Art Slobs

Barry McGee interpretation of what he sees in his old single fins. At a show in Riverside (!) of all places.

Been on a surf art kick lately, well forever, actually but who's countin'. Showed up at the Venice Mollusk last Friday Cool Bra show. While the shop and vibe was cool, the Cuba pics that were showing in little slideshows around the spot were kinda lame. At least edit and tweak your pics a bit if you are going to display them. It seemed as though one of the Marshall brothers, who were throwin' the gig, just uploaded his Cuba trip photos untouched and that was the show. Maybe I am jaded from reading and seeing all the cool photos/art/writings of the surf blog world but c'mon. Crop out the lame stuff in the frame. Throw out the lame photos. It all just seemed very lazy in a "I'm am so cool already that I don't need to do anything more" way. Lacking. But the boards they had in the shop....oh my. Felt all the curves and pulled out the pocket measure on a couple and stored them in my memory bank. Stony shapin' later on that night for sure.

Then went with a buddy to see the jazz stylins of the Mattson 2 at the Gato Heroi show the next night. He makes some sweet boards and seems like a real cool cat. A lot of good resinwork by his other partner in crime, Chris, I believe. His buddy Knost even showed up later and jammed some post punk that had the Newport kids moshin' and thrashin' around all the nice Gato boards and art. I was hopin' no one would put a stomp thru one of those nice singlefins. Good show. Good to see what the young kids are groovin' to these days.

Back in the drink the last coupla days but it has been disappointing and weak. But I expected that. Weak windswell and small sloppy brown ocean peaks. It was good to get some fast beachbreak though. Think I'll skip it tomorrow as the winds should blow all night but ya never know.

3.1 @ 7 secs from 310

Cool Bra

While checking out the details on the Cuba show tonight I noticed that Mollusk in Venice is doing something interesting. Rentin' out boards. Not beat up funboards but sweet quads and little fishies and old school logs. Mandalas, Junods, Liddles, Christensens. Boards I'd never get my hands on otherwise. Maybe even could rent a Alaya like Machado is trimmin' on above. Hmmm.

South was fun this mornin' although the super thick dense fog hid the sun from me and made me surf in the dark longer than usual. Inconsistent but good on the sets. Good walls and high speed fishin' almost alone makes any morning perfect.

2.7 @ 17secs from 195

Cool Writings

Damn. In case you haven't been readin' this week, over at the cleanestline, Gerry Lopez has been spittin' out insane stories. Such good reads. Ditch surfin', North Shore history, etc. Cool cat with original soul and all that stuff. Gettin' me even more stoked.

www.cleanestline.com

2.9 @ 17secs from 185

Stoke

Swell down. Shapin' stands up. Skinned blank. Sweet shape. Stoke up. Souths will be up. Spring is sprung. Summer soon! Surf!

1.2 @ 12secs from 180