textish tuesday (heat wave)

Text #1 "We be stttin in the sun for last 20 minutes. Bus peeps getting edgy. 4 buses in front not moving. At least I have music. And air con. Hope you have better luck with the computer man"

Text #2 "saw the Morning of the Earth article after you told me. Mentioned Nat & Mark Warren but nothing of Queenslander MP!!"

Text #3 "Beautiful day. Crystal clear and flat asa tack. P came down yesterday and didn't take board off roof."

Text #4 "Do you have my copy of Ocean Rhythms? Can't find it anywhere"

Text #5 "Shot some iPhone video as the bus cruised through the cultural wasteland that is The Valley"

Text #6 "Happy New Year guys. I'm DYING here. Didnt get to be until 6am,,,having a bit of the hair of the dog now...hopefully it helps."

Long May You Run

"Rollin down

that empty ocean road

gettin' to the surf on time"

from Long May You Run by Neil Young 1976

Rough & smooth

Out of tune

Album of the week is The Beagle and the Dove by the John Steel Singers. I had a good listen to this CD last night on the big Denon and was magically transported away. It's one of those albums that you discover you like the more you play it. 

I would be playing it again on the commute today but I have lost my iPodsky and a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. So I am tuneless. Instead having to be content with the existential banter of my fellow wage slaves. 

If you would rather have your tunes live and free, then get to the Peregian Markets after show - all ages, dogs, smokers, locals, tourists kicking back on a Sunday arvo. You might see my mate H selling wooden barrels or even Coolum lad Luke MacDonald, guitarist from the John Steel Singers.

Of time and tide

"But if in your thought you must measure time

into seasons, let each season

encircle all the other seasons,

And let today embrace the past with remembrance

and the future with longing"

from The Prophet by Kahil Gibran 1923

Have an enriching weekend.

The Humble Bottom Turn

Here's saluting the humble bottom turn. Not as popular in the mags as the impossibly deep fish eye barrel over razor sharp coral or the tow assisted air boost. But usually the first critical step towards maximizing Stoke.

Keep On Truckin'

Sometimes it's hard to separate the degree of retro romanticism from the angle of hype. Surely there was a reason we shifted from big old logs to "short" 8 foot single fins to twin fins and from them to thrusters? Something about design? Something about a better board? Or was it hype to get us to part with our dollars?

The only thing I can definitively say about board design on this wet, pre-Spring morning is that one vehicle won't do it in all conditions. For me, anyway. I shoot with different cameras, film stocks and lenses to distill what I see in my mind's eye and I ride whatever I think will maximise my stoke on the day. Even thrusters. I haven't gone goat boat or SUP, but you never say "never". But hey, we're all different. Whatever you're driving through the bowl section, keep on trucking.

The Commute

The global finacial crisis has resulted in surfers chasing a dollar away from the beach. Tourism is down. Retail is down. Surfers are turning up in worksites unfamiliar with the lure of the brine. (I'd like a dollar for every time I have been asked about sharks.) 

Some are spending hours and hours doing the tedious daily commute to The City where better wages and opportunity await. Others are doing the fly in/fly out routine to mining sites all over the country - leaving family and mates for long term financial gain.

The separation is even harder on days like today, when you know the swell is going off its nut. Today's post is dedicated to the commuter surfer. Travel safe.

Moon Wood Water Wood

Searching

Monday - a good day for searching for a quiet wave to yourself.

WWW (wood water winter)

Just a few bits and pieces 

for a cold but sunny Monday.

Kodak don't make colour 35mm 

infra red film like above no more. 

It was cold at dawn and still.

(Except fro the bird life)

Beautiful soft winter light 

Only the brave or visitors

Go without rubber

No distracting clouds

(Or crowds)

And before you notice

The sun's already going down

Same Roll

Same roll of film

different days

Different beaches

Same winter.

Same brine.

World Wide Winter

"It sure been a cold, cold winter
My feet been draggin' 'cross the ground
And the fields has all been brown and fallow
And the springtime take a long way around"
from Winter by the Rolling Stones' album Goats Head Soup 1973
You could be forgiven for wondering about the scientific validity of Global Warming for a nanosecond or two down here. It feels more like the ice age is coming - the world wide winter. Rubber up.

PS Gaston's "missing" board is still out there somewhere - if you see please pass on the info.

Swap Meet

"R" is for Reo

"R" is for reo

Radio Birdman

Ramblin Jack Elliott

Ramones

Rolling Stones

Reed, Lou

Ramones

RL Burnside

Razar

Riptides

Robert Johnson

Regurgitator

Ry Cooder

Roxy Music

Russell Morris

Ray Charles

Roseanne Cash

Roberta Flack

and

R&R

have a great weekend

(kudos to the legendary Mike Moir 

for the retro layout below)

Left = Right

This is clearly a right hand point and once in a while it's dark rock ledges fire long walls shorewards. Occasionally the tide and swell will conspire and craft a peak that splits providing a left or a right. With wall to wall surfers, sometimes you have to take the opportunity that exists.

New Year Predictions

First entry in the blogging book that the wonderful Andrea and Emma gave me for Xmas - thank you again:

"1 January 2011

Stayed up until midnight. Saw the Sydney fireworks extravaganza on TV. (NOTE: this is three hours past my bedtime.) Woke up at 8:45am after strange dream where GfG and I were shooting film from the water near Noosa river mouth when an ultra-light aircraft landed on the water. Two women were doing a tandem SUP thing on a jetski with a paddle and all. We get into shore and it's the Lismore train station. Should have listened to those global warmers. (Lismore is 35 feet above sea level and 30 miles from the sea.) We hop on a very old fashion train still in our wetsuits dripping. I notice mine has a pocket on right hand side with my wallet in it. Wake up as train pulls into Nimbin."

Wet and dreary today after a few blue sky days so read my horoscope for the year ahead according to the astrologer in The Who magazine - somewhere after the celebrity diet section and the celebrity holiday section. I make a small mental note of an article stating that Hugh Hefner is getting married to somebody 60 years younger and picture him in an "Old Guys Rule" Tee shirt. 

On Page 65, I discover that Oprah and I are both Aquarians. I'm temporarily distracted from the hissing coffee percolator spluttering on the gas stove by visions of myself on an atoll seeking mega-yacht with an ultralight that can land on the water, assisted by Gail from the Goodtime surf shop.

I'm pleased to report that, according to The Who magazine's latest New Year Horoscope, I will be having a huge year in the life-love-work departments. Highlights will include: an end to a cycle of disappointments and delays (thanks for the lotto win, Hughie), three love affairs (I'm not familiar with this term, but I see it used a lot in The Who) and significant re-training (did I hear the word "retrenchment"?).

There is no report on surf, tsunamis, localism or the exploitation of unethical labor practices by global surf brands. No mention either of the long overdue recognition of my late blooming artistic talents, though this may be broadly covered under the category of "work". I can guarantee there will be more blogging - posssibly of dubious quality - but generally gramatically correct and definitely a cheaper, (meditative almost) diversion from the vagaries of the stock market and "visionary" political rhetoric than The Who magazine.