Clip O' The Day

Pictures of the day.

Last summer about a week after my return from Oahu I joined Lord Eric and the hamster for an unexpected New Jersey treat--an Avett Brothers show.

The show was really fun--set out in the country, on this huge farm. (Yes New Jersey has farms) I have to admit I was a little let down with the pop sound of all the newer Avett songs, but it was still a rad time just being there as kids were playing in the grass, bees were buzzing, butterflies were floating, and we were drinking many good beers.

It was really nice to be home and around the trees and people I grew up with. As much as I love Hawaii and other parts of the world, there will always be a place in my heart for New Jersey.

The funniest part of the trip was dinner. After the show we went to this weird old diner out there near elmer somewhere and ordered some food. Now, Country folk in New Jersey are quite unique as they always seem to be slightly touched by a kind of back woods weirdness. The three of us walked into this diner and it was almost like a record scratched to silence. Us boys weren't from around there. By the end of dinner our older waitress was literally trying to marry off the younger ones to us. I had catfish. It was fun.

Adam, the running fool.

Head Full of Doubt (Amazing Song)

Though I didn't really like the newer pop sounding songs, I gotta say the Avett Brothers are still an amazing band. I got into them a few years back via the Jaime Hunter gang and still to this day when I hear their music, memories of tall pine Carolina backyard barbecue missions to Mase fishin singin and surfin and just plain old doin nothin and hangin around and smiling come to mind. Their music is goodness.

After the show we walked back to the huge field we parked in and to our surprise the darkness around us was shimmering with a strange fluorescent green glow. More fireflies than I have ever seen--it almost looked as if they were blinking in patterns as billions of them shimmered in waves across the field, trees and sky around us.

Heres a cool Avett Bro's Video for you to check out if you've never heard their music before. This video's cool cause it's the song they were playing at the show we were at (shown above) in it's entirety. This songs kind of a slower one, it doesn't really depict the full sound of the band, but it's a really good one so I put it up any way. ok bye.

My Old Man

When I was a kid I became obsessed with the act of riding waves. I can still remember what surfing was like to me then, and how pure the experience was before I became the jaded water person I am today. I remember mostly the smells of things. The smell of wax and the sound it made in the middle of the night as I waxed up a board, too excited about the morning to be able to sleep. Man I miss being that excited about tomorrow. And I can remember the surf shops, how magical they were to me with all their cases of stickers and wax-- surfboards hung up on the ceilings like stars so mysterious and magical--and real surfers with long hair and early 90's grunge looks influenced by guys like Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain who gave the whole world this deep emotional undertone of cool that I instantly became enamored with. I did a lot of stuff when I was a kid; rode bikes, rode dirt-bikes, played sports, did Tae Kwan Do with my Dad, played with my friends, the list goes on and on, but I never really attached myself to any of this stuff, then I caught a wave on a surfboard and I have never come across a better way to identify myself since.

The funny thing about all this is my Dad's response. Now, don't get me wrong, he liked the beach and cruising in the water, but he didn't take to surfing like I did back then, he didn't let himself understand it because he was so driven by other things like being a good family man and playing his guitar. It's funny, some of the most poignant memories I have of growing up a surfer is being pissed at my Dad for not letting me go, for not understanding that surfing was not a want, but a need. And again, don't get me wrong, pops was a great supporter of my surfing, but he was also a great supporter of something I have always lacked in--responsibilities.

I can vividly remember this one swell when I was around, I don't know, maybe 13--in my mind it was sick, blue, warm, head high, no one out, and all my friends calling and networking all morning on how we were going to get to the beach to surf, and I couldn't go, why, I had to rototill the whole yard with my Dad. Awe, I remember being so pissed at him as he taught me one of my first and most important lessons about surfing which is: there will always be another wave. Anyway what I'm getting at is now a days all my Dad wants to do is go surfing. Ha, and I hear him gripe all the time about having to cut the grass, or work on a car or fix something in the house, because "110 is going off right now Brian we should be out there," ha, he's become obsessed, and just doesn't want to do any of that other stuff anymore, he just wants to go surfing because now, he truly is a surfer.

The old man's got a pretty good style, check out the tally ho around ten seconds into this clip courtesy of Dave Mccarty.

Hahahaha, the music is awesome...

Happy Birthday Dad.

What's the Matter With Kids Today?

Prafter.com showcased this piece on Education a few months ago. I just wanted to post it up here again to try to keep this message alive--I feel like this kind of thinking could lead to a lot of positive changes in our world. And you know what, I think the most important thing about the ideas suggested in this piece is that they are obvious and simple. I feel like we all know deep down inside that certain things in are world are not right, but we look away from that knowledge. Sometimes we look away because it's easier, sometime we are scared of the consequences of standing up for what we know is right, but in the end, if we just listen to that voice of truth within us all, I think maybe we could end a lot of the suffering we see around us today.

Sunday

Today is Sunday. Lotta stuff I could do today. Go surfing I could. I'm not going to though. Gotta do some other stuff today, I'll surf again soon. Maybe Wednesday. I'm writing on the blog again. Haven't been writing anything in a while, but I'm writing again now so if you wanna read it or look at it then thats cool.

Adam and I had the best surfing experience of our lives yesterday. We rode some big waves together. He's getting pretty darn good--Adam--we both learned a lot. Mostly, it was just fun though. It was ten feet Hawaiian. Lefts. Outer reef. Perfect.

This is kind of what the waves we surfed looked like.

I don't know why the text turned blue now after uploading that drawling, but I'm just gonna leave it like that if thats ok with you. Anyway, yeah we were on top of the world yesterday after that session. We both got barreled and did big fades and drew big kine lines. It was new territory for us because we became sort of comfortable. We switched back and forth between the 9'2 Owl shaped Brewer single fin and the big 7'6 Tokoro pipeline gun. The Tokoro was a bit difficult at first, but if you took off in the right spot it was doable. Watching each-other paddle into waves was exciting. I remember watching Adam paddle into a particularly sweet inside eight footer. He was on the Yellow Brewer and inside the little pack of guys surfing with us, which is taking a chance because if he didn't catch the wave he risked being caught by a set. But he caught it. It was inside and real fat and doubling up. I had caught a wave on the Tokoro and was paddling back out and I came over a hump and saw him making these big, huge, open ocean paddle strokes with his head down. As he started to get sucked up the face of the wave I started yelling, "c-mon Adam, get it Adam!" but he couldn't hear me cause he was real far away. He kept paddling like that until he was right in the lip of this solid eight footer and I didn't think he was going to get it, but it doubled up and pitched and as it it did he popped up into this big wave ninja stance and just stuck the hell out of the drop. As he loosened up a bit and started his bottom turn I was pretty proud of him. It was a really sick wave.

I got obliterated on one. It was a solid one, not a set, but a double up like Adams. I was on the Tokoro and behind this big bowl section and the thing started bottoming out real hard. As I was trying to make up my mind wether to pull in or low line it just outside the lip line the lip connected with me right around my knees and flicked me off my board like you would an ant from your forearm. It was very rapid and violent. I kind of skipped for a second and I remember hoping that my board wouldn't hit me then I was underwater and cart-wheeling pretty hard. Then I kind of stopped and I was deep. I knew this was the worst wipeout I have ever had and I tried to relax and not be scared. I went to my leash cause in all that foam and with so little air it's tough to swim up. I got up and made sure to get a real breath before I checked for another wave. There wasn't one and I was stoked because I survived a fle-flicker style wipeout on a medium sized big day.

More

Hello it's me again. It's a little bit later on, still sunday, and I have some ideas. I'm reading now, I just dropped Adam off at work. I should be doing some work too but have decided to "just go with the flow," instead because I'm reading this book that suggests the best way to live life is basically to just go with the flow... (Its actually a bit more involved than that, and very enjoyable to read and I highly recommend it.) Anyway, the flow has taken me back to this book about the secrets of the universe, given to me by Christie (may be spelled wrong) a good friend, and girl-friend of none other than the mysterious and magical Sandy Hoy. (Sandy paints pictures of cowboys in the nude.)

In any case I read a lot, for a lot of reasons, and well, this reading always sparks lots of action in my head. And I'm not sure here, but I think some of the action, motion, ideaness that goes on in my head might be interesting to some of you peeps, so I'm going to write it down. Also writing will help me to organize and make sense of this thinkstuff and to nail some of it down a bit, because quite frankly it usually blows away like sea spray on a windy day.

Ok so heres some of the stuff moving around in my mind today.

Idea One: Write a cool story.

-The last book I read was Deerslayer,

The story of american frontiersman/hunter, Natty Bumpo's first warpath with his native American friend Chingachgook, who happens to be one of the last of his people, the Mohicans. This book is a classic masterpiece and one of the most moving books I have read in a while.

Deer Slayer author, James Fenimore Cooper

Deerslayer was an amazing world to be in for a while, though it depicted a very hard reality, which is fine and good to be around on occasion because life is damn hard for most people and one of the things I'm trying to do with my life these days is be more aware of that fact, but I have to admit that sometimes I crave an easier, more fun reality. I guess thats one of the things I get from reading--a very intense, vivid, emotionally attached sense of whatever reality I want to pick up. Wether or not this is a positive aspect of reading I will not go into now, but I wanted to make this point because lately I'm finding that however awesome the writing I have been reading is, there is always some little aspect of it that lets me down. So, in leu of this realization I have decided to write the perfect story, or I guess the story that I personally am craving the most to read at this moment.

I say 'at this moment,' because there are times when I crave tragedy, and there are times when I crave a love story, and there are times when I crave a tale of survival, and there are times when I want my mind agitated by mystery and knowledge, and wisdom, but as of late I just want a simple, wholesome, happy, adventure. And, of course the word adventure alone entails most of those things I just mentioned, but you know what I mean--I want to go on a good trip. But you know what, just writing that makes me think, makes me feel a little nervous about this trip, this adventure, because I know that, (well I'm sure it will be flawed in many ways), but it will have the one main flaw all stories have, the flaw that unsettles me the most... the end.

The worst thing about stumbling across a good book is knowing that eventually it will end and that you will have to find another. Shit! Ok so I have an idea. I'm going to write the perfect adventure story, and it's never going to end. How? you say... I'm going to write a column, or a damn blog, or continuation or whatever you want to call it of this story everyday, or na, maybe every week, or I dunno I guess whenever I feel like it. I will call this never ending story, "Never Ending Story," and it's going to have all the coolest stuff, like warriors and horses and wolves and giant turtles and... Haha, na, yeah I guess I'm just going to try to write the stuff thats in my brain, doing just that should make it unique enough, because I'm my own snowflake just like the rest of you. Deal with it. I promise I'll start soon. And keep your eyes open cause you don't want to miss this thing, its going to be even better than "Never Ending Story," because it's really never going to end. It might even be better than The Goonies, "Don't laugh, you know you love the goonies! Ok, enough computer, the day's getting away. Bye.

Oh, wait! I forgot I have one other idea I want to get down:

Idea two:

Buzz Blog.

(explanation of this idea comes at a later date)

Sorry!

we've been pretty busy on the rock lately and have been seriously neglectin the blog, but i got some photos of what we've been doin to make up for it. Between Eric and Caitlyn comin to town, hiking mountains, and sessions at small Pipe and Waimea, we snapped these photos.
Mahalo,
a.h.



Small pipe, not the day we surfed it but similar size.



"We go!" Bri leadin the way up the Kuli'ou'ou ridge



mountain men and one mountain woman



me demonstrating the barefoot technique



view from da top



bri gettin ready for the paddle out at waimea on a 9'2" brewer gun



Bri fading



Classic Hawaii



mission success! we both got a few waves and got a feel for the reef



after our Waimea session we went down to pipe and watched second reef bombs come through with a few beers till sunset. A hui ho!