That's me jumping (age 21). I'm wearing an old-fashioned wool bathing suit underneath my first wetsuit, a vest from the Dive 'N Surf shop in La Jolla, Calif., in 1956. This predated O'Neill's wetsuits. I sent my measurements to Dive 'N Surf and they mailed me the cut-out parts along with a can of Black Magic glue; I glued the edges together and then glued strips over the seams.
This was an improvement, but we still tried to stay dry as long as possible. On certain swells, we'd jump this 6 to 8 feet down to the water and if done properly, the upper body would stay dry.
Chris Thompson is a filmmaker working on the story of Northern California surfing during the 50s and 60s (a far cry from surfing in the warmer Southern California waters). Recently I loaned him a bunch of my old photos, which he scanned; this is one of them.
Maui's finest watermen including Kai Lenny, Jesse Richman, Robby Naish, the Porcella brothers, take on Jaws… Windsurf, kite surf, tow in, SUP and all while Dan maneuvers his Hughes 500D (helicopter) like a DJI Phantom to get the shot nobody else dares to get. From Dick Ryerson via Bob Kahn
"Imagine if the art you spent hours making was destroyed soon after completion. For 44-year-old San Francisco-based artist Andres Amador, who creates sand-paintings up to 100,000 square feet (~35,000 M2) in size, this is a reality. Amador received a BA in Environmental Science before joining the Peace Corps and then starting a regular career, but it was a visit to Burning Man in 1999 that changed him. He quit his job, and in 2004, in the hours been low and high tide, started doing sand art.…" http://www.boredpanda.com/sand-paintings-earthscape-andres-amador/ From Anonymous
Left at 5:30 AM, made about 12 photo stops, got to Gualala at 9 -- 3-1/2 hours travel time, from pitch black to blue-sky/blue ocean morning sun. Three planets are lined up in pre-dawn skies right now, about 4-6:30 AM in these parts. Power girl Venus, Jupiter, Mars. After breakfast, Louie and I took a long walk on the Guala beach.
What fishermen call "bait fish" (anchovies, herring, sardines, grunion, and smelt) have been abundant of late, attracting both fish and birds (which were swooping and diving this day last week). Can't see them that well here, but the right third of this scene is dense with birds. Hey, gimme a "hard copy" of this photo, so I can see what's going on.
This is the most vital, vibrant time of my life. A lot of things are falling in to place, or about to.
I look around these days, at the garden, or the book production process, or attempts to gather, hunt, or fish for food, or my workshop—and think, this is pretty good. A lot of it a long time in the making.
The book SMALL HOMES continues to unfold before my eyes. I'm in daily touch with, typically 4-5 contributors (as many as 25 emails in some of the folders), getting large enough photo files, editing text, doing pasteup. Not in any special order -- well actually, in the order in which it comes in.
I'm really excited about getting a new iPhone 6 (s Plus) (hoping tyo make my way through the AT&T maze so as not to pay full price -- I have another year to go on my present contract). I think Instagram will be perfect for my daily photos, I may be wrong, but it seems Instagram is replacing blogs -- at least with the millennials. BTW, there's a good article on this age group (11-33-year-olds)by James Wolcott (an excellent writer) in this month's Vanity Fair. I think I can get a journalistic flow going this way, and use blog for the writing impulse-- like here (and link them together).
We're revamping our website (being built in SquareSpace as we speak by Sean Hellfritsch) and it's lookin elegant. By the end of the year, we'll have a completely different looking internet "presence." It's important for us because we have so much"content" -- maybe 15,000 photos, a good portion of these on homes and building. We're also going to redesign theshelterblog and make good on my promise of getting mostly original stuff there, rather than recycled material that's already been posted (much of which, however, is great and worth sharing).We're going to build it, with the hope they will come.
I'm negotiating with publishers in Russia,China, and Brazil about foreign translation rights for our book Stretching (now in 24 languages).
Got my (12' Klamath aluminum) boat with15 HP 2-stroke recently rebuilt Evinrude motor working well and improving my lame backing-up-of-trailer technique.
Going to build a sleeping platform. I got really excited yesterday laying it out -- 10'x10', -- just putting 4x4's on pier blocks, 2x6 joists on top of them made me realize that I miss building. This is gonna be fun!
The Monarch butterflies are back in greater number than years, there are big flocks of quail patrolling every corner of the garden, a beautiful young fox appeared this morning, scaring the chickens, and them scaring him too. At the beach yesterday, windy, high tide, I got 3 weathered 2x4s, 3 bird skulls -- each a different bird -- a lot of dead birds the last month, big bag of seaweed for garden, and check out this bit of avian skeletal artistry, what is I believe the sternum with cortacoid/clavicle still attached by one remaining tendon.
To tell the truth, it's a great relief, not feeling the pressure of getting out a post every day. Almost 5,000 of 'em -- time for a change
My main focus these days is on the new book, SMALL HOMES; I've got over 50 pages roughly laid out, am in daily contact with a slew of contributors. I figure making books is how I can reach the most people, the best use of my time right now.
We're plotting a new online strategy. Right now, I'm thinking of doingTwitter and Instagram, with occasional blog posts. Right now there are 5 steps to getting a photo out there: 1. Shoot photo. 2. Load into MacAir. 3. Fiddle a bit with it in Photoshop. 4. Find Wi-Fi (or be in office) 5. Post it
My intention is to shoot photos with an iPhone 6, post on Instagram right then. If this works out, I'll be able to communicate way quicker. Right now, am waiting to see what Apple's got coming with the iPhone 7, maybe the 6's will be cheaper.
Found a nearly deserted beach yesterday, clothes off, warm sand, swimming, the only time I've experienced NorCal water so warm was the last El Niño, so unusual to be in this ocean and feel comfortable. Gathered a big bag full of purple/green seaweed for the garden. Like my neighbor, surfer/fisherman Andrew said the other day (down at the beach), "We're so lucky."
