Holy Wood

Jacob Stuth holding the alaia he rode in Thomas Campbell's movie The Present. When you observe him from your own board out in the water as he happily paddles past on what looks like a submerged plank of wood and then a moment later catches a bomb, flexing the board through the crowd, getting barrelled and making it out, you realise the prowess and finesse that Jacob brings to this ancient art.

Smoke and mirrors

Fake mags, real film shots. This post is for Bruce Channon, legend surfer - photographer and editor of Aussie surf mags Surfing World and Australian Longboarder. Happy Birthday Champ and thanks for all of the wonderful images.

Sunday Soul

Welcome to the Thumperdome

This post is for my friends who prefer prone. Welcome to the Thumperdome, a strip of coffee rock that grabs pulses of swell and rolls them into thumping cylinders that may or may not respect your ability or local status.

Too much daDa

zen wonders abound
the keyboard is my playground
and now to the brine

too much daDa
not enough zen

Fin vs Rock

In the epic battles between Fin and Rock this is why Rock remains unfazed while Fin is sometimes left broken and shattered.

Red Dream

"North wind blowin' like a hurricane house

Old man leanin' like he's pullin' a plough

Neck bowed, bendin' like a willow bow

Red sky colour of the end of time

Bleeds dry runnin' down the centre line

Wise guy pretends he doesn't see the signs"

from the song Red is the Colour by Steve Earle

Washington Square Serenade 2007

Blue/Green Dream

Brine Brothers

Not every surfer lives at the beach, as this bunch of brine brothers from Brisbane attest. Just about every saturday morning, you'll see them somewhere near the Gold Coast Superbank riding anything from old skool Bill Wallace logs to high octane fishes, with all the enthusiasm of a grommet. And then when surfed out, packing up the car and driving an hour or more back to Brisbane where they live and work. Thanks to former Woosley team rider, Tony Stewart for emailing me this pic - a classic no matter where you live. Tony also drew and organised the team tees. That's him front centre - not to be confused with his twin Bill, who owned Atlantis Records at Southport. Slide on.

Moondoggie

Had a little bust up on my bike the other day. First time in years. Came around a corner too hard and hit some gravel with the front wheel skidding out to the side as I went over the handle bars. Did a cartwheel through the air in classic slo-mo movie fashion thinking "this is not happening" then rolled across the grass. Everything appears to be OK. Old guy sitting on a park bench got a good laugh out of it.

Wach has left the Seashore

memories of his royal toesness wach

Spring = Colour

A splash of colour can enhance any room.

Artwork by Zach Kachad.

Mono x Moffs

The water was warm

Everybody was stoked

But the flying fish

Analogue Search Engines

 Search the sea.

Search the sky.

Film x Sunshine

Got a strange effect when I got some film back recently from the lab. Not sure if this was chemical residue from sloppy processing or the effects of our hot weather or something else. It only appeared on one out of 36 frames. So I'm discarding hot weather. Whatever the cause, it's growing on me. Shame I was so bloody-minded back at art school when they wanted me to learn how to process colour. And I didn't. There's now a dwindling number of folks processing film now. Never too old to learn I suppose.

Single Finned Auto

There was time when Aussie surfers drove either a General Motors Holden, a Kombi or a Ford and rode single finned boards without legropes. Hmmm, time seems to have folded back on itself - single fins, sans legrope, logs in the water and old Holdens and Kombi's multiplying in the hills somewhere. This post is for Dennis Murphy and Chris Miller from California. I've never met them but they sent me a nice email about this blog. Big thanks for the support! Check out their rides at Murphy Surfboards.

Onshores, stingers and bikes

We have had a great run of waves this Spring. It's usually a time punctuated by the dreaded onshores that bring choppy surf, blue bottles and various stingers. And that's the case this weekend. Maybe a ride on a bike or a skateboard would be a better option. Two more "electric" images for the road. Bike's for Sam - live to ride, ride to live.

Homage to "Hammer"

Same move. Same kind of board. Point breaks 200 kms apart. Shoot some film. Put it through the digital blender. Voila, my homage to living legend John Van Hamersveld - surfer and creator of the iconic Endless Summer poster as well as album covers for the Beatles and the Stones. Still creating brilliance.

No Cars on Grass

The sign on the tree at the now defunct Noosa Camping Grounds was a tad ambitious.

Little Marly

This spot is called "Little Marly". I have no idea why though. Maybe somebody can explain. Two interpretations of the bottom turn by two different generations - both stoked.

Big thanks to my log mentor, The Bazzmeister, who chauffeured me for over three hours enabling me to catch a few waves like this and trap some light in the ancient metal and glass wonder that is the Nikonos II. 

Hello also to Johnno from Mudgeeraba (via Cairns and Noosa),  who had a chat with us post-surf. It's great to see that in this insular, digitised, downsized, diconnected age we can still talk story with total strangers and then discover they've been where we've been and know the same crew we know.

Bad Bank. Good bank.

In the last week, there's been a lot of words spewed with venom from the mouths of those in debt to the big banking companies over here regarding the massive profits the banks are making and the interest they are charging us for money they get off other people. Surfers even have joined the fray. Not a lot we can do but roll with it. Knuckle down. Pull the belt in and find a nice friendly bank made of sand.

This post is for my goofy footed brine brothers - Rev Dean, Mexican Steve, Mark "the comb" and Andrew "the twin" and this random surfer from a couple of days ago. Here's to Good Banks.

Keepin it Green

Found this scribbled note this morning:
"21 September 2006
It starts before you can see it - a low rumble to the north that puts an end to the natural songs of Bird Hour. As the last lights in Orion's Belt fade overhead the din approaches. And before you have brewed the first of many coffees for the day, it arrives -  a great metal goanna of cars and buses and trains full of commuters, chasing a dollar."

Yesterday

Yesterday I saw this guy get a nice barrel while I was waiting for my mates to show up for a surf. While I was setting up my tripod high up away from the surging tide that was bursting up the lakemouth so hard you could have ridden the wave upstream.

I love the light and shade and the way this guy's finger tips are just trailing the surface. Was it a left or a right?

Disheveled

Looking disheveled

Looking for aunty's aunty

Beyond the wires

Glass Daze

Another Friday. Time to down the tools.

And head to the brine.

For some hazy glass.

Have a great weekend.

Fly on, Andy

RIP Andy Irons
Fly on, little wing, fly on

Late News - Gilmore in the pink

Congratulations to Stephanie Gilmore - another surfing world title. That's four out of four attempts. 100%
Here seen dropping in literally on Mick Fanning during a Charity Comp a few moons back.

No money, no funny

"No money, no funny", my old mate The Biker used to say. I thought that he meant "not having any money was not funny". Now I could relate to that as a university student and even after getting a job (at the bottom) and trying to pay the rent and still have some $ left for film (digital cams were still 20 years away).

The Biker was a BIG fan of British - BSA's, Triumphs, Nortons. He used to hang with a group (not a gang) who all rode British bikes. He even regaled the readers of bike magazines of their wonders.
No money, no funny meant something else to The Biker - he only worked enough to have enough money to have his fun. He knew he needed the $$$ and he knew he heeded to work a legitimate job to get the $$$$. Work and play, like surfing and riding a bike, is all about balance. No money. No funny.

Deus x boogie

Bike above from a Deus tee.

I have been enjoying the Kiwi surf magazine called SLIDE lately. It seems to have images and stories about places I haven't seen a thousand times already. A recent issue had an article on a motorbike company - in a surf mag? Well, why not, I say. The crew from Deus ex Machina make beautiful machines and they surf. Their design aesthetic links with legendary surfwear larrikins Mambo, which was started by one of the Deus crew. So here's my tribute to motorbikes, the Oz bush, heat and waves. And film. Peddle to the metal!

Granite Bay shrubbery meets Noosa Woods campground in a1936 camera.

The Blurred Crusade

Weekend was a blur - a bluured crusade for light, shadow, sun and water.
And sound. Sound that evokes and emotes and lifts, like that of the band The Church..