watchin wind blow out my window

sittin on a saturday wonderin what to do while Moe sleeps wrapped and swaddled like a banana. MF Doom rocks the computer speakers and outside the tree tops blow with the gusty south west wind -still naked . waves should be building. buoy is up to three meters at eight seconds. there should be a hamster wheel at a point a I know. walk to the top and get in. paddle, paddle, paddle against the current. snag one and milk it around the sections. get out. do over.  meanwhile Doom sings bada boom bada bing. the rats scurry under the sewer traps and the seaguls wait for summer for lotsa tourist scraps. some people do and some don't. the watchers are sitting at their screens right now.

just

like  me.

Doom and Sade move the next track through a double. why you've come this far I wonder? so I keep it going. remember that time when we went drinkin and ridin? you T -I'm talkin to you. don't remember what time it was. we were no-handin it down in china town and your front wheel turned and you went down like me on ice skates on winter ponds. then there was that other time -you ran into the back of that parked car and split your lip laughin through bloody teeth before we hit the next bar, bikes hung and locked on the fence to keep 'em off the sidewalk.

we used to drink heaps. "I'll get the next one" I'd say time and time again. and we'd talk about a whole heap of rubbish like some 20 somethins goin nowhere's fast. remember them days there? remember ten years earlier takin the door off your white vdub van so we could stick your motor bike part way in. power band kicked in 2nd gear and I'd almost get snatched right off the back. you'd be blastin the jumps with sneakers and shorts -no shirt no helmet. I was throwin down frontside slappys on the long yellow curb at the bank drive-through in downtown Bartow. the town was dead and dying. I was ready to exit but it would be a while still before I saw somthin new.

Rashoman

Rashoman is probably one of the best films in terms of examining the human condition and our inhumanity. Janus Films has just remastered it and apparently it's going to be making the rounds in theaters. For those of you in SF and NYC please take advantage as I very much doubt we'll get the pleasure here in Halifax. Kurosawa is by far my favourite film director (I'm not much of a film buff) and Toshiro Mifune never disappoints.

style: danny MacAskill

I spend a lot of time on my ass either behind my desk at work or in the evenings at home after work. but there is one lesson that I learned from years of skateboarding and the same lesson has been re-stamped in my will after the last three years of steady surfing. the only way to achieve anything is to put in the work and to be present and engaged during the process, learning from mistakes and successes. in the last few days I've been more sedentary than usual due to a lack of waves. I ran on the weekend and finally busted out few calisthenics yesterday. however,that is not even enough for maintenance.

luckily I found this newly posted gem. danny macaskill is amazingly fluid. he's like a mix between ryan leech and chase hawk. if your into cycling or human mechanics or will power then you'll appreciate this video. now I'm off to do some stretching.

do it how you want

 

 

 

 

knee high to as big as it got and often cordless, buddy's one board quiver fit perfect on the side of his bike with tent and other living needs.

style - duane peters

nothing to say except I need to try harder

gonz, style, and Mr. Hynd

feelin posty.

I've watched Derek Hynd's sequence in Litmus a million times. his style is mesmerizing and he seems to not take himself (his surfing) too seriously. today I found this clip of style master Mark Gonzales, aka the Gonz. it may seem weird at first but after a few more screenings you start to notice his style, how he makes little nuanced changes to his posture or stance to achieve a turn.

I'm always amused by how people carry themselves through life. some are clumsy and seem as if their lives and their flesh is a burden on their every move. others rejoice at having muscles and balance and flexibility and they move through space with grace and confidence.

there's so many ways to live.

monday ruminations: kenvin and twin keels + nature

It’s Monday and the leaves are flaming as the cold dark mornings grow longer and longer. I wished I’d worn ear protection on the bike commute today as my ears rang through the first half hour of work. Did I say work? It’s all I can do to focus on anything else besides surfing. Lately I’ve been reading about Richard Kenvin. Kenvin is not well known outside of California but his reputation is held in high regard inasmuch as I can tell. He is the man behind the film project titled Hydrodynamica – a historical look into the genius and influence of Bob Simmons. Simmons drowned while surfing at the age of 35. It’s a wonder how things may have been different if it weren’t for Simmons early demise.


(Kenvin, twin keeled in New York on the same weekend that I surfed NY sandbars [franco photo taken from the Hydrodynamica blog])

Last weekend while in New York I was lucky to get to ride a 5’11” Rich Pavel keel fish. The board had the traditional marine ply wood keel fins set parallel to the stringer with no cant or toe. I had never ridden a board that short nor with that fin set-up. The waves were overhead, steep and fast and breaking over a shallow sandbar. I was intimidated and perhaps suffering from a bit of “performance anxiety” as Mick coined it. However, after a few failed attempts I managed to make a wave or two and really feel what the design has been so famous for. Speed. The feeling of controlled speed was like nothing I’d ever felt before on any other surfboard. It’s taken a week for those few rides to settle into my consciousness. A week where I had a chance to surf my entire quiver from the bonzer in perfect eight foot faces, then the green machine modern fish in head high lefts, and finally the 9’6” log in windy knee high slop. Although all of my sessions this past week were great, none quite compared to the Pavel fish session.

So I’ve turned to researching the twin keeled, wide tailed, boards and their exponents. I have always tended to be antisocial in my lifestyle choices. Sometimes out of pure narcissism and other times out of passion and a real interest. I have never been interested in the technical aspects of board sports but rather in the fluidity and grace that is achieved by masters like Tudor and Curran, or Vallely and Gonz. But it seems that in the twin keel Simmons and Lis inspired craft I may have found what I was looking for in terms of speed, fluidity and fit.

I’m fascinated by how we as animals can use tools to move within our environment. Surfing is really as simple as it gets when it comes to being part of the energy that moves the world. We use our energy and intuition to catch waves and then glide down their faces for what is really a trifle in the timeline of our lives. And yet, for some, this trifling moment becomes a beacon towards which our lives are directed. And getting to that light at the end of the darkness is a series of cycles of wind, tide, and seasons, of paddling out and into waves, of morning rituals and checking the weather. The cyclical patterns of a lifelong surfer are not unlike those of any other organism moving through the stages of life. And to find that tool that perfectly fits with your own personal style, your movements, is to shortcut straight to the foothills of the mountain of enlightenment. In these times of turmoil and war I feel sometimes shallow for obsessing with surfing. Mostly however, I feel fortunate to be passionate about life and nature and I am grateful to be stationed in a life that allows me this simplest and most giving of pursuits.

I'll leave with Miles and Sketches

winners

Some of you may have noticed the poll to the right for best surf blog. These are my favourite's by far -and there are tons by the way. For me it's a pretty even race between all of these but Pushingtide is a consistently good one. And so is Surf in Oregon, the undisputed winner. Doc over at Surf in Oregon is funny, witty, and irreverent. He also has some rad T's for sale if you scroll down his page.


and in other news... most of you probably already know that Kelly won his 9th world title yesterday. For all those guys bitching about Kelly winning too much -they need to surf better. Bottom line. Kelly is the oldest guy on tour (wait that may be Knox)but he is super fit, flexible and takes his work seriously. There's no performance enhancement here boys and girls, just sharp senses and sharper skills. Congratulations Kelly. One of these days after you've been retired for a while people will look back and see how good you really are.