I’m super busy, so…
…managed to get another one done. Maybe a lack of surf helps.
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Gone Workin’
I have a couple of deadlines rapidly approaching, more work stacking up, and, yes, I should have gone on Friday. That was the day. No, I went Tuesday; hoping the wind wouldn’t blow out anything that showed up. It did, but Archie and I, Archie back from months of toiling in Thailand, hot and sticky Thailand, was available, I moved things around, put things (farther) off, and we got a few before the surf was blown out.
Most of us work to buy ourselves some time. Now, Archie went again on Friday, got some waves. I HAD TO work. Had to. If I’d worked on Tuesday, maybe… too many ‘maybes’ to dwell on. If the surf is weak, or, rather, if we can’t see it and assume it’s weak, choppy, too small, maybe we don’t have to think about what we’re missing.
No, that doesn’t really work. Work, work… yeah; I sacrificed some work time to do this. Or maybe it was just some sleep time. Still, when the swell just has to be hitting, maybe while you’re working (and I don’t really want to get into the lifestyle choices of those who don’t just HAVE to work), hopefully on a weekday, just maybe…
Gotta Go.
Real Surfers Coloring Book Cover
When I get the portfolio/book thing sorted out, this might go on the plain brown cover, handy for shipping, stealing…still working on it.
The next thing I need to do is get a collection of my colored-in stuff together, get them reduced, make up a montage for the back cover, all the inside stuff black and white; like, you know, a cheap magazine. Perhaps the portfolio/envelope could be a bit larger than the inside pages so folks can stick some colored pencils inside, whip ’em out when they’re ready to colorize; on a break, at a break (that’s not breaking); out to coffee, on a train; in public or in private. COLOR! Oh, I just did some coloring on this one because, as usual, Trisha’s assessment was, “Done? I’d say overdone?” “Great.” “Is that a question?” “No.”
Water Seeks Its Own Level (illustration)
Because I’m dead-ass serious about getting my coloring book together, I’m searching through some of my older drawings. I redid this one to make it more… I don’t want to say professional; let’s say cleaner.
I’m doing some work for “The Printery” in Port Townsend, with the goal of trading out some of the profit to pay for a few more copies, and maybe something a little more ‘professional.’ Yeah, now I’ll say professional.
In Preparation for the Real Surfers Coloring Book…
And I have more. I’m hoping to do about forty images; still figuring out some sort of portfolio arrangement, rather than a book form; open it up, pull one out, do some coloring.
New Illustration for the (Upcoming) Coloring Book
If you draw on it long enough, keep adding to it, it eventually becomes gray.
This is the third version. Partway through the first version I decided to add the beams of light. Too late, too sketch-like. Partway through the second version I decided… well, there were things I liked about each of those, and my evaluator, Trish, liked the first one best. But, partially because I’m working on putting together a ‘real surfers’ coloring book, I went with something, probably a bit more, um, draftsman-like. Nah; can’t quite master that. I have this, and, when I tried to make a copy, this weird tire-tread-like line went down the right side, so, not risking the original, I may not actually color this. Yet.
Really on the coloring book. I’m just trying to figure out how I can do it at a reasonable price, and, of course, how the hell I’ll try to market it.
“Awkward Guy” illustrations
I did some illustrations a year or so ago for a friend of mine, Franco Bertucci. The drawings go along, sort of, with poems he wrote about raising kids out in the country (he and his wife and three kids live on a working farm), love, poetic stuff like that. Franco is a musician and song writer, heads up a professional band, Locust Street Taxi; very tight, very showy. And Franco, the most low key guy in person; on stage, is radical. AND he can leap, flat-footed, like, amazingly high.
The book is available, so far, on kindle. Jeez, let me check that. Yeah; kindle. Franco offered me (some undetermined amount of) money to do the drawings, but, very non-characteristically for someone who always takes the short money, I chose to take a (similarly non-determined) percentage of future profits.
We’ll see how that works out. I checked out the little sampler, and, whoa, and maybe it’s because I haven’t seen the drawings in a while… they looked awesome.
I mean, objectively speaking.
Buy This Classic Hobie Now, Now, Now
Real Surfer/surf journalist/Drewslist owner/operator Drew Kampion contacted me to see if I could use my contacts among the surfing community in the Great Northwest. So, you; whichever sub-tribe you sort of belong to, or maybe just, too cool to belong-to, you hang, loosely, on the periphery of. Yeah, Drew kind of kissed-up to me, so, now, I’m passing the love on to you.
)
Drew was contacted by a friend who wants to sell this 50th anniversary Hobie, shaped by renowned shaper Terry Martin. Drew took the photos, and says it’s in pristine condition. I thought maybe P.T., soon to be P.A. local Clint (still don’t know his last name), who has been on a board-buying tear of late, might be interested. Maybe he is, but, in case he isn’t, some hip (didn’t say Hipster) surfer who knows a classic collectible when it’s available might be ready to own a piece of history. So, I’m taking a a breath before I give the price out, but the asking price is…
$2,000.00.
Yeah. I know. It’s not like I can afford it; but I am really happy with my Hobie 10’6″ SUP I’m buying (easy payments) from Adam Wipeout James, who, if you scroll down, is in possession of a board he found on the southbound side of Surf Route 101 down by Shelton. But, that’s that and this is this. If you’re interested, or know some one who would just love to decorate his life with a classic, contact Erick at conundrum@yahoo.com.
And, incidentally, when Adam Wipeout said he would fix my thrashed, never-been-patched, ridden-over-every-rock-on the Strait SUP, I thought I might get a break on the Hobie I’m buying. Didn’t work. He’s a professional negotiator; I’m not. Whether you are or aren’t, contact Erick (jeez, couldn’t his parents decide which way to spell it?). My sister’s first board, first one I rode, was a 1962 Hobie 9’4″. Loved it, thrashed it. In fact, I’ve thrashed every board I ever owned; part of the reason I had to BUY the SUP.
Lost/Found Surfboard on Surf Route 101 and Panama Surf Revealed
Adam ‘Lucky and or Wipeout’ James called me yesterday, Thursday, April 21, just after 2pm. I was talking to a client and told him he’d have to call back. He did, five minutes later; quite excited, maybe more excited than the time he called me back to go over the incredible barrel he made the other evening in Westport on the new 6’4″ Takayama he purchased, or was able to justify the purchase of, because I’m buying his 9’6″ Hobie SUP. Making payments. Soon. Really.
“Dude,” he started out, “I just found a surfboard… on the side of the road… 101… Yeah, okay, surf route 101. Down by Shelton. What? Wait. What?”
What he meant is, “What do you think I should do?”
I recommended taking a photo of the board some traveling surfer evidently, unknowingly lost off his or her southbound vehicle, and sending it to me. I could post it and tag it, “surfboard lost/found on 101 near Shelton,” or something.
But then… wait a minute; if there’s a photo, no one has to describe it to reclaim it. Hmmm, better think of something else.
First we have some shots Hydrosexual Stephen Davis sent to Keith “Stealth” Darrock via Facebook (because Trish hasn’t friend-requested Stephen yet). I think the first one is the local surf club. Steve is down there with his son, Emmett, and Scrimshaw Peter; and I told Steve before he left that I’d love to reveal all the secret spots in Panama because, durn it, I’m not going. And I would reveal all, but I don’t have the information. I’m sure if Steve described it, or when he does, it’ll start with, “Dude; you can’t even imagine how awesome it was.” And I’ll say, “Hey; why does everyone call me Dude?”
Here’s a photo of Steve on his boat, about to say, “Dude, you can’t even begin to know…” Yeah, yeah.
MEANWHILE, thinking it’s probably not the best to give out Adam’s phone number; and it’s actually kind of a pain to write a comment on this site; if you, by some miracle, find this posting, and you, indeed, lost a surfboard that you can describe accurately, give me a call, (360) 774-6354. Limited time offer.
Real Surfers “Real-ly” For Surf Literature
…the first one, ever; goes to William Finnegan for “Barbarian Days.”
I’m sure he would be stoked. Okay, maybe mildly amused. Maybe just cool about the whole thing. I just heard the last of the hourly NPR newscast the other day, announcing the winner of some award. Didn’t hear what award, but something literary. I was excited. I called up Port Townsend librarian (and surfer) Keith Darrock, who had saved the book for me when they got it in. I may have been the second one to check it out. My friend Archie Endo also mentioned the book was out. Real life surf writer/editor Drew Kampion endorsed Finnegan as a writer, quite impressed he had written a two issue (unheard of in its rarity) “New Yorker” piece on Doc Renneker, legendary surfer. “Yeah, he’s legit.”
So, I read it. Not straight through; but as straight through as I could manage.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the Booker Prize. Don’t they have something like that?”
No, I found out; it’s the Pulitzer! Whoa. Now, that’s something.
It might be that part of the reason I loved the book so much more than some other books on surfing I’ve read, or started to read, or scimmed and abandoned, is that Mr. Finnegan is a real writer; a really good writer. And…he’s been there; surfing and other war zones; and he can maintain a coolness that most of us cannot; he can put into words what we can feel, not explain, and yet recognize as authentic. Passion and critical situations are sometimes best described from just a bit of distance; with the right amount of objectivity. “Yeah, that’s it. He got it right.”
The explanation for why the book had a bigger impact on me than it seems to have had on Keith is, perhaps, that Finnegan and I are contemporaries. I looked it up, he’s actually a year younger than I am; started surfing at a similar time. He is able to describe the beginnings of what his reviewers always seem to call “a lifelong passion;” trying to learn, to improve, to fit into whatever tribe one finds himself among.
While he was exploring now-well known spots around the world, I was surfing now-way-more-crowded spots in a less crowded Southern California. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear how that went for him.
I actually was impressed enough to hold off of returning the book after I’d read it, asking Keith what would happen if I went over the deadline. And (this is actually unusual) I watched a video of Mr. Finnegan doing a reading at some event in New York City, with non-surfers making up most of the audience.
And he was cool; not talking down, now rolling his eyes, not even, noticeably smirking as he looked back to the page he was reading.
I have to admit I take some (probably improper) solace in knowing that, possibly to make up for his wanderings during his youth, he’s still working. Of course, when he’s not, he might be snagging a few tubes at Tavarua, staying at the now-known island, with a real bed and untainted water. So, a minor honor, indeed, but the first ever “Real-ly” is for you, Mr. William Finnegan, Jr.
Real Surfers 