Tangy Zizzle

Hey, this is post 100, and it's one I'm pretty happy about. Ulladulla's favourite son has been working hard and the beauties above will be on their way any day now. The sidecut will be in Shelter and I'll have Mick back in the shaping bay before he knows it. If those Antipodean's could send up some more swell with a slightly better angle as well we'd be in heaven.

Cycledelic

For those in the LA area, the Bicycle Film Fest hits town with Trefz' short 'Jim's Lines' showing. This Friday, 7.30pm at the Vine Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.
http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/2008_site/la/program1.php#a



This is a common Murre, and it's from my current favourite blog San Luis Coastal. It's linked on the right and my thanks to Manny at Swallowtail for the tip off. (He's got some great stuff going on there too, worth a look for the beautiful board art he just posted.) I'm off to grovel in tiny surf then pick up some customs Swift has made- pics will undoubtedly follow.

Avalon

Surf and blog free week due to being on Santa Catalina Island, hanging with the g-f's family. I did get in the water every day, took the fins and mask and did sometimes 2 free dives every day. High point was seeing a pair of Black Sea Bass that were huge, I'd guess about 4-5 feet cruising along the edge of the marine preserve. I got down close to them twice and could check them out- totally prehistoric looking things. As the photo above shows, they got huge and they got fished as a trophy, hence they are very much endangered. Unfortunately this doesn't stop a-holes taking them in Mexico where restrictions are lax, which makes marine preserves like Catalina all the more important. More cheerfully, the SurfIndian party last Saturday was pretty epic- Ando's art was cool, Skip Frye was a total gentleman as always and the gallery/shop looks like it'll be a great venue. Much fun.

Something In The Air

After a few conversations and some delay caused by high quality Central NSW swell, it's all go to make available Mick Mackie Surfboards in the USA. Mick's going to shape a few and send them up, and I'll be able to sort out any custom orders with him. This means we can all get out hands on his flextail fish and the sidecut fish (the board Garth Dickinson rides in 'Glass Love' is one) to say nothing of all the other epic and creative stuff he's playing with. I believe we'll be seeing a 5'7" sidecut fish and a 5'9" flextail to begin with, and that the flextail will be around for people to try. Go check his site at www.mackiesurfboards.com.au- this is going to be really fun.

Sea Of Joy

How epic are these prints from Mick Waters? He emailed to let me know he had Believe t-shirts and prints for sale, and these are them basically. (For those of you who haven't seen Believe, it's now available in the US and it's well worth checking out) I'm loving the prints and would gladly facilitate getting them from Mick if anyone wants one. The deal is they are gallery quality, mounted on foamcore, and signed by Mick and the surfer in the photo. He also has shots of Rasta, Beau Young and Kyuss King that I'll post soon. I'm guessing with shipping and exchange they'll pan out in the $150-175 range which really is a deal. The Aussies are on the ball, I'm hoping to have available some ridiculously amazing items from down there very soon.

A NOTE: Just looked at that post and the colours have come out a bit funny in the pictures- anyone who cares can email me and I'll send you the actual jpeg- they look way better. consafos at earthlink.net is the address.

Summer In The City

Here's hoping no-one has much planned for next weekend. Not only is the Ando/Skip show happening, there's also a deal happening during the day at the Cardiff Patagonia store where you can have a trial ride on a Bark paddleboard- all you need do is show up and register at the store and you're away. If you're in LA and don't fancy the cost of a SD drive, Shelter is showing the Alex Knost 'Black Van' film and the mighty Growlers are playing. Something for everyone it seems. The run of seriously fun swell continues, hit the points north of LA and was thrown into the world of over 50 people scrabbling for a wave. I understand the distaste felt for the stand-up guys better now I've surfed with 5 or 6 of them in the lineup. Wavehog behavior is bad enough, but from guys who can barely control their equipment it's a bit much. Watching them go sideways over the falls and seeing the 10'+ board mow through a pod of beginners was wild. Still, I got a few good ones and I've been enjoying riffing through the quiver as the Casper is on loan. Again, the Horan/Spitfire fin combo is insanely good.

Modern World

Fish by Kidman

I've had an enforced layoff thanks to AT&T screwing up my phone line. 2 weeks, no phone or DSL. It was sort of entertaining for a while. With no internet stuff to distract me I availed myself of some of the smallish but fun surf we've had here lately and got down to the business of moving storage spaces- a new print run of 'Dogtown' means I'm shifting pallets of books around, a truckload at a time. Now I'm playing catchup with all the stuff I ignored, and I'm doing it through a temporary dialup line as my phone is still not sorted. Bastards. I griefed Mr. A. Kidman about giving his good photos to other people's blogs, and he pointed out he's not blogging so much as he's spending his time making what's in the pictures, and gave me a few. Very nice classic and clean fish for the Japanese, congratulations to the individual that gets this- you scored. Kidman is on the ball, new 'Bird' book in the works and I'm back to the catchup shipping

Bicycle

Patrick Trefz was in New York for the Bicycle Film Festival and here's what he made. No lie, I'm wearing a t-shirt from Manny's Low-Rider Bike Shop in lovely Venice CA as I type this. Synchronicity, man

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.

Here comes Trefz!

The world of blogging widens yet further. Patrick Trefz has a really suitably suave looking photo blog. I mercilessly stole the picture above from it) If I'm going to waste time on the damn internet, this is the way to do it

http://patricktrefz.tumblr.com/

Hopefully his disciplined Germanic temperament will keep him updating it regularly, it's pretty epic so far.

Aloha & Welcome to Swift

Fine art by Sailor Jerry

The mighty Philski is up and 'social networking' with the rest of us. Appearing on your internet is not only a page on Myspace for The Swift Movement but also a blog
http://theswiftmovement.blogspot.com
Word has it that the San Diego boys have new digital camera technology and will be displaying all that they can from the Dustbin of History that is The Swift Movement.

South

Photo by Maz, a spot south of here.

Truck is back, books are shipped and I can go surfing tomorrow. Hooray!

Fine Art

Andrew Kidman prints on wood 12" x 16"

With my truck in the shop it's been a surf free week for me with Casper Jnr Jnr sitting neglected, but it's not all bad. I spent a week with my kid visiting, got a fun small surf session in on Sunday, handed the truck over and have been catching up on assorted neglected business since. One chore taken care of has been the sorting out of art left by Mr Kidman which was occupying my long-suffering daughter's bedroom. I'm curating a decent collection here, and the artist is more than happy to sell to any interested parties. Pictured here are some of what proved popular items while on tour. These are wood panels with hand-painted backgrounds and Andrew's screenprint art on top. Each is unique and they're a good deal at $300 a piece. As always feel free to email me at consafos at earthlink.net if you have any interest in these or other of Andrew's output. Those with no art budget can get their jones taken care of by ducking over to Warbles where Ryan has posted pictures of a new EPS creation he's been working on. Whether the thing surfs great or not it's a fantastic piece of sculpture, but I'm thinking it'll work fine and give an interesting variation on the ride.