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.

Casper Jnr. Jnr.

More of the new board. Lame as I am I cranked a few crappy photos off , waxed it and away I went. Too excited to actually take a minute or two for better unsullied photos, but I'll do some nicely posed ones soon. Subsequent sessions have been more rewarding with better waves to play on (still far from great) and I can feel it doing what it should. My new daily driver without doubt. Very fun board, paddles much better than you'd think a 5'5" would be capable of, it's really loose and skateboard-esque and absolutely flies. My experience with this design had been on pretty good waves- lined up Rincon and you're in heaven- so I'm stoked that it rides so well in lesser conditions like the Santa Monica beach break. Still managed to go over the handlebars on one though

Freshly Minted

5' 5" of fun, much thanks to Joe B, Phil and RK and I'm going surfing...

UPDATE
Possibly because of new board excitement, the eye of fate and all that, the waves were crap. Small and gutless on the points with the tide filling, bigger and starting to close out at the beachy. Ah well, such is surfing. I got a couple, Casper Jnr. Jnr. felt as good as that which it was modeled off and I can't wait for a decent go at it. Did run into some friends and had much fun but not much waves. Back at it tomorrow.

Sweet

Couple of nice neo-zaps, got the pic from a Swaylocks thread and the boards are over at solosurfer.com. Both are quad with a fin box for that starfin option. No problems there.

Astounding ineptitude

Made and carried out plans to meet RK and Phil at the Shelter opening. I'll spare the full array of nonsense that has led to us being called the 'Keystone Cops of surfing' by someone who's dealt with it all, but needless to say I didn't get my board and I forgot my camera to document the fun. It was fun too, Boroquez installation art and really fine new digs for the Shelter family, K. Putnam dropping knowledge and story out front, Joe Bauguess rolling up from SD with the boys and charming the ladies all night, getting to hang with Ryan Warbles and Jeff Beck from Ninelights, both of whom are onto some wild and entertaining stuff, getting schooled on balsa by the aforementioned Jeff, Mexican beer and general frivolity. The Shelter folks throw a good party and really enjoy this surfboard stuff which is fine by me. Such a moron for leaving the camera behind. It's been a couple weeks of better than usual chaos and ineptitude from me, so here's a look at a suitable mascot for it all.

Bonza!

Eaton/Swift Bonzer by Joe Bauguess

It seems like you can't be a real blogger without posting a picture of a bonzer, so here's one from me. Joe's in town and busy shaping away so hopefully I'll be seeing my 5'5" mini Simmons very soon. I'm excited like schoolkid the day before holidays.
As the year is about 1/4 gone, I'm seriously facing up to what I need to get done. Hopefully it's going to be a productive year for us all, and by posting this I'm hoping I'll have added incentive to get these things finished. In relative order of expected production, here's my aims:
-Swift website up and running (soon I hope)
-Brown Birds From Windy Hill vinyl released
-Joe Curren book done and released
-'Bird Down Under' book finished and released
-Albie Falzon book started
-Hopefully a couple more 'Ether' shows in there too, Andrew's talking about Spain and I'd like to get those East Coast shows done, and maybe another LA/SD one if he's back in the US. I'm agitating for the full slide show/Hydrodynamica clip performance again as it went over very well.
There's also some tenative fun with Australian surfboards and shapers,and I'll hopefully also be helping Patrick Trefz sell his 'Thread' book (again- that's a really good film) but more on that as it becomes more concrete.I need to pay my rent and eat over this time too, so no doubt Jan 09 will come and I'll be staring at this list in dismay. Don't forget this Saturday is the Shelter reopening which I will most certainly attend, 'with bells on' as they say in my part of the world.

Brazil

Jair in Brazil sent me a couple of emails loaded with photos. He'd been hanging with Mike Vallely and acting as a defacto guide/translator. They went to a youth program in a Sao Paolo juvey prison and into some very harsh favela zones. Whole time Jair is taking some very epic photos. He's doing some great work and he's got a blog that I've now linked.

Surfing

A wave, south of where I was.

Went south on a very weak work pretext and managed to get in the water in a good spot while a swell was running again. After a terrible couple of months I've lucked out twice. Last week during the south/west combo I gambled on the tide making Santa Monica OK and it was, peaks all over, offshores and nicely bowly chest to head high waves. Probably was better elsewhere but I had pretty damn good all to myself. Yesterday I got nice sized and clean N. San Diego beachbreak for an hour or two, then went down to visit the Swift headquarters. RK had surfed Windansea for about 5 hours over two great sessions and had some footage to prove it. The first swell totally lit up La Jolla, insane Waimea-esque monsters in the sunset, but Ed Wood struck and the footage is a bit too mysto for it's own good. However I think the fine lads over at Shipworm have inspired him with their blogging prowess and he's up and running with Hydrodynamica, so we all get to see the fine stash of images he has, and he's started with some nice shots from yesterday. I've linked him over there along with the Grey Ghost who's shaping some truly righteous looking boards out in NYC. I'd like also to say that a visit to Warbles to see the Jeff Beck foam/wood sandwich board is well worth it. If I'm avoiding work by looking at surfboard pictures then you should too.

Purcho

Purcho pic swiped from Solace Surf Au

I've been slack about posting as I've had a week of computer malfunction that was fortunately simply fixed, and now I'm trying to get back on it and caught up with everything. Meanwhile, down in Australia the Noosa Surf Festival has been progressing with all manner of fun including a Brown Birds From Windy Hill show. Here's their guitar hero and the inventor of the rail machine, Neal Purchase Jnr, with a couple of his shapes. There was probably beer involved in the production.

Fish!

YoungmanGrand-Mackie-Fish-Hooboy

O-Side

Harry The Hat painted this.

More tour, but stick with me folks- it's almost done and we're getting down to the blood & guts here. We're pretty thrashed by now so Andrew heads off down to San Diego to take care of some business and maybe get a few days hanging out with friends down there. He pulls a real late night working on a collaborative painting with Ando, wakes up feeling crappy and spends the most of the next week laid out ill and sleeping on RK's floor. He assured me he was rallying and would make it to the Pod Room for the signing there, but when I arrive after several hours driving through rush hour traffic in pouring rain he's called to say he couldn't make it to the car let alone to Oceanside. I figured there was no point driving back in traffic and rain so I'd set up and see what happens. For those of you who haven't visited the Pod Room, you really should. It's not only about the smallest surf shop in existence, but it's upstairs in the Hill St. Cafe, a very fine organic eatery & coffee shop. I availed myself of coffee and some excellent fish & chips and was feeling much better about book tours. Despite the rain we had a reasonable turn out and they got to check out a nice range of Harry Daily's art. Harry's one of my favourite 'surf' artists simply because he really is an artist in the true meaning of the word. He has the drawing skills coupled with an elegant distinctive style that makes his art look effortless . (There's a nice gallery of his stuff at www.switch-foot.com/view_artist.php?creative_id=82) The man is all personal style too- as I sat there damp and surrounded by merch, three really quite lovely girls came in, eyed me suspiciously and finally sent an emissary over to ask 'Is Harry here?'. He was and he was wearing a bright yellow Pooh Bear raincoat which didn't slow them a minute. Harry's the man. (he's also in Believe which is a shameless plug) I was merely wet, but I drank coffee, dried out, talked to Chris Christenson and went home entertained.

Thread, stringerless & art

Here's a new You Tube post from Patrick Trefz. For those of you who haven't seen 'Thread', this is a wee chunk of it and you need to get the movie. In my uninformed opinion, it's one of the best surf films to have come out in the last couple years, and one of the very few that I can watch more than once. Helped Joe Curren take down the art at Surf Gallery last night and got to check out his new Manny stringerless (that you can see over Swallowtail Society). Really nice looking board, felt great under the arm and surfs very nicely according to Joe. I need to finish the damn tour stories as the show is down, and there's plenty of good new stuff in the works too. I'd like a decent surf though.

Product

This here is product that you can buy. The poster is our nice tour poster and one can be yours for $10 postpaid inside the USA. The DVD is the excellent new Australian surf film 'Believe' , made by Mick Waters. It features amazing footage and interviews from the likes of The Fitzgeralds, Dave Rastovich and Dick Van Straalen, Albie Falzon, Chris Brock, Harry the Hat and of course those family favourites Andrew Kidman and Neal Purchase Jnr amongst many others. Seriously a fine movie and at this point I'm the only source for it here in the States, although I'm trying to get it into a few select shops. This one is a deal at $25 postpaid inside the USA. If you want either of these or a copy of 'Ether', just drop me an email at consafos at earthlink.net and we'll get you set up. The Swift Movement site is on it's way too I swear.



Sorry- but how's that wave of Purcho's at about 3:19? The man is a prodigy.

Channels

I realize I'm sounding like a Reef ad with all this talk of tails and bottoms, but here's a wild channelled beast that young Mr. Kidman mowed out. He says it works great. I believe it sports the Purchase Jnr. designed 90/90 rails as well. The future is now.

Art

Mattson 2

Been lagging due to uncooperative internet (Earthlink- you suck). and assorted nonsense like Chinese new year parades, but here we go again. Surf Gallery, Laguna Beach. I've been involved in events there before and always go into them with a bit of trepidation- it's going to be all these rich OC surf industry 'art' collectors. I'm always wrong though. There's certainly an element of that, and bless them for the way they throw money at the likes of our boys-it's easy to forget that they help fund the sort of shenanigans we're all involved in- but there's all sorts of folks at these things. Case in point, I met Tyler Warren, who's neo-art nouveau stylings are just getting better and better and he's a freakin' kid. Young, goofy smart-arse surfer kid. I forget what an old fart I am. Mattson 2 wound up playing as they do at many of these events and again they're kids, and they were pretty damn good. I'll admit to rolling my eyes at the thought of the hep jazz deal, but they convinced me as a live act. The lads have chops and they were deep into it when they played. I'm not sure it's going to carry on a CD, but if you miss a chance to see them live you're a chump. Another bonus- right next door the the Gallery is Thalia Street Surf Shop which really is the original hipster surf boutique, and I mean that in a good way. They were doing the funky shirts and left field boards way back when, and still do it well. I remember seeing Bonzers there back when they were almost impossible to find and they've done pretty well at staying ahead of the curve. Throw in wine flowing courtesy of a Chumash run vineyard (Kalawashaq Wines- tasted good to me but I think maybe the the guy over at Wine And Woodsmoke might be a better judge of quality) and hell- it was a great night. Here in the present however I'm bumming- 6ft high tides and 2ft waves. Welcome back to LA.

Hell Yeah

That friends, is a 6' Larry Mabile stinger that Richard Kenvin flowed as an unglassed blank to my girlfriend who then painted it as you see and RK had it glassed and there it is. Being as I'm incredibly untalented in those lines I'm in awe of people like those mentioned above and all their artistic genius. I sure can appreciate it all though.

Still On Tour

Art, Santa Barbara.

It feels like this is all taking longer than the tour itself. At this point we've left young Andrew on the point at Rincon with Skip and run for home and a couple of nights in an actual bed. Not much time for relaxation as within a couple of days I'm heading back up for the show at the A-Frame Gallery in Santa Barbara. Kidman has actually done very well, he's shot rolls of film of Skip and crew surfing and Joe Curren has finished the handmade wood frames you see in the photo above. Joe has definitely inherited his Dad's hand for cabinet work- the frames really are pretty fantastic especially given the deadline we stuck the poor guy with. Show goes well and low key. Nice space in the middle of Santa Barbara with lots of pretty over the top Dan Merkel hypercolour photos and a couple of insane Yater boards that Kevin Ancell has done inlays on- one has a huge abalone shell somehow worked into the deck. My photo unfortunately came out horribly but it's worth stopping into the place to check the boards out if you're in the area. This was also the first of 3 times we wound up blowing off Scott Bass and his radio show. I actually feel bad about that as Bassy was being cool and trying to help us out. Bassy, if you're reading this sorry and don't you have somethng more important to do? Of great delight to me was the fact I got in the water this past Saturday. Santa Monica is never the best, especially with close period high tide windswell, but I wandered down the beach away from the crowd and found a sandbar throwing up the odd chest high and fast corner. I most definitely not 100% and had the paddle power of a four year old, yet notched up a couple of decent runs on the fish before the conditions went south. Crappy session yet I felt infinitely better afterwards for having simply got in the water. 9Fish were doing a demo thing too- sorry to say it but those are some shitty looking surfboards. If you're going to buy a mass market board, at least buy one that looks like it'll work.

Wecome, New Blogging Friend

One of the finest examples of womanhood ever, San Clemente's own Raquel Tejada with Ringo as Youngman Grand in 'The Magic Christian'. Cinematic genius

Got word that the notorious A. Youngman, aka Dan Diknamwer, aka the Slayer Of Rincon, has joined the blogging ranks at www.youngmangrand.blogspot.com. At last, someone who's blog will be updated less often and make less sense than mine.

On Tour #3- Santa Cruz

Seriously, this was our van- Richard was in the swivel chair blasting the tunes and doing some editing on the video suite. Andrew had the solar powered blender going making us smoothies from mother earth's bounty, and I drove. The entire thing was organic and we recycled it after the last show.

At this point we're at the Sunday after the Mav's contest and scattered- Andrew over at the Hess surfboard batcave checking it all out, RK having some exotic breakfast with underground OB big wave guys and me doing the show cleanup with Aleks and enjoying a beautiful sunny morning enhanced by fine San Fran coffee- it's a very civilized town. We reconvened at Ocean Beach which was about as uncivilized as it gets- huge, blown about and terrifying. I've paddled out there on a maybe head high day and it took a solid 45 minutes for me to figure away through, so on a double overhead day like this I was staying well clear. Awesome to watch though and the occasional cloud break sets a mile or so out were amazing. There were a few takers that morning, Danny Hess among them, but fog rolled in and we rolled out for more functional waves. The coast was truly lit up, nearly every glimpse of ocean we had coming down to Santa Cruz showed waves, many big. Pigeon Point was worth a stop and cameras out- huge, hollow rights cranking down the line from the point and to the south there was an equally monumental left cranking up the beach, and all in the most stunning setting imaginable. Santa Cruz was still going off and the Casper's worked their magic until dark and our late arrival at the Mill Gallery for our last minute show. Top german photographer Patrick Trefz had set this one up for us and was pretty done in himself having arrived back from Hawaii at 6 that morning, so it luckily stayed low key. The by now standard array of great characters showed up, Sway's legend Steiny was in full force and a genuine Viking in the form of one Kirkaby turned up too. This guy freedives all over NorCal and has kneeboarded at Mavericks, so he's not fooling about. He was rocking a slew of gold rings and a seal skin vest and is currently my style hero. A fine night followed by one of the coldest attempts at sleeping I've ever had, and off to Rincon we went, as per the Skip post. I'm getting tired just remembering this.

On Tour #2- Aqua

Central Cal Kneelo goes hard

More of our mishaps- we bailed Buellton early as we knew there was swell in the water up north, and there was a chance the legendary Squirrel would ride the balsa Simmons at Mavericks or Ocean Beach. Bypassing the epic but long Big Sur drive we hauled up the 101. Even the sight of about 100 army guys in full camo shooting targets not 50 yards from the side of the freeway just north of Paso Robles didn't slow us down. We hit the coast at the spot above and were greeted by crystalline blue water, double overhead sets and a reeling, spitting right just south of where this kneelo was at work (this is one of the smaller waves but the guy was flying) with a small pack on it. Out back of this guy the set lefts were pretty damn huge, but we bailed on it- Andrew's call 'Small takeoff zone, big pack and a couple of guys dominating it- not worth the hassle' On to Santa Cruz and the Lane in full Saturday madness= a few monsters breaking at middles and the lane was headhigh and amazing. Way more of a pack, but way more room. The boys headed out on the Caspers and any qualms I had at giving up my surf to Richard were snuffed as he was heckled all the way into the water, then put on a show of how to go fast and turn hard. Phenomenal to watch and the guy is undoubtedly Curren's only equal in California. Santa Cruz has probably more great surfers than anywhere else in Cal, but this was a notch up. Back on the road after a couple of hours and we dodged the Mavericks traffic by heading up through La Honda and some gorgeous scenery, making it to Aqua about 10 mins before the show was meant to roll. Again a fantastic time with really cool people showing up- Danny Hess, the Surferbrat, some nutty Kiwi- I was thrashed and entertained by the time Aleks cleared them out. Aqua is another little, indie owned and family run surfery, and the place rules. Aleks (the co-owner) is a mad genius- amiable surfshop guy most of the time, surf-horror autuer when he gets the chance We sat up til 3am watching his new unfinished works and I was drunk on 9% stout and aching from laughing so hard when I passed out, leaving Andrew and Aleks riding the Indo board and watching 'My Eyes Won' t Dry'. If you go to aquasurfshop.com and click on the media gallery you'll find a couple of the works of genius he and his buddy Brian have made. Retarded, brilliant and he has a surf/Bigfoot movie on the way that will redefine how we think of surf film. And gingerbread men.

Unalloyed Capitalism #1

Actually, I'm the conduit only for a fine deal. That's a 6'2" EPS Bauguess shaped Simfish, and a guy called Tim decided he doesn't need it. It's in basically mint condition, ridden once and is only $550. Insane good deal. His email is 49bluenote at gmail.com and someone should jump on it.

On Tour #1- Wetsand

Richard Kenvin paddling out at Ventura 1/11/08. Photo by me which is why it blows. (But Andrew says the horizon's straight so I'm on my way.)

This will be a hazy series of tour stories and updates. 11th was our first day out on the NorCal leg, and we were only a few hours late. The rented minivan was bulging- books, t-shirts, DVDs, clothes, wetsuits and 4 boards (including the 9' Simmons balsa) but we hit Ventura in time for a mellow sunset go-out to wash the past week's chaos off. Except for me- electronic key = no surf for one of us and the boys needed the water more than I at this point. The first batch of many tacos & rellenos were consumed and we hit Wetsand for the show. Absolutely epic shop, probably the best range of boards I've ever seen in a surf shop- biofoam, EPS, wood, long, short, knee, paddle- go to their site and drool. Great folks running the place and a fun, mellow night to start the ball rolling. The one constant with these tours is the people who show up- always stoked, normal folks who surf because they love it and who, like us, are fully in love with surfboards. It's a trip- pros, legends, teenagers, beginners, the guy down the street- all have something going on and it's great. We then drove to a Motel 6 in Buellton to get a jump on the next day's driving. That was not so great.

TOUR CHANGE- We will be at the Pod Room in Oceanside on Weds 23rd. Maybe some music from Andrew, definitely some fun.

Be Like Skip Frye

Skip Frye in Scotland

After a grueling, sleepless Sunday night in a very cold Santa Cruz garage, we drove like the proverbial rocketship all the way to Rincon for the simple reason that Skip Frye was there celebrating his 50th year of surfing. We rolled into the lot exhausted, and there unloading his truck was the man himself with a huge grin and a loud coach's whistle. Sometimes things just work out right. I really can't explain how awesome Skip is, he just radiates goodwill and had as all laughing and struggling into damp, stinky wetsuits for the go-out. (Except Richard, who struggled with his camera.) The waves were chest high or so, the weather beautiful and Skip was rolling with two great Japanese girls, Riiko and Nalu, that he's been guiding into the world of California surf. Crowds, tiredness, my brutally cramped leg- it all evaporated as I got to watch Skip on his 11' Simmons Fish swoop and glide through a little cove wave from the shoulder. He had brought 7 beautiful boards and has been dragging them down to the beach to let all comers have a ride if they so desired. It's really hard to explain just what mana this man has, but needless to say having him give me a big smile and an 'Alright Man!' after a nice little speed run on the 5'5" Casper was undoubtedly the high point of my surfing life so far. He's one of nature's noblemen.
The Norcal leg of the tour is done, we had great shows, some good waves and a suitably surreal time. I'll post a tour log over the next few days as I find time, and thanks to all those who showed up. Met some great people and had some fun is the brief summary. Santa Barbara at the A Frame gallery on State St. happens tomorrow night (Thurs 17th, 7pm) Come on by.

and another...

Here's one swiped from the Nine Lights surfboards site, built by the aforementioned Jeff Beck. No idea how big, but I love them starfins and this looks fun. He offered us a shop tour so hopefully we'll get a chance to visit him

As always, 70percent is on it and got a cool slide show up before I was even close to posting, so go there and look. Kills my stealth blogger deal, but at least I don't look as scary as Andrew. We have managed to add yet another show- this time in Santa Barbara at the Dan Merkel Gallery, 632 State St, SB CA93101. Signing, some art and hopefully room to play the film stuff. Friday is Ventura at the Wetsand store on Main St (7pm or thereabouts) where I will undoubtedly lose it over some of those boards they have. Richard Kenvin is making some 'Untrustworthy' tour shirts so we'll have those on sale, and we have copies of 'Believe' that just arrived from Australia. It's a great film from the small chunk I got to watch today. I've even had some sleep so life is good.

Shelter

8'10" Larry Mabile mega-twinzer

My thanks to the fine folks at Shelter for throwing a hell of an opener for the book tour. It's a great surfshop and couldn't be cooler- family run, full of goodies (like the freshly dropped 8'10" Swift LaMo above) and willing to let us lower the tone of the neighborhood. I had a fine time and saw some very entertaining people- Rob & Maggie from 70% who are great about showing up and supporting these kinds of things, Josh Hall, Eric from Axxxe wetsuits- a whole crew of people who have been cool about backing our half assed projects in all forms. I was stoked to meet Ryan from Warbles in person, and Jeff Beck from NineLights surfboards as well. For a wet Saturday night in Long Beach, it was a stylin' time. High point of the night probably had to be selling a book to Gnar Gnar of 'Invasion...' fame. Epic stuff. And we get to go to Ventura this Friday and do it all again. Makes the past week of book signing and organizational hell well worth it for me. Extra fun is we've added a night at the Pod Room in Oceanside on the 24th of Jan. Andrew will play music it seems, and I will gladly peddle more merch. It's dawning on me that part of the payoff for all this work is I get to spend a month hanging out in some cool surfshops and that it's really not a bad thing. If I can factor in some surf time it's going to be a very tiring and entertaining month.

Goes Excellent In Any Conditions

Happy New Year.

It's all on here, we have books all over the house and they're being signed hours at a stretch. Andrew has been here through a nice little swell and sunny weather and hasn't been even near a beach yet as this is more of a procedure than we ever thought it would be. Beer, good music and lots of talking story are getting us through. First show this Saturday at Shelter and I'm stoked. On a very mercenary note we have plenty of really cool stuff to peddle. Andrew made a run of t-shirts using the screens which he does his art with, and they look pretty amazing. We have movies too: new versions of Glass Love and Litmus with bonus action (Glass Love has the soundtrack CD and Litmus has a short film that we'll be playing at the shows), Patrick Trefz's 'Thread' with the Brown Birds CD and hopefully copies of 'Believe' and 'The Hot Buttered Story' are on the way up from Australia. We'll also have all my regular stuff like 'Way Of The Bird' books and Swift Movement t-shirts. Should you want any of this and are not able to hit a show, please email me at consafos at earthlink.net and I'll happily set you up. Nicely enough I started doing this blog the very night Andrew and I decided to go for it with this book, and here we are actually boxing the damn things up. It took that long to get both book and blog organized right. Hopefully this will keep going as a way to diseminate our little pocket of surf culture to any of you who are interested. I'm hoping to see a 'Thread' book and the 'Hydrodynamica' movie and book happen this year. My thanks to the other bloggers, especially Rob at 70%, JP at Surfy and those on the blogroll for being unwitting inspiration to all this, and my thanks to you for taking the time to look at this.