Kimo

1956
We'd arrive at Makaha and be the first ones out. The ocean was scented by kukui nuts that had floated down the river from the mountain valleys above. As we surfed, the sun would peak over the Waianae Mountains and eventually become a full-on glare. With the light, other surfers would arrive. We knew and we were friends with all of them.........
As the sun set, the beach again became deserted. The boys would make their way mauka up the riverbed and return with big, juicy watermelons. There would be no traffic on the road at that hour , and the watermelons were thrown up in the air and allowed to burst on the pavement. They were delicious eaten right off the road, Farrington Highway. It was the most fun time of my life.

from 'Kimo- A Collection of Short Stories' by Kimo Hollinger.
Published by Anoai Press (www.anoaipress.com)

DT going Fast

Daniel Thompson putting a fish into 5th gear. Broken truck = no surf = annoyed (and soon to be broke)

You can see our room from here...

Crescent Beach Motel, Crescent City CA
The far north. (Cali style anyway) We stayed 3rd from the right and it was a nice little place with all that beach out front. Good fish shack style restaurant next door too, I like this place alot.
Surfed Sunset Point on Mon but not as good as I'd hoped- still some decent swell but with more tide than it needed it was closing out on the bigger ones. Still, no-one dropped in on me and rides were had which makes it a good day all told. Topanga looked good but overcrowded and I'm sure Malibu was just horrible. I'm feelng the need for another holiday, but instead will go on an evening hike up in Angeles Crest.

Quiver #2

7'6" Matt Moore with a glassed on widowmaker fin set up.
Matt's a god in the Rincon area and I see why- this is a great board even with my wacky fin specs grafted on. Needs a bit of power/size to really work but chest high + and it's a fast, responsive board. It drives and tracks a bit like a single fin but you can hammer it into a turn and it holds. I love the widowmakers, and the fact that they sort of evolved through Terry Fitzgerald to Dave Parmenter makes me love them more . The swell was here but not so clean and shapely, and my window of opportunity wasn't the best- afternoons only when the winds had started. Porto and Hermosa were pretty blown out but with some size on Weds, and Thurs at Santa Monica was nuts, big closeouts and onshores, but what the hell. The weather was nice, the water comforatable and I could pretend I was in Hawaii for the drop. Not much you could do about the punishment when it closed out on my head 3 seconds later, but that's urban surfing I guess.

Whimbrel

One of the common shorebirds we see in summer, but a good one none the less. Along with the willets and the tiny little sanderlings it's these guys that are happily eating the little clams and sand crabs on most SoCal beaches. At Venice I've also seen ruddy turnstones and surfbirds, both of which I like because of their names and because the page they are on in the Peterson Guide To Western Birds (a truly useful and entertaining book) is headed Rock Loving Shorebirds. Maybe the Whimbrels are more into jazz. My terns the other day were almost certainly least terns which I've never seen before. Swell's here a little late, but it's here and I'm going to make use of it.

Two Years Before The Mast

"...the great seas were rolling in in regular lines, growing larger and larger as they approached the shore, and hanging over the beach upon which they were to break, when their tops would curl over and turn white with foam, and, beginning at one extreme of the line, break rapidly to the other, as a child's long card house falls when a card is knocked down at one end."

R.H. Dana Jnr., 'Two Years Before The Mast'

An excerpt (describing the surf on Santa Barbara beach) from one of the finest books about the California coast, and a book I'm amazed more Californians aren't familiar with. For those who haven't read it, Dana was a Boston fancylad at Harvard who's eyes began to give out on him. In 1834 to effect a cure he signed on before the mast as an ordinary seaman on a brig involved in the hide trade with California. He survives shipboard life, rounding the Horn in winter and spends a year sailing the coast (then part of Mexico) between San Diego and San Francisco gathering hides. He's an intelligent, literate writer and documents the then VERY different life in California beautifully, as well as giving a very human look at life as sailor in that time. San Francisco is little more than a Presidio and a shack, Los Angeles was even then a town of drunks and lawlessness, and the old Monterey Dana saw is still faintly visible in it's current form, albeit covered with a few other Monterey's (the fishing boom, Steinbeck, the yuppie boom). I took this book on our recent drive up the west coast, and even the 11 year old found herself drawn into the fascination with how different things were 170 years ago. A pretty essential tome I think.

Music From Southern India

Another excessively hot LA day, but one I got much done. Shipped books, paid bills and sorted a phone company problem amongst other things. This is all good. Seemed like a good idea to play the music of a hot land while I worked, and this was oh so good. All traditional stuff recorded by David Fanshawe whode made many great polynesian field recordings. If the hindus are right, I'd like to come back as a great tabla player (although it's more likely I'll come back as something who's skin will get made into a great tabla) Feeling proud of myself, I went and surfed smallish Santa Monica closeouts. Such a scene, it seems half LA was at the beach. Still, I got an hour of a peak with rare corners to myself before the crowd thickened and the water was nice and cool. Some small terns were fishing just outsie of me, making these amazing controlled spinning dives and hitting the water hard. Made me feel more clumsy than usual

Quiver: #1

A 5'10" Swift Movement fish made by Larry Mabile
This is a wonderfully fast board when it has some face to play on, even in small waves.
A week or so ago I rode it in blown out mushy waves in Crescent City and it was a lot of fun.
I'll ride tomorrow in probably equally bad Santa Monica bay waves and hopefully it'll be fun again.
I'm always amazed at what a brilliant piece of functional art a good surfboard is.