a few good things

1. The Esteyonage has made this list before. The author is a Canadian journalist living in Monrovia, Liberia -a country where close to half of the population suffers from post traumatic stress disorder due to years of violent civil conflict. The Esteyonage is an important reminder that there is more outside of our own easy livin.

2. Wooster Collective - street art and surfing have something in common -both are fleeting. street artists create pieces which they know will be defaced or erased completely and only a memory of the work will remain. it's the same for those who seek the experience of riding waves. it's the process and the moment that matters.

3. Buk because a little surliness is good for ya.

4. Richie Havens - "sometimes I feel like a motherless child" makes me think that we may need to, as a collective society, reconsider our values. but I know we won't. so in this song I find solace.

in case you didn't know

10' @ 10 seconds

today I turned

consumer culture consumer

I went out in the rain today to get the latest issue of Surfer magazine. The issue has Joel Tuddor sitting in as a guest editor and two of his subjects are people that interest me – Richard Kenvin and Tyler Warren. I get home and sit on the couch to read as B lays quietly watching the TV, her biggest ever belly moving with the little one inside, restless as ever and just two weeks shy of first light.

I read Tuddor’s introduction. He tries to be everyman but really wants us to think he’s an intellectual. “It’s OK,” I think to myself thinking of him thinking of himself. Then I read the short interview with Lewis Samuels – a man of deep intellect with a keen understanding of modern anthropology who also happens to be a wiseass who also happens to surf. “That’s better” I think but would have rather seen a little more space devoted to the witty one. Then I finally get to the RK piece. I start to read and it’s moving fast, one word after another is scanned into my reasoning centre and it seems as if nothing registers. I vow to take a brake from the article to return when I’m more prepared. Finally I get to the Tyler Warren piece. It’s short, shy and he seems humble -the kid has style to burn. I flip through the rest of the magazine and wonder “why?”

In late summer of 1987 we packed up some of our shit and traveled from rural Isnotu, in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Venezuela, to rural central Florida where we’d settle down to live in conservative Bartow. I was immediately drawn to skateboarding. That year would be the beginning of my new life as a consumer culture consumer.

It’s hard to say why I feel compelled to read the surf magazines and follow the surf blogs. Perhaps I want to see where I fit in, to see what lineage or legacy I’ve descended from. But I won’t find one as I come from the consumer lineage, brought into the “culture” by slick magazines and sometimes-good writing. Thrasher magazine was a staple in the late 80’s and 90’s. Thrasher sucks now, or I’m just not a teenager any more who knows.

Surfing is definitely without a doubt one of the more important aspects of my life. But like many other things surfing can be simple or full of trinkets. My childhood Catholicism came replete with its statues of saints and special rosaries and candles and church clothes. Home ownership has it’s own TV shows and magazines and clubs and self help groups and messiahs of decorating. Entrepreneurship has a zillion trinkets and books and gurus. Anything and everything can be overdone and consumed 'till we’re fat and diabetic and dying.

Or things can be simple.

Most likely I will continue to consume surf culture. There’s lots of good shit out there, especially in the blogosphere. There’s RK and RT. Somewhere else there’s Doc and Mic and Sways. But I’m not Californian. I don’t see California as my Jerusalem. Its toe headed children and surf “icons” are but silhouettes on the pages of magazines crammed with advertisements for trousers and t-shirts. I’m sure that somewhere along the line I owe something to those early pioneers of surfing. But that something is so abstract, so inconsequential, and so diluted by its own commercialization that I’m probably better off making my own way, starting from scratch. Good job Joel. You’ve reminded me to look within and that I am what I do and not what I consume.

brion and bill...

...dreamed a machine to transcend the threshold where their drug addled analytics end and something else all together begins. today these two would be considered terrorists to be profiled and watched. bill talked often of his recipes for homemade botulism and other weapons of mass terror. and why? who knows. bill was a trust fund kid. perhaps they had too much. bill didn't only outlive his peers, he hurried them to their deaths with debauched pleasure, his own Constitution superhuman in its ability to stay high for nine decades. dream machine is all that's left. and iggy pop.

Tia Rafaela

my Tia Rafaela is an artist. he main body of work is her life, the sculptures, paintings and poems are adornments - a frame for her masterpiece.

maritime fall

in the valley the leaves are
red, orange, yellow
pink
at the bay
colours grey
baby seal watching as I
struggle with the set,
duck diving and going backwards
baby seal watching
and more waves coming
out the back
meanwhile
Blacks is there
and others
the wind from the southwest
the inside finally releases
its grip
and I make my way back
to the lineup
where’s my spot?
ok I think here I
fit
and then it comes,
a long wall
probably a closeout
the hell with it
go
bottom turn and
down the line,
all white like mountain ranges out west
the wall comes down
again the inside holds me
for another set
baby seal is gone
Blacks is gone
there’s no red in the bay yet
all is grey

afternoon vibes brought to you by smif n wessun

round II

scored some good surf last night for about two hours at a sheltered spot. some good surfing too going on out there from the two best kids in town. love to see the guys who generate speed seemingly without effort. lots of waves coming through too so there wasn't too much hasslin.

got up at five this morning which seems kinda late really but first light these days is 6:40 AM.

current conditions at 5:30AM:

Winds: SW 5.8 knots gusting to 7.8
Significant wave height: 9.8 ft
Dominanat Period: 10 sec
Air Temp: 57.2 F
Water Temp: 55.9F
Stoke: high

finally...

...the storms of the infamous north Atlantic are starting to come alive again. anticipation is increasing along with the building storm swell for a session after work.

from "the eagle of the heart-"

it is well
to feel good
for no reason;
or
with a limited
choice to
choose
anyhow;
or with a little love,
not to buckle to
hatred
faith, brother, not it the
gods
but in
yourself:
don't ask
tell.

Henry Chinaski

corre que tiran piedras

run for your life

the question

to get control
is not the question
-the question
to take each day and give
all that I have
to get what I want
like Buk
sitting at the typer
beer after beer
night after night
to write down his question
his musings
it was the process
of getting drunk
of hitting keys
of watching, translating
into the question
it is the process
the work
the sweat
that gets me closer
to defining
the question

es una question
si me entiendes?
la cosa es que hay
que meterle candela
y que ponerle valor
al trabajo

cliches abound
but I won't rely
on them
only I can see
the question
the process
the work
the sweat
we missed your truths sometimes
Chinaski
we washed them down
with our micro brews
strong beers and IPA's
we missed the process
the question
so now I remember to run
to process
the question
to be each day
in the process
to be
the question

partially inspired by Dead Confederates

Dead Confederate~The Rat from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

strange commonalities

what do horror, fitness, and glen danzig have in common?

trim

I love thinking about board design. there is so much that goes into the planning aspects of a surfboard. however I’m also certain that the most important aspect of any board’s performance is the ability and fitness of the person riding it. but then that’s another post.

recently I’ve been riding my noserider a lot, partly out of necessity as my new EPS fish is in the works and partly because I want to. the longboard experience is completely different than riding a shortboard and it requires a less physical and more refined approach.

on the log trim is king. and trim happens due to the rail length and shape of the board's rail. on a speedy steep face the board will move super fast without my input whereas on a shortboard I’d need to generate my own speed. turning a log is also completely different from a shortboard. on a shortboard turn you slide your rear foot over the fins and transition your weight so that the wave facing edge is buried into the face of the wave as it changes direction. turning a shortboard is a very physical thing whereas the longboard is about fineness.

my 9’6” has one fin and is quite heavy. there is absolutely no way to turn the board with a wide shortboard stance while burying the rail. well I suppose some big heavy cats could do that but it’s not necessary. instead I simply step back to the tail, and with feet less than shoulder width apart, I weigh down the back of the board and pivot the front end around bringing the rail down back onto the face to engage trim again. once the board is in trim in the pocket I can walk up to the nose as the water from the lip sucks over the egg shaped rails holding the tail in the face.

Dora, style king.

the longboard seems to be marketed as a beginner board quite often. and while it is much easier to catch a wave on a longboard due to its large planning area and volume, it doesn’t really prepare the beginner to surf a shortboard. that is often a misconception that can be clearly seen in the lineup. aspiring shortboarders catch a shoulder high wave on their 9’0” “performance” longboard and with a wide as Texas stance try fruitlessly to turn nine feet of rail like a shortboard and end up either getting hit by the lip or falling over like deadwood in a forest. some like to call this stance the stink butt stance – sorta gives a squatty image eh. now we just need some swell so I can stop thinking about it and just go surf.

Boricua

not really but this shit is funny

Mad Clips - Travis Ajay as "Manuel" from josh coville on Vimeo.

weak heart

my friend Evil E was going through some old photos and found these of me -I think they are from fall/winter of 2007. the board was a Tom Neilson 6'6" biofoam thruster. I got rid of it soon after that as it was a bit too big for me.

I'd like to think I've improved my surfing since these shots were taken but who knows.

self critique: the bottom turn mid-face and standing almost straight up is weak hearted at best. I also won't have any speed going into the top turn. it's funny though I have the Andy Downs front hand stylee. I'll have to tell that story another time though.



the same weak heart goes for the top turn here. it looks as if I backed off instead of really pushing off the top.



this is my favourite shot because you can see how beautiful it is here. sure the water at this time of year is O C. and the air often way bellow that. but the beauty of the landscapes and the generous people are like no where else I've ever lived. thanks Evil!

Monday morning board meeting

5am wave and weather check:

7.2' @ 10 seconds
west wind 7 knots
air temp 16C
water temp 16C

first light 6:22 am

will report actual conditions after 10am

9:18am update:

score

offshores, golden light at sunrise, overhead sets and warm water. as good as it gets.

Open Letter to America: on sloth and gluttony

Dear fellow Americans,

I am writing in the hopes that my words will perhaps trigger a slight sense of self preservation within your psyche as well as release within you the once famous American pragmatism that created the nation. You must be aware that there are two major issues plaguing our long term well being; two issues that are really quite embarrassing when you think about it and yet not so inordinate in many a literary tale about human failure. I am talking about gluttony and sloth.

First of all I'll address the current state of the educational system. We are failing our youth with the current educational system, and for those who finish high school and choose to pursue a higher education the price to pay is more often than not grotesque. Now I am not a specialist in education nor do I have an answer as to how to fix the problem (I'm sure there are plenty of people who could do that). However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that an undereducated population will not be economically successful. And at this time in our great country people are our greatest assets. So if you think a little ahead you may note that there may be a looming disaster in the making.

The other issue which is obvious to any foreigner landing on our great shores for the first time is the state of our health. Our gluttony and sloth has created a ticking time bomb of ill health. Some studies state that over 64% of the population is over weight or obese. Don’t get me wrong here; I am not talking about matters of self image or narcissism. I am referring to the basic need for a living organism to maintain a balanced health system in order to function properly and avoid disease. This is not some esoteric idea. What we consume defines our makeup, just as we are defined by how we spend our time. If we spend our time sitting then our bodies are not able to run. Simple. If we consume unhealthy foods and too much of them then our bodies will be unhealthy and big.

This is really not a matter of ethics or religion or even politics. It is a matter of economics and self preservation. Imagine if you will 20 years from now –70% of the population suffering from preventable diseases like diabetes and heart disease because they wouldn’t eat healthy. Imagine an entire nation of under educated people, to unhealthy to be productive in the labor force and too illiterate to be productive in technology and finance. What would such a nation look like? How will the books balance? Who will take care of you?

I merely pose the problem. It is up to all to individually and collectively tackle the issues. Sure government can create policies, etc. But ultimately each individual has the major stake in their own well being. What will you do?

Sincerely

Ricardo

nervousness

is like butterflies fluttering
like erratic,
victory at sea surf
like something in my throat
like an old foe,
whom I never defeat
is like weight pushing
down on my arms and shoulders
like a swell passing through my chest,
in waves of heat and cold
like a trigger to end my focus
a distraction that lasts
hours, days, months
then it fades and things
are normal
I forget it
until it's triumphant return
and I'm reminded of it
again in my throat
my gut
my shoulders
and the back of my knees
it is like an uncertainty
like hunger
like a post youth -
existential hangover
it is anarchist
and sly
faceless and with no scruples
it is effervescent yet invisible
it is always there
beneath the surface
like a razor sharp reef
ready to cut
when you least expect