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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is a little notebook that I'm going to use to communicate to the worldwide crew involved in the little green book, and anyone who's interested in getting involved. For those of you who don't know about it, the september project is a series of books made by a global community of writers, artists, photographers, film makers and friends who happen to surf.
Each year we'll explore a corner of the surfing planet, write a few words, make a few images, and publish them in a beautiful little book. The ambition is to capture the beauty and the richness of not only riding waves in a particular area, but the diverse experience a surf trip entails. The idea is that each book will be infused with the essence of a time, a place and a surfing moment. We want to capture the incredible blessings surfers are bestowed by the ocean, and have chosen to do this in the permanent, tangible form of print.
The books are printed and bound using 100% sustainable materials and non-toxic inks based on vegetable matter, just down the road from where I live in the west of England. So, hopefully, the process leaves as little trace as possible. We published the first book just before Christmas 2007, based on a month long sojourn to the West coast of Ireland. I'll post some images for you to see. I have very few left, but if anyone is interested in scoring a first edition, get in touch, and I'll try to get a copy to you, wherever you happen to be. Alternatively Howies and Loose Fit surf shop have a few left too, I believe. The edition features contributions from Tara Darby, Kieron Black, Thor Jonsson, John Eldridge, Dan Crockett, Easky Britton, Mickey Smith, Sandow Birk, Jamie Brisick, John Isaac, Tyler Hatzikian, Dane Peterson, Jimi Newitt, Peter James Field, Spencer Murphy, Sam Bleakley, Jamie Bott, Chris Mannell, Nick Radford and Helen Gilchrist.
The next edition will be out in November 2008. Watch out for news of cast and content soon. with love
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