Technology pushes it...

Hail the BBC!
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The Second Coming

We've all been waiting too long for the rebirth of the best surf shop in these islands. It's about to happen. Look for a wandering star gathering and hovering over Fore St, Newquay this Whitsun. Praise be!

Chris Mannell's trailer.

Music for surf movies that never existed_42/100

The Do Lectures 2008 from The DO Lectures on Vimeo.

More great inspiration from the Do Lectures. It was great to be able to share some of the beauty of wave riding with so many people.

September: BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS!

I've had a couple of messages recently from people asking for copies of the book in time for Christmas.
Be sure to email me directly:
michaelfordham@gmail.com
And I will hit you back and get books out to you before the holidays kick in! In the meantime, enjoy the seascape taken from a recent, lonely, icey surf at my favourite part of North Devon.

The Do Lectures

Back in September I was honoured and humbled to be invited to speak at The Do Lectures, which was organised by Dave and his team from HOWIES. Amid the beautiful people and the beautiful setting Alastair McIntosh summed up for me the importance of sticking with what you believe in, in everything you do. Dave and the crew at Howies were instrumental in enabling the September Project to be. Please take 30 minutes out of your day, listen to Alistair's talk and be inspired.

Call for California submissions.

After putting the September Project on ice while we finished the Book of Surfing, we're now ready to start the process of putting together edition 2: The California edition. We're putting out a call for California-related submissions from writers, artists, photographers, illustrators, film makers, songwriters: anyone who has an opinion about the star-spangled Golden State and who happens to surf. A select crew from all over the world will then travel to California over a period of a month, and we'll publish a beautiful little piece of printed matter out of the words and pictures that arise. If you're having trouble getting hold of Edition 1 of the September Project, get in touch, let me know and I'll make sure you get one in your hands. In the meantime see the electronic version by simply clicking on the animation on the top right of the blog.
Email submissions/questions and other comments to Michael Fordham at Gmail dot com.

The story of my life...

...toy cameras and delayed print jobs. After lots of shenanigans, the behemoth-like 'killer guide to surf culture' is due back from press and for launch of June 16. Party at the Sandsifter at the back of Godrevy in Cornwall June 19. Couple of bands, couple of DJs, and some choice poison. Should be a laugh. Watch this space for more details and tasters. It's been a long and winding road to get to this point, but it will have been worth it. It's the most entertaining book on surf culture published to date. But I would say that, wouldn't I? Available to preorder through all the usual suspects. Buy one for every member of your family. God I'm a mercenary git.

Listen man, Brian Wilson can do no wrong

I don't care. I love him, and I think this is probably the greatest rap track ever recorded. Thanks to Nick Offer for the art, and to HUCK for the scout.

Beaneath the pavement, the beach!

It was forty years ago today. In Paris, during May 1968, a revolution of the imagination was underway. Students rallied for the workers of the world to be realistic by demanding the impossible. They made up killer slogans and even better posters. They chugged on Gaulois and lobbed cobblestones at coppers. It was so much fun, the workers came out to play with them. The French government and the economy was brought to its knees, and for a few fleeting moments it looked like the funkiest overthrow of a regime in history was about to happen. Then, according to who you ask, either the Communists sold out the revolution (again) by negotiating a deal for extra pay between the government and the workers at the Renault factories, or the rebellion dissipated when the college summer holidays started. I prefer the latter. Who knows, some of the kids may have gone surfing. Either way, for a brief moment, the landlocked, beret-rocking intellectuals of freedom realised where true liberty was to be found.
Beneath the pavement, they realised, lay the beach!

Is accordian music the future of the surf sound?

According to Mr Simon Skelton, purveyor of fine. locally crafted surfboards in North Devon's Braunton, it just might be. Mr Skelton is a renowned fetishist of all things woodsy, English and obscure and known to rip on a Bellyboard. I dropped into his shop Gulf Stream, said hello and was treated to a series of quaint renditions of squeezbox ditties. Support your local accordianist.

The primary element of my dawn patrol.

A fitful sleep, an anticipated alarm call and a low rev chequered flag beating the shipping forecast. Dull murmurings from Bush House teasing out the fact that I live on a Celtic archipelago and that I have five coastlines to choose from. Who wants to be a local?

Knostiness

More Monochrome from the Newport neo-troglodyte.

The Inaugural Duke

Classic footage including Hynson, August, Noll, Buzzy Trent, Wally Froiseth and others narrated by Bruce Brown. Classic and rare Dora interview too. You can see the Dark Knight trying to be as obscure as possible. And not quite making it.

Homage to Woody Brown

Been out the loop for over a month because of deadlines for the next book, and also because of the sad loss of my mother Patricia Anne Fordham. Sadly, first post back is a last post for inspirational surfer of spectacular longevity and energy Woody Brown. One of the originals, Woody was still surfing into his nineties and is one of the true elders of the tribe. Rest In Peace Mr Brown.

Coltrane Time

I'm fascinated by the relationship between music and surfing. This clip of John Coltrane from 1960 performing one of his classic interpretations of Rodgers and Hammerstein's anthemic 'My Favourite Things' (from the musical 'The Sound of Music') is a really rare glimpse into one of the most creative moments in sixties music. Forget the Beatles, dude. The interplay between order and chaos, rhythm and randomness, tone and dissonance, reminds me of a visceral, elemental surf session.

Coltrane is on the strangely 'eastern' sounding Soprano sax, repeating the signature theme over and over again and rinsing it out of almost every possible connotation. Elvin Jones is a master of polyrhythmic undertones on drums. Jimmy Garrisson grooves under the radar on bass, McCoy Tyner accentuates the flight of the melody on the piano and Eric Dolphy flies like a bird over the whole concoction on flute. All through the sixties, Coltrane's various bands would practice this tune for hours on end, and in one show in Japan, apparently played a whole uninterrupted three hour set based on this tune. Coltrane was trying to tease out some essential truth in the heart of the music by drawing all these rhythms and harmonies together and unifying them within the simple, beautiful melodic structure written by Rodgers & Hammerstein. There's something about the way that a surfer draws a line through the apparently chaotic forces of nature that is parallel to Coltrane's solo line through the orchestration.

Longer Still

I recently stumbled again upon this clip from Jbrother's film Longer. In my humble opinion it is still one of the most beautiful longboard sequences on film. The film maker performed a subtle stroke of genius by choosing Errol Garner's Misty as the soundtrack to JT's offbeat flow. Joel, meanwhile is an alchemist. As demonstrated here he can turn any wave he rides, even little sectiony peelers like this, into pure gold. That's the beauty of classical style as exemplified by Mr Tudor. Under his feet functional flow can assume the status of high culture. Dig. Eight to the bar.

Dig Spam, Live Spam, Eat Spam

Researching all things Hawaiian this afternoon, I came across this wonderful online homage to the noble canned spiced ham, which is very popular in the islands. I'm getting peckish just looking at the can. MMMMMM, let's go surfin'!

Iced Pintail

I left my beloved pintail out in the yard the other night. I woke to a deep frost and this pleasing effect. Would look nice as a kind of acid-wash effect or something. Any experts out there able to recreate the iced pintail?