James and Paul

Flow

 Going with the flow

Waiting for Dylan

Backhand

Spring Clean

The annual Spring Clean has commenced.

Backing up the external back up hard drive 

to the back up, back up external hard drive 

and reducing the email in traffic 

from 800 unread to 450 unread

(how did we end up on sooo many subscriber email services?????)

Losing One's Marbles is Optional

I've known my best mate since he moved into our street when we were both nine years old. Unlike me, he's a goofy footer. I have archives of classic shots of him and although this old shot is not him, it reminds me of the wave of the trip my mate scored in the Maldives. As I'm paddling back out at Sultans, I get caught inside as he comes screaming across the reef at high speed on his bright orange Southcoast longboard. 

The sight of him way above me as I duck dive is etched deep in the memory bank. We rate our surf sessions in marbles, as in "that was a two marble surf".  If you don't surf enough, you'll lose your marbles (go crazy). I'm pretty sure that Sultans session was a three or four marble surf.

For some reason, foggy mornings like today remind me of an epic day when my best mate and I were teenagers editing our sociology video assignment at university. We thought our "mockumentary" parody of Academia was pretty awesome after one whole day of editing. The lecturer, a famous person from The Film Industry, deemed it "unfit for human consumption". We took that as a compliment.

Happy holidays, buddy and get some marbles back in the barrel.

Monochrome Monday (behind)

Who can keep up

with the 24/7 

march of technology?

Just when I think

I have the hang of it,

they release an update

or another version 

- albeit

better, 

faster, 

clearer

(meaning

"we want your cash".)

Maybe I'll keep

my "square" status

a little longer.

I never was too good

at being

an early adopter

Short on short (backdoor backhand)

Considering the last brilliant surf I had a few weeks ago was backhand on my shortie quad, it's about time I posted up a few short shots of shacks and shaded shorties.

Spring 87

I was cleaning up the brine cave the other day when I spied my old diary from 1987. The hand writing was terrible (nothing has changed) and the fluoro felt tip ink had faded, but I could make out a series of scratchie entries:August 2 "Surf's back. Small glass. Letter from Loz!" and September 7"No swell. Warm. Spring blooms everywhere"

But the one that caught my eye was 9 September 1987, "New surfboard. $450 Freefluid. No surf."

And that's it above, shot the arvo I picked it up.

Have a great weekend and bust out a short board.

"In with the old, out with the new"

 Today's post needs a bit of old skool film imagery from last century.

Steamfest 2013 - Americanos Abney Park were the headliners. We had no idea what to expect as this was the first Steampunk festival in our shire. My phone has a diary note taken while they were playing their song, Steampunk Revolution, "in with the old, out with the new" which is kinda how the Steampunks approach the creative process. It reminds me of the daDaists revolutionary penchant for whacking together a few  "found objects" and voila aRt.
I forsee a surfing spinnoff - broken bits of fibreglass, fins, tattered wetties, Gath hats with propellers and brass stuff hanging off it. Hmmm, note to self, revisit other folks' reject piles in the local kerbside cleanup.

"It's a wide open road"

Almost 50 years ago, my Dad took this photo of the Pacific Highway near Childers.
Almost 30 years ago Aussie band, The Triffids had a hit called Wide Open Road.
Today the spirit of travel and discovery remains stronger than ever, resonating with the wanderer in my DNA.

Falling down the mountain

Hava go

I hear a lot of talk from people who don't surf saying they'd like to try it and despite my encouragement, there's often more talk than action. It's the same with life in general - a lot of talk but not a lot of follow through execution of the talk.
This post is for those who get off their backsides and have ago at stuff in life that's a bit out of their comfort zone. Congratulations.

Shuffle Time

The kookaburras outside are complaining that it's only 8 degrees above freezing and winter hasn't started. The sun is sleeping in. My joints are creaking as I light the gas stove and to percolate the first of several coffees. Last night I bailed on my Monday run-shuffle exercise thing. Too cold. Too tired. Too late. But this morning, I'm on it. I want to be able to surf like this as long as I can. 

The Bell Jar

“I saw the years of my life spaced along a road 

in the form of telephone poles threaded together by wires. 

I counted one, two, three... nineteen telephone poles, 

and then the wires dangled into space, 

and try as I would, 

I couldn't see a single pole 

beyond the nineteenth.” 

― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Goals

"You are never too old

to set another goal

or dream a new dream"

C S Lewis