look with it dark charcoal grey color.

The board, fin and pad setup is perfect.  This is a surfboard that’s meant to last so I see myself putting session after session on it.  If I ever get bored and feel like experimenting, with the FCS Fusion fin boxes I can move the fins forward or back to fine tune the board to the conditions.  That, or I can change all the fins altogether.  That’s why it’s good to have a fin collection  -D

I created this advert back in December 2007.  It appeared in Ride Cycling Review in Australia, issue #39 Jan/Feb/Mar 2008.  A few other versions of it were featured in magazines in USA, South Africa, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  The concept for the other ads was basically the same but promoted different products.  The ad was eventually adapted for use as a half page ad.

These are two of a series of ads I created for Velocity, Dakine Hawaii distributor for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.  These were featured in Mundo Rad Magazine.  Apart from Dakine, Velocity distributes other prestige brands such as Thule Car Rack Systems, Oxbow, Bic Surf, and most recently Surftech Surfboards.

These ads were mostly laid out in Adobe Photoshop using elements and photographs provided by the Dakine ad resource.  I used the available elements plus created some of my own to develop the quality visual impact the company was looking for.  Some final details were added in Adobe Illustrator before being exported.

Finally! After a couple of months of having babies, surfing my brains out and working multiple artwork projects, I put in some time to edit another drum video.  This is the 4th in the series filmed with Go Pro HD Hero cameras.  Recorded during the latest Christmas holidays, this one features a song written by my wife and I where she also does the vocal and bass parts.  I play the guitars too in this project that we call “Right is Backside”…a name that comes from the term used by surfers to describe those that ride a right breaking wave with their backs to the wave.  (That would be me).  Can you guess at what time this vid was recorded?  Enjoy! -Danny

RiB Prove it to the World Drum Video by Danny Cruz from Danny Cruz on Vimeo.

A few days ago I finished the logo artwork for a racing sailboat that had just arrived in Puerto Rico to meet up with her new owners.  The brand new boat, a Beneteau First 40 was sailed from Annapolis to the Caribbean by a talented crew of friends and was due to attend her first race during Memorial Weekend in Puerto Rico.  The boat is skippered by Jaime Torres.  Smile and Wave is owned by Fractional Sailing Puerto Rico. Check the awesome photos of Smile and Wave by Leighton O’Connor at the Puerto Rico Vela Cup 2010.  Visit www.leightonoconnor.com to view his absolutely amazing nautical photography.

The logo was printed on the back of the crew’s shirts and also graces the hull of the vessel.

The logo has a hint of simple Japanese cartoon art and is the result of scrapping an original idea to try something completely different.  Sometimes all it takes is a bit of experimenting with a new concept to achieve the creative results you were looking for in the first place.  Needless to say, the artwork turned out beautifully, and goes really well with the boat’s racing nature.

This full page ad was part of a series of artworks created to promote the distributor of Surftech surfboards in Puerto Rico.  This one appeared in Mundo Rad Surf Magazine, Summer 2007.

I was looking for a bright colored theme with a look reminiscent of the Apple iPod ads of the time.  You can see this in the bright-colored bars running vertically and the use of silhouetted palm trees instead of people.

The ad also attempts to create awareness of the availability of other brands such as Dakine, Bic Surf and Thule Rack Systems.

I just finished creating an artwork piece for a board that will be built by talented shaper Dan O’Hara from Solid Surf Co.  The model is “The Newman” which Dan himself describes as a board “for boosting airs.”

This is just a preview of the preliminary design.  I ended up making some mods for the final version.  Until then, check this one out.  When the board is ready, I’ll post up a photo of the finished board with the final artwork.  The artwork is all vectors in Adobe Illustrator.

I just updated my site’s style switcher and added the first of 3 styles.  This one is for the surf theme.  I’ve got 2 more coming…  Dirt and snow.  You might be wondering how I created the wave that sits below the header.  It was a small sketch I drew this morning.  I then scanned it and “painted” it in Adobe Photoshop using bits and pieces of real photos of real waves.  There’s some foam from Teahupoo, bits and pieces of Pipeline and some glare from Jeffreysbay.  All in all, a fun project to take on.  See below the “before and after” photo.  The first photo is the sketch exactly as my scanner saw it.  The colorful barreling wave below is the finished picture after quite a bit of work.  -D