Can you dig it!?

Worst to First

It had been a long day, most of it spent down at my Mom's, assisting with a yard sale. My Andreini Sam sat strapped to the roof of the car as I was praying for leftovers to be leftover from the by now de rigeur New England pop up swell that happened on Friday. I was to be denied once again.

So it was, that desperately needing a lift from the waveless doldrums I have sunk into, I relied on my beloved Sox to do away with my funk. They did not disappoint.

I vaulted from the couch at Victorino's slam and let out a yell which I immediately stifled, so as not to awaken my slumbering clan and then bounced around as Uehara did what he's been doing and slammed the door on the Tigers.

In the midst of watching the delirious celebration of this team that was predicted to go nowhere, I heard footsteps thudding down the steps. I got up and looked around the corner, only to see a bleary eyed Thing 1, blanket draped over a shoulder and thumb in mouth, which he removed to explain, "Daddy, I heard you and came down to watch some baseball." I didn't have anyone to celebrate with and so his arrival was incredibly timely and made for an incredible spontaneous moment(captured below).

He made an already memorable evening even moreso.

We're comin' for ya Cahds!

Unsung

Heard of these kids? Back when Sub Pop was ruling the roost with a roster largely composed of grunge bands, Seaweed were something outside of the norm. They were more of a punk band, somewhat in the vein of Quicksand or Jawbreaker. Good stuff. Good hooks. Good energy. Too bad they went largely overlooked.

This Machine...

Sometimes I think I have the attention span of a gadfly or maybe it's just the overall lack of waves(I promise I'll stop talking about it soon). I own three awesome boards that I need to keep dialing in and yet, I still keep thinking of...other boards, naturally.

I was a)re-watching Jamie Budge's, "The Californians" recently and b)thoroughly enjoying the magnificent time suck that is the online version of Matt Warshaw's, Encyclopedia of Surfing when in an interesting bit of overlap, I was both watching footage and then reading about 60's surfer Bob Cooper. I particularly enjoyed the Dale Davis clip of Mr. Cooper found on the latter. Mention was made, in both instances, about Cooper's model, the Morey Pope Blue Machine. Naturally, I began researching the shape.



The somewhat piggish outline and "wingnose" have peaked my interest, predominantly because, although I love my longboards, I've been getting drawn to those longboards that are outside of the norm.

Dennis Ryder shaped a bunch of the originals(and apparently still makes them, along with the Peck Penetrator)and Jim Phillips makes a version. Hmmmm.

Of fins and other things.

When I bought my first single fin longboard at Noreaster surf shop, the owner Mark informed me that the price included a fin of my choice, either a cutaway or a flex. "What's the difference?" Mark gave me a quick rundown of the type of ride I could expect and I went with the flex fin, a True Ames L Flex, I believe. I haven't looked back since then.

At Larry Mayo's suggestion, I ran a Greenough 4a in his Softail model and on a whim, put a 4c in my Mini Zombie. For both, I dug the projection out of my bottom turns and the way it felt when I cut back. My name is El Meezy. I am a flex fin junkie. So far, I've tried the aforementioned L-Flex, and the two Greenough templates. My Andreini Sam has an Andreini flex fin. If I get another nose rider, I'll probably try out the Farberow Flex. What can I say? They suit my sort of style of surfing.

I was running a GL Flex in my Hot Generation but a recent session up North at a left hand point with rocks on one end left me with a fin in need of repair. Recalling the words of Brian Hilbers when I asked him about a good fin choice for the board and he opined that the HG is "disgustingly democratic with fins", I decided to compare and contrast and ordered up a new 4a in matte orange. R&D is forthcoming. Then again, the way it's been lately, who knows.

I just want a waist to stomach high clean wave. Is that so wrong? Actually, that's what the day up North was like but I surfed like shit. Meanwhile, Jay had a ball. Then again, he's a goofy foot(left hand slide).

More news and notes:

Apparently the work on the causeway up at my local is due to wrap up before the end of the year. Yay! Awesome that it only took them approximately three years on the damn thing. Unfortunately, they've already closed up the parking lot and won't reopen it until next May. I dig my local. When it's working, it's the first place we all generally run to. It's never all that crowded and over the past few years, I've had some fantastic days there. When I remember to, I throw a bag in my car to pick up trash after a session. I see a lot of other folks enjoying the beach in the "off season", not just surfers and I think it sucks that out of over 800 parking spots, there are maybe a dozen currently open to people wanting to get in there. I'm glad all the work they've done will be to further enhance the place but it pisses me off that access in the Fall and Winter months has been so difficult. Concessions of some sort should've been made.

Anyways...

The Fall has still not been epic. I'm grumpy.

New Voices

In the interest of not becoming one of those opinionated (slightly)older dudes that are always telling the younger generations that, "Our music was better, blah, blah."(As an illustration, check my step-father, "Mr. '60's". No explanation necessary I hope.), I do my best to seek out new tunes where and when I can. Back in my more technologically challenged past, this meant record reviews, zines, word of mouth, etc. These days, whenever I trip over something, I can hunt down the artist and see what's what.

"Newer" artists I've been listening to in the past couple of weeks include Gentleman Jesse(as seen in a previous post), The Heavy and this fella:



Sort of in the vein of other neo-garage acts(Black Lips, Ty Segall, etc) but King Tuff has his own thing going and I dig it. Really cool "The Sweet" sounding guitar riff in the middle of this tune. Check it.

PS - New King Khan and the Shrines album drops today. Aw yeaahh.

Missed it by that much.

"You're a good Dad but a bad surfer."

That was a comment from one of my fellow surfing dads. After at least 5 weeks of epic flatness, a bump appeared to soothe those of us dying for even the barest semblance of a swell. Friday was the day. New England definitely has these mysto swells that pop up and then are just...gone, so if one does pop up, you best be ready. I missed this one. Kid minding issues in the morning made a dawn patrol out of the question and a promise made to the boys made a sunset go out nil as well.

Instead, I pulled out the pig and the Hot Generation the next morning as the buoys were showing that there were leftovers. I was so damn giddy that I blasted past a cop doing 52 in a 35 zone. Thankfully, I got away with a warning. It wasn't all time. Knee high, slow and mushy was the special of the day but the pig was up for the challenge and I actually got some fun rides. For shits and giggles, I ran back to the car for the HG but the board likes a faster wave than the stuff I was fooling around on and even though I was catching waves, they were all a little lackluster.

The prevailing theme from the guys in the water and the dude in the parking lot and Tony was, "It was really fun yesterday. Best waves of the summer." Could I slam my head against a tree? I could but then I'd just have a sizable welt on my head and I know that the fall is just getting started. Right? That's what I'm telling myself anyways.