We got up early to catch morning light and glass from an elevated perspective provided by the St. Augustine Pier. Chris tested out his new log from Scott Anderson, Nick’s board ran into a piling, Jacob surfed in his skivvies, fun was had by all.
Tag Archives: surfing
Latest videographs
The Hands Across the Sand event was started to gather support against offshore drilling. Given the climate after the oil spill, participation grew a great deal from the first event in February (check out Lauren’s video from then).
Also, this is an absurd celebration of Independence Day, explosions and the insanity of the beach on that weekend.
Finally, my friends found tar balls on our beach the other day. Pretty sad…Lauren has been doing some good documentation of it over at merseabeaucoup. Her video:
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged comedy of the absurd, Lauren Hill, mer sea beaucoup, ocean, pollution, video Leave a comment
Down with OCP
Chris Tincher puts together a most excellent surfing and skating oriented website/blog. Oldest City Productions has photos and videos from various contributors centered around St. Augustine (The oldest continuously inhabited european settlement…aka the oldest city). My favorite part though, is Chris’s writing. He’s super opinionated and endlessly entertaining.
The other week I filmed with him and a few other crew. I can’t even approach his wordsmithing so I’ll just quote:
Fiberglass Runways Host a Mustache Fashion Show
A few of the Oldest City’s die hard toe curling fanatics have gotten their mitts on some custom aquatic sidewalks handcrafted by the Dirtona Dwellers of The Peninsula Holding Company. Last Saturday offered up some sectiony little salt water speed bumps so we here at the production company took to the atlantic (before BP ruins it for everyone) and slid our brains out. Great boards are even radder when they are made by good friends, and fitted with one of a kind fins crafted from broken skate decks. Personally, for me, the Peninsula Holding Company lamp tail slider is the go to noseriding vessel for summer time log jams. During this little gem Surf Station’s Rachel Bardin captured some sliding by Matt Fotte on his Chad Doyle shaped “Mustache Rider”.
In another sector of the surfing spectrum, here’s some rip shredding and wipe outs filmed few weeks ago.
Surfing, work and cognitive dissonance
I work on a lot of videos and rarely post them here. These are a few videos I’ve done for Surf Station since my return. They are culturally significant, intellectually stimulating and deeply important. By that I mean they depict humans riding ripples in the sea on strange objects like over-sized sandals and longboards.
On a lighter note, check out this visual guide to cognitive biases.
Also, try a search for “oil spill” in google. Consider that the top result is an ad from BP. Straight from the horse’s mouth. 
The surfing tree
One of my favorite places, one of my favorite days…
And the girl loved the tree...very much
And the tree was happy.
The stylings of
What is going on in my section of life.
Australia, in February. All the way until April. To live, to surf, to make little videos.
Playing the ukulele. and the guitar. I’m not good at either but that isn’t the point. The simple act of being able to create sounds may be the closest I ever get to meditation. It is wonderful.
The Cove. I watched it twice in two days because it blew my mind. Odds are, if I’ve seen you this week, I’ve talked your ear off about it. Watch it as soon as possible.
Cole and I picked oranges in Palatka, which were then juiced for Lisa's going away breakfast
Another big inspiration right now: My friend Lisa is going to grad school in South Africa. St. Augustine won’t be quite the same without her. There was a big going away weekend for her.
I spent a whole day last week picking and delivering oranges. We took a break to visit the Ravine Gardens which are gorgeous.
I went home and saw my mom and Jessie. I walked around Leon Sinks and got to know a new member of the family.
I finally got to surf for the first time this year. This picture isn't from then but in case you were wondering, the water is freezing cold.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged australia, leon sinks, oranges, the cove, ukulele Leave a comment
(Equip)Mentally Challenged.
Some time ago, I heard an interview with Quentin Tarantino where he urged aspiring filmmakers to use whatever means necessary to tell their story. Something I’ve been super stoked on lately is the fact that we’ve been doing these videos every day with incredibly limited resources. For a long time I thought I wouldn’t ever do much in film or video due to a lack of access to high quality professional equipment. While I absolutely adore the velvet richness of film or even the ever increasing quality of HD, I’m happy to be over that mental block. It is interesting to be in this digital era.
We’ve been using dinky little consumer cameras for the 31 Days / 31 Ways project and putting them up on YouTube with fairly good results considering. The audio leaves a lot to be desired and the tiniest water droplets can completely mask the action in a shot. Yet, not once have we been deterred from doing this project.
These videos were originally destined for the internet, which is an inherently lo-fi medium at this point. Somehow, through compression and pixels, viewers can still get an impression of the beauty of these experiences… even if they are being playing from a box that is only 433 pixels wide.
I also adore the accessibility of this channel. We, mere mortals, are empowered with the ability to get these stories out there. And for viewers, there’s no movie store or ticket booth line. They can watch our creations on their phones, at home in their underwear, or even while they are pretending to be working. Of course,with great accessibility comes clutter. But I feel we’ve managed to reach quite a few people in our communities and even beyond our intended audience. Part of the charm to me is the connection from human to human rather than media conglomerate to consumer.
So, thanks to the amazing people we’ve surfed with and interviewed. Thanks to everyone who watches or tells their friends to watch. And thanks to Lauren who gets me out surfing every day no matter what and gets me creating every day no matter what.
Track our progress at merseabeaucoup.blogspot.com
Custodians of the Sea
Today I tried stand up paddle boarding with Lauren for day two of 31 Days/31 Ways. It has gained a lot of popularity recently but is not the most respected activity in the surfing spectrum. It’s easy to make fun of things like this until you’ve tried it and made a complete fool of yourself. Suffice it to say that standing up on a relatively unstable surface having your hands occupied with a paddle is challenge enough. Add to that maintaining balance while catching a wave and you’ve got a pretty humbling but hilarious experience. We spent rest of the day making this loverly video for your viewing pleasure.
See more at Mer Sea Beaucoup
October Adventure
31 Days of Surfing at Mer Sea Beaucoup
My friend Lauren Hill at Mer Sea Beaucoup is going to surf every day in October with various friends and equipment. She’s been spreading joy and surf stoke all around since I’ve known her and this endeavor just continues with the trend . I’m going to be helping her document this extravaganza. Good luck Lauren!
Engulfed
Technological determinism — technology defines the culture. The car, the surfboard, the road adventure exhaling toxins all along our merry way.
A lifetime had passed since I’d last been to the places where I first began surfing. St. George Island. Cape San Blas. They get waves? I kind of remember…just barely. I moved to St. Augustine 6 years ago for school and a slightly more active side of the sea (many consider the East Coast pretty flat mostly but with respect to the Gulf of Mexico, it’s magic).
I would make trips occasionally to my hometown but the extra 2 hours to the beach just didn’t seem worth it when I knew the Atlantic would likely have much better offerings when I returned . Something about having the option to surf in the Gulf possibly taken away snapped me out of that apathy.
The Deepwater Horizon Oil disaster began while I was still in Australia. BP tapped on the Gulf of Texaco’s gag reflex and she spewed her contents for most of the summer. I don’t think anyone could have imagined it going on for as long as it did. When my mom asked me if I’d like to go to the beach and possibly surf, I was pretty skeptical. Was I going to get this crazy dispersant all over me and get sick? Were the beaches even going to be open? I couldn’t find any solid information on the spots we usually went to. There didn’t seem to be any reports of oil having gotten that far. So, we loaded up some surfboards, Harpo the dog, food and water and set off to find out.
Carrabelle beach. We stopped here for a lunch break. This beach is sheltered by barrier islands so it's typically very calm. As a kid, pre-surfing, we came here a lot. On the drive there are some passes where, if there is a little wave, it will come through and give a clue as to what to expect on the islands or the cape. Also, this was Harpo the Dog's first experience with the beach.
The drive is as much a part the adventure as is the time at the beach. Sopchoppy, Panacea, Lanark, names that probably mean nothing to those who haven’t taken this ride before. For me, the little town signs and landmarks are seared into memory, mantra like, repeated in order and then reversed. Sheltered flats and barrier islands are visible for much of the stretch of 98, Carrabelle, pine trees, Tate’s Hell, old dock posts and pelicans, Eastpoint…turn left to St. George Island or keep on going through…Appalachicola and on to Port St. Joe/Cape San Blas.
I have vivid memories of aggressive sea gulls on St. George Island coming after any signs of food because so many people would feed them. These Carrabelle gulls were pretty patient and passive...just. waiting.
As we approached San Blas, I caught sight of some orange boom through the trees. My heart sank. I never saw more anywhere else but I still don’t know why it was there.
And then it was onward to Cape San Blas/Port St. Joe, one of the Gulf coast spots I grew up surfing.
The water seemed clear when we arrived. There were no warning signs, no lines in the sand or workers in white suits, no strange sheen on the water or tar balls on the sand…just a few people on the shore and playing in the water and some teeniny waves.
For novelty and nostalgia and a love of lefts, I couldn't resist these miniature miracles. The bathtub similarities don't end with the stillness. Jumping into the water here is not a refreshing, cooling, plunge on a hot summer's day. It's just diving into a different state of matter. It's exactly like the air, but liquid. Suddenly, you are wet and weightless but still sweaty and suffocating.
I'd somehow never ridden a proper longboard at my home breaks. No wonder I probably only surfed a handful of times between the ages of 13 and 18. It takes an act of god to get these places over shin high. This was my first time logging in the Gulf. Yew!
There was a this kid on a boogie board that started trying to stand up on it when he saw me getting waves. I grabbed the fantastic plastic fish and asked his parents if it would be ok if I pushed him into a few. They were from Alabama and the boy's name was Hayden. He was five years old and stood up on his 2nd wave. After a while I let his dad take over and they played with the board until it was time to go. Hayden never said a word to me until he was leaving (in an adorably southern accent), "Thank you."
Happy. Portrait by Mom. Borrowed surfboard (thanks Liz...) by Richard Prause / Grasshopper Surfboards
Happy. Portrait by me.
When it was time for us to leave, I noticed some funny little black particles washing up. They didn’t look or smell too oil-like to me, but I still took a sample anyway and sent them off to some friends. It’s good to be sure. If the beaches are clear, people should know so they can enjoy them. And if not, they need to know which ones to avoid. Thanks to Russ the Florida DEP who passed the sample along, and sent me this great map that shows detailed areas of interest relating to the oil disaster in the Gulf. http://map.floridadisaster.org/GATOR/index.html So far, it looks like areas east of Panama City have remained clear. This coupled with the news that the well has been capped and reports that the oil is already showing signs of clearing are giving hope. While the oil may not be running up the Eastern Seaboard as was predicted in the worst case scenario tales, we cannot allow ourselves to forget the ongoing devastation that has occurred in areas not so fortunate.
C.E.O. Shrimp at Social Security Prices Oil Free