cloud walking: a surfing journal

[walkingtheclouds]

You can't force a good line. You can't rush one either.

[nicholasroerich]

Himalayas. Morning., 1941, Nicholas Roerich

[nicholasroerich]

Sorcerers, 1905, Nicholas Roerich

Medium: gouache,pastel,cardboard

[walkingtheclouds]

September 8

The homebirth of Tropical Storm Mindy - steep and ledged as usual, chest to head. Homecooked fish, nightmare keels, and of course the Yuccas - mostly kneeling in them but I worked out how to ride standing with them on the fish too. Fun, lots of time tucked up high in the pocket. Learning lots.

[walkingtheclouds]

September 1

The remnants of Ida - a strong southwestern flow bringing in muddy waters, old tires, and a long interval swell breaking on a shallow shelf of a sandbar. Shallow and heavy enough that eventually all the stand-up surfers lost the nerve and left. Bodyboard was the way to go and those of us that brought them shared a few thrilling high speed runs through overhead cover-ups and into dredging closeouts. Unlike Sally, we didn't seem to lose too much sand. Some of outside bars are still left although it'll take even more time for them to fully recover. A fun day in the murky waters.

[walkingtheclouds]

August 28

Hurricane Ida - really the strong easterly flow associated with the storm. Big, choppy, multi-stepped peaks on the outside and cleaner but closed-out slabs on the inside. Grabbed a few outsiders on the self-shaped kneeboard with my limited time, but my insider on the way out was a gem - reform entry into an overhead pitching run, couple of carves deep in the pocket and a quick jump out of the closeout along with all the spray.

[walkingtheclouds]

Barrel warriors and contest types are dime-a-dozen, even on the Gulf Coast - what really elevates a surfer to world class status is style. Real Style. This young Navarre Beach lifeguard is already one of the most notable watermen to ever come from the Panhandle - encyclopedic ocean knowledge, highly tuned wave reading ability, a powerful yet sensitive approach to piloting his craft, and an ever-evolving creativity and innovation in all that he does in the water is proof that he'd grace any lineup anywhere. Or, just see above.

[walkingtheclouds]

Riding through a reform section on the Bull, Hurricane Grace

[walkingtheclouds]

August 20

Hurricane Grace - long period (15 seconds!) Yucatan gap swell arrived this morning with powerful sets at about 8', bombs at 10'+. No winds for the morning, clean and well organized. High tide and a full moon kept the water deep enough for most bars to avoid closeout setups. In fact, Phantoms was a little too deep through the midbreak so I paddled on over to the end of the pier and sat all the way outside with the old timers on the biggest boards waiting for the biggest waves. I brought the Bull and a pair of Yuccas, using a mix of prone, drop knee, and stand-up on both the slabs and the long runners that came through. At these heights of speed some reservation is needed for both the drop and the run through the initial wall, especially on a high (ideal) aspect ratio craft like the Bull - the forces applied by such extreme acceleration will turn against you at the slightest over-pressure on a rail and you'll perform a great speedboat crash impression for anyone who happens to be looking. After the g forces lessen up further down the line one could break out of the straight line survival track and the carving could begin - an overhead canvas would usually run from the outside to however far inside you were willing to take it. A great day.

[walkingtheclouds]

August 16

Tropical Storm Fred - offshorish winds, some texture, good strength and size, but the storm was coming ashore too close for above-average form. Without hundreds (preferably thousands) of miles of travel grooming and harmonizing the wave's energy into clean perfection, waves arrive in rough condition, layered on top of one another at the edges, shelves and bumps of backwash and longshore current and wind running up the face in places. Although most spots were not well organized, Phantoms held a good wall at double overhead and the swell was strong enough to catapult you far forwards when you caught the wave. Airdrops under the lip were common - a kneeboard specialty. Like taking off in an airplane when the wave connected solidly - the launch was as fun as the rest of the wave.

[cma-japanese-art]

Water Container (Mizusashi) with Grasses, late 1500s–early 1600s, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Mizusashi are jars used to hold water for the preparation of tea at tea gatherings. This one was produced in the Mino area of present-day Gifu prefecture in central Japan, and is considered one of the finest of its type in existence, based on the complex aesthetic sensibilities developed around the tea ceremony in Japan. It is called a “picture Shino” (e-shino) mizusashi, as it has an abstracted design said to resemble an ink painting of reeds along a river bank and small boats in a river on one side, and a geometric pattern on the other. With its irregular shape and thick, luminous glaze, it is of a variety favored by eminent tea masters of the Momoyama period. Size: Diameter: 19.6 cm (7 11/16 in.); Lid: 2.9 x 14.7 cm (1 1/8 x 5 13/16 in.); Container: 18.4 cm (7 ¼ in.) Medium: Stoneware with underglaze iron oxide slip decoration (Mino ware, Shino type)

https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.9

[walkingtheclouds]

Paipo Wisdom

You don't need much to go faster than everyone else. You need to have a lot less, actually.

[walkingtheclouds]

July 7th

Hurricane Elsa. Also the 50th Birthday of the Boogie - thanks Tom, I'm in your debt. Some real power in these waves. Easy clean entry to lure the unwary - actually a trap door into solid overhead ledges, left or right. A good nine feet of vert sometimes. Experience showed today and those who had it used it - those who didn't either paid a few dues or didn't catch too much to speak of. Short and sweet for the right on my peak way outside (almost to the end of the pier), and long, long raceway lefts all the way from 100 feet off the pier to Coppertop almost a quarter mile away. Big smooth peaks that got square quick before shooting you off to another high speed alpine slope, again and again. New velocity. Long paddle back, though. . .

[walkingtheclouds]

Greenough on Relativity

"George was not surprised when the camera showed how much time slows down inside: “With Innermost Limits, I’d look at the film counter after a tube ride and say, ‘Shit, that tube seemed a lot longer than that,’ and that was with a camera running three times faster than normal. It’s true that in surfing the faster you go the more everything slows down. With ‘Echoes’ I used cameras that shot up to 300 frames per second so audiences could begin to see the wave as I saw it. Even so there were surfers who thought the tubes in Innermost were shot at normal speed even though the footage was seven or eight times slower.”

According to the Theory of Relativity, the faster you move through space the slower you move through time. Perhaps this is why rides on fast waves seem much slower in the surfer's experience rather than at the speed they appear to be from a spectator's view.

[walkingtheclouds]

Greenough on Speed vs. Contest Criteria

"I was reaching for the feeling of speed, especially the high speed turn. I really get a rush off that. There’s nothing I like better than just flattening it, just putting your foot to the floor and leaving it there. Sometimes I don’t cut back until I’m fifty feet ahead of the curl. I may penetrate fifteen feet behind the white water, then I’ll come off a really hard, carving bottom turn. Friends of mine who are contest surfers will say, ‘God, that was a forty-foot-diameter cutback at a really high rate of speed. How would that do in a contest?’ And I’d answer, ‘Probably shitty.’ Because you could do maybe three shorter turns in the same time, which is what he judges look for. Then, too, to make that turn you’d have to double your speed.”

[walkingtheclouds]

Ode to a Few Masters

From Espere I learned Grace. From Cabell I learned Line. From Hynson I learned Poise. From Abillera I learned Stance. From Chapman I learned Intensity. From Nuuhiwa I learned Ease. From Bertlemann I learned Possibility. From Lis I learned Principle. From Greenough I learned Ingenuity. From Lindholm I learned Valor. From Spreckels I learned Metamorphosis. From Dora I learned Truth.

[walkingtheclouds]

June 18

Tropical storm-to-be Claudette. The outside bar bombie served as a runway into the long open midbreak, then ran at speed all the way into the Inside - as you would hope for with a tropical force low. Never really maxed out the spot either, but became blown out by lunch. Got mine on the prototype, taking off drop knee into the outside slab, running at light speed through the middle, then kicking out in the shorebreak. Dropping in on that board was described as riding a bull, and it felt like it too. Big, bumpy, overhead, fast, vertical face on takeoff. Just like a rollercoaster - no other form of wave riding comes close. I'll call the prototype 'the bull' from now on. New levels of speed unlocked today on the raceway. It was good to be back.