Aye Yo Doood, it’s time for the fuckin NY Surf Film Festival again!
I still have not got my act together to make it out to this thing even though its always a smashing success and gets better each and every year. Â September is a pretty good month for swell too and I know that there are some good sessions that go down.
Don’t be like me. Â Get on a plane and get your ass out there. Â Say hi to Adam Cannizzaro from NewYorkSurf.com and Morgan Rae Berk, who with some other good people put this all together.
Get stoked here. Lots of good ones to check from Stoked and Broke to WestSiders to quite possibly the best east coast surf film ever made, Dark Fall.
My buddy was down south and shot me this picture from the Sacred Craft get together. Â Mmmm….yum! Â Those boards are delicious. Â Look at that red gun. Absolutely gorgeous! Â Next year I’m going.
So glad I didn’t head down to watch this morning in person. Â What a fiasco. Â Broken limbs and middle aged woman going underwater during the surges…crazy to see.
Huge surf and really impressive performance today. Â Should be interesting with the low tide….hollow and meaty!
Check out the link below if you’re not glued already.
Thomas Campbell’s new film ‘The Present’ is showing this evening at the Victoria Theatre at 2961 16th St. with special musical guest The Mattson 2 and tomorrow at the Rio in Santa Cruz.
So I was at Other Avenues a couple weeks back to pick up some Kale or something and glanced over to the bookshelf to see a book peering out at me. Â Surfing…Spirituality…Quest….sounds interesting. Â I read a lot on my way to and from work on the N Judah and was near completion of one of my more business focused reads…The Art of Woo. Â I like to rotate a book like that with something that nourishes the soul. Â I’ll go from something by Tom Robbins to Krishnamurti back to some book that’ll be skill development oriented. Â
Anyway, I walked out of the store with a shiny copy of Jaimal Yogis book Saltwater Buddha. Â I am about 3/4’s of the way through and plan on finishing it up on my ride home tonight on the train. Â There is a Book Benefit for Jaimal at the RipTide on Taraval tonight so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Â I just learned about the event last week in my ZunaSurf Newsletter….they are way more together and up on local happenings than I am. Â
My father is a bit of a metaphysician who has always gently introduced me to alternative more basic forms of being and awareness/realization. Â Much of it I couldn’t appreciate at a younger age, but regardless it was absorbed. Â I can relate to a lot of what Jaimal covers due to my upbringing with perhaps generational similarities in parental units, as well as of course being a surfer and individual who surfs. Â I think anyone reading the book will appreciate the reflections on Water and it’s ‘magical’ qualities as the universal solvent, holder of immense power ‘crushing rocks to sand’, but yet completely fluid nourisher.
There is a short film about the book below:
As I watched the short film I realized that we are,or at least, were neighbors. Â Who knew? Â I pass by that house every time I go running out to catch a session. Â
Life is an interesting journey and through this easy read I think it may help a lot of people to think about themselves, others, surfing and life differently. Â You may even have a renewed appreciation for the magic that we experience every time we paddle out.
So my buddy Brian who used to work for Surf Aid sent me this invite. Looks to be a great event for a great cause. Was reminded when my ZunaSurf newsletter came via email today.
Here is the scoop.
“Surf Addict” and its crew, named after SF based Clothing & Accesories Manufacturer, along with other local partners/sponsors, will be the presenting sponsor of a launch party to benefit several sea life protection and environmental non-profit organizations.
Tomorrow night Friday, November 21st, 2008, 6:00pm-12:00pm – Aquarium At The Bay. Paddle Out on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008, 8:30am – Crissy Field
Matt Proehl and Paul Ferraris Photography Show in San Francisco on Saturday, November 8, 2008
Local Photographers Matt Proehl and Paul Ferraris will be having a show in San Francisco at the John Colins Lounge on November 8th at 7:00 PM. Matt and Paul will be showing all new work. Matt will have a variety of large-scale tropical and surfing prints. Paul will be exhibiting his recent black-and-white work. There will be a full bar and DJ.
John Colins Lounge is located at 90 Natoma St, San Francisco, 94105. www.johncolins.com
Randy French goes big with the official opening of their Hawaiian Showroom this past Friday August 15th at their new location in downtown Honolulu. In celebration of the inaugural venture, Surftech held a Private VIP Party for its Hawaiian retail partners, local industry and friends and family made up of many of the local surfers and shapers. Kicking off with a  traditional Hawaiian ceremony including a blessing from Pohaku Stone, a kava ceremony and a contemporary champagne toast, the 250-330 attendees came from throughout the state. On Saturday, following Fridays’ party was the official public opening.  Held in conjunction with the annual Duke Festival the opening included celebratory TL2 surfboards painted by local keikis as well as Hawaiian artists. The finished boards will be displayed at the local Outrigger hotels and Boardriders clubs.
“For us, this is much more than a showroom or retail location. We can now provide unprecedented dealer support, educating both the public, and our retailers on the quality and breadth of our product offering.†Comments national Sales manager Ty Zulim, “Additionally we can showcase all of our brands and products, many of which would otherwise not be represented in Hawaii.†The new showroom offers an incredible view into how wide Surftech’s range of boards has grown in recent years. In addition to expanding their performance line of shortboards and longboards, Surftech now offers top of the line paddleboards, SUP’s, skims, accessories and softgoods.  Currently showing a combination of both the newest and most sought after designs, the showrooms layout is designed to allow for constantly revolving the products shown to keep the location fresh and give visibility to all of the boards and accessory’s Surftech builds. “Hawaii has always been the ultimate proving ground for our boards. It is great to have a new home to showcase everyone’s newest designs†explains Randy French, Surftech Founder and CEO. In addition to getting to see the newest boards, the showroom offers videos, brochures, interactive board searching solutions as well as an educated staff that can answer any Surftech related questions. Open 7 days a week, the central location at 945 Queen St in Honolulu offers prime access to both locals and visitors alike.
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First time I heard that the place we live, Outer Sunset and Richmond, used to be called the Outside Lands was from a friend of mine nearly a year ago. He was intrigued by the history of the community, as was I. Much of what is known as the Outer Lands was a big beach long ago. Dunes stretched as far back as 10th Ave and perhaps beyond in those early days. I live on 48th ave and have a sandbox as a backyard, but I guess everybody did before the Golden Gate Park was laid out and split the dunes and people began to settle around it.
Outside Lands has a certain power and mystique and this will weekend will be a real tribute to it and all its magic with the Outside Lands Music and Art Festival touching down in Golden Gate park for the weekend. Bands from Steel Pulse, Manu Chao, Jack Johnson, Toots and the Maytals, Primus, Tom Petty, Ben Harper and many many more will be bringing their talents to our neighborhood in one of the largest festivals to take place in SF.
The list of talented non-musical artists is quite impressive as well, from guys like Thomas Campbell, Jeff Canham, Rich Jacobs and more who will each be designing one of the many stages at the show. You guys all know Thomas Campbell, the filmmaker, skater, surfer extraordinaire, and Jeff Canham the sign painter who designed the Mollusk Surf Shop signs. It should be quite a visual and auditory experience in more ways than one.
Bluebird Surf 