putting an end to the fuckery

A one surf week is ended with the usual blog roll and interwebs fuckery that is a morning at work. Recently the word fuckery has been used profusely by Lewis Samuels in Post Surf. Not sure where he got it from. I heard the word used often in Jamaica as in “ gwaan man -yuh a fuckery” or maybe in reference to political news on the radio you would hear someone say “a fuckery dat man” or when a rum head came beggin around the shop for a drink old P would yell “come outta ere with yuh fuckery man! Guh wey!”

For a cynical mind like mine fucekry is the perfect looking glass for deciphering the cipher. In my waning interest to keep talking about how my latest surf session went (it’s just a bunch of fuckery anyway) I wonder if it’s even worthwhile to continue Ku Yah all together. I can see the hits decline as the surfy posts subside. Of course initially Ku Yah was an exercise in writing –to learn to write. Indeed I did learn to write –if only in short ADHD spurts and mostly about fuckery so only time will tell if that particular skill will come in handy some day.

I’ve asked myself why I read other people’s blogs. Is it the grass is always greener rubber neck ego trip in my head that makes me do it? There is so much content on the interwebs and a lot of it rehashing of itself. Do I want to add to that fuckery too? Some folks I reckon actually use the interwebs for personal expansion and growth. And relationships of value can occasionally spring from the virtual black hole. But mostly it’s a waste of time.

If we are to consider our assets in life, and I don’t mean capital assets, what do we have? We have our health, our intellect, our ability to forgive and love (because that’s how you get forgiven and loved), and time. Time is as valuable resource and like trees or fish it’s a finite non-renewable resource. And god do I ever know how to squander it with fuckery.

Over the past five weeks I’ve been trying to develop a running practice. “Here he goes again with some fuckery” you say. Well perhaps. Certain incidences have inspired me to run; one being the coming of a little one and the practicality of running as a way of maintaining basic fitness. But there are other effects to a running practice like meditative moments, transcending discomfort and pain, learning self discipline, developing will power, experiencing the weather and its moods, expelling toxins out of my body via sweat, strengthening my heart, lungs, bones, muscles, relieving stress –all without spending any dough or fossil fuel. Running is simple and pure.

We evolved to run certainly for escaping danger as much as for pursuing prey. Our modern lives of sedentary livelihoods have all but eliminated running from our lives. So much so that running is seen as a fringe activity, something that body conscious people do. But it is as natural as breathing or taste.

In short I may not write much here anymore. Instead I will focus on action. On using my muscles and tendons to move through space –whether it be splitting lanes on the cruiser or surfing or running. I will read books. Something I’ve neglected for some time. I will cook and finish some creative projects that have been marinating in the basement or in my brain. If you’ve read this far I’d like to say thanks. Thanks for stopping in often and for your occasional commentary. If you want to be in touch feel free to send me a note at rasblog at gmail.

cheers

ras

bull bay

my good friend Felon used to keep two boards at Billy's place. he'd come outta the Manchester hills once a month or so and go down to Bull Bay for a surf and some reasonin at the Mystic house. I went down once. we paddled out at the zoo. hadn't surfed in over a year -bloated like a dead dog on the side of a sunny road from too much shitty livin. I caught naught a wave. meantime Felon and Icah and some of the other youth were ripping the little A-frame beachie.

in the evening after gettin some food on the street we had a little jam session. me on the bass and Felon on guitar. one of Billy's sons on the drums and the other on the keys. without a doubt one of the most interesting days I ever had while living in Jamaica.

Jamaica is a place of beauty and paradox. for young men growing up there in poverty there's little if any hope to make a living and support a family by any legal means. Zulu, I hope everting is alright me brejren inna Morrant Bay seen. respec.

quiver

my quiver has changed and morphed quite a bit over the past two years. when I started this page I had two Neilson's. now I have one remaining and in between that two more. not because I don't love Tom's shapes but because it's hard to get them up here in Canada without spending a ton of dough on shipping, especially for a log. probably the number one reason that my boards have changed over time is the fact that I've improved a bit. here's my first quiver shot form 2006. and here's one from last summer.

first up is the Rocky McKinnon log. dims are 9'6" x 23" x 3". single fin, t-band stringer and heavy heavy glass. so far I've surfed this baby cordless only and plan to keep it that way. It's the best longboard I've ever had and really digging it on the perfect little point waves here.


below is my shortboard and most used sled. I went from a 6'4" EPS Neilson FFF to a 5'8" x 2'5" Tim Stamps quad fish. although the green machine was rad, ultimately it was too buoyant for my weight and I couldn't sink the rail on turns. I stepped down to the 5'8" quad and it's been steadily improving my surfing. this beasty flies, especially going backside. surfed it from thigh high to way overhead and never felt life it wouldn't work -my magic board.



finally the mini-gun -made in 2003 specifically for Oregon from a green Clark blank, with a deep single concave and it's about 2.5 inches thick. I rarely use it and haven't used it now in over a year and really for the waves I frequent it's not necessary. B did the stencil and art direction so we keep it around as an artifact/art piece.


there was an interesting article written by my mate D$ on Phoresia.org a little while back about having a two board quiver. I've been surfing on and off now since around 1994. at first I floundered on a 6'4" Quiet Flight for a couple of months and then bought my first longboard. my surfing evolved from years of skateboarding and from riding longboards. I ride mostly off my front foot, with a narrow stance and basically just like to go fast. surfing helps to keep the type II belt around my waist to a minimum. and the two board quiver allows me the freedom to not have to struggle with what board to surf and just go out and surf with no doubts. as long as surfing is fun I'm on it.

'Ol Yeller and El Mysterioso: a lasting legacy

A long time ago my friend Emilio kicked down an old single fin that he and his brother had shared for many years. It was as a 6’2” unsigned MTB shapes with a classic yellow resin tint and red pin lines. The bottom had six channels and a single fin box. It was my first shortboard. One day I was surfing at Tables on a small glassy afternoon. There was a guy with super long bleached white dreads shroping around on the waist high beachies.

We chatted in the water about the yellow board. Later we became friends, then roommates, we travelled to Hawaii together, he moved my shit out of my apartment when I decided I wasn’t coming back from Hawaii, we rode our mountain bikes in the Appalachians, skateboarded street in Cocoa Beach, split lanes on the bikes in Portland, hiked in the Hood River Gorge with Peta, cooked crazy good vegan meals, surfed some more, started a web project together, and then some. It's amazing how that one board, passed down by a good friend, has been the catalyst to such a strong and lasting friendship.

Some time around 1999 I took 'Ol Yeller in to Robert Strickland's shop to see about getting it remade. Strickland was a highly respected shaper and an honored member of the Cocoa Beach surf community. He eyed 'Ol Yeller for a minute then walked back to his shaping bay and came back with an old battered template. Sure enough, he'd probably shaped that board in the late 70's while he was working for MTB. He was stoked to see someone riding one of his old shapes. I wanted a new one I told him. He complied but said he’d update it with modern outline, rails and concaves. I later surfed that Strickland single fin in Hawaii, the only place that really had enough push for it to work. Tragically Strickland passed away in a boating accident while I was living in Jamaica.

Yeller moved in with my friend D$ where he lived in a dry secluded corner of the garage. The rails had split open and the board was not in rideable form. D$ took it to a master ding man who re-glassed the rails. He then ordered a Grenough flex fin and well you get the idea. ‘Ol Yeller lives and although water time is rare, the board that Strickland made still carries his legacy and so much more.

So thanks to D$ and to El Mysterioso Jr. for hookin up the banner for Ku Yah!

Participatory Culture Shift - "coming to come seen"

This week I have somehow managed to read several different pieces about a new form of public participatory culture happening across the globe. The idea is basically that everyday people, like you reading this, and me typing while at work, are coming together without leadership or hidden agendas to share information, ideas, dreams and even practical information. This has been quite evident as a movement with the internet and things like blogging and Wikipedia. But it is not limited to cyberspace. One of the articles I read was in Ode Magazine and it talked about the G8 summit protests, which brought together thousands of people who were there to represent a myriad of ideologies, from environmental issues to religion, human rights and business.

There has always been a sort of strange relationship to the idea of "the man” controlling society. Some people refer to the man with a sense of dread; while others laugh at the thought that there is some hidden power out there controlling everything, or at least watching. Whether or not the “man” exists or not may soon become irrelevant because technology and communications are allowing normal people to share ideas and create community like never before.

Take this blog her for example. I started writing on Ku Yah! about a year ago. My intention was to practice my writing and have a way to get it out of my head and notebooks. What it’s really done is caused me to write. You see I’ve come realize that, having the desire to write and actually writing are two different things. In the span of a year I have certainly grown in my own sensibilities as a writer, I have come closer to understanding where my skills and strengths are and perhaps even where I may want to move with my writing in the future. But those are consequences which I set out to achieve.

What I hadn’t expected was to be absorbed into an international community with other bloggers. We link each other, read each others ideas, follow each others links to far flung cyberspace reaches and learn about new ideas. And blogging is only scratching the surface. Participatory projects like , Flickr, Wikipedia and WiserEarth are changing the way information is valued. If you ever had the Encyclopedia Britannica sales guy come to your house and make his pitch to your parents, using you as an excuse for the exorbitant amount of dough they had to lay out for this printed knowledge, then you have seen what kind of pressure this can have on a person.

What is exciting now is that knowledge which is free to the end user, and was created for free, will tend to have less of an agenda than knowledge created for profit. Maybe we will see history books 30 years from now being written based on blog archives and not by historians working for massive publishers with huge lobbying power. And maybe then history will be a bit more objective and inclusive of all people.

So as I close down the workday I feel excited about the possibilities. I feel that the future is not all Global Warming and wars. Of course the key is participation, and participation is the corner stone of democracy, and George Bush is not democracy. So I plan to get out there and conitinue reading, linking, writing, and more importantly –doing.

Resolutions

Ku Yah man. What is your new year's resolution?

I am going to surf more, drink less and eat well. These are the things which have made me the happiest in the last few months. Two weeks in between Florida and New York allowed me to be as slack with my resolve as I ever could be. B and her sis and I drank and acted foolish with several groups of people including my great family, D$ and his posse, as well as sister's boys in Brooklyn. We skinned a pig, surfed sharky waters with out our wetsuits in Florida December, drank PBR (finally), rode bikes, played bolas criollas, a.k.a. bocce, and generally enjoyed life.

All I need now is to get over this cold before the swell hits this weekend. D$ is shipping the Green Machine this week and it should arrive next week. Got two sets of fins for it. The first set are the MR style twins with a trailer fin. The second set are the Rusty Vector fins from Futures which are foiled on the inside and out. D$ says that they are "sick." Can't wait for a test drive.


ras with D$'s 5'10" quad -loose and fast.

Google Me

Finally, Ku Yah Blog is google-able! Check it out:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=ku+yah&meta=
One small step for me, one large step for the Ku Yah --seen.

Ku Yah Defined

Ku verb, look! ku yah! - look here!