December 19, 2008, 12:10 am : Riding Pipeline on a 5’9″
Filed Under: Events, News, SurfingDiscussion: C[1]mments
Why would you ever do such a thing? Back in the day when I chased waves of size, my trusty 7’6″ was the go; a proper gun that was big enough to get me in, with a nice pin tail to control the speed that comes from hurtling down a double overhead dredger.
The question is logical for you and me, why would you EVER do such a thing? But its not logical when you’re Robert Kelly Slater. Its not logical when you own an oceanic divining rod such as he does. And its not logical when you just capped off a World Tour season at 36 years old, in which you won your 9th World Title, by winning the Pipe Masters for a record sixth time, riding a…5’9″!?!
Only The King could ride such an incongruous board in true, grinding, medium to large Pipeline waves and win. With the title sewn up a couple of contests prior, Kelly had the luxury of experimenting. Other experimental feats in pro surfing, save for Curren’s heat win on an old, battered twin fin, have had the result of making a professional look rather foolish. But Curren’s was one heat in French beachbreak; NOT THE FREAKING PIPE MASTERS, all the way through to the final horn.
It gets better. Kelly designed the board himself, based on theories he developed in his head about how a shorter board could be more functional than a conventional gun in big, hollow waves. The brains to conceptualize it, and the talent to prove its efficacy. Pay attention everyone, you’re seeing one of, if not the greatest athletes of all time. If you can argue that point, open up. Let’s have at it, but before you do, check this video of Kelly riding his 5’9″, needing two scores to come from behind against Timmy Reyes. Making it look easy.
December 12, 2008, 2:59 pm : We Want Action!
Filed Under: ImageryDiscussion: C[0]mments
Sorry, this isn’t some zealous political rant about effecting positive change, just some quick action shots of mine I wanted to share. Perhaps a better suited title would be “I Want Action.” But don’t we all from time to time. Just some more clearing out of my old photo archives. Enjoy.
Violation of a cardinal rule of surfing: Don’t drop in on a girl! Unidentified caught in the act.
Two grinds for the price of one; L-Dan Squire, R-unidentified, during the same session in Raleigh, NC.
Unidentified skimboarder taking brief flight in Wrightsville Beach, NC.
December 9, 2008, 11:52 pm : The Quiksilver Blog
Filed Under: Imagery, News, SurfingDiscussion: C[0]mments
If you’re like me, you scour the internet looking for fresh, unique and quality surf content to feed the stoke meter. Of course there are lots of blogs (like this humble corner of the internet world), personal sites, and major surf media sites, and the good ones deliver enough diversity in their coverage to keep things interesting, but frankly things can seem to get a bit repetitive.
How’s that happen? Simple. The surf world is eminently small, and the group of media that cover it even smaller. A limited number of people focusing their lenses and notebooks on the right people, in the right place, at the right time in order to get work done and get paid results in many of the same subjects, waves, sessions and trips being chronicled in several places.
Which is precisely the reason I commend Quiksilver on launching their blog, http://quiksilver-blogs.com/. As a premier surf brand, Quik has a strong sense of what surfing is and should be, and how it should be presented. I can’t say with certainty, but it seems to me that this blog is derived from a combination of top-line team riders, crack surf photographers and scores of material that would otherwise never see the light of day. Of course there are company news highlights, as is to be expected, but the posts consist of photos that don’t fit into the surf media or company marketing resource baskets. And it has the effect of making them feel fresh and real, leaning more toward what you would see and experience if you were actually there. Likewise, the written content, while not deep or utterly insightful, is simple and not overdone with bro speak, thank God.
I’ve perused other surf company blogs, but the amount of product pushing, loud flash elements, and poor or inconsistent content has continually turned me off. Seems like Quiksilver got this one right; they’ll be getting traffic from me for as long as they can keep doing things just the way they are now.
December 5, 2008, 12:47 pm : What’s a Pilot?
Filed Under: News, SurfingDiscussion: C[0]mments
If you know where that quote came from then you’re probably the kind of person that still walks around saying “Royalle with cheese” too. Yes, it is a now obscure quote from Pulp Fiction. Hard to believe that movie is so old that all of the classic lines are basically long forgotten, and you show your age by spouting off a few.
Anyway, to the point; some exciting happenings involving me writing a script have come about, hence the reason for the poll I posted a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to the handful of you who participated. The consensus was that the majority want to see fictional characters based on real-life people. I can’t divulge too much information on the project yet; who I’m working with, or what the intent is with this, but I’ll fill you in as it comes along. Suffice it to say that I’m going with the votes. I may even post up some short, funny excerpts from the script as I develop it. Keep in touch.