Back

Not my photo, but one by the very talented Scotty Sullivan of a place I like to surf

Healed, back in the water and it's trunk weather. Down south again for a day or so, then this AM I got out at the not so lovely SaMo. Little, tiny waves but there were corners and I fished around and had some short ride fun that spat you out in shin deep water. It got crowded and crappier as time went by, and when a 'surf school' decided to paddle a bunch of kids out right in front of me, I decided to go home. I usually avoid the weekends but I've missed getting wet.

New Fin Fun

This is a new 'Spitfire' fin. Essentially a winged keel with no wings. Really thick and foiled like the wing of a Spitfire plane, hence the name. I've had the thing for a while but recent flaness has conspired against me getting a good session on it. Finally rode the thing over the last couple of days on a jaunt down to San Diego. Caught some bumpy but OK chest to head windswell at a couple of spots, and it was plenty to feel this thing work. It holds in incredibly well for a single, doesn't have the insane pivoting from the tail feel of the starfin, but still it never felt like it wouldn't hold, frontside or back, whatever I did. What's really noticible is how drivey it is- I felt like I was getting slingshoted out of the drop- very fun. It's all to do with the increased tip area and I'm really liking it. On top of all this I had a fun trip, picked up a Mabile stinger (unglassed) that my better half is going to paint as an art thng, ate good Mexican food after wandering Balboa Park and fondled some fine, fine examples of alternative surfcraft at the Swift headquarters - a 6' Simmons style board with a 19" tail that is over 23" wide most of the way, has an s-deck and a pair of weird long based keels. Best of all, it's totally light EPS and glaringly whire. Oh so odd.

Coming soon...

What's been keeping me busy and more out-of-the-water than I like is now more or less done. And the next project is well under way. At least the past few days I haven't missed much.

Chipper

The mighty Ben 'Chipfish' of Swaylocks fame with a 5'6" Indian Ocean kneelo. He's looking out at the Indian Ocean too. Ben is one of the most surf stoked people I've ever encountered. He surfs every opportunity he gets, he's absolutely fin obsessed and rides mostly reshaped boards with more plugs in them than you'd imagine possible. Owing to back injury he's been out of the water a bit lately, and so has been laying up dozens of fin panels and making some wild looking combos. After our decent burst of swell last weekend it's easy to get overly grumbly about this weeks lack of anything (especially since I have a new fin for the Horan) so I'm posting Ben as my reminder that it will indeed be 'all good' and that even a couple of short rides on junky waist high surf still counts.

Inhaling The Mahatma

'One in every six people on our planet is an Indian, and the nation they inhabit is conducting the world's largest and most important experiment in democracy. Can a deeply religous society of more than one bilion people with a large Hindu majority sustain a secular government under which people of all faiths are treated equally? If it can work in a developing country as populous and diverse as India, it can work anywhere.
In just sixty years, the power of ordinary Indians to determine who governs them has revolutionised once demoralised colony of Britain, breaking down feudalisim and caste discrimination, and making enormous strides in reducing poverty and disease. In 1947 the average Indian's life had a life expectancy of thirty-two years, and only one in five people could read or write; today's Indian lives twice as long on average, is better off than ever, and two out of every three people are literate. India's information technology boom has buried its image as a timeless, caste-ridden place teeming with paupers, snake charmers and maharajas. The world is doing yoga, wearing pashmina and reading Indian authors, not to mention enjoying spicy Indian cusine and being entertained by the pulsing output of Bollywood cinema.'

from 'Inhaling The Mahatma' by Christopher Kremmer

Another big roadtrip plus is that without a computer to dick around on or a garden to distract me, I get some reading done. This one is a fine history of modern India told through Kremmer's time as a foreign correspondent based in New Delhi. He's a great writer, an Aussie journalist (and surfer) who's written a couple of great books on Afghanistan and Laos respectively. It's an intense history at times. much sectarian violence and that democracy seems to be only semi-functioning, but Kremmer is convincingly hopeful. Good stuff. And there's a swell here too. Nice size, a bit jumbled and windswelly where I was yesterday, but still fun.

crowds

Up early and out after some fooling around, but still early enough to beat the worst of the crowd. Waves were shifty, small and the tide was doing a number on them but the morning was beautiful and I sat away from from a pocket of people enjoying myself. The regular pod of dolphins was doing it's thing out the back and they began moving in towards the rip I was sitting next to, one shot under me and then I was utterly surrounded (and letting a few good ones slip by out of pure amazement.) They were swimming slowly by either side of me, the board was getting buffeted by their wake, I could have quite easily reached out and touched a few and one quite calmly eyeballed me as he came up out of the water. 10 seconds or so of serious crowding as they passed and that was it. Never had them within an arm's reach before and felt terrible as they headed off as 'Wow, those dorsal fins really do look like a Greenough with bit more tip' was one of the first things through my mind. Even managed to slide a few waves and put it on a rail once in a while. A really good day all told.

Being nice to marine mammals is a good thing- if you have kids or dig origami, check Peggy Oki's project here:
http://www.peggy-oki.com/cu_origami.html

Thanks

Waves, creeks, rocks, wind and fog

And so the central Cal trip went. Solid surf, serious afternoon winds and pretty incredible weather. Surfed all the spots I could and did well, pretty much head high or better the whole way. A few spots were just too punishing to bother with, a few were an incredible amount of fun and I had the widowmaker so I was at least prepared. I surfed by myself most all of the time but those that I did encounter in the water and parking lots were all good people. South of Sur was the mellowist so made for a good warmup, the creeks in the Sur were gorgeous, one would be unridable and the next somehow working (if only for a short while), missed the Carmel beachie which I'm determined to get good one day, Santa Cruz was firing but too crowded for my blood, a jetty north of there had some crisp rights and still further north a blown out but working beachie haded me a couple of good left drops. The creeks in Whitey's turf looked pretty rocking but the paddle out alone was not working for me and it all culminated with Ocean Beach being a manageable size so the paddle out was only gruelling not impossible. Visited with the fine folks at Mollusk Surf Shop who deserve your good attentions and as I left the shop on the way out of town I ran into Manny Caro who was an utterly nice guy. I took no photos the entire trip (I'm a backward antipodean- no digi camera, no cell phone, no TV and a tendency to forget to take a camera with me. I plan on developing the two films I no longer remember what's on and getting some sort of digital camera this year though.) and reveled in the cold, undocumented joy of it all.

Dream Quiver #3

Kidman 6'0" Diamond Tail Single
Full-on 'Morning Of The Earth' MP style machine. Big Greenough flex fin, starfin, cutaway- lots of options here.

So I went to the beach early a day or so ago, very low expectations but desperately needing to get wet. It wasn't good, but wasn't awful- waist to chest (at times) and I watched some thruster guy put together a decent ride. I went south of the 5-10 person crowd to a spot that usually works and gambled on it being better as the tide filled. Thought I'd blown it as I spent some time sitting between two rips and not seeing anything much worth paddling for, but patience was a virtue and it slowly happened. Mostly small lefts with a few bigger shorter rights popping up on the edges. I rode few, felt the starfin work nicely and had a fine old time on my backhand for an hour or so before it died on me. All by myself but not really as there were fishos casting at both rips, a 3 person pack maybe 50 yards away, kids hollering on the beach, a pod of dolphins working what must have been a rich spot on the outside and a seal in the lineup with me for a while. Went to work happy

Quiver #4

8'6" Downing Makaha. It's stashed at a friend's place in Hawaii and gets ridden at Makaha. George Downing is a hero and is often hanging around the shop. In the back room Keone Downing's oversized check from his Eddie win is thumbtacked on the wall behind a rack of boards. There's always 4 or 5 of the most insane, sleek frightening 9' + full race Waimea guns in there too. It's a serious surf shop. I rode this in a good sized South Shore swell and had one of the funnest days of surf ever, even despite horrendous crowds. I rode it in small, midweek Makaha surf that was empty except for me, a couple of lifeguards and Dave Parmenter stand up paddling. Riding it is always a treat.

soon...

Central Cal. My lousy photo makes it hard to tell, but this was a solid 6-8 face. I'm back up there next month, and can't wait. Cold, empty, a little scary and astonishingly beautiful. Reminds me of parts of NZ & Victoria, except with oaks and chaparral. Good seafood and aching arms.
Meanwhile, back in LA I finally arrive at the beach and there's working waves.Not great waves, not even good waves really, but waves. I rode, I threw a couple of hard turns to see what the starfin would do and went to work happy. Can't ask for much more than that.

Winter Of Our Discontent

Well, of my discontent anyway. Weeks of no go for the surf, mostly due to my limited window for surf of late, but the swell and weather have hardly been co-operating. It's been dire, my last few go-outs have met with tiny closeouts, waves breaking in inches of water and the like. It can't last, and after getting in the water for the first time in over a week on Friday, it felt good just to be paddling around in the sun. I have had a chance to do a few tasks like ding repair, but I'm ready to surf again.

Dogged

Not my little black & white dog, but one belonging to a good friend. It's on Piha beach back home in New Zealand. This is the beach where I started surfing for real and learnt to love (?) the cold, arm-killing beachbreak. Areas of this beach are OK for dogs and the rules (clean up your dogs mess, don't let it hassle other beachgoers) are well respected. One end of the beach is off limits as there are penguin nesting sites and all too often visitors or new residents to the area disobey and baby penguins die.
This morning I went to a beachbreak. It was sunny, warm and little knee to waist waves were peeling. Unfortunately they peeled rarely and when they did it was in about knee deep water. I turned to go home and saw a man illegally walking his dog down the sand with no means of cleaning up the inevitable mess. I suppose they figure the water is so polluted a little more won't hurt. Dogged all round today.

Long Shot

If you happen to be in the vincinty of the northern portion of NSW, get a few surfs in down at Byron Pass then check this out. Dain's boards are ldownright awesome, so some shopping could be done as well.
No surfing today, the tide is high early and there's poo in the water. Getting close to a week since I've been in the water and I hate that. Need to get out of town again, maybe north while there's still a bit of swell bouncing around up there in central CA.

Frustration

Santa Monica 1925

Saturday- Decent sized lumpy closeouts with much chop at El Porto
Sunday- Smallish but with a few corners and a beautiful day at SaMo. Much crowds though.
Wednesday- Solid sized, glassy and closing out. A few very fast corners on the inside, but couldn't get on a peak to save my life.

Ah well, there's always next week.

My Achin' Head

Neal Purchase Jnr. on a Parmenter Widowmaker. Photo Kidman from 'Glass Love'

Well, it was achin' Sunday after the Festivus Saturday. Got a quick go out in Carlsbad but the wind was on it and I wasn't. Visited Univ, a really cool skateshop in Encinitas that should be supported, and then partied. The Swift Movement boards were on display and looking fine and there was a few of the Matuse wetsuits which looked great- they're made out of Limestone basically and there's a website at www.matuse.com that explains it much better. Fine entertainment too, Kidman, Purchase and Scotty Sullivan played a long and ultimately groovy set and were followed by Jalopy who are superb. Acoustic gypsy music- double bass, violin, accordian and guitar. If anything better than last year and they were great then. Unfortunately it wasn't all sensible admiration of quality products going on. Neal P kept putting elixers in my hand and I was quite merry by the time the 3rd band came on. They were very young, dressed atrociously (sequined grandma shirts!) and wound up absolutely rocking the place. They've recently discovered the late 60s/early 70s and have taken it to heart in the best possible way. I will find out their name and I recommend them highly. I don't recommend drinking with Australians but god it was fun. Until I got up to go to work on Sunday.

festivus II

Yeah, I'm late with this. It's been nuts busy and R. Kenvin just got the flyer to me. Awesome good fun last time.

starfin

And this is a starfin for those who haven't seen one. I ordered one from Cheyne Horan very recently, sent him a check to his address in Hawaii and about 2 weeks later two fins turn up. They were mailed from Australia and were simply taped together, wings at opposite ends, and my address was put on one side and the customs label on the other. No box, no packing material- just fins and tape. They arrived in perfect condition and gave the postie a good laugh. As my Dad would say 'Bloody aussies are all mad.'

Quiver #3

6'4" Cheyne Horan 'No Nose'

This board has a single starfin and is fantastic, loose but fast and drivey like a regular singlefin. Perfect step up from a fish and it has a feel all it's own. I'm happy to be on the Horan program- he's a cool guy and a truely independent thinker when it comes to surfing.
cheynehoran.com.au
solosurfer.com
Both links worth your time following.

Fitzy

Photo Albie Falzon from 'The Morning Of The Earth'

'Kirra was great. There was an early morning crew that would be there at dawn. Dickie Van Straalen, John Charlton and the Deanes. Dawn patrol at Kirra with 4 guys out- God it was crowded! So lucky to have surfed those places before the pack.'

Fitzy's the man. End of story.
Weds was little but blue skies, lack of crowds and the blue fish made it all good.

December

Corner of the complex my kid lives in up in Olympia WA

I do sort of have an excuse for slow posting what with the season and all. I spent way more time packing books and DVDs than surfing, that's for sure. I did get out on the first big swell. The beaches were closing out like crazy and the points were wall to wall so it was less fun than it should have been. That first pounding of winter is always a strangely gratifying time, although as the photo shows some were pounded in totally the wrong way (the windstorm in OR/WA did this). The right-before-Xmas swell was less than it could have been due to the tide swing, but I still got out if only to give my arms some exercise. Christmas eve morning at Santa Monica was strangely good though- I wound up in a spot where the bigger ones (chest to headhigh) would rear up like the usual dumping closeout on the outside then seemed hit a hole as they just stayed walled and rolled on through before going up and over on the inside. So I sat way out, took off on a few I misjudged and got my share of down the line runs. A fine Xmas gift I must say.