Aaaaah

And again from Carl. 6'0" this time, boxes are an option.

Mmmmmm

Ekstrom. Doing it so old school that it's new school.

Ether Monthly #9- Art

Some of Andrew Kidman's screen print art, processed from images taken for the film 'Glass Love' and several photos featured in 'Ether'. There are framed originals of some of these pieces available and thre's a section of this work in 'Ether', which is in itself a limited piece signed and numbered art. A piece of art with a 10" record, but a piece of art none the same.

Little Black Wheels & Australian Efficiency

Down there on the sunny east coast of Australia, our mate Mick Waters has been quietly getting on with it all and deserves congratulations for two new deliveries. One is the proverbial bouncing baby (now months old- I'm late on things as always) and the other is the new film. 'Believe' was a very nice addition to the canon of surf film, and this new effort looks like another beauty in a similar vein (nice wave Mick Hughes is getting there too.) I'm hassling Mick to get copies of 'Little Black Wheels'and maybe a restock of 'Believe' too, so if you're interested let me know. Here's a link to an interview with Mr. Waters. Nice work indeed, and as one who's paternal relatives ran timber scows on the Murray for years, I wish a little of that Australian efficiency would show up in my character.

Thread Monthly #5- The Shirt

The movie and the book now have a shirt. A lot more user friendly than the 'Sketchy Business' shirts we used as tour merch (check the archives, there's an excellent shot of the svelte and lovely Ando Davis wearing one back in May 09 somewhere) and of the highsartorial standard you've come to expect from this group of people. Available through Trefz very soon. I have a few prints from the book, framed by SF legend Peter Kirkeby and all at what I believe will be a very reasonable price. Trefz promises he has a film on the way which is good news.

Surf & Tea

Some of you, like myself, may have seen Gerry Wedd's work in a Surfer's Journal article and had your interest piqued. He's had this blog going for while with a lot of ceramic work there, and it's really amazing stuff. There's a definite surfy element to what he does (He was involved in Mambo clothing for a while too) but it transcends being 'surf art'. That said, I really love the series of tiles with portraits of the great surfers on them- beautifully done and there's a nice sense of humor to it all, as you can see from the non ceramic related posts he's made. He's playing with some really interesting approaches to a traditional craft style, something I like a lot when it's done well and Mr. Wedd is certainly doing that. The man knows how to make a good looking teapot which is a wonderful art, and as an unashamed tea drinking obsessive (3 to 4 pots a day on top of the morning coffee) I'd also like like to direct your attention another favourite of mine, the Tea Appreciation Society, mad limeys though they may be, it's a fun way to while away a few minutes. My thanks to Kidman and Manny Caro for unwittingly steering me to this stuff too. Better yet the waves have been good and the weather lovely so I'm in full work/responsibility avoidance mode.

Domo Arigato Mackie San

Mick Mackie has sent snapshots from his visit to Hokkaido no less. Clueless as I may be about snow stuff, these bindingless swallowtail snowsurf boards look like some serious sort of fun. The level of board sport interchange is really nuts, the snowskate guys have been working the same basic line of thought from a skateboard angle, and the crossover with Mick's high tech flex fish is obvious.
...And furthermore, 3 days down the line I get an edifying email from Mr. Mackie himself. It seems I'm truly utterly clueless about the snowboard side of it all. Those boards do indeed have bindings (you can see 'em for chrissakes!). They are still totally awesome looking, and they're made by a company on Hokkaido called Gentemstick, the one on top is a Rocketfish and the one below a Spoonfish which makes sense just looking at them. Gentemstick have a pretty nice website here, their whole deal seems pretty epic- living a snow/surf lifestyle on Hokkaido, and living it with serious style.



Meanwhile I have this 5'9" on hand should anyone feel like acquiring some sidecut flextail magic, at pre-currency crash prices no less. These boards are a revelation for the fish enthusiast.

Lance Mountain's house last week.

G.E.F. kept himself busy while out west. Lance and Pat Ngoho sessioning as hard as any teenager makes me happy, and how's this as a backyard setup?

Double Bluff

The end of Double Bluff Road was packed with cars, but I found a space and joined the crowd. Fortunately, it thinned out pretty quickly as I headed across the new spits and made my way to Double Bluff itself - arguably the biggest and best bluff on Puget Sound.

I will save more of my beach observations for a longer visit with better light. I'm sure I will be back.

What a great way to end the day - before racing off to catch the 6PM ferry back to the big city.

Sound Waters is a great excuse to visit Whidbey Island on a Saturday in February. If you search the blog for the label "Whidbey", you will find that several of the posts sprung from these trips. (Wow - 29 entries come up for Whidbey - I must spend way too much time up here!)

Mutiny Bay

I spent the day at Sound Waters but headed out while I still had some daylight left. There was no way I was going to spend a beautiful Saturday on Whidbey without actually going to a few beaches! As usual, the event was well packed and well run. As usual, congratulations to Beach Watchers and all the volunteers that make it happen.

The end of Robinson Road is a good way to experience the sandy beaches of Mutiny Bay. Every year a few thousand cubic yards of sand (that's a guess) heads past here on its long trip from Double Bluff to Bush Point. The abundant sand wreaks havoc with the boat ramp and with the outfall that drains the area behind the beach. I've never seen the beach - any beach - looking quite like this one did today. Intertidal lumps - it looked like a big pile of wet sand had been shaken. I honestly have no idea what happened here, but it sure looked cool!

Historically, Mutiny Bay consisted of a beautiful series of slender spits stretched out around the bay with large wetlands behind and occasional tidal inlets. Hard to tell now, beneath all the big houses. The lagoons are pastures or lawns and the only tidal inlets left are the drain outfalls.

Lowell Point

I hadn't walked this southernmost part of Camano Island State Park in many years. I'm often down here at very high tides when the waves leave little room to walk along the toe of the bluff - which makes walking the spit just north a more attractive option (Lowell Point).

Wolf Bauer coined the term "feeder bluff" decades ago for the eroding bluffs that contribute sand and gravel to Puget Sound beaches and the term has stuck. We still use it in regulations and technical reports and interpretive signs. It's a great functional term that describes what these bluffs do. Sometimes I avoid the term - it lacks the scientific credentials and precision of wordier phrases - but in the end, it works.

This particular feeder bluff has been working well recently. The culprits include early season rains, some good freezes (which can contribute to certain kinds of failures), and the recent very high tides. A 13.9 foot tide, like those of two weeks ago, probably brings water right up to the toe of the bluff itself - even without waves.

Discovery Park

I was just down here in November (West Point) but the tide had been too high to let me visit the big landslide on the south side of the park. Today, the water was lower and we were able to get a good look at this complicated stretch of shoreline.

There's been plenty of recent sliding - maybe a combination of early fall rains and the recent high tides. The beach was littered with scraps of wood and there was little logic or pattern to the sediment on the upper beach - suggesting lots of fresh material, lots of sorting still to happen. The large central portion of the slide was dumping large amounts of sand onto the beach and a raised band of deformed clay 20-30 feet out on the beach marked the toe of the active slide. The lower beach at the south end of the park is marked by a confused series of ridges or berms. They did not appear to be normal bars - maybe they reflect irregularity in the topography of the platform due to historic deep-seated sliding or otherwise messed up geology.

There was little mobile sediment in this southern area. Maybe it's an an indication of a sediment-starved beach. The historic source of material is the two miles of updrift, and unstable, shoreline now called Perkins Lane (2007) - which has been largely armored for most of a century.

At Last, Last Hope

Finally have copies. It's a collection of short films about the sea by some of the more interesting surf film makers out there. Not so much a surf film collection but there is surfing in there. Music from the roster of bands on Spunk/Drag City. Perfect for a rainy day like the one that's happening now- chilly, sore shoulders from good sessions this past week, pot of Earl Grey or maybe Lapsang and this on the picture box. Perfect. You can have yours for $25, US shipping included, by emailing me at info @ foamandfunction.com.

Oh the fun we have...

Shiny surfboards, entertaining potpourri of folks, Alva DJing 5 hours straight the first night, couple of fun surfs- That's a good time. Some juicy surfboard portraits coming soon when I'm less sleep deprived. A big thanks to caffeine for all it's good work the last few days.

remaining untouched

A check in with the recovery of the Sand Dunes abpve, and below: Glorious Sunny day at St Clair on the 5th.

Do you remember the day when you were so sure and ecstatic about God? That day when your labor for Christ felt like a walk in the park? And in the end of the day you felt rejuvenated? Listen: Hold that frame of thought in your mind and heart. Because that's the kind of faith that's going to carry you through your re...cent and hardest battle about your faith. When you begin asking: "Am I doing the right thing?"

Here's what the Word of God for you is for this situation:

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised (Hebrews 10:35-36).

Yard Possum Roll Call