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?