So, it's been a little bit so I figure it's time for an update, and a rain-day washout morning is the best time for that sort of thing. We had a great swell this past weekend, with days upon days of ever-changing solid northeast windswell, ranging from chaotic to semi-clean, from shallow take-offs to steep drops. Wind never switched offshore, but that's OK. Surfed Wounded Gull, Sandal, and had inaugural WJ surf on Saturday, which was great to get back down there after a couple months hiatus and surf some nice long lines. Sunday's surf at Wounded Gull was punctuated parenthetically in the middle by the 32nd Annual Dog Day 5 Mile Road Race, in which I beat my past self by about 1 minute 15 seconds, for a total of 41:14 (which when you factor in the delay between when the siren sounded and when we actually crossed the starting line is more like 39:14 or so) which is better than I thought I'd do considering I haven't really been running. I have been surfing a lot more than last year, though, so I guess the lesson is: surfing is better training for running than running. Probably not, but a man can dream.
If you remember, back on Valentine's Day I posted about skinning Frank's Rastafish with plans to make something out of it for him. Well, with 005 finished for Mark, it was about time to start this one. The dimensions are 5'4" x 19 5/8" x 2 5/16 ", with a single wing and this little fang-fish-squash thing of a tail, which was entirely my design. No, it was Frank's, and that's the truth. That square hole is where the leash plug used to be. Still a bit to go shaping-wise, but it's coming along.
Check out that cover, first printing 1968. Been reading this book I picked up at the thrift store last week. Science Fiction by Gaslight: A History and Anthology of Science Fiction in the Popular Magazine from 1891-1911, edited by Sam Moskowitz. This collection has been really interesting so far, with the first 30 or so pages giving a really detailed history of the popular magazine in the United States and England, along with the prevalence of science fiction material therein. Really great stuff in here, divided into sections such as Catastrophes, Marvelous Inventions, Monsters and Horrors, Future Wars, Man-Eating Plants, and more. The titles of the stories are really great as well: "Where the Air Quivered," "The Voice in the Night," "The Ray of Displacement," "Itself," and "The Mansion of Forgetfulness," just to name a few. There's a couple well known names here, H.G.Wells and Jules Verne, but most of the stories are written by authors I've never heard of. One thing to think of when reading the works of forward-thinking imaginations of the past: Would they have been disappointed in the future? Maybe, because Robert Barr, in his story "The Doom of London," imagines that by the year 1950 electricity would have run its course and been replaced by "vibratory ether." It must have been a strange, strange world back then. I guess it still is.
A rare shot of Wounded Gull.
KAK was a psych group formed in a San Francisco in 1968 by Gary Lee Yoder, who would later be a member of Blue Cheer. A really wonderful album from '69 that has since been re-released with some great extra tracks. A blend of really good psych-jams veering towards the harder side, such as "Electric Sailor" and "Bryte 'N' Clear Day," and some mellower stuff that really balances the album, such as "I've Got Time" and my personal favorite off of the album, "Flowing By." The whole album is a solid piece of '60s psych rock that is definitely worth a listen.
While the band Blue Cheer may have gotten their name from a variety of LSD, I have just given the name to a condition previously known as Surfer's High. Yesterday I believe I experienced the previously-known-as-Surfer's High-but-now-called-Blue Cheer, which is something akin to the fabled Runner's High. When in this state, the athlete in question is consumed with a euphoria above and beyond that normally experienced when doing the sport in question. The athlete in this case being a surfer, and the sport, surfing. On all three boards I rode over four hours yesterday I had more than a blast. The waves were waist to chest, and the sandbar at WJ and off the rockpile has built up just right so these lefts just came in and peeled for hundreds (!) of yards, they looked like something you'd see photographs of California, something more like a point break. The elation I felt was far above that of a normal session, it was definitely my favorite surf of the winter, maybe of the summer, fall, and winter combined. It was the best and most consistent I have surfed in a long time, and that made me feel really, really good. Great. Blue Cheer.
Back to Blue Cheer. Possibly one of my current favorite bands from the late-60s. Definitely the best power trio from that time (sorry Cream), unless you count The Jimi Hendrix Experience, but I'm not, because then I think I'd have to say that Jimi was better, but then again, as I write this, and while it can't be denied Hendrix was a better guitar player, I don't know...
Blue Cheer's version of "Rock Me Baby," the second track on their 1968 debut Vincebus Eruptum. At 2:14, do they forget they're a band? The threads holding the musicians together seem to be stretched thin, almost snapped, as each seems to pay minimal attention to the other, the drummer Eric Albronda's primal skin-smashing, guitarist Leigh Stephens just wailing away, sometimes seemingly uncontrolled, and singer/bassist Dickie Peterson deciding to give his throat a rest and take it easy on the bass. Then, they snap back into synch, and continue to tear this blues-rock apart. But wait there's more...
"Doctor Please," the third track off of the same album. As I was writing that last paragraph I started thinking how good this song is too, so there it is. Also, their manager was an ex-Hell's Angel named Guts.
Back to surfboards, one of the boards I rode for a little bit yesterday was Frank's Chemistry "Boombastik" set up as a quad. I fell in love. I had ridden it once before but on less-than-great waves. This board just hooked into the pocket and hung in the barrel, and when I wanted it to go it went and how. It's shorter than a lot of boards at 5'7" but paddles really well with a little bit of a fuller template. I might shape the fish blank I have into something like it, maybe a different tail or try different bottom contours or something, or maybe just leave it. The funny thing is, minus a few inches, it's kind of the same idea I was going for with 002, but didn't get by a little (a lot). Alright, that's it, oh wait, no it's not...
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Rock Me Baby," Live at Monterey Pop, 1967.
Disclaimer: Whenever I state any musical opinions (and I don't mean opinions put to a tune) or any opinions at all for that matter, keep in mind these opinions are apt to change at any time, without notice.
This blog was started as a way to chronicle my adventures into surfboard shaping and just surfing in general. Since its inception, it has evolved into a log of whatever I feel like rambling about and sharing with the world, including, but not limited to: photographs, bicycles and bicycling, film, music, gardening, cute pictures of Henry, and more.
