Chris Thompson just sent me this trailer of his documentary, and it knocked me out. How rare it is these days to have someone that gets it. This is the real stuff. Rod is power personified, jeez was he rolling here, the Van Dykes, my lord…
If you know any old surfers, send them this.
This was 3years ago. I think this record has been broken more recently.
It was a gnarly, cold, windy day yesterday. Pt. Arena surfers are a tough breed
To tell the truth, I’ve felt pretty shitty for almost 2 months. Maybe something I caught on the airplane coming back from Hawaii. My chi’s been flatlining.
WELL, I’ve finally come out of it and yesterday I went surfing—for the 2nd time in 3 months—on the Sonoma coast. Windy, just a few guys out, robust swell. Had my 10′ Haut 3-fin Surftech board. Got 2 rides, the first a late takeoff and I proned it—fun!— then shakily got to my feet riding the foam. Pretty feeb. 2nd ride I kneeled. Hey, I’ll take whatever I can get.
The hard thing for old guys is going from paddling to upright. Once I’m up I’m fine, but right now my getting up is not a pretty sight. Gonna work on it.
BUT my energy level is off the charts. The magic of the Pacific Ocean…
Every time I drag myself out into the world and get physical, I feel great. Well, duh!
I bought these at the Hanalei Coffee Roasters on the island of Kauai. They are published by Cool Breeze Productions, PO Box 11421, Honolulu, HI, 96828.
This poster by National Geographic really struck me. The migration to Hawaii by Marquesas Islands sailors somewhere between 300-800 AD in open sailing canoes, along with plants and animals. When you look at this map of South Pacific Islands, you see what a feat that was. No GPS.
I had an interesting talk yesterday with my neighbor John Washington, who has sailed in this part of the world. How did these guys sail 2500 miles and land on the Hawaiian islands, which are way out in the ocean away from everything else? We concluded they combined many skills: astronomy, direction of swells, winds, birds and fish; intuition…
Somewhere I read that Polynesian navigation knowledge was passed along in oral tradition from navigator to apprentice, partly in song.
It caused me to reflect on my Euro-centric education. Western Civilization was required for Stanford freshmen when I went there. Nothing about China, India, the South Pacific, Buddhism, Zen, the great Khmer civilization, the Taoists, Chi Gung, the concept of chi… (Part of consciousness-expansion in the ’60s was discovery of the rest of the world’s civilizations and practices.)
The Tahitians arrived around 1200 AD and things got brutal. Cook arrived in the 1700s.
It’s fascinating history.
Old school. No stinkin SurfTek boards here!
Awesome collection of hand-crafted/shaped by Ambrose surfboards.
Ambrose is south of the main part of Kapa’a, on the main highway.
He’s a wise man.
See earlier post:
I saw a huge number of old school surfboards (turns out there are 200, almost all made by Ambrose) a little south of the main part of Kapa’a, stopped in and met Ambrose Curry III, who has lived here since 1969. Turned out he is a fellow native San Franciscan, so we had lots to talk about. We hit it off on all cylinders and even went out in the choppy reef surf on 2 of his big boards (10′ and 11′) and got knocked around a bit while he pointed out landmarks on the shore and mountains.
Here he is standing next to a 15′-4″ board that is 30-7/8″ wide and weighs 40 lbs. It’s styrofoam with epoxy resin. (I saw some spectacular Hawaiian tandem surfing on TV last night.)
I told Andrew about my trouble riding an air mat and he said the really good mats were made by Dale Solomon and called Pneumatic Surfcraft, no longer available. They had, among other things a very roughened up top deck. He gave me a lot of mat riding tips, so I’m gonna give it another try when I get home.
Boy, was it fun to run into a brother native son, and a surfer to boot.
I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin about half past dead…
This song recurs to me now and then when I’m on the road. In Puerto Jiminez on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, a kind of dusty border town, the song came to me. And here this morning in Kapaa, on the northern shore of Kauai, I’ve got only a half hour from the airport and I love the place. It’s got the big touristy hotels, but there’s a healthy local gringo culture here, haven’t been here long enough to suss out local Hawai’ian culture, been here less than 48 hours now, gotta check out of hotel soon, so will post some of yesterday’s discoveries before the maid kicks me out:
My Daewoo beater, duct-taped sunroof, $25/day (30 w.tax), perfect, not being the new Avis/Budget/Alamo brand new tourist rental.
Found a place to lay my head, got into ocean, perfect temp., not too cold/warm, oh my! 3 times in water yesterday, each time with fins, once with air mat, which I’m finding difficult to control, squirrelly; a little body surfing; the sand is rough and granular, fluffy, soft, nice to roll around when you come back in. Last night swam in rain. No one else at least here, doing anything like this. I’m like a starving man sitting down to a banquet, the Pacific so inviting and comfortable, unlike the 50 degree NorCal ocean.
Small Town Coffee
Annie Caporufscio set up shop in this converted Ford airport shuttle van with her partner Jeremy Hartshorn; Annie had run the shop for 9 years in rented space, but got tired of the landlords rising the rent and “…didn’t want to be bullied in the lease.” Great barista crema, the muffins make a good breakfast. Local hangout, good vibes…
Kauai Beach House Hostel
$40 shared sleeping room, $80 for a solo room (of which there are 3). Looks doable to me, especially in the land of 2-$300 hotel rooms. On beach, clean, wi-fi, young travelers, kitchen, shared baths, cool place.
Shared room.
Paul Iwai’s Rooster Farm
How many roosters, I asked. 200?
More, Paul said. Are they beautiful! Had great visit with Paul, from a Japanese family, on family land, born here, I know chickens, and we talked shop. Oh my again! Look at these beauties; beautifully tended. You should hear the noise!
I asked Paul where I could buy a knife and he gave me two. We ate macadamia nuts from his trees, he gave me grapefruit, tangerines, I’m sending him 3 books. Kindred spirits abound here.
That’s part of what happened yesterday, gotta pack up and head north now.
