Conjunction of Four
Sunday was the Spring Equinox (also Evan’s birthday).
Monday was Bach’s birthday.
Tuesday I left home at 6 AM for points north.
Wednesday (today) is the full moon.
Seals cormorants, seagulls at Jenner rivermouth
It was a spectacular drive along the coast. Clouds, rain, sun, mist, fog, along with thundering surf. Hills are the greenest of green. Cows, sheep, goats, horses grazing happily.
Music: “I just dropped into see what condition my condition was in by” the Launderettes
“You can have my husband, but please don’t mess with my man,” by Koko Taylor
“Look how me sexy,” reggae, by Linual Thomson…
Photos by Dick Ryerson
From Bob Kahn
I wrote this last week for my surfing friends from the ’50s. It’s a tribute to an extraordinary guy who was, among other things, the foremost big wave surfer in Northern California in those golden years.
“Out, out brief candle!”
He had this quote on the nose of his balsa wood board in 1955, crudely written (in longhand), and funkily glassed. It’s a quote from Macbeth, Shakespeare commenting on the brevity and inevitability of death.
I used to wonder if it had something to do with Rod’s dad dying at a very early age. Maybe he thought he wasn’t going to last long, but luckily for many of us, he did.
I first knew Rod in San Francisco high school days in the early ’50s; he was a city swimming champion, in the 220 and 440 yards. I was one of the swimmers at Lowell and we knew the best city swimmers: Jim Fisher and Bill Floyd at Lowell, Jose Angel at Washington, John Stonum at St. Ignatius, Billy Wilson at Sacred Heart, Rod at Lincoln; all of these except Bill Floyd became surfers. Many of us trained at the YMCA on California Street, and then the Marine’s Memorial with coach Lyle Collett. Charlie Sava, who coached SF girl Ann Curtis to 2 gold medals in the 1948 Olympics, was the city’s genius coach.
I was going to Stanford and in 1954, got started surfing, and thereafter spent half of each week in Santa Cruz. By the time I moved up from Cowell’s to Steamer Lane, I met Rod. He was going to San Jose State, but spending all the time he could in SC. He lived in his car with his dog Steamer.
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…with the Pacific Ocean, that is, in which I just paddled about a mile on my 12′ Joe Bark paddleboard. First time paddling, first time swimming in over 2 months. Boy, did that activate some chi!
I saw a lone seal cavorting. It reminded me of a swimming teammate of mine in high school, Mike Barnato, who said he wanted to be reincarnated as a seal. I thought it might be Mike out there.
Fats Domino, “I’m in Love Again”
Built by Bruno Atkey in Tofino, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, in the ’70s, and towed 26 miles to Hot Springs Cove, where Norma Bailey ran a “…great floating store selling emergency supplies, esoteric items, and Wild Coast history books,” according to Godfrey Stephens, who just sent this photo.
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
Maui’s finest watermen including Kai Lenny, Jesse Richman, Robby Naish, the Porcella brothers, take on Jaws… Windsurf, kite surf, tow in, SUP and all while Dan maneuvers his Hughes 500D (helicopter) like a DJI Phantom to get the shot nobody else dares to get.
From Dick Ryerson via Bob Kahn
“Imagine if the art you spent hours making was destroyed soon after completion. For 44-year-old San Francisco-based artist Andres Amador, who creates sand-paintings up to 100,000 square feet (~35,000 M2) in size, this is a reality.
Amador received a BA in Environmental Science before joining the Peace Corps and then starting a regular career, but it was a visit to Burning Man in 1999 that changed him. He quit his job, and in 2004, in the hours been low and high tide, started doing sand art.…”
https://www.boredpanda.com/sand-paintings-earthscape-andres-amador/
From Anonymous
https://on.fb.me/1OkHyfQ
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2015
From Rick Gordon
In keeping with the Brotherhood of Beach Builders: no nails.
Conjunction of Four
Seals cormorants, seagulls at Jenner rivermouth
