It's winter down under...

Tis the season of deep swallow Winterstik runs and double plug 8'2" guns...
All photos by Multitalented Mackie

Ether Monthly #13-Portrait Of The Artist As A Youngish Ripper

Kidman in front of the lens.

Definitely one of the reasons I like the photographers I like is the degree of involvement they have. This is not to say you have to be a great surfer or skater to take good surf or skate photos, but someone like Kidman's immersion in this whole wonderful foolish pastime is so visible in his work. It's what makes us look at a photo and feel you're living it. If you're in SoCal this weekend you can see moving pictures of him too- Patrick Trefz is screening his film Idiosyncrasies this Friday at the Coast Cinema in Laguna Beach, 7pm, with an after screening event at the Surf Gallery.

Three Antiques

Olsen, Friedman, Kodachrome.

Before you give me any grief for that, it was Friedman's comment and I just swiped it, Olsen is one of my skate heroes still (how's that board he's riding?) and those photos are fantastic. I'm sure you can replicate the look no problem with some fancy digital setup, but c'mon, that's Kodachrome. Speaking of antiques, I've been hobbling around like a gouty codger after an ill advised attempt to pull into a closeout earlier this week. Something for you kids to look forward to, the whole not bouncing back quite so quick deal. Think about that next time you try an air you little bastards.

Body Surfing Feels Good All Over

Shared a solidly closing out beach break with a handful of bodysurfers yesterday, and it was horribly obvious they were getting pitched less often and without a lump of foam tied to their legs. Definitely the better choice of wave related fun for the day. In their honor, here's the Ando Bodysurf T again as I still have a few left, M and L only. $25, shipping included so email info@foamandfunction.com if you want one.



Here's a few more in our 'famous artists' series. Casper and Hydro Hi-line by the amazingly talented Tyler Warren, and the classic Foam & Function T from LA tattoo legend Jill Jordan. Same price as above, colours and sizes are a bit limited so get on it.

Yoinks!

Mackie again of course. All I know is it's called a SimmZap, it's 5'10" and he says it goes unreal. There must be something in that Ulladulla water....

Patrick Trefz Film Night!

Right, back on to the posting as there's lots of good stuff kicking around on the desl top here. For starters, how about the SF showing of the new Patrick Trefz film 'Idiosyncrasies'? This coming Wednesday (the 21st) at the 4 Star Theatre on Clement St, hosted by the fine lads at Aqua Surf Shop. That will be a good night out, no doubt about it. There's a little interview with the auteur himself here and if you don't have a copy of the 'Thread' book, well we'd be happy to fix that situation- $30 for a signed copy, email info@foamandfunction.com for more info. There are SoCal shows coming, dates will be posted as soon as I have them.

Oop North

Ohio Street Beach

Ohio Street Beach is a small wedge of sand trapped between Chicago's big water treatment plant and the city itself.

North Avenue Beach

North Avenue Beach is a broad crescent of sand held in place by a long curving concrete jetty (groin?). The beach was quiet in the morning, but by afternoon it was packed with volleyball players and sunbathers.

There's a great map of Chicago's lakefront parks at: Lakefront Map

Oak Street Beach

Once upon a time, sand worked its way southward down the west side of Lake Michigan, building out into the lake in a series of spits at the mouth of the Chicago River. But one thing led to another and the beaches were gradually (or not so gradually) left behind as the city moved into the lake.

Then David Burnham came along and saw the potential for a hugely public, albeit hugely artificial, shoreline. Like many other Great Lakes cities, lake fill was an obvious solution, but in Chicago they seemed to have done it better and bigger than others. The result is miles of public park along the lake front, trimmed with stepped concrete walls, artificial beaches, marinas, and park space. The wind and wave regime hasn't changed appreciably since the city arrived, so sand placed along the shore would move southward rapidly were it not configured with jetties and landfill into a series of north facing pocket beaches. Some are isolated, some segmented by groins.

Oak Street Beach, at the north end of Michigan Avenue, fits into a corner in the lake fill - kept in place by Lake Shore Drive as it curves east around the northern part of downtown. The straight seawall north of Oak Street precludes a beach, so it sort of pretends to be one. Despite what could easily have been viewed as ugly, I thought it was actually pretty neat and it certainly got its share of use, at least later in the day (these shots are mainly early in the morning). I suppose it was underwater in the mid-1980s when lake levels were high.

St. Joseph

Silver Beach in St. Joseph was crowded at lunchtime on Saturday when we passed through (more pictures at hshipman).

St. Joseph is on the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the St. Joseph River. As at nearby South Haven and New Buffalo (and Michigan City, in Indiana), waves and longshore transport are from north to south, building up sand on the north side of the river mouth jetties. This also used to happen on other side of the lake, at the mouth of the Chicago River.

Geologically, this sand is destined for the south end of the lake, where it will be blown inland to bury 19th century steel mills and freeways under hundred-foot tall dunes.

Point Pelee

The northern shore of lake Erie (Google Maps) is punctuated by three elegant landforms. The location of each may be determined by glacial features like moraines, but the shape of each is all about wind and waves and moving sediment. There are good bathymetric maps and geologic explanations of Lake Erie at NOAA's NGDC.

Long Point is a spit, neither a simple nor a small one.

Point aux Pins (Rondeau Provincial Park) is an arcuate promontory that might be categorized as a recurved or cuspate spit. Its southeastern shore is composed of a beautiful series of accreted beach ridges, while its western shore is somewhat more tenuous. There is a big offset in the shoreline at the jetties at Erieau and the map on the wall at the Eau Buoy Cafe showed that in 1868 the natural opening was much larger and located pretty much where the town is today.

Point Pelee, where all of the these photos are from, is a large cuspate foreland, tapering to a slender point. It has lost ground, or at least changed shape, over time, making the riprap on the west side of the tip seem both unfortunate and sort of futile. The sinuous tip vanished southward under the waves, tempting me to wade out farther, but the biting flies argued against it.

Point Pelee is the southernmost point in mainland Canada. The country's true southernmost point is a very similar looking spit at the southern tip of Pelee Island, maybe 25 km south of here.

Lake Erie

This is a more geographically general post than most, since my goal was simply to capture several shots taken as we traveled between the Cape Rondeau area and the western end of the lake. This shoreline consists mainly of bluffs, many of clay or silt, but there are also low beaches, including the large barriers that have formed at Point aux Pins and Point Pelee.

The geography of this shoreline appears to be controlled by larger glacial features and sediment variability, subsequently reshaped by Holocene coastal processes. Humans have left their mark, too, with jetties, lots of groins, and a mish mash of armoring, at least locally. Most of the shoreline development is on the low beaches, probably because the bluffs are eroding quickly enough to discourage building and because the demand for Lake Erie view property isn't the same as on Puget Sound.

The timber groins are at Erie Beach?, just west of Erieau (Aerial).
The bluffs are at Point Alma (Aerial).
The sheetpile groins are on the west side of Point Pelee, near Seacliffe. (Aerial)

Sandbanks

Sandbanks Provincial Park, on the northeastern shore of Lake Ontario, includes two large sandy swash-aligned barriers with their accompanying dunes. I had been curious to get here since my 2008 trip to Ontario, when these beaches were just too much to add to one trip. But our route from northern New England to Chicago took us along the northern edge of both Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and Sandbanks was a nice respite from the highway and the muggy, hot weather.