Very bad day yesterday. All I wanted to do was get my panels up to Port Townsend for the August Art Walk, AND take ARCHIE ENDO out to lunch. Short Version: Van got accidentally locked. Not blaming. Keys and cell phone inside. Van parked in handicapped spot. $120 cash to unlock. Move panels and remaining Original Erwin shirts. Now to lunch. NO. Van won’t start. Tried jump starting. Thanks, LOU. NO. Waited for tow truck, arrived while trying to eat something at La Cucina, across the street. Slugged down last of quesadilla and milk. KIRK LAKENESS was the tow truck driver. Perhaps you remember Kirk from the time I crashed vehicle on Eaglemount in black ice. Kirk towed van to electric shop. Archie and I got a ride to his house in DIscovery Bay area with REGGIE. Archie gave me a ride home.
Here’s a shot of Stephen R. DAVIS’S friend from the Big Isand, ‘CAP” (real name Brian, though, he says, only his mother [and I] call him that), stylishly sporting the latest ORIGINAL ERWIN T SHIRT and posed as if he might be checking out surf. NO. No surf ’round here. Incidentally, he and other Big Islanders call Steve “Moose.” I don’t.
HERE is the poster I was hoping to sell multiple copies of at the COLAB during the Art Walk. Hoping. I was sure enough that it would be a popular item that II had forty of them printed, 20 at 11’by 17′, twenty at 8and1/2′ by 11′. LIMITED EDITION.
SPEAKING of which, when I was waiting for RANDY at COHO PRINTING to finish the project, I said that I love doing the artwork, but hate trying to sell my works. “Well,” he said, “My suggestion would be to put them all in a drawer somewhere.” “Thank you, Professor, might I have another?” “It should be ‘Sir.'” “I know. I gave you a promotion.” MEANWHILE… WORK. A different story.
Find some waves. Ride them. Later. Oh, and the poster is covered by copyright, all rights reserved.
I’m adding to the last post rather than producing a new one. The main reason is the LINK to the documentary: There have been issues. Sometimes the original link connected; sometimes not. It is important to me, with the work ANNIE FERGERSON put into it, that she gets some of that internet traffic. NO, it’s not about me. Not just me. I had my daughter, Dru, add another link as a backup.
STILL, even when I checked it, sometimes it worked, sometimes
ABOUT HALF of the latest shirts are gone; some sold, a few given away. Funny how we owe our friends stuff. WHILE I am working on how to market anything I do; art, writing; I’m pushing a project I couldn’t get done before the recent event. I’m going to have some shirts with full color graphics. It isn’t as easy as I had hoped. There is a modern incarnation of ‘iron on’ graphics that are just SO MUCH better. DWAYNE at D&L LOGOS in Port Townsend is ‘cleaning up’ the artwork. This includes tightening the borders because white would be printed along with all the colors. Dwayne is also going in to add some opacity to the inconsistent colored pencil work. IF I CAN do the transfer myself, I might get more images and then, you know, wait and see who wants one, how I might sell them
MARKETING, not my strong suit. HOWEVER, Original Erwin products are always LIMITED EDITION.
I’M WAITING to hear back. The COST at which I can offer the shirts is determined by how many images can fit onto a roll of, I don’t know, some sort of material. The printed images will then be transferred by some heat process (maybe an iron) onto shirts. BECAUSE I have to put out all the money up front, I am purposefully limiting the number of shirts produced. IF I CAN figure out a way to sell them myself, rather than going through a vendor who would, and should, and must add something on to the price, I WILL.
BACK TO THE POST-
The world premiere of the film by ANNIE FERGERSON, with additional footage by NICOLAI CRANE, received an enthusiastic response from the audience at the recent FOURTH OCCASIONAL SURF CULTURE ON THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE SALISH SEA EVENT.
EDIT- There seems to be a problem with a longer link. So, deleted.
AGAIN, the project was pushed by Annie, AND, any cicks on the link (above) go to her. There is general agreement that the film was very well put together; it’s the choice of subject that has been quesioned. STILL, I appreciate it and have to agree that it pretty much captures me in all my ridiculousness.
ALL THE PRESENTERS, and it was an eclectic group, were well received: GREG TINDAL did a very dramatic and impressive recitation of a short story; DREW KAMPION told a story about not getting shot while getting too close to Richard Nixon; TIM NOLAN gave a sneak peak into his memoir of surfing in the Palos Verdes area; DANA TERILL described several encounters with the legendary Miki Dora; RICO MOORE recited an original poem.
The attendees had the opportunity to check out surf and ocean-centric art works by NAM SIU, STEPHEN R. DAVIS, TIM NOLAN, JOHN HOLM (who does now live in Port Townsend), and, yeah, my stuff, including my now-more-limited edition tht shirts.
Curator of the event, Port Townsend Public Library maestro KEITH DARROCK and I were so busy greeting surfers we hadn’t seen in a while that neither of us took any photos. My daughter, Drucilla, did; as well as making lanyards for the presenters. Laminated and everything! And everyone loves a lanyard.
I pushed Dru to put the link to the film on my site. I have been shown, several times, how to send a link on my phone. So far, it hasn’t stuck. I DO WANT TO thank all the folks who showed up for the event. So, THANK YOU.
CURATOR of (or is it for) the Fourth Occasional Surf Culture on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Salish Sea Event, Ripper/Librarian Keith Darrock, sporting the latest, limited edition (33 printed, 3 for Erwin, three summer-y colors) ORIGINAL ERWIN t-shirt.
Keith has assembled a “STACKED LINEUP” of speakers for the two hour (+?) surf-centric event, 6-8pm, Wednesday, July 17, Port Townsend Public Library. The theme is “Talking Story,”
I MUST ANNOUNCE there will be a short (less than five minutes) documentary on… me (yeah- shocking) by producer ANNIE FERGERSON, with filming and producing by NICOLAI CRANE.
I MUST EXPLAIN that I met documentarian Annie the way I meet most people; I did some painting for her. She may have gotten the idea I might make a decent film subject by seeing some expertly edited hidden camera stuff on Instagram by Surfer/tattoo artist/artist REGGIE SMART. That footage may have convinced Annie that I was… I’m trying to not say ridiculous. I did try to dissuade Annie from filming me, recommending others way more qualified, way more interesting. A year and a half later, I was pretty much okay with getting some footage of me, you know, like, surfing. ANYWAY, I’ve seen the footage and here’s my review: Beautifully photographed and edited, BUT, after seeing it first on my phone, watching it on a laptop was… shockingly real. “Whoa! So fat! So OLD! So… real.” This is without mentioning my voice, nothing at all like James Earl Jones.
And, and, and there are cameo appearances in the film by Stephen R. Davis and Jason Queen.
There may be more corrections and updates before the FOURTH OCCASIONAL SURF CULTURE ON THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE SALISH SEA EVENT, Wednesday, July 17, 6 to 8 pm, Port Townsennd Public Library.
Additions and clarifications:
“MERCURY VELVET” RICO’s last name is MOORE. Rico will be reading or reciting original poetry (because he said he would) at the EVENT.
JOHN HOLM will be adding some of his paintings in with a mix of the works of other local artists. Here’s a sample and a borrowed bio of John, who lives in Seattle and/or Port Townsend. To be clarified… later.
John fell in love with the ocean at a young age, living on the North Shore of Oahu. He learned to surf in Santa Cruz in the 60’s, while studying advertising at Art Center. Here he experienced the boom of the surf craze firsthand. After graduating, John became a Navy pilot and took in more beautiful surf and coastline while he was stationed in Monterey. A thirty-year career in advertising then took him to New York and later to Seattle, where he currently resides. He’s back to doing what he loves these days: painting and surfing. John’s early memories of the ocean and So Cal surf culture are strong influences on his work. The impressionistic style of his art captures movement and the intense connection of the surfer and the wave. He moves beyond the literal “perfect wave” and straight into the soul of surfing. John’s paintings have appeared in “Surfer’s Journal” and are available at “Club of the Waves” online.
OKAY. Check realsurfers.net on Wednesday. There will be at least one update, probably more.
Definitely more. I’m going to post a photo of the latest limited edition ORIGINAL ERWIN t shirt design, like, tomorrow night or Tuesday morning, AND I will have more information on the WORLD PREMIERE of the documentary KEITH DARROCK, local ripper, librarian, and curator of the event said should be called, “Villain.” I’m supposed to get a sneak peek, AND I do want to give proper credit to the producers.
MEANWHILE… “I was still… thinking.” Chuck Berry, “Little Queenie.”
TALKING STORY is the theme of the FOURTH OCCASIONAL SURF CULTURE ON THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE SALISH SEA EVENT. It is GOING TO HAPPEN this Wednesday, July 17, 6 to 8pm, at the City of Port Townsend Public Library.
THIS WEDNESDAY!
I was recently (like, yesterday) corrected on my use of ‘talking story’ on the poster. This was by a person who has connections (raised in Orange County, California, surfed some, brother surfed) to surfing AND has actually been to and lived in Hawaii, AND has developed his own truisms (or little catch phrases if they are not generally true- and how would II know?) about the place; the locals; the Haoles; tourists and residents. One of these is, “If my rental car breaks down on Kauai, a local will stop to help. If it’s on Oahu…” “What?” “Guess.” “No.” “Okay,” he said, “If, for example, a Hawaiian is late getting home and doesn’t want to tell his wife he was at the tavern, he’ll say, ‘oh, I was, you know, we… talk story.'” “Okay,” I said, “with Trish, she would just assume I, Chatty Cathy she accuses me of being, was ‘chatting it up.'” “Yeah, you do seem to… chat.”
Glad that’s all worked out, I’m working on a story I can tell when it’s my turn in the lineup. It isn’t like I’m competitive, but I’ve spoken and/or read at events before and I always think, “I’ll never do this again.” And, once I’ve survived, I think, “Next time I’ll do… better.”
NEXT TIME is Wednesday, and other scheduled speakers have serious credentials. Greg Tindall, Drew Kampion, Tim Nolan, Dana Terill are on the bill, and writer/poet RICO (in caps because I don’t know or have time to look up his last name, though Mercury Velvet might be his nom-de-surf) has agreed to share something he’s written, and I… I’m working on it.
It’s not like I don’t have stories. And talking? Yeah, I talk.
ALSO, and I really only know what I’m doing, but I do have a batch of ORIGINAL ERWIN T SHIRTS. Limited edition of 30, controlled by me with the promise of no more with this design being produced, sizes small through extra large.
OH, AND there’s the documentary, possibly titled “The Villain,” produced by professional documentarian Annie Furgerson, making its world premiere NEXT WEDNESDAY.
Shucks, I better get to work. I’m bringing over some panels and other artwork from the collection at the Port Townsend COLAB, and I have a couple of new pieces.
I will post any updates by, at least, the morning of the big event. SEE YOU THERE. We’ll, you know, chat.
It’s the big Sunday edition. FIRST, a reminder that the FOURTH OCCASIONAL SURF CULTURE ON THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE SALISH SEA EVENT is coming up on Wednesday, July 17, 6-8pm, Port Townsend Public Library. Special guests, art, and an emphasis on ‘TALKING STORY.’
BABIES- Ripper Mikel ‘Squintz’ Cumiskey, seemingly ping-ponging between Florida, the Pacific Northwest, and the Big Island (currently), and his wife, Kelsey (sp), had a second child. Since Mike sent texts to every surfer on his contact lists, it seems it might be worth spreading the word farther. It might have been, you know, nice if he had included more info, but… yeah, congratulations!
CoinciDENCES
My sister, Suellen, masterminded a reunion of her brothers and sisters in Long Beach, Washington, near Chinook, the last place our father lived, and meant to coincide with what would have been ERWIN ALLEN DENCE, SENIOR’S one hundredth birthday. He had every intent to make it to this landmark, but, having survived World War II, Korea, eight children and three wives, he did not. Our sister, Melissa, passed on several years ago, and the thought is this might be the last chance the rest of us have to see each other.
If it had all worked out perfectly. It did not. I had a short window of availability and missed seeing my brothers Jonathan and Philip. I did see Suellen, Mary Jane, and our youngest brother, Edwin (who assures me that, no, Erwin and Edwin are not variations of the same name… as in, ‘I’m Darrell, this is my brother, Daryl, and my other brother, Derrell.’)
Edwin lives most of the year in the “Chinook House,” and has done extensive remodeling on the place a block from Surf Route 101 (on which I live 290 plus miles away by the “Loop,” much, much closer via McCleary Cutoff), a block from the Columbia River. Chinook is the closest town on the Washington side to the Astoria Bridge. I made some (not enough) trips down when our father was alive, almost always heading over to Seaside (or Short Sands) for a few waves.
It is nice to have a place to stay down that way. There was a tradition of Peninsula surfers heading down when a northwest swell just isn’t happening, and, of course, ever friendly, ever sharing Seaside locals heading up to the Strait of Juan de Fuca when there is some rumor of, you know, waves. The friendliness, stay-at-a-friend’s-house factor may have deteriorated somewhat over the years.
I did, of course, as is my tradition, trek over to Seaside while down there. I had some notion that I might find a used SUP to back up my dinged-to-shit Hobie. Enough so that I didn’t bring it. I did check out the Cove and the Point. Northwest wind, weak swell, no one in the water two days before the fourth of July. Disappointing. Similar conditions on the Strait would probably have enticed surfers to attempt surfing.
Neither shop in Seaside had SUPs designed for surfing. “We have some of the… flat water kind. It’s just not that popular here.” Nor do they, possibly, wish it to be.
Because I had taken off so early and had plans to meet my siblings at the Pig N’ Pancake in Astoria, I hung around the shops a bit longer than I ordinarily would, eventually purchasing a t shirt from each; one for grandson, Tristen, and one for his son, Zander, due to come down on the Fourth with my daughter, Dru, our ex-daughter-in-law, Karrie, Tristen, his wife Aisha (sp?), and their daughter (complicated- Trish keeps track for me), and take over the room Suellen had set up for me at the RESORT (time share).
WHEN I go into a surf shop, I have always, and evidently still do feel like a KOOK. I did admit that to the three salespeople behind the counter, adding that if one works at a surf shop, one is, one, automatically cool, and two, automatically assumed to be a great surfer. They all nodded.
I had already talked to the guy in that group, 26 years old and self-identified as a Seaside resident. He said he is all right with the tourists and, of course, if the Point is pumping, he can, by status or skill level, join the local rippers hanging out in a private lot partway up, allowing locals the position to encourage interlopers to not take photos and to surf the Cove. Or go home. “Nothing too serious.”
“Of course not,” I said, recounting how I was yelled at for paddling past a local (for a look, only- I swear). “If you think the locals are… serious… here, it’s nothing like the localism on the Strait.”
To those of you who are… serious; you’re welcome.
With time, still, to kill, I went to the Costco in Warrington to pick up a watermelon for Suellen, some ground coffee (because I’m too cheap or stubborn to buy from a stand), and a Costco-sized container of Churros/donut holes, the intention being to turn them over to Dru and the crew from Idaho (yeah, Idaho- our son, James, went to college there, and stayed). I didn’t. I finished the last churro yesterday.
ANYWAY, the parking lot at the Costco is huge, and I could not remember where I parked the Volvo, exactly, so I headed out for the farthest reaches. No Volve, but I did start chatting with another self-identified lifelong local, a woman probably in her late fifties, of course, trying to separate myself from the Costco-sized tourists, mentioning that my had father lived in Chinook.
“We all surf here,” she said. “Probably started about eighth grade.”
“Oh, that’s about when I started board surfing.”
It isn’t so remarkable that I ran into someone in a legitimate surf town who surfed or surfs (and I’m always ready to make some surfing connection with anyone I meet). What is worthy of note is that, if she was behind the counter, or a customer, at a surf shop, I would totally believe she, one, surfs, and two, surfs well. I’m always disappointed in myself when I miss an opportunity to take a picture. It, of course, last longer. I did get a couple of shots at the Astoria Pig N’ Pancake.
LEFT TO RIGHT: A possibly exasperated or exhausted (it was between breakfast and lunch crowds) waitperson; me; Suellen’s grandson, Yurick (sp?); my brother, ED; brother-in-law, Stan; sisters Mary Jane (Janie) and Suellen. I’m sort of questioning whether to use this photo. In real life, Edwin is way bigger than me, and what’s the deal with my serious expression? I should add that Suellen did surf and, in fact, got me involved in board surfing, BUT, if any of us showed up in a surf shop…
DRU AND THE CREW did make it back from the coast late last night. I have to process all the adventures. All of them love the coast. Well. Yeah.
T SHIRTS: I will definitely have more on the upcoming EVENT later in the week. I will have some ORIGINAL ERWIN T-shirts available. AGAIN, More, later.
THE FOURTH OCCASIONAL SURF CULTURE ON THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE SALISH SEA EVENT is scheduled for Wednesday, July 17, 6 to 8 pm, Port Townsend Public Library. The emphasis is on “Talking Story,” with distinguished story talkers and… regular-but-real surfers, AND there will be surf focused art by Olympic Peninsula artists, AND there will be outtakes or a gag reel, at least, or the actual world premier of a short documentary on a longtime surf villian blowing up at (or just blowing up) a local not-secret-enough spot.
Or, of course, I will post whatever I know. AND, I am making efforts to have some ORIGINAL ERWIN T SHIRTS available. New ones.
I have several other illustrations that haven’t been scanned. So… decisions.
“SWAMIS” UPDATE- With my fourth oir fifth total edit/rewrite was stuck at over 105,000 words, I have been dealing with the knowledge that I would have to further cut back on the timeline. Because Microsoft Word on the laptop I am ‘borrowing’ from my daughter, Drucilla, suddenly started going… really… slow, I found a pretty good place to end what may or may not be the first book of… I don’t know, at least one more, THOUGH I’ve pretty much had enough of the writing style of the fictional narrator, JOSEPH ATSUSHI DE FREINES. He’s just a little too OCD for me AND it makes me worry.
So, currently, the manuscript is down to under 90,000 words, AND, because I was in severe panic mode, I took the thumb drive to COHO PRINTING and had 8 copies printed up. I’ve already given away two of them. AND, because the new epilogue and the new, foreshortened ending were the last things I wrote, AND because I am, in addition to the other psycho damage, evidently anal retentive about writing and cannot look at my work without changing it, I have done more on the first several pages.
I plan on printing them up separately, and… yeah, planning.
DRU updated the Microsoft, so, fast, fast, too fast. The good news is, with all the stuff I have written in the bloated, unexpurgated versions, I have lots of material, AND because I have what I intended to be the ending at a state where I was… almost… satisfied with it, it might be easier to continue with “Swamis.”
HINT- I’m considering “Beacons,” another Encinitas surf spot, as a subtitle for part II, then… “Grandview…” maybe. Anyway, here’s the latest. I’m pretty satisfied… Almost.
“SWAMIS” A novel by Erwin A. Dence, Jr.
PROLOGUE
Some moments, terror and bliss, mostly, that occurred in seconds, become, over time, placemarks. A corner turned, a decision made, a life changed. The mundane and the magic become part of the story. It’s easier to remember the magic.
I started writing “Swamis” as memoir; fifty years after a specific time in a location that was, to me, magical. Swamis. If I believed I was the observer of other people’s lives, a part of someone else’s audience, listening to their stories, remembering the best parts, recording them; the real people placed, as characters, into positions in some larger story I believed I understood; and I did believe that; I was wrong. Wrong about it all.
Whatever I saw, whatever I recorded, whatever role I played made little or no difference in what seemed inevitable. Still, I was there, almost eighteen, and thrilled to be there.
Recalling, and writing, and editing, and rewriting has come to mean throwing out the peripheral and tangential stories, the ones I love knowing, the deep cuts. I have, finally, concluded that I want to tell more than one book’s worth. Still, this manuscript, with fifteen-thousand words cut and saved in some other file, might be the end of my trying to recapture the feel of a time in which change hit a new gear. Surf and evolution and revolution and peace and love and a war in the background, a drug culture morphing into an industry, heroes and villains, if anyone fit into either category, impossibly connected.
The murder and the mystery, all the other stories; “Swamis” was always going to be about Julie. And me. Julie and me. Magic.
CHAPTER ONE- MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1969
“The allure of waves was too much, I’m told, for an almost three-year-old, running, naked, into them. If I tell you I remember how the light shone through the shorebreak waves, the streaks of foam sucked into them; if I remember the shock of cold water and the force with which the third wave knocked me down, the pressure that held me down, my struggle for air; if I say I remember anything other than my mother clutching me out and into the glare by one arm… or even that… Well, Doctor Peters, that would be, this all happening before the accident; that would be… me… creating a story from fragments. Wouldn’t it… be… that?”
“Memories. Dreams. We can’t know how much of life is created from… fragments. But, please, Joey; the basketball practice story; I didn’t get a chance to write it down. So, the guy…”
“I’m not here because of that… offense.”
“I am aware. Just… humor me.”
“I was… Freshman team. Locker room. They staggered practice. I was… slow… getting dressed. Bus schedules. He… FFA guy… Future Farmers. JV. Tall, skinny, naked, foot up on a bench. he said I had a pretty big… dick… for a Jap. I said, ‘Thank you.’ It was more like a question. All the Varsity players came in. Most stood behind him. He said, ‘Oh, that’s right; your daddy; he’s all dick.’ Big laugh.”
“’Detective,’ I said. ‘And, Rusty, I am sorry about your brother at the water fountain. I’m on probation already… and I’m off the wrestling team, and…’ I talk really fast when I’m… forced to… talk. I’m sure you’ve made note. I said, ‘I don’t want to cut my hand… on your big buck teeth.’ Bigger laugh. Varsity guys going, ‘Whoa,’ and… He was embarrassed. His brother… it’s in the records, that incident. Fourth grade. Right after I… came back.”
“Joey, are you…? You’re picturing it… the incident. You are.”
“No. I… Yes. I quite vividly imagine… incidents. In both cases, I tried to do what my father taught me… or tried to. ‘Walking away is not backing down.’ Basketball. I never had a shot. Good passer, great hip check.”
“He… Rusty, he charged at you?”
“He closed his eyes. I didn’t.”
“All right. So, so, so… Let’s talk about the incident for which you are here. You had a foot on… a student’s throat. Yes? Yes. He was, as you claim, already on the ground… faking having a seizure. He alleges he wasn’t a threat to you; wasn’t charging at you. Have you considered…?”
“The bullied becomes the bully? It’s… easy, simple, logical… not new; and I have… considered it. Let’s just say it’s true then. I am… this is my story… trying to mend my ways. Look, Grant’s dad alleges… assault. I’m… I get it; I’m almost eighteen. Grant claims he and his buddies were just… fooling around; adolescent… fun; I can, conceivably… claim, and I have, the same.”
“But it wasn’t… fun… for you?”
“It… kind of… was. Time’s up. My mom’s… waiting.”
“Joey… I am, can be… the bully here. So… sit the fuck back down!”
Chimacum Tim Pauley sent me this photo of PAVONES. The memorial for EDINSON SERNA is today. Edinson’s brother lives near this epic Central American break. Some secret photos Tim has sent me in the past were taken by Edinson. One of them, secretly circulated among, you know, friends who wouldn’t share it except to, you know, a few friends, always had the question of who caught this magic moment on at was, up until this very time, an uneventful/normal session.
WORD ON THE STRAIT. More on all of this on Sunday, including a list of scheduled, distinguished speakers, artists’ work on display, short documentary, and more.
Classic stylist Archie Endo is back from Thailand. Temporarily. I am hoping to do a surf trip with him before he goes back.
Stephen R. Davis conquers another peak.
SAD NEWS via CHIMACUM TIMACUM (Tim Pauley) on the passing of EDINSON SERNA:
“There will be a celebration of life for Edinson Serna this Sunday at Myrtle Edwards Park at 4pm. We will be meeting by the PI building by the sculpture garden on the water.
Many of us knew Eddie fron surfing in the Pacific Northwest. He was always a vvery likable guy, super stoked, positive, and excited to be in the water surrounded by people. Hope to see everyone this Sunday. RIP”
NOT-SECRET-ENOUGH stuff. Professional videographer ANNIE FERGERSON (left) will be, if not premiering a short documentary on a notorious wave hog at the upcoming CULTURE EVENT, at least showing outtakes or a gag reel. NOTE; The goonball with the cap ON TOP OF the hoodie put this off fro a while, then, in true self-centered, sociopathic fashion, agreed to be filmed (with certain restrictions as to the angle from the beach, no gratuitous nudity, etc.). “Yeah, I figured, at my age, I would love to see a slow motion video of me, you know, like, cruising, and, uh, yeah… what?” WHAT?
DETAILS ON all of this and more on SUNDAY, you know, like, maybe don’t look for it before, like 10am, Pacific Daylight Savings Time. There will also be updates on ORIGINAL ERWIN T SHIRTS and, now that my daughter, Dru, fixed the slowdown on microsoft word, the novel, “SWAMIS.”
MEANWHILE, keep working on your surf stories. We’ll talk soon.
…It isn’t as if Keith doesn’t steal (as in a wave or two) or borrow a few things from me (though borrowing doesn’t fit as well with the surf metaphor) a few things from me, including the graphic below, but it was just so easy to copy and paste the announcement for the FOURTH OCCASIONAL SURF CULTURE ON THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE SALISH SEA EVENT from Librarian Keith’s (as opposed to Cougar Keith or any other Keith) Port Townsend Public Library newsletter… and just… repost it.
Because excuses are always necessary when taking things without permission (such as, “Oh, you actually wanted that wave?”) I would say the goal here is to further spread the news.
Join us at the library, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17th, 6 to 8 pm, for an evening of surfing stories and surf art. Writers and story-tellers include, Greg Tindell, Drew Kampion, Tim Nolan, Dana Terill and Erwin Dence. A crew of local surf artists may be present to show their work.
Greg Tindall Although Greg Tindall has written for the UK-based Surfer’s Path, the US-centric Surfer’s Journal and Australia’s equivalent, White Horses, and while he has covered surf contests for Surfline and hurricane-surf seasons for ESPN, his true passion is telling stories in-person. From the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, as a Florida Voice, to the Surfing Heritage And Cultural Center (SHACC) in San Clemente, from the Tuckerton Seaport in New Jersey to the Libby Little Theatre in Montana, Greg now has the privilege of telling some good ones to his friend and mentor, Drew Kampion.
Drew Kampion is a former editor of SURFER (1968-72), SURFING (1973-82), WIND SURF (1982-89), and WIND TRACKS (1996-99) magazines. He was Editorial Director for the Patagonia clothing company (1990-91) and Associate Editor for NEW AGE JOURNAL (1992). He founded, published, and edited the ISLAND INDEPENDENT (1993-96), an award-winning “bioregional magazine in newsprint,” serving the “maritime rainshadow” islands of Washington State. For his work with the INDEPENDENT, he received first prize for editing a periodical with a circulation under 50,000. Until recently, Drew was the American Editor of THE SURFER’S PATH, world’s first “green” surf magazine. His episodic parody, THE TEACHINGS OF DON REDONDO: A SURFER’S WAY OF KNOWLEDGE (as illustrated by artist Tom Threinen) was a regular feature of the magazine.
Erwin Dence is a writer and visual artist residing in Quilcene. He is well known for his regional surf-centric essays on his website realsurfers.net. Erwin is also in the final stages of the surf novel, Swami’s. His visual art is vivid, surreal and at times hypnotic. His art will be on display at the event.
“SWAMIS” WISE, because, last Sunday, my computer went from fast to ‘oh my God, what the fuck’s gone wrong’ mode last Sunday, right after I decided to pull out early, so to speak, chopping off the last fifteen-thousand words or so, but it seemed okay on Monday, I took my thumb drive to COHO PRINTING and had eight copies printed up.
IT’S A DIFFERENT THING, looking at a manuscript on paper. 104 pages on the computer, 90,000 words, printed front and back to reduce waste if not cost, is still a lot of paper. And it’s… real. Tangible. Touchable. And… shit; I want to make changes.
THE LAST things I wrote were a last chapter modified to fit better as the end of… of this; with so much more to the story; and a new epilogue because the one I had written before the last rewrite no longer fit. SO, eight copies in a box, a copy in hand, questions in my mind on who could read them, I realized the new epilogue was possibly as ill-fitting as the others. Yes, others; there are others of everything.
SO, I DECIDED TO JUST start with the first chapter; all dialogue, not too much (but enough) exposition, AND, I thought, why not share it with, you know, YOU.
BUT THEN, partway through some unavoidable rewriting, M I C R O F T started going R E A L L Y S L O W.
I get a certain sense of panic when this happens; maybe not as severe as last week’s attack, but I am still not sure what to do: New computer? No. Go to the library and use their’s? Maybe. Not today. TODAY I AM working on a poster for the upcoming event. It’s getting closer by the second!
I HOPE ALL YOU ALL had a great International Surf Day, enjoyed the recent Solstice, and… and you’re saving the date to do what surfers do: Talk Story.
OH, and there is some possibility that outtakes, at least, from a very short documentary by a professional filmer, centering on a villainous surfer who hits the sometimes waves on the Strait, just might be something else offered at the upcoming surf culture event.
OH, and surfer, ARCHIE ENDO, Crescent Cruiser, is back in the area after an extended stay in Thailand.
Surfers don’t necessarily NEED nicknames. In order to last, there has to be a story. Some stories hold up better over time. Example:A recent incident involving a car ‘vandalized’ in a parking lot with accusations thrown around by the victim or victims of, allegedly, a banana peel on the hood (or roof, I wasn’t there) and some amount of sunscreen on a (side, I believe) window. Three surfers exiting the water and approaching the lot were challenged by the victim(s) and his or her or their friends, called in for support/backup.
Paraphrasing, the first of the three; “How could I have done it. I was in the water.” Similar answers from the other two. “It must have been the FOURTH SURFER, then.” The Fourth Surfer was gone. His compatriots refused to give him up. Authority figures showed up. THERE has been further back and forth on the incident; e mails, some conciliatory, but the question is: Will the nickname THE FOURTH SURFER nickname (and he denies perpetrating the crime) stick?
Does Rico need a better nickname than RICO SUAVAY (phonetic spelling), that, face it, isn’t all that cool, although Rico definitely dresses the part? Suave. Here is another option: I ran into Rico the other dayk, chatted a bit on the side of the road about a near-dark to dark session. Now, Rico is a writer, but I was still very impressed when he described the waves as “Dark merury velvet walls.” Edited to Mercury Velvet,” it sounds like a nickname to me. We’ll see.
BECAUSE TIME seems to move so quickly, I have been telling people for a while that, if I make it to June, I will have been a painter for 55 years. NOW, Trish disagrees, claiming I can’t claim the two years and three months I worked as a sign painter apprentice/nub at Buddy’s Sign Service in Oceanside, immediiately after graduating from high school. “But, Honey, that allowed me to get hired as a journeyman painter at twenty.” “They were desperate.”
They were. Still, I persevered and… now iit’s June, and…
This is my latest artsy/painterly project, the HISTORICAL MUSEUM in Quilcene, what has, after 45 years plus, my de facto home town. This is the third time I painted the mural. At the museum’s opening, in 1991, I went to the committee and volunteered to do a mural. “What will it look like?” “Whatever I come up with. If you don’t like it, I’ll paint over it.” In the 2000s I painted the entire building and freshened up the mural. Recently I saw there was a meeting going on, and I again offered my services.
None of the new crop of volunteers on hand knew who I was. Their plan was to get a restoration artist to match the colors and, yeah, restore the mural. “What?” That I was a cheaper alternative doesn’t really bother me, even though I put at least two days more work into it than I had planned. I haven’t put my name on it. One of the volunteers said, “It’ll probably be the last time you paint it.
“Oh, I don’t know.”
MEANWHILE, the shirts with the graphic I did are available at the Port Townsend Public Library. All you have to do is promise to read, like, so many hours.
More events are coming up in the greater Olympic Peninsula Surf Zone. The FOURTH OCCASIONAL SURF CULTURE EVENT is scheduled for JULY 17. More information later. Oh, and if you can’t be nice, be real. Get some waves, dark mercury velvet or otherwise, when you can.
Real Surfers 
