Big In Japan

Kidman cam catches our boy celebrating some new Japanese press. We transcend cultural and language barriers almost every day around here.

Gloom, Artshows and the rest

Photo by Joe Curren

The run of surf fun ended with Socal's bizarre weather behaviour over the last few days. Onshores howling, tornadoes in Riverside, thunderclouds- wonderful chaos. There's some inside stuff to do though. If you're in New York or environs you're stoked. Weds 28th Richard Kenvin & Joe Curren are part of a show at the Yard Gallery at Soho Grand (how NYC arty is that?) involving 3 photographers and 3 filmmakers. There will be good stuff there and the rsvp needs to go to events@sohogrand. The following night there's the bicycle oriented 'Hello Velo' show that Patrick Trefz is part of happening at 40 Great Jones St near the Bowery. Again totally worth going out for I'd say. Those of us in the greater LA can feel very urbane at the Maggie Marsek show at Shelter on Sat 31. Always a fun event there, and Maggie's photos are great so I say go for it. Added a couple more blog links over there, Jamie Murray's shaping and Norcal photos make me want a road trip, and Niega's road trip and photos make me want to go road trip France & Spain.

Jair Bortoleto's Book

Jair Bortoleto has most kindly arranged to get some copies of his book 'Alma Santista' up here for North American consumption. It's a really cool collection of photos, mostly portraits, that Jair has shot around his home town of Santos which happens to be the birthplace of Brazilian surfing. The book is about 10" x 10", softcover and black and white. It's a really nice moody collection, and even though the text is in Portuguese it's still easy to get a feel for the place. Here's the cover and a couple of spreads from the book, and Jair's blog over there on the right has a nice collection of his photos. The book is $35 postpaid inside the US, and if you want it just email me at consafos@earthlink.net and I'll make it happen.
Lagged a bit on the posting due to this swell to be perfectly honest. I've been out there on the Casper neglecting work as much as possible over the last week culminating in really fun go-outs on both Sunday and Monday. Stayed away from it today and dealt with book stuff that has been happening the way it should and looks like being a great project down the line, so I don't mind missing what was apparently another good day (Andy surfed a northern LA point and said it was plenty fun) as I'll get back on it tomorrow. Some stuff you may want to check out from the last few days are Patrick Trefz doing some updating after scoring excellent looking mainland Mex, and a great little interview with Tim Griffin (who's shaping the fine new Lynch boards for the US) at surfboardbuilders.com/blog.aspx.

Lynch by Kidman

That widowmaker has got me going and any excuse to run a shot of one of my favourite surfers I'll take. Lynch surfing is by Andrew Kidman from Ether. Not sure what happen to the colours but I like it. Not a bad bottom turn for a guy in his 50s. Underneath that is a hurried shot of my Lynch Evolution model, shaped by Terry Goldsmith. It's a 6'8", nearly as old as my daughter and far grubbier than she is (usually).
Oh yes, the board below is based of a Seebold single apparently. Makes it even more epic really.

Someone will be very happy...

Custom 6'3" Lynch Widowmaker made by Tim Griffin

Some very lucky and damn smart person ordered this beauty from Tim Griffin. It's a widow based on a Wayne Lynch single fin and looks amazing. Lynch has had a few bad deals with making his boards available outside of Victoria, but it looks like it's all go now. Tim Griffin is shaping them in N. San Diego County, he's had plenty of experience with Wayne's designs and it shows in the boards I've seen. Pretty epic stuff all round, but a Lynch Widowmaker is right up my alley- I was frothing like a 16 year old when I saw this.

And Now We Present...

Photo by Joe Curren of photos by Joe Curren

In typical Joe fashion he's got a blog he's been a bit low-key about and it's really good. Go check it out.
http://joecurren.blogspot.com

The Week in Pictures

The surf was good this weekend and the in-box has been bountiful and entertaining of late, so here's a rundown. First up is some surfing in Australia from Mick Waters.



Still in Australia, Chef Kidman whips up some special mouth numbing chile jam. The secret recipe involves a potfull of these. (Photo by the Chef himself)



Meanwhile in New York, the East Coast Fish Frye/ AB3 weekend goes down. Some cool boards on display and here's Mike and Richard post event maybe wishing they had some chile jam to go with the pizza. (Photo lifted from Shipworm & Gribble)



And finally, a shot from former Z-Girl Peggy Oki who was rock climbing near Canyonlands. She finds time to still skate, surf, climb, save whales and paint. She's an excellent example of living with gusto

Killin' It Worldwide

Jair reports nice conditions and 6' in Santos, Brazil (like the weather would be bad in Brazil). Mick Waters says it's been good in the Kirra region, barrels aplenty and some of them lefts making him a happy goofyfoot. RK said it was solid windswell joy on a Casper at one of those historically important breaks down south, and the photo is River Rock himself, killing it at Sloat (no idea when it was taken but hell of drop Petro's making there.) I'm going out tomorrow AM. Kidman is making deadly mouth numbing hot sauce. All is good. Here's hoping the NYC Fry gets a few spinners for the boards to be tried on this weekend.