Twittering Again

After some inner wrangling and confabulation, as well as dilemmas with my account, it's official and I am "twittering" at

>www.twitter.com/enviromenial

What excites me about about Twitter is the 140 character limit that should make us all much more poetic. Unfortunately it's not turning out that way and people are merely writing tons of hyphenated, abbreviated or acronym-infused junk babble. I hope to counteract this problem with my twittering so check it out!

We Won in New York City!

I just got back from the New York Surf Film Festival where we won Best Short Film for All Points South. So stoked, as this is pretty much the best surf film festival on the planet! And NY is my roots, so sweet!

>www.nysurffilm.com

Thanks to my brother Nic for the awesome reception in Brooklyn, and for his great family.

Kelly

Kelly Slater: The planet's most famous, most loved, most talked-about surfer ever. An incredible athlete who can almost literally walk on water. Recent interviews with Kelly have the man speaking of how he wants to shape and ride a surfboard that's almost hollow, with a super thin deck into which he steps: a highly flexible watercraft through which he would actually feel the wave rushing beneath his feet, changing shape as the wave forms and pressing back into it with his toes and heels. Is he human?

Last week at a surfing contest in San Onofre State Park I met Kelly and we spoke for 15 minutes about composting, reality television, garbage and his brother. He appeared to be human as he crushed his competitors in the first rounds of the contest:

"There is no 'away' - it simply doesn't exist. Everything: our trash, our emotions, light, non-matter. It all goes somewhere when we're done with it. That's why I like to recycle and compost as much as possible. I can't compost as much as I'd like to because I travel so much for work, but when I'm staying with friends and family I compost. I don't save up all my used food scraps while traveling, I don't take it all with me in another bag and leave it at friends' compost piles... but hey, why not? Compost!" - Kelly on composting.

Kelly first became aware of the dilemma of "away" when his brother would sit at the dinner table and forcefully push away his plate, napkin, glass and silverware. He was getting rid of it by moving it "away" from himself. But was this stuff really going away? No. Much like all of our trash that we leave on the curb every week isn't really going anywhere, it's only being moved to a different location where it will be left again. This is why I compost and recycle - there is no away. Thanks, Kelly, for the great idea about the traveling luggage composter. Look for it soon in the Patagonia Surf Catalog.

But back to the man of the moment who you really want to read about: Kelly. Yes, he is definitely human. And he still rides waves better than everyone, except, perhaps, Dane Reynolds.


Above photo: Kelly paddles out at Lower Trestles. All Kelly photos in this blog post by Save The Waves Coalition.

We Is Famous

Feedback about World Surfing Reserves: if you're a devoted surfer you'll recognize these names, otherwise you'll be talking like an owl, "who?"

Rob: "It's about time!"
Fer: "Like a little Tasmanian Devil!"
Hans: "Sacred places that cannot be destroyed."

This video premiered yesterday at the Hurley Pro WCT surf contest at Lower Trestles. It is now on YouTube and TakePart.com. I produced it.

Shaka!

Surf Porn

When I was a child I watched a lot of surf movies on VHS tape. This evolved into surreptitiously viewing surf films on DVD while at work in the cubicle, or loudly with beers and friends at home. In recent years I've seen many surf films at fancy, well-produced "surf film festivals."

In spite of this great evolution in surf picture viewing, my complaint remains the same: surf films are terrible. The vast majority of them attempt to tell a weak story, and it's told very poorly. These surf stories are amateurishly cut with "surf porn", repetitive images of perfect waves that lull you into a sense of fulfillment while destroying your brain cells and forcing you to listen to mediocre music.

Even expensive, well-produced contemporary surf films mostly suck. They're made for young, drunk men to watch on DVD, over and over again, when there's nothing else to do. These flicks also suffer the surf porn trap: the cinematographer falls in love with his perfect images of perfect waves, with the result being 30 to 50 minutes of repeatedly perfect surf droning past us in idyllic locations being expertly surfed by attractive young professional surfers flashing well-placed logos and impossibly acrobatic maneuvers. My god, just writing this makes me want to burn my collection of surf films. They are a disservice to culture by forcing upon us incredible waves and amazing places ripped off by white-bread surfer athletes until we're ready to puke or fall asleep from overstimulation. Even the older "classic" surf films are no better. Too much of a good thing is never a good thing. Why is surfing, such a great pastime, often portrayed so incompetently? Perhaps we take ourselves too seriously?

Art? I make better art in the bathroom every morning. Surf films are worse than crap.

The End of the World (by Fluid):

It was a gloriously long weekend. It's now Tuesday, the new Monday, and more vacation is needed. To dull the pain, here is a heartwarming short animated film about the end of the world:

>> http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end <<

Enjoy. Don't work too hard today.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

180 South

Hans

Trestles was hot and glassy on a Saturday afternoon. Hans Hagen, ultra cool ripping surfer and soul master of Laguna Beach Surf Mafia origins, met us in the state park's now $15-per-day parking lot. He is a STW surf ambassador and all-around very cool cat. We walked down to the beach and Hans told me of his first surf trips to Trestles as a tiny grom: as soon as his arm was long enough to reach around his board and carry it, his dad brought him along on dawn patrols to Trestles. We went for a surf after a film interview for a PSA spot. I borrowed his short board bonzer while he destroyed epic Trestles on a Xanadu shortboard. Lots of spray was seen by all.

Hans is the ultimate free surfer, a father of two, a very stylish rider of all strange wave craft, and a man who looks like Jesus (long scraggly hair and short unkempt beard). He is an elegant surf bum to the highest degree.

A golden quote from a golden Californian, Hans Hagen:

"Surf's been so good lately - so much swell - I haven't gotten anything done. My kids are hungry, house is a mess, work and meetings pushed back another week. I ask myself, is this meeting really that important? Are we actually doing business here or is it just another meeting talking about things? It can probably wait until next week... I'd rather stay poor and happy." - Hans on work lately.

Coming soon: Lost Prophets, a surf film about Hans, Reef, Rasta, Chris, Brian and others surfing perfect waves and waxing philosophically as only surfers can.

El "Che" Fernando

In Argentina the word "che" is used much like Californians use "dude" to address friends and passersby. This is a short profile of Fernando Aguerre: Argentine firecracker, surf industry magnate, philanthropist, ISA president, constant fundraiser and all-around colorful character, Fernando - or "Fer" as his close friends and family call him - is just another che. And he is a major fan of Ernesto "Che" Guevara - when I arrived at his home he was unpacking two original signed black and white photo prints of the most famous "Che" in action, including the above portrait, "Guerrillero Heróico."

Fernando and I met years ago in National City, California, at the headquarters of Reef Brazil. He is the co-founder of that mega surf brand and when we met he was in the process of selling it and becoming a multi-multi-millionaire. Fernando brims with energy and enthusiasm for everything - and it shows in the many business and philanthropic ventures he is a part of. If someone is somehow involved in the surf industry, Fernando knows them and has probably hugged them as only a South American can. No longer tied to Reef Brazil nor their famous thong bikini ass ads that he created, Fernando now devotes his time to surfing, family, real estate, surf industry wrangling, and aggressive philanthropy for humanitarian and environmental causes.

Here are a few golden quotes from Fernando that I garnered during a film interview with him on Saturday. The sun sets over Big Rock, the Los Angeles fires dye the sky brownish red, the waves shower his triplets playing in the surf out front, and Fernando philosophizes in wrap-around Prada sunglasses about life on Earth:

"My grandmother always told me: giving makes you feel so much better than receiving. You must give, Fernando, give!" - Fer on philanthropy.

"Save The Waves is a tiny organization with a big footprint. It's like a little Tasmanian Devil." - Fer on STW.

"Every year I hold Liquid Nation Ball, a humanitarian fundraiser here at my house in La Jolla, and we raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in a night of partying. I invite the surf industry executives, famous surfers, and my rich La Jolla neighbors - we steal from the rich and give it back to the poor." - Fer on LNB.

"Fundraisers are good for everyone involved - the beneficiaries feel good about getting money and support, and the benefactors feel good about themselves for giving." - -Fer on his famous events.

A very intelligent man, a shameless name-dropper and an expert talker, Fernando appears to wish he was a modern-day surfer dude concocted of equal parts Che Guevara, Yvon Chouinard, Robin Hood and Kelly Slater.

Learn more about Liquid Nation Ball 2009: click here.

Rob

As cliché as it sounds, to me Southern California is the ultimate concrete jungle. It bothers me to visit LA and its environs: hundreds of miles of cement, people, exhaust and traffic; all of this on the edge of a gorgeous stretch of polluted waters. The freeway that is LA and south is an institution. And yet people seem to flourish and thrive with culture, creativity, coffee and stress.

If I were to create a caricature of the ultimate southern Californian, Rob Machado would be the last person I could think of as this character - based on his media image and public persona. He's the ultimate soul-surfer we all secretly want to be: the happy-go-luck, carefree, smiling and mellow face of surfing. In person he is also like this, but with a healthy dose of the sarcastic cynic added for good measure.

On Saturday I met Rob at his home in Cardiff and interviewed him for a Save The Waves film we're producing about World Surfing Reserves and Trestles. A very green, Hawaiian-style lawn and lots of leafy foliage with the ocean in the background was our setting. A strange and itinerant amalgam of friends, neighbors and family wandered in and out of the yard over the course of our hour-long interview. In spite of being strange, they were not curious - probably very used to strangers visiting Rob with large cameras and artificial shade for special lenses. Small waves and a Saturday crowd lined nearby Seaside Reef, and plenty of Saturday morning traffic roared in the distance.

Here are some golden quotes from my interview with "Mob" aka "Lob" aka Rob:

"I've had experiences in the ocean that no one would ever believe. Mind-blowing, amazing, other worldly things." -Rob on why surfing matters.

"Paddle boarding the coast on a big board warps time and space - it opens up so much coastline, and 1 mile or 5 miles down the coast are nothing. It opens up an area of the ocean that you would never, ever think of visiting. It's so much fun." - Rob on SUPing in southern California.

Rob's autobiographic surf film 'The Drifter' premieres in Japan this week and in New York on September 25 at the New York Surf Film Festival. Watch his film's trailer here.