It’s kind of a pain to pull out my inadequate printer/scanner, and I had hoped to scan a few more illustrations. The scanner seems to have pooped out before I could. I will get back to it.
Happy almost-winter from the land of almost-waves. Yeah, the color doesn’t translate perfectly, but, again, the coloring was done under a time restraint. Next time, more.
This is my latest attempt at the negative-to-positive technique:
I’m pretty satisfied with the illustration, at least partially because it pretty much turned out as I imagined it would, hopefully, pretty; and I don’t feel the need to go back on this drawing and make changes.
Not yet, anyway. I am considering going back to the original and adding something referencing my novel, “Swamis,” Ginny Cole being a main character in the in-progress (still) manuscript.
AND, this image may end up on an ORIGINAL ERWIN t-shirt. If not, or if so, I’ll get a signed, framed, limited edition (limited, as always, by me) copy over to Tyler Meeks’ DISCO BAY OUTDOOR EXCHANGE soon, like, maybe today.
MEANWHILE, look for, wait for, or enjoy surf when you can, make sure you’re ready to vote in November, and STAY SAFE.
THE DISCUSSION went back and forth for a while. Probably too long. Stephen Davis had seen a YouTube video in which Wardo, Somebody-or-other Ward (I will remember, just not this minute) boosted a big air, landed it, and was then burned by someone (Steve made it sound like it might have been a woman) blindly taking off in front of him; and so, of course, Wardo flipped the clueless kook off.
HEY, if you go by a nickname, people are supposed to know your name. Miki? Dewey? Alex? Kelly? Anyway, Steve read through the many comments on the incident. Some folks defended Wardo, others thought, maybe, he could have been a bit nicer about the whole thing.
STEVE’S comment, to me, was, “DO YOU REALLY THINK Wardo got world class good without ever burning someone?” He answered himself with, “OF COURSE NOT.”
And I agreed. This took up most of the first hour of the back and forth. Maybe if I had a radio in my car that worked; maybe if it wasn’t so far to the coast. Maybe…
SIDETRACK- I would be severely criticized if I publish anything (else) even mentioning surfing (or the existence of waves) on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I have been criticized for not writing more often about surfing and the many joys associated with surfing. I check the buoys and forecasts the way football commentators study even seemingly-obscure stats, and I have finally allowed the truth to work its way to this: The ocean doesn’t give a shit about sending waves forty, fifty miles and more so surfers can ride them. There are, however, waves pretty much every day on the coast. CONCLUSION- If it’s about the same time investment for you, coast or Strait… nevermind that; how about this: Waves are a gift.
CHRIS WARD. I looked it up.
THERE WERE SEVERAL OVERRIDING ISSUES in Steve’s longform rant (if you will- he thinks it qualified):
ONE- When waves to sneak down the throat of the Strait, it gets rather competitive. RATHER. The surf spots are, of course, fickle, and either difficult to access (cliffs, fences, cops being called), or instantly crowded with even the rumor of breaking waves.
TWO- The points or reefs can feature a very pleasant surfing experience for three or four, but, adding in that most of the consistent (or diehard, if you prefer) locals (or semi-locals) know or sort-of know each other (and are very competitive), when it gets crowded, feelings can get hurt (and can stay hurt a while). RESULT- A less pleasant surfing experience, people who could be your friends holding grudges, you holding grudges against people who could be your friends.
Steve and I agree on this; though I probably enjoy (tolerate, I’d call it) the jockeying in the lineup, the back-and-forth, a bit more than he does. “If someone wants to really be good,” Steve said, somewhere on the drive back, “You have to be somewhere where there are always waves, where you can surf every day.” Well, um, yeah; but there’s no way I’m going back to California.
WAVE COUNT. That’s how you get to be good, like Wardo, his joy at landing his 999th air interrupted by some kook. MEANWHILE, the kook, perhaps, unaware, blissfully unaware even, may have had the best wave of his (or her) life.
CONCLUSION- No conclusion.
ORIGINAL ERWIN AND DISCO BAY T-SHIRTS- There are some available (in a range of sizes, Disco logo on the front, one of the other two illustrations on the back) at the Disco Bay Outdoor Exchange. Tyler Meeks has been at this a while now, and, when I delivered my latest batch of shirts, he said he could only get $15 each ($20 for long sleeves) without tags. TAGS? WHAT? One, I’m not really sure what my cost per shirt is- I’ll find out today when I pick up more; and, two- I will make some tags if it means I might actually make a dollar or two on the whole thing. WOW, it’s so hard becoming a t-shirt mogul.
“It’s just that, if someone is buying a shirt for a grandkid or something; they want to see… tags.” “Oh, okay.”
SO, if you get in there, like, tomorrow (Thursday)… before the tags are organized… and remember, these are, by design, limited editions.
LIKE waves, they make great gifts.
Greetings from Doctor Pervertius Speculus and his dear woman… well, actually I forgot Oceanna’s stage name, and I’m not actually sure of Stephen’s stage name. Oh, and I’m also not sure if Oceanna is spelled with one n or two.
However, I do have a photograph of the couple from last weekend.
Ev
According to Steve, a woman came up to him at one of the (at least) two events the couple participated in, first saying his teeth were disgusting (rude), and then asking him what he was supposed to be. Rather than giving a sarcastic answer such as, “I was supposed to be a rude and judgmental elitist snob,” Stephen claims he said, “I’m a per-vert!”
I’m a little disappointed that you can’t get the full effect of this with my mere extending of the word. Steve would have, no doubt, delivered it with a bit of salacious eye-rolling, perhaps an in-character ogling of the woman who made the comment.
Hey, I wasn’t there.
ANYWAY, Stephen and Ocean(n)a are now partners and owners of THE CELLAR DOOR, an already-established nightspot in (under, actually) Port Townsend. Steve, with years of experience as a restaurant owner and chef, has been sorting through ideas for the menu. Oceanna has experience in the bar/restaurant trade (evidently selling liquor is kind of important, revenue-wise), and has many contacts among local entertainers.
THE CELLAR DOOR has been a top venue for live performances in the city for quite some time, and will be reopened as soon as all the liquor license paperwork gets done. Again, important).
The effect on Steve’s surfing might not be too detrimental. Most of the surfing in these parts is done in daylight. WE’LL SEE. I’ll keep you posted.
MEANWHILE, I did have a bit of an issue with my latest ORIGINAL ERWIN T-SHIRTS. I had twenty shirts, various sizes, ready for screening. After screening the graphics on the back, it was discovered, while doing the logo on the front, that the image was, OOPS, upside down. ERRRRRRR!
SO, I’m holding on to a couple, handed out some more, and took the four rightside-up shirts to TYLER MEEKS’ DISCO BAY OUTDOOR EXCHANGE. I (we) have a bunch of shirts at the screen shop, and, hopefully, today or tomorrow, I can pick them up, ready for sale for the weekend.
I will get some more of this batch of ORIGINAL ERWIN shirts, and, since they are, by design, all limited editions… I don’t know; I’m hoping that means something.
The DISCO BAY shirts will have the shop logo I designed on the front, with one of two images on the back. There are a range of sizes and colors.
If I get the shirts I will immediately post this on this site, right on top of Steve and Ocean(n)a. No offense.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
I wrote the following piece for the Quilcene Community Center Newsletter, e-mailed (not by me) to selected people; so, to increase any possible audience, I’m publishing it here. Thanks for reading.
BUT FIRST: OOPS! My silkscreeners had a bit of a problem with my latest Original Erwin t-shirts. It seems 16 of the twenty shirts were printed with the logo on the front upside down. SO, there are four available at Tyler Meeks’ Disco Bay Outdoor Exchange, and, I’m figuring the rest will be more valuable… eventually.
Next week there will be quite a few Disco Bay t-shirts ready, logo (hopefully right side up) on the front, two different versions on the back.
I’ll let you know when they’re available. Pretty excited.
What Could (Possibly) Go Wrong?
It was dark; so dark, and stormy; and my car was parked just off the fog line, on the shoulder of highway 101. The hood was up and there was a fire in the engine compartment.
Fire!
Yeah, fire; and I had no extinguisher, no water; and, again, my car was on fire!
Okay. “Sure,” you say, “How did… I mean, fire… how could this happen?”
STUPIDITY.
WELL. My 1985 Toyota Camry wagon, my surf rig, did have a bit of an oil leak. Slight, and somewhat mitigated/slowed, if not stopped by the addition of some sort of treatment. BUT I had made a couple of surf trips (140 miles, round trip, to my favorite spot), and wasn’t at all sure when I’d last checked the oil level.
Not at all sure. This is the thing. It wasn’t just the oil. I had purchased two items at Tootsies Drive Through in Sequim; a swiss cheese mushroom burger (on sour dough- this will come up later) for me; and a Wild West burger, with a sweet barbecue sauce and lots of onions (on a regular-type bun), for Trish. Her burger comes with onion rings (weird), but Trish prefers those on the side (and Tootsies agreed), and no mayonnaise (“No problem,” the Tootsies ‘order here’ voice said).
One sandwich/burger was to bring home, one was for me; and I was hungry. I had already made the rounds in Sequim: Home Depot for, among other things, various dimensions of eight foot lumber, pushed over the passenger seat, and onto the dashboard, Costco for multiple packs and/or mega-sized this and that, Office Depot for artsy stuff, Michaels for some t-shirts for my Original Erwin line of, obviously, Original Erwin t-shirts, WalMart for cheaper prices (not arguing cheaper than where) on some grocery items.
Tootsies was my last stop.
I must back-track here. Tootsies is kind of the expensive version of Frugal Burger, a drive-through in Port Angeles. Both offer various burgers including one with mushrooms, my favorite (not, along with avocado, Trisha’s). So, a while back, up in PA, Trish was driving and I was hungry. She ordered her condiment-specific burger, and I got the mushroom burger. When we got home, it was discovered that I had, possibly due to some inherited lack of tastebuds and discretion, eaten her burger. She was pretty upset; and, understandably, refused to eat the mushroom burger. So, of course, I did.
This act was, Trish maintains, another one of my ‘GREEDY FAT BOY TRICKS,’ learned, practiced and perfected (possibly) because I was the second oldest of seven children, and, from an early age, made brown bag lunches for my parents and siblings. Four cookies each… chomp, chomp… three cookies each… you get the idea. Greedy fat boy tricks.
So, the FRUGAL INCIDENT was kind of on my mind when, not quite out of Sequim, I chomped into one of the two plain-paper-wrapped Tootsies burgers. I actually called Trish. Again, it was dark, the weak little overhead light in the Toyota not nearly enough to discern between a sourdough bun (mushroom burger) and a regular one (Trisha’s). “Does it taste sweet?” “Um, uh… sweet?”
I STOPPED EATING.
BUT, on the Quilcene side of the short passing zone, a couple miles south of the 7 Cedars Casino, I thought I heard something over the noisy muffler, something different than the noisy fan motor. Maybe it was rods knocking. Maybe. I could just pull over, add a little oil.
No problem; right?
Well, I turned the engine off, left the lights on, popped the hood release, grabbed a quart of oil from the back of the wagon, raised the hood, and used my cell phone to help find the place where one puts the oil (let’s call it the oil receptacle).
EVIDENTLY, while leaning over to remove the oil receptacle cap, the bottom of the quart container melted on something hot (radiator? Manifold?), and, unaware of this, I moved the leaking quart toward the back of the engine, and enough spilled onto the still-hot manifold to, um, uh, ignite.
FIRE! WHOA!
NOW, by way of further over-explanation, I have had two other engine fires in my long career as a car killer; didn’t drive away from either of them. So, “NOOOO!”
I sprang into action. I knew I had a towel in the backseat, but, in the dark, in my haste, I mistakenly grabbed my sixty-dollar Hobie’s Surf Shop hooded sweatshirt, and stuffed it into the sort of valley, engine-wise (if you need an image, imagine the bottom of a hibachi), not quite fully smothering the fire.
“LIQUID!” What? I grabbed the Costco three pack of one percent milk (half gallon each), ripped open the box, pulled the little plastic stopper out of the spout on the middle one, and poured about a third of it onto the sweatshirt and fire.
SIZZLE. STEAM. White steam. Yeah, but the fire was extinguished.
NOW WHAT? Things had to cool down. Would the car start? Light; I needed light. Oh, I had no flashlight in this vehicle, but, wait; yeah; I had just purchased a three pack of flashlights at Costco. They were, of course, packaged in that sort of plastic and cardboard encasement that guarantees no one without scissors, pliers, and a hammer can open it.
Unless one is desperate, in the dark, cars and trucks whizzing by. I ripped open the package, several AAA batteries (handily included) falling out to the pavement. To make it work, two batteries would have to go one way, two the other. 50 percent chance, and my cell phone’s battery was (all the using it as a light) down to 42 percent.
YES, the flashlight worked. Now I could, at least, survey the damage. The engine’s still sizzling; too hot to check the oil level.
So, I waited. I’m not good at waiting. Probably six minutes after the fire went out, I dropped the hood, said a little prayer (with appropriate hand gestures), and turned the key.
Bbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrroooooo-ooowm. Ignition. YES!
The car and I made it home. I guess Trish was happy about that. I had, however, again, eaten half (I thought it was more like a third) of Trisha’s burger. She, not surprisingly, refused to eat the remaining portion; repeatedly pointing out the obvious difference between a hamburger bun and whatever one calls a round piece of sourdough bread, cut in the middle to accommodate things like meat, cheese, my ‘beloved’ (her word, but accurate) mushrooms.
Oh. Uh huh. So, greedy fat boy trick, I got both.
I checked the oil the morning after the STUPID CAR FIRE INCIDENT. Not actually low. Hmm. OH, YEAH. Evidently what I misheard as engine knocking was from the vibration of the various-sized pieces of wood. OH, and I do now have a flashlight AND a fire extinguisher, and, oh, my Hobie’s Surf Shop hoodie might not be, um, toast… does smell a little… milky. I’m optimistic.
This is partially for Tyler Meeks, owner/operator of DISCO BAY OUTDOOR EXCHANGE. We’re teaming up on some t-shirts; and have been working on the logo design for a while. We have some accumulated shirts, mostly dark, in a variety of colors and sizes, plus black.
I have some dark and black shirts ready for my next LIMITED EDITION of custom ORIGINAL ERWIN shirts, and a new design (again, based on one of my favorite illustrations), but wanted to rework my logo.
SO, here’s the Disco Bay Logo (and I’ll probably redo the lettering) necessary for printing white on darker shirts: And here’s my current logo and my next graphic, logo on the front, image on the back:
It is a bit of a brain tease, but you/we/I have to imagine everything that is black on the illustration being white on the t-shirt. Hoping to go to the screenprinters tomorrow. Shirts available soon. Gotta go.
AFTER a lot of discussion, TYLER MEEKS, owner of the DISCO BAY OUTDOOR EXCHANGE, and I are finally almost ready to combo up on some new t shirts. ALMOST.
TYLER’S SHOP is conveniently located on Surf Route 101 in Discovery Bay. Selling new and consignment and used equipment and gear (assuming these might be different things) for hikers and bikers and kayakers and climbers-and-droppers, surfers (includes novices, kooks, aficionados/enthusiasts, dominators, rippers, Hobuckers, Hodads, surf power couples, real-and/or in-denial Hipsters, possibly a few posers) make up about 20-25% of Disco Bay’s customer base, and, accordingly, Tyler and I are working on some shirts that might appeal to a wider cast of characters.
DISCOVERY BAY is really close to the crossroad with Highway 20 (leading to and from Port Townsend, and, with ferry service, Whidbey Island and environs north and east), and Highway 104 (to and from the Hood Canal Bridge, and through ferries and bridges, Seattle/Tacoma/Fremont/Fife/Chicago).
SURF ROUTE 101, I should add, connects the NORTH OLYMPIC PENINSULA with areas to the south. It’s not uncommon to see surfers from, say, WESTPORT or SEASIDE or, I’ve heard, California, heading north hoping for a swell direction they think might be favorable to waves on the STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA. As such, they are, no doubt, passing surfers from here headed south.
ANYWAY, we’re actually planning on getting some shirts to the silkscreeners with the Disco Bay logo on the front, medium-sized (if that makes some sense), and some others with the logo smaller, to one side (over the heart is the norm), and an ORIGINAL ERWIN illustration on the back.
The image on the right was used for a limited run (and they are all, and will be, limited runs) of shirts a while back. I sold some to friends, Tyler sold some. They’re all gone. GONE. If you have one, you might not want to screw it up as I have with several of the shirts I saved for myself.
ANYWAY, here’s, reworked from one of my favorites of my illustrations (and I’m getting more and more critical of my own work- almost as critical as I am of other people’s) a design for the back of some upcoming shirts:
Here is the based-on illustration and my own logo (still working on tightening it up):
When drawing something for t-shirts, the finer lines might not show up. I’m not fond of big areas of color/ink- they feel weird on the back, and, no, not going for that. AND, adding color costs more to produce, adding to the ask from the customer. AS DOES, of course, having a logo on the front and art on the back. STILL, going for it. SOON.
MEANWHILE, I do want to write something about the difference between dominating and ripping. I’ll be thinking about it while I’m driving, out on SURF ROUTE 101.
To quote; or, possibly, mis-quote Miki Dora; “Life’s pretty much a waste of time. Surfing’s as good as any way to waste it.” I’d spend some time trying to look it up if I felt like I had the time.
TIME. So, recently, headed back along the Strait of Juan de Fuca (SoJdF) and into the zone between the Northwest’s Pacific Coast where cell phone reception becomes merely spotty (Joyce for most of us), I gave Adam Wipeout a call (one of the few surfers on my short list of people- and I’ve explained this to death already- I share session reports with). WHAT? It turns out he had tried to sneak in an (another) stealth surf at an undisclosed location and was forced to now make up for all the things he was supposed to do.
“I feel like I was in some sort of time warp,” he said. “I can’t believe it’s one o’clock.”
“Well, it is.” It was, and it wasn’t even raining. I should have been painting. Adam should have been… something, something with his family or for HAMAHAMA SEAFOOD; something else; not sliding and barrel-dodging and getting praised by onlookers for better-than-proficient rides. That was Adam’s recap. He hadn’t invited me, probably wouldn’t have told me about this until days later.
AND, I was elsewhere, allegedly (someone willing to pay roaming rates called someone he knows, he called another surfer from my short list, and that guy called me and left a voice mail I couldn’t listen to until I reached Joyce, and, as happens, restarted my phone) catching more (somewhere between slightly and considerably more) than my allotment of waves.
Well. I hate to waste time. Not an excuse.
OKAY; that’s out of the way. I’ve been working on a series of NORTHWEST SPIRIT ANIMALS. My latest was the eagle. Now, the national bird has been done from so many angles. I wanted to go for a new one. I spent some time on the first version of this; but it just didn’t work. I must have some fear of using large patches of black, but… not an excuse.
Rather than tear up the whole thing, I doubled-down (I know, you’re thinking Trump backing up ridiculous claims with more ridiculousness) and added the checkerboard stuff. Ewww. Well, maybe, in color…
Not thrilled. Not my favorite. Next time…
MEANWHILE; and for quite a while, TYLER MEEKS, the owner, and I have been discussing using the logo I came up with for the DISCO BAY OUTDOOR EXCHANGE on t-shirts. There are some very small decals available, but the problem is, and has been, that the design isn’t ‘tight’ enough to be instantly recognizable from a distance. And I agree.
SO, I spent some time drawing, and several trips to various printers, trying to get it tight enough to print as white-on-colored (or black) t-shirts, possibly with ORIGINAL ERWIN designs on the back.
NOW this presents an additional problem/mind game, at least for me. The design was drawn to be black on white (or light), and too much thinking is required to make the switch. OKAY, here’s how it goes:
This is the black-on version. The black outside the drawing (including the points of light) would be cut out. White mountains and clouds.
Here’s the white-on version (there are some outside-the-image things to be eliminated). SO, everything black on this would become white on the shirts Tyler and I have gathered (various colors and sizes), but I have some amount of trouble making the switch from what I see (black clouds and mountains) to what will show up.
ANYWAY, the plan is to have some shirts available soon at a reasonable price. I’ll let you know. OR, maybe one of your friends will call someone else with the news; something like, “Got skunked, but, whoa; they have some awesomely cool new t-shirts at Disco Bay, Bro.” Then that person might call you.
Meanwhile; I have been working on my novel, “Swamis,” making it te-ight!
…a potential t-shirt design.
I may have over-amped the color on the cougar drawing. When I showed the original to Trish, she said she couldn’t concentrate on the cougar, it was just too skitzy on the page. That was fine, I intended to have the cougar sort of, um, non-obvious.
Anyway, here are the two versions:
Yeah, yeah; looks different in person. Not necessarily better. Oranger. I have more copies; I’ll see what I can do.
MEANWHILE: Here’s a drawing I’ve been working on; possibly for a t-shirt design. I wanted it to look kind of northwest-native-artsy; and, no, it really doesn’t; BUT I do want to claim some ownership of the potential phrase, “NORTHWEST SURFERS, NATURALLY COOLER.” Again, yeah; surfers in Alaska and the Great Lakes and elsewhere might disagree. Certainly. It’s what people do. Here’s the drawing:
SPEAKING OF WHICH, if you cruise down on the site, you’ll find some commentary on several recent posts. SO, let me give my rebuttal(s):
NO, I hold no animosity toward, nor do I think I’m cooler than P.A. ripper Scott Sullivan (just) because I wear a leash, I’m older, and I don’t grease up my mustache. We all have our own criteria for determining coolness, and I’m really concentrating on being in some category of Hipster; mostly because no one else seems to, despite appearances, want to be identified as a Hipster, despite my use of the word being in no way derogatory.
EQUALLY, I have no problem with the Surf Shop owner, AL PURLEE, who is about my age; despite having had him tell me, probably ten years ago, that I didn’t want a shorter board. “You’re too old, too fat, and you don’t surf enough.” AL was RIGHT. Al was, and is cool; and not just in that automatic coolness one has by owning (or even, by extension, working at) a surf shop; which comes with the added benefit of being able to think anyone who enters your establishment is a kook unless and until proven otherwise. We all have that privilege.
PHOTOS might prove something, but, when I was asked if I have photos of epic waves and empty lineups on the ‘northern coast of Washington State,’ I had to decline. Self-centered? Yes. I do, however, have some awesome shots of frozen peelers on the Great Lakes. NOW, those surfers are (even) cooler. Naturally.
…and more!
Here’s a shot of Little Reggie Smart (he adds the ‘little’, I wouldn’t- it would be rude) when he was actually little. before he became a tattoo (and otherwise) artist, a surfer, a painter (house and otherwise), well before I met Reginald Little, a person I sometimes refer to as, “kind of a pretty boy with neck tattoos.”
YEAH, he was a towhead, couldn’t help that. I actually thought posting this might be a bit of revenge for his posting a video of me on his Instagram.
OF COURSE you will have to check this out, as Trish did. Her first reaction as I broke into song was, “What a dick!” Not that she didn’t know this already, but, when I explained that it wasn’t staged (not by me, anyway), and was secretly taped by Reggie, and that several folks in the Peninsula surfing community commented on it; she was almost all right with the whole thing.
I think he’s under “Reggie Smart” on Instagram; not too hard to find.
MEANWHILE, here’s my latest effort in the Positive-to-negative genre:
OH, AND ONE MORE THING: My latest t-shirt design is at the screen shop, DL Logos in Port Townsend, and will soon be available. I am selling these shirts as limited editions (because they are), and tried to add a bit of information to the actual image.
For these shirts it would be something like: Original Erwin- Series 4- Edition 1- “Lightfoot’n it” (title refined by comment on the illustration by Drew Kampion, the need for a title for the various projects of mine at the screen shop, and the way they wrote ‘lightfoot’n it’)- Copywrite Erwin Dence, 2019- Run of 30. Printed at DL Logos, Port Townsend, Washington, U.S.A.
Maybe it was a good idea, but the image was already on screen when I got to the shop. SO, new idea. I’m making tags to go with each t-shirt, with the image of the shirt, the above information (not the stuff in parenthesis), a number (ie; 2/30) and a signature.
SURE, that’ll make your shirt more valuable.
I AM LEARNING a lot from this process; who like what, what works, what sells; and, other than the sales part, I totally enjoy the drawing, hanging out at print shops desperate to see what the negative image of what I’ve drawn looks like, going over shirt and ink colors and stuff with the guys at the screen shop.
Our daughter, DRUCILLA DENCE, has moved back to our area from an extended time in Chicago, where she most recently worked for, and is freelancing for, “The Onion.” Since my stuff is massively disorganized, Dru can, hopefully help in the sales and distribution (and, of course, organization) of my, um, stuff; years of stuff.
SOME OF THE SHIRTS are already spoken for, but the rest, white on a dark blue, will be available soon at Tyler Meek’s DISCO BAY OUTDOOR EXCHANGE.
MEANWHILE, as always, I’m checking the buoys and working on other stuff. “Swamis” the novel, is up to somewhere over 48,000 words (and I still haven’t figured out whodunnit), I’m trying to get some stuff ready for the HamaHamaOysterRama down Surf Route 101 on April 20th (“Four-twenty, man,” Adam ‘Wipeout’ James told me, with the same insider-ness as when I tell someone my age that I graduated in 1969, as in, “class of ’69, man!”)
And, as always, I have to go to work. Rumors of a perfect wave. Memories of a perfect wave. Anticipation for more of each. Here are the first three t-shirt designs.
Real Surfers 