Jumping off the Cliff At Steamer Lane In 1956

December 28, 2015 at 8:47 pm

That’s me jumping (age 21). I’m wearing an old-fashioned wool bathing suit underneath my first wetsuit, a vest from the Dive ‘N Surf shop in La Jolla, Calif., in 1956. This predated O’Neill’s wetsuits. I sent my measurements to Dive ‘N Surf and they mailed me the cut-out parts along with a can of Black Magic glue; I glued the edges together and then glued strips over the seams.

This was an improvement, but we still tried to stay dry as long as possible. On certain swells, we’d jump this 6 to 8 feet down to the water and if done properly, the upper body would stay dry.

 Chris Thompson is a filmmaker working on the story of Northern California surfing during the 50s and 60s (a far cry from surfing in the warmer Southern California waters). Recently I loaned him a bunch of my old photos, which he scanned; this is one of them.

A post 9 years ago about that time period in Santa Cruz: https://www.lloydkahn.com/2007/04/14/aloha-dave-devine_14/

Photo by Spike Bullis

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Did I say I was going to give up skateboarding? Well…

December 20, 2015 at 9:16 pm

You never miss the hand until the wrist is broke…

I was in a state of pain, shock, depression and self-castigation when I decided to quit:

https://www.lloydkahn.com/2015/12/07/the-day-i-gave-up-skateboarding/

Update: I’ll take 6 months or more to get the wrist break well healed, then devise some kind of right arm brace AND quit the stupid stuff, of which I did a lot. All my skating injuries have been while dicking around sans safety equipment.

I’ve got a state-of-art lightweight strong fiberglass cast, it’s healing beautifully, am making and taking bone broth, calcium citrate, vitamin D3, and eating prunes (said to promote bone strength). Now out of a 2-week deep depression and feelin purty good. You can really appreciate the highs after abject lows. Whoo!

The human body is magnificent in so many ways. I mean bones (properly aligned) grow back together. We, the managers of those bones, set things up as well as we can, then just sit back and watch while the body knits itself back together. Milagro!

I’ll probably skate 80% less but hell, I ain’t giving it up. It’s too god damn much fun! I’ve long planned to get pics skating on my 90th and 100th birthdays. I’m just gonna be a lot more careful.

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Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson Reflecting on Their Heros, Django and Jimmie, and Aging

December 19, 2015 at 8:49 pm

“We’d have taken much better care of ourselves if we’d known we was gonna live this long.”

Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson

Song “Live This Long” from new album Django and Jimmie

I caught Guitar Center interview on TV (Direct TV, ch. 239) with Merle last night, interspersed with songs from what looks like his latest band. Boy, are they good! Each song a jewel, each musician a master. Soulful sax weaving in and out, elegant pedal steel guitar…

Here’s Okie from Muskogee . I’ve heard him say this song has many meanings.A bit tongue in cheek maybe?

Merle fans, try to find the other songs in this session, actually better than crowd-pleaser Okie.

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