This left...

Could make me a goofyfoot.

Lis

There's a little fishy web-article on surfline right now. I'm not a huge fan of surfline but classic pix are always a lure. Nice, if not a touch redundant after Cher's article in TSJ a bit ago.

Tomo recall

dan 2004 hi from Free Rad on Vimeo.


Great surfing on a classic design. Thanks to RK at free-radicals.tv for sharing this.


Tomo's surfing on these waves, on this board, appeals to me more than his more radical current surfing. I am enjoying one of his current designs a lot right now as well.

image/imagination...

As found on Free Radicals

In a season of few sessions my imagination runs with the images. 

My hair is common brown, no longer tell-tale blond tipped. My neck has no rash, nor defined wetsuit tan-line. I lean over. My nose is dry.

Settled into the corner of my couch, kids asleep, dog tucked by my hip, I flip through a magazine or enter an e-door. Just as always an image stops me and I dream. Often it is a wave unridden or a framed capture of those moments that we remember through our surf-sense-memory. Yes, we who surf have a sixth sense. Sometimes, as above, it is a traceline of a story, now old enough to be decoded. 

This image is particular to a certain telling of a certain history, and mine happens to intersect it often. What beautiful chance to be able to claim the feelings offered by these boards. What fortune to be so located in history to surf crafts from the eras and into the future.

Thanks to Ryan Field for providing stirring images in conspiracy with RK. 

Must Read...

Mabile Glider- The Mark of a Trim Addict

I remember flipping the e-pages of Surfermag.com, looking through the design forum and the classifieds for bits and pieces to be grabbed or bought, and then coming to a post or classified from a poster pseudonym-ed as Festus Porkmeyet. His somewhat gleeful cheek was obvious and joyfully embracing of surfing as a life of richness. His wry humor effaced surf-culture with a wink and a smirk.

Now Festus emerges as a person, a human, whose story and struggle is profound but who also embodies a kind of triumphant dedication to the present that sometimes grows from a life in the waves. I've moved out of his neighborhood, my old neighborhood, with a few fair feelings of regret, I might add, despite the wash of reward in the move. I never met him in that neighborhood. I wish I had.

Please read about him here and celebrate.

Skipping stone...

Following my very enjoyable time riding my surf mat at a left point/reef in Mexico (the water was turquoise and 70 degrees) I have had that slippery-smooth, low-friction glide on my mind. This vid, once again, is really nothing to look at- if you're not familiar with the sensations represented. For those that know, enjoy. )
Keep those elbows in, ladies and gents. 

Long gone...

One of the guys in this video is Rod Luscomb. There is a reef in this area that is named after him.1947 seems nice. War's done and lots of fun to be had and all...

hourglass

A Week With Tristan Sullaway from will salvato on Vimeo.

He was a little kid when I first met him surfing Fo' Sho'es. That make me older than I was then, too. He used to be all fish and log and such. Now he's a shralper.

Mix...

Travers Adler, One Session At Rincon. from Morgan Maassen on Vimeo.

Along the certain path of adulthood, as it's sold, there are certain obligations that carry both joy (different than happiness) and challenge.

From my cliff-side morning walk with my sweet dog Jake I get to see the swell and about a mile of coast. This is daily. This is surfline for real and without the ugly. I see swell and tide and wind and reef and crowd and rips. What I have seen recently has been just great, really nourishing. Good swell and great conditions for nearly two weeks.

Yet I, the responsible and restless, have surfed only a handful of times. My wife is freshly back to full-time work, bless her, as a teacher. Hours are long. That leaves me and the gremmies to our own wonderous afternoons.  We imagine and play, explore and snack, hike and splash. But I don't surf.

Tomorrow is Saturday. I will be surfing. I hope to enjoy an expressive, joyful slip'n'slide out front. Beachbreak with bad access equals no crowds! In my imagination I am the kind of surfer that Mr. Adler, above, represents. All trim and pocket play with a dash of thrash (though I am slightly less self-aware I think.)

See you at the beach. I will be the one with the smile.