New York is for Surfers : Recent Sightings

Yes.

via QP

This Guy Cracks Us Up

Viva the idealists, for they are the conservatives of the future.

Andreini & Co.

Last year, Antonio and I spent a week at a crumbly, often wind blown left point break that, when we are not there, is usually crisp and meticulously clean.  So goes that side of luck.  On the other side, we were there with some notable board hogs, the kind of guys who tend to show up with (or in this case, show up to) a quiver of eclectic boards.  Among these were a few Andreini Vaqueros of varying length and personality.  Even thought the waves never reached their legendary potential, the eye-opening experience of riding those particularly weighted boards created their own stir.  Since, Tony and I have become proud owners of our own models, Tony having picked his up yesterday on his way down to Jersey to try it out in the slop. 

Walter Russell winding the cosmic clock

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Style Icon Wins Lottery.

This guy is an immediate style icon. Square tortoise shell glasses? Check. Rad lovebirds aloha shirt? Check. Total unruffled coolness in the face of a mind-bending pronouncement? Check. I'll have what he's having.

Echo Beach Jamie and Chris

The NY Hydrant

A classic sign of the New York summer. I snapped the first two on Friday. Beau got that MacGyver version yesterday.

Goodbye Young Brother

We hardly Knew Ye : Come Back Soon

The Donald Takayama Experience

So let's get this straight right now: nearly 20 years ago while struggling to master even the most plebeian nuances of the potato chip thruster, I stumbled onto something that changed my surfing life (second colon) (:) the longboard.  In a dazzlingly quick introduction to a varietal succession of shapes and epochal designs, my heart found a place among, what was then, a perch reserved only for the walri (or walruses as the linguistic case may be.) And for years I shunned much that were under nine feet.  Sure, every now and then I'd venture to the eight foot gun, especially if it were of the 70s or 80s basement garage variety. And yes, sometimes I'd jump on some kind of bizarro twin fin fish pig nub bucket pail.  But for the most part, the longer the better.  Usually the flatter the better.  The older the better. Or simply the cruddier the better. But lately, always it is with the lately around here, lately I've been thinking of going shorter.  So when Coffee Cup called with the opportunity for just such a venture, and a venture shaped by the hands of D. Takayama no less, I jumped. I've only surfed it now a handful of times, fiddling with the fin placement in different waves sizes and qualities.  One thing I'll say (or make that two):  first, the thing is a magic board that works as well as it looks and it looks really really good, and two, make sure on that midsummer 90˚ day you've re-waxed the thing with some stiff summery peraffin. It's not so much the back foot slipping off with astonishing consistency as it is the wax that gets stuck in the leg hairs.

Matty & Dean : Aussies In NY

I didn't really drink a sip of coffee until just about five years ago.  Well, that's a  lie. There were a couple weeks there when I was living on the Godfather's couch in Ashland where I consumed some coffee.  But that's it, really.  True story. So when the boy was born, and a regular intake of caffeine was called for and the monthly stipend set aside for morning expenditures forced us to buy an easybakeovenprosumerespressomakingbox, that ritual called the double shot or triple shot became a codified habit.  Lately however, I've been trying to get away from the "prickly bitter bean brew" as I once called it lo those many Oregonian years ago. I've been turning to green tea, black tea, brown tea, iced tea and chai tea.  In the end though, it is the coffee, or rather then, my son's birth that lead me straight into the needing arms of a couple Aussies this morning, for I should not have found myself otherwise in line at the Long Beach Starbucks waiting to order my gigantic cup of iced black tea (that, and the once-in-a-long-while opportunity to surf before picking someone up at JFK, one of those magical series of events, the proverbial killing two birds scenario all Brooklyn surfers dream about) and there they were, in need of an extra FCS fin, scouting for the scouting report and full of good mojo and grand vibes.  Just off the truck from Montreal where said fin was smashed surfing the river there, Matty and Dean are looking to check the surfed states off their list, New York being the thing at hand.  I offered masking tape, Solarez and whatever else I happen to have in the trunk of the car.  In the end, I had to hustle off to pick up the brother and niece and they headed off to paddled into cruddy waist high junk.  Of course, as it is for itinerant Aussies, better things are in store.  Matty is off to Mexico to set his soul straight in a spicier locale while Dean is going to do the surfy end around from Mozambique to Cape Town.  Nice guys.  Good guys.  If you see them on the road, buy them a beer, put them up for a night, and send me the tab.  Or some part of the tab as I know how Aussies can party. Bon voyage fellas.

Today's Thoughts

Goodbye Old Digital, Hello New Digital

I am returning to the land of the text, the mobile application and most importantly, to digital photography on the fly.  So long my wonderful beauty.  I will miss you and the frustrations you caused my family, my clients, my employers and my friends.

Joey Clams' Phone

If you wander about any of the pertinent social networking sites and you happen to have a large proportion of New York "friends," you're bound to come across multiple versions of this image accompanied by some sort of expletive, exclamation, hyperbole or rant.  In truth, if you are not here, let me be frank:  it is wonderful, it feels like the womb, it is everything your body pines for in the middle of February.  Thank the sweet sweet lord for New York heat.
What is considerably less sexy, is this:

Surfing the Sewage

Ed Cornell alerted us this morning to this gem of New York living.

ANDAY

The Skateable House - The New York Times

via NYT

Dear & Yonder Film Watcheroo @ Rhombus!

You've got a whole month to plan for this, so we'll remind you again... but this is going to be some kind of event. I hear Angus (M. Gustav)  is going to be frying up fresh corn dogs and serving home made port wine.  (That last bit may very well be a vicious rumor started by Antonio.) 
Check it out yo.

Yes

Cold is the Sea

Surf Mobile For Sale

A friend in Ventura is selling something phenomenal.  You should think about the possibilities.  Imagine the serenity.  Uptick your probabilities. 

Today's Thought

From the Desk of Mr. John van Hamersveld

via online social networking

When Surfy Images Happen to Non Surfy People

The consternation with Facebook continues unabated.  Wifey would simply rather not have so much information about everyone.  I miss the days of being truly blind-sided by some new development.  but there continues to be a great things about the inter-connected-digital-cloud extravaganza.  One, it's great for business if your business happens to include getting some sort of information out to a number of people all at once (or just to remind your clients you still exist and still happen to be very, very groovy.) Two, you get little snapshots of people lives that can inspire.  Take Lara's photo of Pt. Reyes for instance.  I don't take her for much of a surfer.  Although I could be wrong in this.  No matter, this photo made my surf starved day.

Today's Thought

Today's Thought

Today's Thought

I Have Been Thinking About Buying a Knee Board

via Le Slop!

Ok, yeah a little late on this...

But I am posting it here because I want to watch it over and over and I don't want to have to bookmark it. Yeah, today and yesterday had a lot of render time involved... big catchup back from the vacation.

Via Niega

Sometimes you look at a blog you've not looked at in a while and you're glad you did.

Yes.

Neat.  via Hydrodynamica

Something Else To Do

via Shipworm & Gribble

Apparently aloha shirts are back "In"

Elsewhere, this may be non-news. But in New York, it means anyone with even a modest collection of "surfy flowery shirts" and even a passing habit of wearing them is now doomed.

Looks Like Fun

Today's Thought

Today's Digital Communiqué's