waves of anticipation: the longest morning

this is where I hope to surf this afternoon. the wind should be calm and if it holds it could look just like this. right now the buoy is reading 7' @ 12 seconds but it's sure to drop in the next few hours. got a 10' pivot fin from if only yesterday for the log and looking forward to giving it a go. D$ wish you were here but I doubt you'd be into these conditions:

Wave Height: 7.2 ft
Dominant Wave Period (DPD): 12 sec
Air Temperature (ATMP): 28.4 °F
Water Temperature (WTMP): 35.2 °F
Wind Chill (CHILL): 17.6 °F

leave yuh wit some duppy art

twitter, crack, and winter waves

according to the twitter ad, real life happens between blog posts and emails. so I guess that means that the less time you spend on blog posts and email and twittering your thumbs then the more "real life" you have. that's easy enough.

no twitter for me thanks.

would you really want to know if I was taking a shit, or taking out the compost, or scooping dog crap in the back yard? would you care that I like to watch cartoons, and eat bananas. no -we don't need to know what each other are doing in short sweet sentences every day and minute. twitter me this twitter me that -am not on crack.

nope.


snagged this photo from MSW taken a week ago at one of our points. this photo is from the mornin. I surfed it at sunset and it had dropped in size a little but still gobs of fun on the log and cordless.



in other news, we got a nasty storm last night followed by a short thaw. now that the temps have plummeted again there's an inch thick layer of slick ice all over the the city. but the good news is that winter storms bring waves and this one is no exception. if you live in NS then I hope you'll get out there this evening or tomorrow when the wind drops off a bit.

pixies

food one

food one

cody simpkins lumberjack

there's loggin and then there's this kid. wild style, corldless and rippin. the music coulda been art blakey

halifax coal power: the past and present

Brothers and coal miners in Nova Scotia, Cecil and Charlie are eating lunch about 4 km out under the Atlantic, 244 m below the ocean floor. photo by John F. Mailer.

"All of the approximately 1.4 million tonnes of coal we imported from Colombia last year came from one infamous mine in the northwest: Cerrejon. It is the largest open pit mine in the world..."

"Cerrejon has a 20-year history of violently displacing indigenous and Afro-Colombian farming communities, including Manantial, Caracoli and, most notoriously, Tabaco. Arsenault has written that "the village of Tabaco, a sustainable farming community populated primarily by Afro-Colombians, was destroyed by Cerrejon's bulldozers in 2001 to make way for more coal exports."

excerpts from:
Blood coal: Coal is dirty business and Nova Scotia's electricity is destroying the South American environment. by Chris Benjamin

halifax coal power

minus 17 C this mornin. the coal plant was on full blast. northwest winds pushin plumes off shore. its cold. icy sidewalks and black ice. people skatin on the lakes. blue bird skies means colder still. minus 27 with the windchill. icicles formin on my visor.

edit 01/27/09
this view is from my front room of the power plant at Tuft's Cove. according to the great comment by anon, the plant currently runs on oil. it was converted to gas in the early part of the decade and apparently it was deemed too costly to run. I did some searching about the current fuel source but came up with nothing.



tonight's music is wintersleep's dead letter and the infinite yes. one of my favourite bands.

velo

GREENOUGH looking through the bottom



thanks to frequent rips for this one.

phil edwards

peta

shakas, aloha and the responsibility of the I(ndividual)

the shaka sign is often used to symbolize the spirit of Aloha. "Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy."

as for the new American president I think it can be said that he brings a lot of hope and intelligence to government. but let us not forget those famous words from JFK "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." and what is it that WE can do?

-reconsider our personal relationship to wealth and things. for it is our hunger for consumption which is in no small part responsible for inequity around the world as we gather others resources either with small dollars or by force when necessary.

-reconsider our personal relationships to "happiness" and health. for hapiness is not found in fast and "convenient" foods and hundreds of TV channels but rather in the feelings of self reliance and strong body which in turn feeds our mental health.

-and our personal relationship to social responsibility at home and abroad. let us not stand aside and watch as the genocide continues in Darfur. let us demand the end to the unjust occupation and war on Iraq. let us not let our own people suffer from poor health by allowing corporations to feed them rubbish while maintaining medical care out the financial reach of most. let us make our own things again and re-establish our traditions of craftsmanship and ingenuity. let us think for ourselves and use our voices.

damn! hand planes?

more cy sutton action. this kid can ride everything.

Handplane First day test from Cyrus Sutton on Vimeo.

the abyssinians

fall turns to winter

one fall day I had this little one to myself





now it's -20 and flat

picaresque - new trailer

DeTemple has a pace maker. He surfs better than you. Heard stories about Mikey pulling into sketchy barrels in South Beach last year on what was one of Florida's best swells in years -on a log. Here's the latest trailer for Picaresque. It should be a rad film. It's due this summer.

Picaresque Trailer 2009 from High Seas Films on Vimeo.

cool contrived

I love the SoCal aesthetic of casual cool -even if it is mostly contrived. here is tyler warren with melancholy growlers sountrack carvin and flowin.

diy paddle build

I made this paddle a few weeks ago. I've done a lot of rough carpentry and some finish carpentry over the years but never something like a paddle. it was very satisfying to paddle out for the first time on a new board and my own paddle.

the shaft wood is ash. I bought a six and half foot board for under $20 at a specialty hardwood store. after ripping the board I had enough material for three paddle shafts. the blade and handle are white pine. the next paddle will have better wood for the blade -I didn't wanna spend a lot on the first build. it's fairly light and the ash has great flex properties. ash is what most maritime canoe paddle builders use. lot's of the people making their own sup paddles use bass wood but I think ash is probably stronger. they cost about the same.

the dimensions are 6'3" from handle to tip (not over curve). the blade is 8" wide 16" long and set at a 14 degree angle. it has a t-handle and is assembled using Gorilla Glue epoxy and two screws. i don't think I'll use the screws on the next one. if the glue faces are well planed and matched and the joint is clamped tightly during gluing it should hold. some guys foil the blade super thin and then glass it. I rather keep it a bit simpler. it's water proofed using marine grade Spar varnish.

tools: table saw, jig saw, palm sander, two different size block planes, a sureform, and sanding block ( short 2xr wrapped in sandpaper).

a SUP specific paddle costs at least $200. this one cost me about $20. sure a carbon fiber paddle for $275 is way lighter but who cares? the light argument is played out. a heavier glassed board carries more speed than it's super light counterpart -not to mention lifespan. a steel bike (way heavier than carbon fiber) absorbs more road vibrations and lasts much longer, etc.

I will mostly use the SUP to paddle in the Halifax Harbour and to explore the coastline when it's flat. I may try and surf it a little but it's low on my list of priorities. I got this board for a couple of writing projects. the original project was shelved because the board got stuck in customs and time ran out. in the spring or early summer I will embark on a multi-day back country trip using the SUP and carrying all my gear.

transcendental mishaps

6" @13 seconds this morning with light offshores surely means enlightenment. but I missed it. today's opportunity for a transcendental meditation on the nose of the log is gone under the bright artificial lights. so instead I'm left with a yearning for a work from home lifestyle and a need to stretch my muscles. to placate I peeped this T Moe and T. Guerrero collaboration.

morning paddle at minus 12 C.

I surfed the log yesterday and had a blast in the waist to chest high mush. probably caught 30 or 40 waves at the point -lots of long nose rides and easy trimmin. this afternoon we're expecting a winter storm with blowing snow and heavy winds. at sun rise it was dead calm with ominous low gray skies so I decided to go for a short paddle in the harbour before the wind came up.

I suited up at home and headed down to the old Africville site under the McKay Bridge -just a two minute drive down the hill from our house. I unstrapped the behemoth as quickly as I could but not before my fingers started to freeze. I put on the mitts and headed for the boat launch, board under one arm and paddle in the other. I got in only getting my booties wet and paddled North towards the Bedford Basin and the cargo docks. a group of brown ducks scurried along the shoreline as I approached. wisps of smoke from the three candy cane stacks from the coal plant along the Dartmouth side were a tell tale sign of the southwest wind just starting to gather strength.

paddling in the Harbour is surreal. there are huge cargo ships coming in and out all day long and it feels a bit strange to be there among such massive industry. although I appreciate the exercise from the morning's paddle I'm not so sure the 10 degrees F. is ideal. the stand up paddle board has a neoprene deck pad for traction. the back part of the pad was covered in two centimeters of slush. I noticed when I got to the halfway point and stepped back to do a pivot turn. I almost slid off into the icy harbour. the old 7mm boots are a little leaky now and within just twenty minutes my feet were starting to freeze. as I paddled back the wind started coming up a little stronger creating some chop on the waters surface. I made it back to the launch and was back at home within ten minutes. all in all a good experience for a Sunday morning but it will be much better in the spring when the temperature is above freezing and the discomfort level is lower.

yehuda - tobacco run inns

click on the images to enlarge

more Yehuda comics here: yehudamoon.com

skate style -spanky

this kid is smooth. he mixes a lot of old flowing skate style with modern craziness. sort like of like how James Brown says "I don't know karate but I know Ka-razy!"