Yes

Great Great Great

via PBCoast

Have Mercy. Unfriend Me Now.

Sometimes I unfriend people. Yeah, I guess I care.  Like sometimes I don't think about someone and then I see a post on Facebook from that person and I don't really want to see a post from that person, mucking up my perfect Facebook feed as it is.  Sometimes I see someone on the street and I think "oh yeah, there's that person" and later on they'll show up in a post in my feed and I say "oh yeah, that person again." I unfriend those people too. Sometimes when people post pictures of me from high school, or when I was somewhat younger or a photo of me that I don't like.  I'll go right ahead and unfriend those people.  Sometimes I unfriend my friends because I'm sick of their shit. I'd like to say I'd unfriend people who put up posts about adopting puppies, but I rarely do since I usually like those people, I just don't want to be looking at adoptable puppies. Sometimes I go a few days without surfing, and then someone puts up an image of them surfing I sorta go "grrrrrr" but I don't unfriend those people. 'Cus they're surfing. And I'm not.

Respect

So very much respect.
Some nice perspective here.

YES.

Today's Thought

The Future Is Yours To Forget

There is no such thing as fair or unfair, but there is hypocrisy and stupidity. I catch myself thinking about what I'll do when it all falls apart. When there's nothing left but a shambles in remain. I think I'll finally read every book in my apartment, like a hermit. It would take a year, cover to cover. I think I'll write a page every day in the style of the author I'm reading. 365 pages. A book about nothing but the contents of my lonely apartment in a voice not my own. I think I would finally visit Julie Jo in Maine and play boules next to the dry-docked boat and sleep in her barn. I think I'd finally wander around Europe alone, looking at old plaques on old buildings. I think I'd finally take up plein air painting out of one of those little wooden boxes, there on the side of the street, blissfully oblivious to the admiring or deriding looks made in my sanguinely ignorant direction. I think I might take back up the piano and finally master the ukulele the way I've always wanted. I'll take up drawing daily in my notebook like I used to. I'd take nude figure drawing classes. I'd pose. I'd become very, very adept at darts. I'd become very, very adept at horseshoes. But with the way my luck is, things will continue to go just well enough to numb my more preposterous brain. Not that anything I'd ever wanted was preposterous. Except for that bit about wanting, for once, just once, to live right on an improbably consistent point break.

Today's Thought

A Who's Who of No One Knew

Ah Litmus. At the time this seminal work came out I was deep into my retro thought process, sorting out how to simply understand the longboard. While Kidman et al were exploring all sorts of new throwback reengineered modes of riding and filming, I was vacillating between watching my bootlegged VHS copies of "Slippery When Wet" and "Barefoot Adventure" and smallish days out at Miramar and Santa Claus Lane. And as ever, it has been my hallmark to deprive credit where credit is due. But you can't argue with the ground shifting beneath your feet, even when you don't know it. In a few years there will be a 20th anniversary hoopla about that film I hope.

Notes from Mastastico

"Pontus Alv of Polar Skate Co. (not to be confused with the camping and beanie supply company Poler) has to me brought back skateboarding to its roots, friends hanging out skateboarding and having fun, period. As rad as all the Spike Jonez directed Red/Phantom camera/ zip line blowing crap up stuff is, its not what 99.99% of skateboarders do. Polar brought back slappies to runs and wall rides, fun simple tricks that pros stopped doing in video parts because I guess they arent as hammer throwing as backside kickflip to lip on a 400 stair rail. Anyway Polar is rad and this video rips. All hail Pontus (say high if you see his crew of euors in Brooklyn this week as his whole team is here instagramming)@polarskateco" 
- Lentini

Surfing Sucks, Try It.

Seriously. And here is the very very best best place to go and give it a whirl. Get in the water, dip your toes, splash around!  Spend time in Sunny Southern California and log some water time. No better place to get your giggles and live the good life. Don't wait around, the rolling Pacific swells are waiting, the lolling breakers beckon.  Book your plane ticket, pack your Uhaul, jump in that station wagon.  And if you're really, really on it, hop on that souped up dirt road bike conversion Vanagon and pull up in style. Get some sandals on the way and ditch that bad haircut! No keep the bad haircut, ditch the sandals and slip on some Vans! Don't pass go, pick up $200 dollars and find yourself on easy street!  Surf. Surf! SURF!

Today's Lunchtime Browsing

It's one of the wonders and joys of surfing for me that as I progress in skill and experience I actually ingest surfing photographs in a progressively new way. As I settle into the subtle nuances of riding a wave, as I rack up the hours at different spots and on different sorts of equipment, I gain a perspective, a kind of indexed muscle memory I can call upon to understand what was happening the moment a picture was snapped. The subtle weight distributions, the flutter of the wave, the contact of rail and water, all these things more visceral in the mind's eye, becoming only more informed with each session. It's all that school of life stuff, writ enthusiastic. It's the sort of understanding and enjoyment simply not available to my younger self. Flipping through an old TSJ over lunch, this image brought all the blather to the fore.

Pretty, Thoughtful.

And something else great.

And this.
via QPs and AqAps respectively.

Stop Harangue-ing Me

Do what is necessary then do what is urgent. I never went to film school, instead studying other, completely useless things in the context of my would-be future career.  Or would seemingly be, I guess. I've always thought, though, that film schools needed a whole class dedicated to the art of talking.  How to talk to a composer about music.  How to talk to an editor about editing.  How to talk to the gaffer about gaffing. I'd happily take those classes.  It would also be nice if there was a class about how to talk to someone who intimidates you without being intimidated.  Or how to buy jeans from a fancy jeans store.  That's nearly impossible.  They're always telling you how you should wear your jeans.  How you should wash them.  Or not wash them. I don't know how to talk to those people.  Or I don't know how to talk to them there, in the fancy jean store. I can sorta talk to them in the lineup, if I don't know they sell fancy jeans.  Or if they're not super intimidating.  Which brings me back to an earlier point.

Happening : @SlowIsFast

"tomorrow night dan, kanoa and kellen will be in the shop showing the rad short film slow is fast @goodwaterfarms will be there with microgreens!@sixpointbrewery will have more beer @eightpm"

Due Diligence

Endless Bummer, the New York no-surf blog, brings you the very latest in breaking no-surf news from the Big Apple. Every tantalizing drip and excruciatingly interesting drab of no-surf-surf-related news flows through the EBNY no-surf news aggregator like a well oiled surfy sieve.  Yes sir, you'll never want for all those compelling flat spell, blown out, rampant no-surf culture updates. We're like the TMZBuzzfeedTwitterTumblerCNNLollapalooza of daily, no, hourly!, no-surf news of the highest order.  When you're this good, see, they invite you.  They want you to come. And when you're this dedicated to getting the scoop, you go. And you go hard.  So without much further ado, here are the most recent tidbits for you, oh frothing reader:

Went to the Stephanie In The Water Hamptons Film Festival movie premiere on Saturday night in Montauk.  Here's the official EBNY 2nd Grade Homework Review:

Steph Gilmore surfs really really well.  She is very very competitive.  But she smiles alot. Once she got attacked and it really did a number on her but she overcame it to surf really really well again. The film is interesting.  The editing is dynamite. The score is fantastic. Steph Gilmore is super really tall and very pretty, especially in person.  Ida and Robinson are the raddest, most surf stoked kids in the neighborhood.

Also went to the opening of the brand new Patagonia Bowery Surf Super Store and Entertainment Megaplex last night.  Here's the official EBNY 2nd Grade Homework Recap:

The Patagonia Bowery surf shop is very large. Humongous. And they have pizza in the back and apple cider that has a funny taste.  The people there are really nice and tall.  It is a good place for pizza and doing homework. Down the street is a place called Anyway Cafe which is one of the greatest place ever.

Patagonia Bowery's Magical Look-Stupid Machine

Closer and Closer

Thanks to the collective building acumen of some very good friends, some hard work by a seven year old, some extreme familial patience and understanding, the generosity of time by a couple other incredible gents, a lot of beer, a lot of fried eggs, some more patience, even more time spent by local craftsmen, and the constant bizzaro inspiration of one Brian Lentini, the Mastic project is nearing its first winter anniversary nearly ready for actual warmth and facility.  Here are some visual notes from the most recent weekend.

Happening Tonight Finally : Pata Bowery Opening Hoorah

Happening : Dance for Clean Water

Dance my friends.  Boogie.  Shimmie and waltz. Cut a rug, shake that ass, tap those feet.  That is, if you're feeling up to it, which you may not be seeing that you're probably battling an anoying sinus infection or a niggling, lingering mysto-cold.  Which might really be the effect of some very dodgy water you've been surfing in. Remember that stink the other day?  Dance compadres, dance for your health.

From the NYC Surfrider chapter: "We are conducting year-around water quality testing at Rockaway Beach and need to fund the facility and the testing kits. All proceeds for the event go towards this campaign and also to promote the reduction of single-use plastic bags."  

Happening : Silent Auction for LESGC

He Knows

This morning at breakfast my son flipped to this page and snorted and looked at me, asking with this sort of accusatory cum demeaning way, "Papa, would you do a wave like that?"  The little cretin.

Happening : This Weekend, Stephanie In The Water

Open Your Bible

On a day when tai chi has to suffice in lieu of a paddle out, when clients are at the gates, when time is short, and when it actually feels like summer is done and truly gone, there is something to be taken in opening up the surf magazine like opening up a bible, looking for the first phrase that offers solace.  Here we have that peak into a morning ritual gifting results far out of the ordinary in terms of visual stoke.  That right there is a vision of style, balance and composure I'll keep with me for the rest of the day.

Give up The Ghost

The satisfactions I take refuse to impress.  Yesterday I couldn't work out how to get in the water before work, only to be smugly satisfied when tales of the skunk made rounds. As I sat outside my office reading interview transcripts, highlighter firm in hand, concentration wrung from a dry rag, diligently guarding my car from the alternate-side ticket it was due in my absence, my co-workers pulled up, bounding out the doors like goofy little aliens, unstrapping their boards with a whiff of glee. I could only grin to myself, bemused by their apparent energetic satisfaction at having missed the call.  See, I had first hand knowledge. Real, Facebook instilled certainty that theirs had been a Quixotic adventure.  I continued my work, safe in my safety. But as I entered the office, the continued beaming faces told a slightly different story. I approached, admittedly disquieted a touch, sidling up and with a skeptically hopeful nod nod wink wink, offered "so you got skunked huh?" They looked up, a little confused, and through a sweetly vacant smile one of them says "what do you mean?  I got three perfect little waves!" The digital ground beneath my feet started to shift ever so. "But it was what, ankle high right?  Calf maybe?" Reaching for anything, any sort of solidity, I fumbled in the newly analogue dark.  "Yeah! Small! So fun. I stood up on three waves!"  My foolishness rarely disappoints.

Happening : LSFF

Last year "Lapsed Catholics" was done well by these folks, so I've got my prejudices.  But by all other accounts, both personal, professional and anecdotal, the LSFF is a major yearly moment of artistic worth.  Shit man, look at that great poster art.  If I could afford the plane ride out, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Maybe I should do a Kickstarter.

Chateau Babylon

Foto Cred: Johnny Panessa's Fancy Camera

At some point we all have to build a place to surf.  For some people it is state of mind, a sort of metaphorical, emotional place that allows for surf. For other people, it is a lifestyle that enables maximum time to surf.  Still others move to geographic location that offers easy access to regular surf.  In my case, it is actually the building of a place from which to surf.  A house.  Or hut, as the case may be.  This weekend I installed the grey water disposal line and water taps for my kitchen sink, an amenity I'd heretofore had to do without.  The days of doing dishes in the corner of the yard, in the mud, with the garden hose, are finally over.  Suddenly the whole thing seems within reach.

Alex French, Joel Tudor, Duct Tape and the NY Times

Joel Tudor is an important linking personality in surf history. 

A nice recap here by Alex French for the NY Times.

Yes

Phyllis

Just one of the many amazing things on the Encyclopedia of Surfing site.
 via the Aquatic Apes FB page.