If Thoreau Surfed

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, 

perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. 

Let him step to the music which he hears, 

however measured or far away."

Henry David Thoreau

Something Borrowed

Continuing the bridal theme - "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" 

Today I'm borrowing a few old film shots from my first blog, Brine Time (all 793 posts are still able to be viewed).

GfG at Granite riding the ancient Joe Larkin pig mal with no leggie. It was old even in 1984 and weighed a ton - an epic to carry around all of those points. Didn’t used to see many mals in those days. A couple of guys from the Alex Headland crew, but that was it. The Larkin is awaiting restoration.

GfG at Granite. Probably same session as the other shot. We’d backpack around to the outcrop overlooking the furtherst cove. Surf. Shoot. Come in and scoff down a Mars Bar and a Coke and go out again, eventually returning for a massive pancake and maple syrup lunch and game of Space Invaders (20cents in the slot machine) at the little shop at the entrance to the National Park called The Noosa Wave.

The second shot above is one of the ones that accompanied a story I wrote about Noosa that was published in the Switchfoot II book.

Something Old

This week's theme (as endorsed by brides around the world): 

Something old, 

something new, 

something borrowed. 

something blue 

Today's contingent consists of 35mm films scans from last century ie OLD.

 California dreaming. Huntington Beach Pier, January 1978. Handheld. Manual focus. 200mm. Kodachrome 64. This guy was getting barrelled and hanging five and having grown up with short boards, I had never seen anything like it - nobody was riding longboards anymore on the Sunny Coast.

Mooloolaba Rivermoth. Sunset late 1980's. These pilot boats had twin Rolls Royce engines and were quite a sight heading out when there were large swells. Somehow they would pull up beside a monstrous tanker and the "pilot" would scamper up a ladder and then guide the newcomer into Moreton Bay and the Port of Brisbane.

Hand held slow exposure with a Metz strobe that still works fine today. This was our local evening stroll on a sunday evening, when we lived about a kilometre south. A couple of times the rivermouth silted up and you could surf from Point Cartwright down the river, whilst avoiding boats.

Kings Beach, late arvo. Nikonos V 35mm Kodachrome. This was the camera I used to shoot from the water with and must have had a frame or two left on the 36 exposure roll. I quite like 35mm focal length on a 35mm camera -  little wider than normal but not too distorted.

I was never much good at street photography, but quite like this one. Of course the Kiosk is long demolished and replaced with some sort of bland structure.

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.

Moonset

If you saw the full moon setting this morning in our arid western skies you'd agree it was a pretty awesome experience, difficult to describe. If you didn't see it, then I can't really explain the magnetic hypnotism of a glowing heavenly blob edging towards the rim of our planet through a screen of silhouetted branches. The feeling is somewhere between a thrilling barrel and finding a green oasis after traversing a monotonous, barren lunar desert for hours.

 Have a thrilling weekend.

Pandanus Point

"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.

Too Old to Rocknroll

More than a thousand suns have grazed my eyes and scorched my skin since my first day at school, a holy picture in my top pocket to protect me and sox that didn't match. I have forsaken the gut blasting pain of pre-rashie-era styrofoam short boards for a plethora of fins, foils and rockers. 

This weekend sees a group of ageing grommets assemble for the annual winter Wrecks and Relics gathering (dare I say "contest"). These are the crew who were there (probably don't remember) when single fins became twin fins and thrusters morphed into longboards more suitable for a gentlemanly (dare I say "middle-aged") approach to sliding the brine.

So if you see a bunch of leathery old buggers down near the Noosa Rivermouth laughing at each other, lugging around old Joe Larkins and Woosley's, know that they have seen it and done it all and that you can still surf after 60!

TGIF (Dazed and confused)

Sun came up this morning,

but I never saw it.

Slept in three hours

past my get up time.

Got up dazed and confused.

Felt like the middle of the day.

So here's a quick couple

of Kodachromes

from the film archgives.

TGIF

Late (cheating)

"With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace
And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace
And your basement clothes and your hollow face
Who among them can think he could outguess you ?
With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns
Who among them would try to impress you ?"

from Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan

I'm late posting today as I am fully sick with some sort of lung, throat and ear infection that has resulted in the deforestation of the Amazon basin to supply me with tissues. I'll be spending the day dozing and riding perfect waves in my dreams. Might even bust out some old skool Dylan (above) to keep my spirits up. For somebody with a bad singing voice, he sure can pull an evocative tune together.

Hopefully, the lameness of my existence described above will excuse the blatant cheating of re-posting a couple of images I posted a few years back. Sorry but I'm just too exhausted to come up with anything original today. (Dedicated to the sad eyed lady of the lowlands)