Pirates

Mono Monday

Just got an email from one of my "shipmates" asking this question, "Why is my office swaying?" After a week on a boat riding currents and waves in the Maldives, I'm in the same boat, so to speak. The wooden kitchen floor is gently swaying back and forth like our galley. Great mates. Great trip. Some memories to share over the coming weeks.
Public confession of dropping in once. Thanks Bill. What a wave!

Mono MOnday

A couple of unrelated images.

Apart from their monochromaticness.

And their sweet, muddy memories of the brine.

And brine brothers on a monochrome monday.

Twice Hamish

Twice the Hamish plus once the full moon = a few weeks ago.

Share the Love

Today's post is dedicated to the wonderful folks at the Sunshine Coast charity, Frangipanni Dreams. You people are the best. Thanks for sharing the love with the lonely, the elderly, the financially distressed and the dispossessed. Life isn't just about us.

"I know you think that you 

should make a trip to Calcutta, 

but I strongly advise you to save your money 

and spend it on the poor in your own country. 

It's easy to love people far away. 

It's not always easy to love 

those who live right next to us"

Mother Theresa

Holy Fin vs Holy Deck

Caught up with a bunch of my brine brothers last night for dinner and tall tales at an inner city hotel. There was earnest discussion about board design, including the mini-Simmons seen first in Oz in the 70s (see above). There was banter and bruhaha about the desirability or otherwise of buying new logs as opposed to classic old logs via eBay. In between beverages and steak chomping (and sometimes at the same time) we managed some post-modern dialectic about how wrong it was to deliberately drill holes in decks or fins in the 21st century. And as usual we talked story about epic wipe-outs and sundry salty disasters including the newish one from Dave about the chap out at First Point (looking serene below). Apparently he was knocked out by a beginner and was saved from drowning by his pony tail, when a SUP-er dragged him onto largish hull by the hair. 

Nice T bone, Melbourne Hotel. Thanks guys for maintaining The Stoke.

Time Fades Away

Countdown to Easter

Boys, it's been too long since we all had a surf together. I'm reserving a spot for you in the lineup at Easter. The Nikonos is loaded and this time I have a helmet.

Bird Love

The former "secret spot". This was one of many along the Sunshine Coast in the 1970s, due to poor roads/bridges and lack of development. I managed to catch a few excellent rides here last winter with a mate. There was even a whale spotted. The other side of the road is a National Park with signs at regular intervals warning of "Unexploded Shells" - a former artillery range during one of the numerous wars last century. This is possibly the oldest surf type photo I own, taken around 1975 when I got my first camera. My brother's Ford. Our single fin "shortboards" of 6' 10" (my longboard today turns better!). Carefree searches. I feel for the folks up North who have lost not only homes and livelihoods but precious memories as well 

Back in the Kennel

Daydreaming 

about uncrowded surf...

When I was interrupted by a loud bang 

followed by crackling and 

a woman's voice screaming 

somewhere up the road.

The power went out
and we all discovered that this bloke
in a huge Mack truck
loaded with serious
earth moving equipment
had torn down a few overhead wires
while taking a short cut
though our quiet leafy lane.

Hand painted sign on the truck read
"Back in the Kennel"
Epic fail.
Now back to the daydream . .  .

Bandit's Koan

another work dream 

round shiney thing went all dark

yesterday's eclipse

Surf Craft Permit

A little mix of film and digital, traditional and modern mals, last century and this. Josh Constable, former long board world champ doing the surf check at his local point break with an old six stringer strapped to the 1946 Woody, which doubles as the Noosa Longboards staff car.

Surf Check 1965

Gold Coast cyclone along Mermaid Beach when ordinary workers could afford to rent a beach shack for a week or two. Scan of an old Kodachrome of Dad's taken with his favourite camera - a  Petri rangefinder with manual everything. Luckily those old transparencies had the dates stamped on one side of the cardboard frame. That's the five of us brothers with the three smallest in Mum's home made "boardies". Yew!

Autumn 1965

Surf Check

Anticipation

You wake up early and there's no wind noise. The northerlies that have been blowing it out for the last week have abated. You get that first cup of coffee into the system and prize the eyeballs open and still it's only 400 am. Your workshift at the factory doesn't start until 10am. Anticipation as you scoot along the rough track to the back beach.

Hippies x Cockatoo

Black cockatoo speed blur at dusk at Hippies during a fruitless surf check. It's good to see these rare birds thriving again on the coast despite the drought.
Spring 2009

Heart & Soul

Continuing our surf art theme. We pour our heart and soul into life and we are enriched. Sometimes we have to pull back and drink it in.
Spring 2008 - Autumn 2009

Golden Brown

"Golden brown, texture like sun

Lays me down with my mind she runs

Throughout the night

No need to fight

Never a frown with golden brown

Every time just like the last

On her ship tied to the mast

To distant lands

Takes both my hands

Never a frown with golden brown..." 

The Stranglers Golden Brown

 Punk band plus harpsichord plus lyrics about heroin = number 2 hit in the UK in 1981. We all know that drugs have ruined many surfers and wrecked their families, but is surfing itself addictive? 

Red Eye

Late 70's dawn at Point Perry. The film emulsion on this slide is starting to deteriorate. Lucky we have all this modern digi-tech stuff to transform decaying images like this one into cyberspace.

Highway Holga

Foggy mornings and light offshores - perfect conditions for the plastic fantastic Holga camera and a few slides with mates.
Spring 2009