Later he could be seen in the beach parking lot, behind his van, a towel wrapped around his middle, changing out of his we summer suit.
Raymond Pettibon Towel, $50 for a killer piece of art, though not one of a kind. Great if you can’t afford the real thing, like must of us non-banker types. This is one in a series featuring different artists like Pettibon, Jeff Koons and Ed Ruscha, done for the Raleigh Hotel for Art Basel Miami.
[via Supertouch]
ART GALLERY: THOMAS CAMPBELL | Surfline
Surfline presents a mind-bendingly awesome presentation of Thomas Campbell’s artistic output complete with his voice over. 28 slides in all, this is by far the biggest peek into the process behind his work, that I’ve personally seen. Amazing.
The biggest thing I took away from this presentation? I need to chuck the computer out the window, go outside more and make more art. Mindless, meditational, doodling, noodling, art.
[via the always dialed Shaka Bra]
This sentiment could easily be applied to Nayarit surf. I’m taking notes.
If you live in California, 80% of the surf you ride is shit. Hollow but closed out. Make-able but mushy. You don’t have to resort to a longboard. Fight back. Get in early. Make turns. Ride short and have fun, and save the 6′2 shredder for the Mentawais. – Brian Hilbers
Update: the donation drive and surfboard raffle are officially over, check for the winner. I’d like to personally say ‘thank you’ to all the people who read this and clicked over to Rick’s site and donated. You rock!
Rick Malwitz has been turning out beautiful custom shaped boards for the past few years. He combines beautiful shapes, flawless glassing and tasty, minimal tints and logos. His skills are getting insane.
Rick is looking to raise $2000 for Surfrider Foundation. In exchange for your tax deductible donation, you can be entered into a raffle for one of Rick’s custom shaped boards of your choice (peep some of his recent boards, all drool-worthy). $5 gets you one chance to win and $20 gets you 5 chances.
Further: the raffle started this past weekend and Rick has been so impressed with the response. He has decided to up the ante, to get the donation process done and the raffle prize awarded. The winner now has three options:
1. Custom board
2. Supplies to make their own. (Blank, Resin, Cloth, Fins, Fin boxes)
3. Shape it themselves in my studio and I’ll glass.
So go over to Rick’s site: Malwitz Surfboards and donate. The tax-deductible donations are being handled through Changing The Present.org
I really dig on the idea of people starting their own donation drive like Rick has, raising awareness for a cause we all feel strongly about. It’s a simple idea but very powerful. A nice way to generate interest in giving a little cash over to Surfrider and some lucky brojammie gets to walk away with a sweet prize. Great idea.
photos by Schtevey B
You know somethings’ wrong when you go to load your boards on to the car before dawn and there’s ice on your hood. Yes, I know cold water surfing is all the rage, what with Alaskan waves looking like Barra and warming systems in suits, but I can’t quite get used to the idea, yet. Maybe it’s that I was finally able to wear a pair of pants, only yesterday, for the first time in six months without sweating profusely1.
Surf hermano Stevey Bissonnette has a wickedly inspired set from last weekend’s foray into cold water surf: Big Waves and Cold Days: Full Report. Talk about inspiration. whoa. and some serious size in a few shots. The photo set is definitely best viewed full screen large.
For those of you not familiar with Steve. He’s a design/techie who lives in Montreal and when he’s not pulling weekend work duty he’s hauling ass down the eastern seaboard to hit up hidden surf gems. This guy has probably been in the water more this fall than I have and I live 15 minutes from my break and the water is 70 degrees2.
Surfer Mag is looking for both a graphic designer and a web designer. If you’re a surfer and a designer, this is may be your gig.
Surfer Magazine has announced the 2008 Follow The Light Foundation Finalists. Really good work from all five photogs: Ryan Craig, Todd Glaser, Zak Noyle, Shawn Parkin and Pat Ruddy.
More on Follow The Light Foundation:
On October 10th, 2005, the surfing community lost one of its most influential figures. After a nearly three year battle with severe brain cancer Larry “Flame” Moore, the Photo Editor of SURFING Magazine for 30 years, passed. He left behind a legacy of brilliant photography and an army of photographers trained by him. Through his work at SURFING Magazine, Larry literally gave three decades of surfing their “look.”
Today, honoring Larry’s request, we have established the Follow the Light Foundation (FTL), an organization that will help finance the dreams of surf photographers, pushing the sport and its lensmen forward.
Each spring, the board of FTL will announce the amount of money available, make a call for entries, and make an application and application guidelines available. Applications will be due mid-summer, and will be reviewed by an advisory panel. Recipients will be announced on October 10, the anniversary of Larry’s passing.
I entered the competition, but admittedly I lack the serious in-the-lineup photos that make for good spreads in surf mags. Oh well, maybe next year, after I buy that SPL water housing I have my eye on….
Relatedly, Surfer Mag Photo Editor and Follow The Light judge Peter Taras weighs in on The State of Surf Photography in 2009. He gets asked a million questions a day by up-and-coming surf photogs. This is Taras’ attempt at defining new trends and what’s hitting/missing, first through photo examples and then words as he gets to the technical side of things. Inneresting.
illustrations by Ze Bird at Tubus Eternus
Lots of cool surf bloggie shturf going on in Portugal. Peep the gorgeous illustration goodness happening over at Tubus Eternus, I especially like the raw skills on display in the napkin and coffee stain sketches (top left above), so nice. Help from a little google translation, and I’m waiting to see his wine stain sketches.
Paulo Ribeiro hipped me to ‘Tubus Eterno’. Paulo also has a nice english-language surfy blog, holdin’ it down for us surf/tech/design workers. ¡Thanks Paulo!
The trailer for Riding The Wave, a surf culture documentary directed/created by Art Center grad Christopher Cutri:
Surfing, with its historic and contemporary roots in Hawaii, has become a world wide marketing magnet. How has surfing, an activity traditionally associated with a counter culture ethos, exploded into a multinational billions dollar industry with cultural influence almost beyond measure? Surf clothing and other paraphernalia have blanketed the cultural landscape in this country and around the world. With commentaries from Steve Pezman of the Surfers Journal, Bob Mcknight, CEO of Quiksilver, Paul Naude, President of Billabong, Dave Parmenter, Mickey Munoz and many others, we discover the tensions surrounding this movement and its affect on the sport.
I especially dug the part where TK Brimer goes into the clothing store and points out the $48 boardshorts. Hilarious, sad and true
photo of Weisbecker by one of my inspirations: Joni Sternbach
Captain Zero Allan Weisbecker drops a doozy on us, in the latest update of his newsletter: ICU Pshychosis, an Explanation. This post concerns epidemiology, the end of oil, governmental deceit, Black Death and the earth’s inability to feed more than 2 Billion people without oil to help facilitate the growth, processing and transportation of food:
Ever hear of the ‘Green Revolution’? In simple terms, it refers to the breakthroughs in agriculture that allow 6 billion people to live on the planet without horrendous mass starvation.
Know what’s needed so that six billion people can get fed?
Oil. Oil byproducts are needed to make the fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides that are vital in growing enough food to feed everybody. (Almost everybody.)
And this doesn’t count fueling the internal combustion engines that spread the stuff on the fields, reap the harvest, and so forth, not to mention move the food to the folks who are supposed to eat it.
I love a good conspiracy theory1.
Chad Marshall of GonzGonzGonz fame kills it, in a scene from the new 3-hour epic “Longboard Habit” flick. [via Bang Bang Club]
Attention my LA/SD peoples: there’s a killer surf art show this Saturday, Sept.13th from 7-11pm at Surfindian in Pacific Beach. The show is a combo one/two punch by two outstanding up-and-coming Southern California-based surf documentarians:
The work of photography and filmmaker Cyrus Sutton, whose new 16mm Australian surf culture documentary Under the Sun will be shown.
and
Ryan Tatar of Shakas & Singlefins fame. Ryan has his finger on the pulse of the Southern California alternative wave craft scene. He mixes cross-processed quiet-bliss surf photography with a fine eye for documenting scenes who don’t quite make it to the competition-based glossy surf mags1. Ryan’s laid-back/easy approach to his subjects is starting to yield some amazing results.
I wish I could make it to the show, please represent for me.
photos by Holly Beck
Holly Beck gives us an awesome behind-the-scenes look at the Billabong Pro at the ‘Cho, Tahiti. It never occured to me that there are no hotels near Teahupoo:
With no hotels at Teahupoo, home stays are the only option. The Tahitian families at the end of the road earn their living for the entire year by temporarily moving out of their homes, lining the floors with as many mattresses as will fit, and feeding and housing all the surfers, media, and ASP staff for nearly a month. I was lucky enough to find some space in the Billabong media house which was filled with Billabong staff, security staff, and journalists. There were quite a few of us, but since there was only one other female, she and I got to share our own room.
Holly is an amazing surfer and so down to earth as well. She doesn’t post often, but when she does, it’s always a good read. tons of pics.
photo by José Leonel Salazar
Amazing photo pilfered from Magic Seaweed, taken by Arrobo. Pascuales is a crushing beach break in Colima near Tecoman. Legend has it that the break is even more dangerous when it’s small as it breaks in shallower water.
A friend went down about a month ago and came back with stories from a heavy swell. The waves were 8 meters (25 feet) and the only people who could get in the water were tow-ins, save one loco guy who hand-paddled into and successfully rode the largest wave of the swell. This is the stuff of legends.
photo by Jamie Robinson
Jamie Robinson is a young brit who’s living in Vallarta with his mexicana girlfriend, Viry. He’s learning to surf and documenting his life along the way on his blog. Jamie is a dawn patrol kinda surfer. He’s got a camera and brings it with him most of the time. It’s great to see another surfer out there docu-ing the local scene. Go have a peek.
Hi, my name is Ed. I’m a graphic designer who lived in L.A. I quit my job, sold my car, rented out my house and moved to Mexico. Along the way, I learned how to surf and fell in love. This blog is my story. In these pages I write about and photograph my daily experience. I also post about things I find interesting: art, design, photography, music, tech, etc...