Normally I would go with Leana Horne but since today we are celebrating the Solstice I thought I would treat you to Ella and Joe Pass.
Here in SoCal, as Kaser put so appropriately put it on his blog "we all have dry gills".
It's not that you couldn't go out in the water but there really is no reason to.
You know it's bad when the local surf forecaster throws in the towel and just starts giving a snow report.
Then we get to the title of tonight's blog entry which alludes to the weather forecast for the next five days. No hope in sight, Ho Ho Ho.
On the flip side of the coin is the fact that the southern hemisphere is starting their spring cycle.
Check Surfmatters for MatMax enjoying some spring time matting.
PS the landscape shot that appears in the Some photos from NZ blog post is amazing. Nice shooting MaxDad! Click on the picture and you will understand why I have always wanted to go on a trip to New Zealand.
If you haven't visited Mr Smith's blog Born to Lose now is a good time. It looks like he and artistic genius Tom Threinen (a mat rider) got together to sample some of San Diego's finest. Tom has also sketched some frames of Don Redondo riding a mat! Maybe Drew Kampion will take "The Adventures of Don Redondo" down the mat riding path. Speaking of Path, check the Surfer's Path for a ton of great content pictures and stuff you won't find on the er and ing websites.
I will leave you with one final thought
Everything changes,
The surf conditions are so bad right now
that there is no where to go but
UP
(ie the Winter Solstice signifies the shortest day of the year so starting tomorrow the days will start getting longer, and hopefully warmer)
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Christmas Tree Water
Often this time of year, my friends and neighbors will ask me...
“Pranaglider, (yes my friends and neighbors call me Pranaglider) I am going to get a Christmas tree this year and I want to know if there is anything I can add to the water at the bottom of the tree to make tree last longer.”
Yes fiends, there is
I take the citrus fruit that ripened and fell off the tree,
I cut the orange or lemon in half and throw the half with bad part away.
I squeeze the juice of the fruit into the water I am going to add to the tree.
I believe that the acid from the juice keeps the microbial growth down, but orange juice is complex enough for there to be additional actions.
Next add some sugar
The tree will drink the sugar and live a little longer.
In my family the kids will put in an aspirin tablet into the water too.
Not sure what that does
something I am sure
So there you have it
I put lemonade in the water under the tree!
This also makes a nice new years morning drink, if you over imbibe...
“Pranaglider, (yes my friends and neighbors call me Pranaglider) I am going to get a Christmas tree this year and I want to know if there is anything I can add to the water at the bottom of the tree to make tree last longer.”
Yes fiends, there is
I take the citrus fruit that ripened and fell off the tree,
I cut the orange or lemon in half and throw the half with bad part away.
I squeeze the juice of the fruit into the water I am going to add to the tree.
I believe that the acid from the juice keeps the microbial growth down, but orange juice is complex enough for there to be additional actions.
Next add some sugar
The tree will drink the sugar and live a little longer.
In my family the kids will put in an aspirin tablet into the water too.
Not sure what that does
something I am sure
So there you have it
I put lemonade in the water under the tree!
This also makes a nice new years morning drink, if you over imbibe...
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
It's raining,
the waves are blown to smithereens
and are made up of all sorts of nastiness
that the drainage systems of SoCal
can collect and deposit in our ocean.
So I am at home drinking hot tea watching surf movies
Planet C is perhaps one of the greatest surf movies of all time!
I have watched the scenes of GnarGnar surf this point break a 1000 times
and every time I am thinking about how much fun it would be on a mat!!!
Here is a composite clip of State of S and Fantasea showing what that would look like
Stay warm stay dry!
and are made up of all sorts of nastiness
that the drainage systems of SoCal
can collect and deposit in our ocean.
So I am at home drinking hot tea watching surf movies
Planet C is perhaps one of the greatest surf movies of all time!
I have watched the scenes of GnarGnar surf this point break a 1000 times
and every time I am thinking about how much fun it would be on a mat!!!
Here is a composite clip of State of S and Fantasea showing what that would look like
Stay warm stay dry!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Something Different
For some reason I feel like a long board.
I can't saw why,
I don't even like long boards
which is not to say that I don't think they have a place in my quiver
My first boards were “short boards” that were cut out of long boards
I currently own the following
9 0 Phil Edwards -3 stick
9 10 Mike Minchinton -1 stringer
9 4 Yater SurfTech -?
9 0 RA Wingnut – 4 stick
Plus three more boards in the 8 0 envelope although I wouldn't necessarily class them as long boards
I have surfed all of those boards enough to feel comfortable on them but then I moved on to other things.
Mat photos courtesy of Daily Bread
Mostly the mat
Which is a “quiver in a bag” ©
So much easier to haul around
so much better in the water!
(You may have noticed that I used the copyright symbol after the quote “quiver in a bag©” above. I don't want to give too much away but hopefully by early April I will once again be offering my own line of surf mats! The enthusiast feedback from those of you who purchased my custom mats last time have encouraged me to make a few more mats available!
Of course times have changed and although I have not set the price of the new mats I do expect the prices to exceed last years levels. The cost of materials has skyrocketed!)
But still I have keep having thoughts of maybe something shaped like this
Photo from Zamora Surfboards blog
Done in what is commonly known as a "big heavy long board" in the classical style
A big blank, maybe a little wood,
hand shaped,
glassed with volan
A sturdy board
Glassed in fin,
Functional, but not so functional that it works like a Greenough
But not a D fin either, no point in trying to make the board work bad
I want to ride it not use it as wall art
If you are familiar with this style of board you know they can be quite fun to ride at a point break
I am not that fond of nose riding,
it has its place
of course
it can be quite fun
but
it doesn't dominate the experience for me
But there are times when riding a long board is fun and I think about a getting one
Will I ?
heck no
not when I have a mat to ride!
Mat photos courtesy of Daily Bread
I can't saw why,
I don't even like long boards
which is not to say that I don't think they have a place in my quiver
My first boards were “short boards” that were cut out of long boards
I currently own the following
9 0 Phil Edwards -3 stick
9 10 Mike Minchinton -1 stringer
9 4 Yater SurfTech -?
9 0 RA Wingnut – 4 stick
Plus three more boards in the 8 0 envelope although I wouldn't necessarily class them as long boards
I have surfed all of those boards enough to feel comfortable on them but then I moved on to other things.
Mat photos courtesy of Daily Bread
Mostly the mat
Which is a “quiver in a bag” ©
So much easier to haul around
so much better in the water!
(You may have noticed that I used the copyright symbol after the quote “quiver in a bag©” above. I don't want to give too much away but hopefully by early April I will once again be offering my own line of surf mats! The enthusiast feedback from those of you who purchased my custom mats last time have encouraged me to make a few more mats available!
Of course times have changed and although I have not set the price of the new mats I do expect the prices to exceed last years levels. The cost of materials has skyrocketed!)
But still I have keep having thoughts of maybe something shaped like this
Photo from Zamora Surfboards blog
Done in what is commonly known as a "big heavy long board" in the classical style
A big blank, maybe a little wood,
hand shaped,
glassed with volan
A sturdy board
Glassed in fin,
Functional, but not so functional that it works like a Greenough
But not a D fin either, no point in trying to make the board work bad
I want to ride it not use it as wall art
If you are familiar with this style of board you know they can be quite fun to ride at a point break
I am not that fond of nose riding,
it has its place
of course
it can be quite fun
but
it doesn't dominate the experience for me
But there are times when riding a long board is fun and I think about a getting one
Will I ?
heck no
not when I have a mat to ride!
Mat photos courtesy of Daily Bread
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Caution Shelter Party this Saturday
Click on the picture for the FULL MOON
CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION
The moon with be at it's closest point to the earth all year on Saturday night for the party.
You know what they say about the full moon and parties ...
YOU KNOW HOW YOU GET!
Proceed at your own risk!
This Saturday December 13th at Shelter Surf Shoppe:
Shelter Web Site
- A New Art Exhibition By Tyler Warren
- The Premier of the Tyler Warren Expiriments (a J Smart Film)
- Live Music by the Mattson 2
- Skateboard Demo by Pickle featuring his ant Tyler Moma’s new sidewalk sleds (TnT Skateboaords)
- 6 in the PM.. Always Free…Always Fun…
Shelter is located at 2148 E 4th Street in Long Beach 90814
If you read down this far this is for you.
You have been warned!
I did what I could.
If you insist on going,
Remember that Graham's a cool guy and has gone out of his way to collect a bunch of cool boards (and mats) for us to drool over so be responsible!
Have Fun and try not to burn the place down!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Avant garde
The main purpose of any avant garde movement is to change the way of seeing or participating in an act so that any preexisting barriers between the act and the participates/observers are broken down.
More simply, to remove barriers that keep observers from being included in the act itself.
Stay with me on this...
People started riding waves doing what we now call body surfing.
Stand up surfing, generally on longer boards, created a barrier of space because you were no longer "in the wave". In many ways surfers were just observers. Not that observing a wave is bad in some way. I spend more time "mind surfing" waves than really surfing them.
After decades of riding long boards there was a revolution of materials and thinking that led to the modern short board and the surfing associated with it.
Although the short board revolution aimed for total involvement, in the end it fell short and todays hottest surfing maneuvers uses the wave merely as a ramp. (Amusingly enough this is called "getting air", something mat riders already have)
Obviously all surfing has merit regardless of device but I think surfing on a mat strives to remove the boundary between what was wave and surfer/rider/observer and allows a more direct connection to the wave.
While we are talking about waves this may be a good time to point out that the waves we ride are only to a small degree the water. Waves are really energy in wave form that storm winds transferred to the water. We ride them at their terminal end when they break on the shore but the same waves can be ridden out to sea as unbroken swells.
Something to think about the next time you ride an energy wave with your under-inflated air cushion.
Feel the energy, be the wave, you are the avant garde!
Click on the photo to see past the spray
Photo by JDUBSingles see more at his blog
More simply, to remove barriers that keep observers from being included in the act itself.
Stay with me on this...
People started riding waves doing what we now call body surfing.
Stand up surfing, generally on longer boards, created a barrier of space because you were no longer "in the wave". In many ways surfers were just observers. Not that observing a wave is bad in some way. I spend more time "mind surfing" waves than really surfing them.
After decades of riding long boards there was a revolution of materials and thinking that led to the modern short board and the surfing associated with it.
Although the short board revolution aimed for total involvement, in the end it fell short and todays hottest surfing maneuvers uses the wave merely as a ramp. (Amusingly enough this is called "getting air", something mat riders already have)
Obviously all surfing has merit regardless of device but I think surfing on a mat strives to remove the boundary between what was wave and surfer/rider/observer and allows a more direct connection to the wave.
While we are talking about waves this may be a good time to point out that the waves we ride are only to a small degree the water. Waves are really energy in wave form that storm winds transferred to the water. We ride them at their terminal end when they break on the shore but the same waves can be ridden out to sea as unbroken swells.
Something to think about the next time you ride an energy wave with your under-inflated air cushion.
Feel the energy, be the wave, you are the avant garde!
Click on the photo to see past the spray
Photo by JDUBSingles see more at his blog
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