DRIFT | perspectives in surfing

drift north america

After a few months of building anticipation Drift Surfing Mag’s North American Edition is now live. Its format is a hybrid of longer, more in depth features and shorter blog articles. The features are full of eye-poppingly large photos, with in dpeth interviews and extended captions. Joe Conway is the editor and he has assembled an impressive team of contributers:

Perspective(s) in Surfing.

Drift Surfing continues and expands upon the work of a modest British magazine started about five years ago. Now exclusively online, the independent North American Edition is an open venue for shared creative output, focusing on what’s happening both in and out of the water. We seek out the perspectives of innovators, instigators, inventors and icons in hopes of gaining a broader perspective on the continually changing culture surrounding surfing. Drift is by, for and about the artists, filmmakers, shapers, activists, musicians, organizers, appreciators and experts looking for something different in today’s surf media.

If you are reading Drift – you are Drift.

Enjoy.

The first four features are impressive!: Portfolio: Joe Curren – Interviewed and written by everyone’s favorite Brazilian Jair Bartoleto, Art of the MatterRyan Tatar talks to Art Brewer about his Bunker Spreckels book, Pop Culture Hangover – Ryan Tatar interviews Al Knost, Substituted Blue – Belinda Peterson-Baggs and Dane Peterson go to Indonesia on an aid supply mission.

Oh and I’m contributing to the blog section with writing, photography and interviews, some with a Mexico-specific slant, others without. My first posts are a short series on road-tripping Mexico: On the Road: Mexico’s West Coast, Part 1 and Part 2. I’ve got a ton of good stuff in the pipes. Good stuff in the makings.

Go take a look at Drift Surfing and compliment the staff on a successful launch!

This just in: Jamie at Pnut Luv just posted a good interview with Drift Editor Jon Conway for her “Surf Friday” Series.

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Julius Shulman – RIP

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Julius Shulman, photographer of modernist architecture, quietly passed away at home last night at the age of 98. One of my inspirations, his body of work is prolific.

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Bookmarks for July 15th

  • Legendary Surfers: Mike Hynson
    an exhaustively awesome article about The Endless Summer's co-star Mike Hynson. great read.
  • scout & catalogue
    Bre was a creative director at a fashion retailer. when the market crashed in October or so, Bre and her man (originally from Vallarta) decided to move to Mexico, something similar to what I did. She just set up a blog, but it's got all the markings of an intimate, well-designed portrait of her experience in a new culture, in a strange land. go check it out.
  • 2 or 3 things I know
    a curated blog of beautiful things. lots of nice arty things. precious things.
  • The blue and the green | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
    wicked optical illusion: "You see embedded spirals, right, of green, pinkish-orange, and blue? Incredibly, the green and the blue spirals are the same color." – I still don't believe it.
  • Rodrigo Fuenzalida : Graphic Design & Typography
    a couple of free, nicely designed fonts from a Venezuelan graphic designer. nice stuff!
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Luca at 5 Months

Luca @ 22 weeksHe prefers the “white spine” vintage years. less car ads.

Well, after four days with no internet access and what looks like months of waiting for one ahead of me, I broke down and got myself a Telcel 3G mobile internet connection. I can go anywhere and use my computer, yippeee!1 It costs $45/month with a limit of 3GBs/month, we’ll see how that lasts me.

On with the real story…

In the midst of our insane pack-a-thon and moving schnazmatalia, Luca turned 5 months old on July 5th. To say that these past five to six weeks have been the hardest so far, would be the largest understatement in the short 6000 year old history of this Earth2. Shortly after Marcia’s mom left town at the beginning of June, Luca started waking up 5 and 6 times a night. The first few days were grueling, sometimes all he needed was to burp and others he’d be up for an hour or so and we’d have to pace him around in the house in his stroller, finally get him to bed, only to have him wake up again 45 minutes later. We held out hope that this was just a phase he was going through and it would pass in a few days. Marcia and I were walking zombies and days turned to a week and one week turned to two and so on.

We noticed right away that both his day time and night time sleeping habits had changed. During the day, he would sleep for maybe 45 minutes at a time, no more than twice a day. And at night, if he slept for 3 consecutive hours at a time, we considered this a good night. The days were killing us both, as Luca demanded attention from at least one of the two of us all day long and his lack of sleep was apparent in his moods. He’s a very playful baby, smiling, happy and engaging with everybody, but when he’s in a bad mood, look out.

Luca @ 20 weeks

We began dreading the nights. At times, Luca would wake at full cry. Our ‘tricks’ of getting him back to sleep started to lose potency. We saw multiple doctors, no one could find anything physically wrong with him. Everyone we consulted was telling us to do various versions of the cry it out method. After the second full week, I was agreeing with them. I couldn’t stand it any more. But Marcia stuck it out, resisting the method, looking for something kinder and gentler. Marcia began to take more of the nighttime waking burden, as my grouchiness and groggy clumsiness only woke him up more where her soft touch would often get him back to sleep in minutes. Luca would often wake at between 5 and 6am and as hard as we tried we couldn’t get him back to sleep. So I began to get up with him and start our day, giving Marcia a few consecutive hours alone to catch up on sleep.

As two weeks turned to three and then four, I had begun to resent Marcia for not agreeing to the cry it out method, I just wanted this to be over and it seemed like the easiest/best way out. I was also a little resentful of Luca. It was hard dealing with him and in some ways I shut down and angered easily. I caught myself a few times and ironically, the more I re-engaged the easier dealing with him became. We slowly started to mold to Luca’s erratic sleeping habits. We learned new tricks and ways to constructively deal with him. And just in the past week, in the new house, we’ve both begun to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re taking active steps to maintain his schedule, which we really hadn’t done before, for some odd reason – Marcia is very clockworkish – and Marcia and I began to understand how each of our strengths and weaknesses could be played off him.

Luca @ 22 weeksprunes and papaya – keepin’ it regular, ya huuuurd.

The tide really began to turn when we noticed that in different moods, he responded differently. And if you looked closely you could kinda tell what he needed: to be rocked in his stroller, held and rocked, bottle, booby, taken for a walk, to sit upright, etc… I guess we’ve really begun to listen to him. Things really crystalized when we realized that during the day he is truly tired and wants to sleep but can’t. It’s like he’s missing the sleep button. Seeing little bags under his eyes, it’s plain to see that he’s not happy either.

We’re now going into the 6th week of this craziness and he’s sleeping regularly in 3 hour intervals at night, getting up a few other times, but for no more than a quick “chupa” and back to bed. His tantrum hour seems to be 5-6am, on good nights I have to stroll him around the house and on bad nights I have to stroll him around the half-vacant “coto” we live in. fun. But somehow it’s getting easier and we feel like we’re in this together, all three of us. We are trying to find ways for Luca to sleep more and he wants to sleep more. We’re hoping that increased solid foods and daily exercise (swimming in our new community pool) will help get this kid – at the very least – a little more regularized.

It’s been a rough month!

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Field Notes

Danny Hess 5'7shaper’s mark by Danny Hess
Arrrggg, I am in moving hell. We’re doing the biennial “schlep all your crap from the old house to the new house” thing. This new house is something different. It’s ours. For the second time in my life, I am a homeowner. It’s the first time for Marcia. We are both wonked out from the home buying process. We’re also walking zombies, Luca is keeping us up all night. Our days are filled with packing, sweating, moving, cleaning, sweating, throwing crap away, packing, cleaning, sweating, moving, etc…. It’s a new house, so nothing works. Construction dust everywhere. Scorpions and spiders. All I can think about is getting wet.

The new house won’t have a telephone line for easily another month, so I’m looking into a 3G tether service for my computer. what. a. hassle. can someone say iphone plus 3G tethering?

I spent the 4th of July sliding water hills on a slowly growing swell. I test drove a friend’s Danny Hess 5′7″ quad. It was slightly heavy out of the water, but inside, it’s quite amazing how floaty it is. The waves I was on were a little mushy so I need another go ’round but I’m in awe of its tight response. Add this board to the dream quiver list.

Two nights ago I had one of those sunset sessions that you spend entire years waiting for. Picture perfect sunset and head high swell with overhead clean up sets. I had some really nice, fast rides with the single fin pumpkin seed. I managed quite a few ‘cheater fives’, did I mention the board is 6′2″? I love that pumpkin seed. I sat in the water and watched the entire sunset from start to finish, maybe 15 minutes of pure zoned-outness. The sky was super clear with a few puffy storm clouds on the horizon. The blues, purples, yellows, oranges and reds were crisp and uninhibited, there wasn’t a single shade of grey to be seen. Amongst a million other things that the heart desires, I need to “acquire” a water housing.

Working on an exciting, big, new project here in Q.Peepslandia. Still in the conceptual stages, but really hoping this thing takes off. It’s a family business (the best kind). I’m totally stoked on it. We’ll see where it leads.

In other news, they say that the army has closed highway 200 about an hour south of Pascuales, so if you’re thinking about going down to Michoacan via 200, try to contact locals in the area for more info. Supposedly, there is some altercation between the semi-autonomous communities in Michoacan and the army. Obviously I don’t know much, but that’s what I hear. If anyone knows anything more and has links, have at it in the comments.

WRT lack of internet: posting will be very light. stay tuned.

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Two Tone: the graphics

storeyartwork by David Storey

Creative Review – Two Tone: the graphics

I’m trying to figure out what influenced me more: the music or the graphic design behind The Specials, The Selector and a handful of other bands on 2 Tone Records. These bands were definitely on heavy, constant rotation for most of my teenage years. The sinister vibe of the piano/synth and chorus of The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’ and the neo-70s soft-core basement pron film horns and bass of The Selector’s ‘The Selecter’ were permanent fixtures of my dj sets at art school. I still listen to their albums on a regular basis. And as influential as their music was on me, the graphic design and visual identity behind these bands was just as imprinted on my brain. Effective, cohesive and minimal.

Creative Review has an interview with David Storey who along with his partner, John Sims, created the visual look of the entire output of the 2 Tone label:

In 1979, fresh from art college, David Storey joined the team that, under the creative direction of The Specials’ Jerry Dammers, created the graphic identity for the band and their label, Two Tone. While the fashion ‘look’ for Two Tone was already well established – shiny suits, thin ties, pork pie hats and penny loafers all topped-off with a pair of Rayban Wayfarers – Storey and his partner John ‘Teflon’ Sims, helped create the visuals to go with it. Now devoting his time to painting, David Storey talked to CR about his work.

Storey is also releasing limited edition giclee prints of several 2 Tone era posters.

Incidentally, Storey is also the graphic designer behind the look of The Housemartins, another early high school favorite of mine (’London 0 Hull 4′) and has Housemartin posters for sale as well. WTF factoid of the day: Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim was in The Housemartins! I didn’t know that until I linked over to their wiki page just now. weird, but true.

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A sweet interview with HuGa

HEAVY_WAVES_500“Heavy Waves” tee by HunterGatherer

Todd St. John and Gary Benzel are HunterGatherer. A Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary design studio. In this video, Todd and Gary discuss their creative process and obsession with wood, beautifully simple graphic design and generally exactly how they make such rad stuff. I love these guys’ work, inspirational. Also, Todd St. John is part of Mollusk Family of Artists (amazing poster!).

[again, via KN+]

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Stephen Eichhorn

splashartwork by Stephen Eichhorn

Stephen Eichhorn makes rad plant collages/assemblages from photographs he finds in books and posters, like magical new species of plants. Like a ginzu chef on the exacto blade. Beautiful work and killer idea. minimal presentation. inspiring.

Kitsune Noir posted an interview with Stephen where he discusses his process.

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Plywerk

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Here are some photos of Luca I received in the mail recently.

Beautiful printing and backing job by Plywerk, printed on archival glossy paper and laminated. The beautiful substrate is constructed bamboo plank. I’ve written about Plywerk before, their products look great online, but in person they are beyond beautiful. The photos are excellently printed, spot on color and crispness, the lamination and adhesion job is perfect and the bamboo substrate is a piece of art by itself. The details in the bamboo construction are insane, from the way the bamboo is cut and glued together (beautiful grain) to the cut-out hanging mechanism. The design is all in the details.

Maggie M has some wicked examples of plywerk’d photos as well.

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This Isn’t What You Think It Is

TJS | POV – Richard Kenvin from The Surfer's Journal by Tyler Manson.

Wow. Tyler Manson directs a short piece for The Surfer’s Journal on Richard Kenvin, the director of Hydrodynamica. Kenvin gives us a brief glimpse at an alternate version of surfing’s history, one where the major influences are science, craft and art. And surfers aren’t viewed as male bimbos who don’t like having a day job. Bob Simmons is the missing key and Kenvin’s theory is that the death of Simmons in 1954 obscured just how influential he was to modern surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding both from his technological innovations that pushed surfing forward (planing hulls, finless, two fins, etc..) and a cultural outlook as well, one that had very little to do with D-fin longboard surf culture in Hawaii that was propelled worldwide by Hollywood’s obsession with the perceived surfing lifestyle.

Can’t wait to see Hydrodynamica. and The Surfer’s Journal is killing it with nicely produced video content!

[via The Alley Fish Fry]

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Bookmarks for July 4th

  • The Great American Bubble Machine : Rolling Stone
    required reading for the 4th of July: "Goldman's role in the sweeping global disaster that was the housing bubble is not hard to trace. Here again, the basic trick was a decline in underwriting standards, although in this case the standards weren't in IPOs but in mortgages. By now almost everyone knows that for decades mortgage dealers insisted that home buyers be able to produce a down payment of 10 percent or more, show a steady income and good credit rating, and possess a real first and last name. Then, at the dawn of the new millennium, they suddenly threw all that shit out the window and started writing mortgages on the backs of napkins to cocktail waitresses and ex-cons carrying five bucks and a Snickers bar."
  • Surreality Only Beginning | TPM
    please file this under "batshit crazy": "It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. Either Palin is resigning ahead of some titanic scandal (which should emerge in short order if it exists) or her resignation was triggered by an even more extreme mental instability than we'd previously suspected."
  • Travelling Surf Enforcer for Hire (Windandsea to O'side Harbor)
    What I'm selling here is one week of regulation at your break. This includes intimidation and violence against the donkeys sporting SUP's, sponges, Stewart longboards, and funboards…. (via @surfysurfy)
  • Ruins of the Second Gilded Age – The New York Times
    Photo essay with captions by Edgar Martins documenting the recent real estate bust in the United States. "People are present in these images, bit not physically. You trace their action, the destruction they left behind." – amazing.
  • "Nearest Tube" Augmented Reality App for iPhone
    We've been hearing a lot about "augmented reality". Here is a perfect video example of how "augmented reality" will help your daily life. think of this as an simple version of how this concept will change our lives in the future.
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A Healthy Respect.

The Surfer’s Journal recently posted this clip on vimeo:

Vintage footage from late surf photography pioneer, Warren Bolster. Warren was a camera board developer as well as a renowned surf and skateboarding documentarian. He is featured in The Surfer’s Journal Masters of Surf Photography, Volume 3.

I’ve been lurking on Warren Bolster’s photos on the internets recently, getting to know more of his work, delving into it. So it was a surprise to run into the above clip. I really connect with Bolster’s proper fear of the ocean and waves. It’s interesting to hear a legendary surf photographer talking about their fear of the ocean. I have a similar fear, but I call it “a healthy respect”. I’ve always had this respect and when I’m being dragged down after taking one on the head, I often have visions of drowning.

My mom likes to tell a story, one which I have no recollection of, it goes something like this:

Back in like the late 70s, my mom, my sister and I were out in California visiting family (I grew up in NY). My sis was less than a year old and I was probably around two or three. We were at the beach, I think somewhere near Pebble Beach. I was playing in the shallows and moms was with my sister farther up the beach. A freak tsunami crept in and was starting to consume me. Mom was panicked and before she knew what was happening I was gone, underwater, and the tide line was quickly rising all the way up to where she was sitting. She no idea how to keep both of us from drowning. Just then, some bronzed surf god ran out of nowhere to the exact spot where I was playing, reached into the murky water and pulled me out by my long blonde hair and deposited me on to dry land. And before my mom could thank him, he disappeared. Mom likes to say it was “God” rescuing me (she’s not particularly religious) and even though I have no recollection of the event, I’m not sure if this is the cause for my deep respect of the turbulent ocean.

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Skip Frye

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Late last night I was casing the internets as usual, fulfilling my daily surfboard lust fetish. Admittedly, I voraciously consume surfboard sites visually. I am obsessed with different kinds of surfboards. I research surfboard shapes and shapers. It’s not healthy. Marcia just shakes her head. Two weeks ago it was Alaias, last week it was Liddles and logs. This week it’s Skip Frye fishes and eagles.

I got the sly idea to create a google alert that notifies me every time a ’skip frye’ surfboard comes up for sale on ebay or craiglist. fat chance. and I found another site that had what looked like a ton of Skip Frye boards for sale, but were all sold out.

Then the question popped into my mind: how does one go about ordering a new Skip Frye custom shaped surfboard. I put the question (half rhetorically) out on twitter and Jim Moriarty answered me back: You don’t (he doesn’t take orders). I figured I knew this, somehow, instinctually.

Please file this under: “unrequited love”.

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Huevo

huevophoto by Ed Fladung
huevophoto by Ed Fladung

This is “Huevo”, getting some greenroom time before running off to work.

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Bookmarks for July 1st

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