.graduation.

Happy birthday to Neal - a boy who is very sassy despite having the appearance of a 16 year-old, my "boss," my friend's special friend, an aspiring longboarder whose pathetic arse I imagine I can still kick, and all that good stuff. I'm taking a weeks temporary leave of absence from blogging due to graduating/packing 4-years accumulation of crap away/spending qt with the ohana/trying to keep mommy from getting too wasted/debauchery in vegas/etc. We will miss me, I know, but once I return to Hawaii there will be lots of fun stories of surfing and how I nearly died on an epic two foot day. Kissy.

.huntington.

Went to Huntington this past Saturday night for one last bonfire and burning of papers [ie. old essays/junk mail/senior thesis]. The weather turned rather blustery after dark [in Cali it doesn't get dark till around 8-ish ... which means a WHOLE extra hour of post-work surf time] and we arrived late so all the fire pits had already been staked out which meant that we had to canoodle our way into the hearts and pits of another gaggle of friends. To kill time Neal, Flo, Mari, Jess & Jenn attempted to play a rousing game of "giant golf" which consisted mainly of hitting the golf ball, trying very hard not to lose the golf tee in the sand, and catching the ball in the dark. I attempted to take some pictures in the horrendously dim lighting for my photography class. Neal said that he saw some four footers when he got there but all that I was able to photograph were some lame two-footers breaking on shore. LAME.

Can tell I've been taking photography or what? =p

All in all, despite the smokiness, the coldness, the ghettoness it was quite the entertainment. Too bad we don't have such fire pits at Hawaii beaches. Or do we?

.first women's longboarding championship.

This year will be the very first year that a women’s longboarding champion will be crowned. It strikes me as odd, with so many headways made in advancing equality between the genders, that women still lack the recognition and respect that is bestowed upon men. With the number of female surfers increasing exponentially in the past few years, the quality and caliber of female surfers has also improved. Look at Hawaii locals – Bethany Hamilton, Keala Kennelly, Rochelle Ballard, Layne Beachley, Megan Abubo – who dominate the national surf scene. While a male longboarding champion has been recognized since 1986, only some thirty years later, women have finally been granted the same recognition. The Roxy Women’s World Longboarding Championship is scheduled to take place Biarritz, France. It will run from July 3, through July 9.

.miss.

Gah! According to Honolulu Advertiser I'm missing yet another south swell. It's not even supposed to be that big (2-4 ish Hawaiian scale) but it's the principal of the matter. Especially since winter surf was so horrible ... I just want to go home, frolick in the h2o and waves until my little heart becomes sick of it. Do you think that's possible?

.never turn your back on the ocean.

Well before swimming, surfing and my love affair with water began my parents warned me never to turn my back to the ocean. It seems like simple common sense, so why in the past few weeks have there been so many headlines in the local news of children swept out to sea by riptides and currents? Not just tourists, inexperienced swimmers and young children, but divers, locals, and those who have lived their lives in the water as well.

We are growing too comfortable, too at ease with our surroundings. I do it too, surf by myself, enter the water in an area I’m unfamiliar with. We forget the magnitude of nature and slip - a minor error that has disastrous consequences. In such situations there are no fingers to point, nowhere to place the blame. I love the ocean for the very qualities which I should fear it – its apathy, how it never discerns between one person or another, its power, its ability to wash things away.

“You want it/but you fear it/but you love it/when you’re near it.”

.blank panic.

I remember when, a few months ago I told my roommates about the "panic" that Clark foam's closure was causing amongst surfers and surfboard shapers. They laughed at my use of the word "panic." I wanted to hit them, because something that seems so inconsequential to those who don't surf is in actuality, was very important and very much a prevalent topic amongst those whos happiness and livelihood were dependent upon it. In an attempt to explain the issue at their level I said "what if the manufacturers of orange rubber [for basketball] or the foremost manufacturer for snowboards was shut down permanently?" to which they quickly shut down with the retort that it just wasn't possible. It grated against me, their lack of understanding, but they were right.

In very few other industries will you see the level of control that Clark possessed over an increasingly lucrative industry. You don’t see it in cars, in computers, in phone service providers, in fast food. I can’t think of another example that matches Clark’s dominance in producing just around 90% of the country’s blanks. It’s unheard of and unparalleled.
Surfboard shapers and blank producers allowed themselves to become much too dependent upon Clark's monopoly. I'm not against Clark foam, my first board had the "Clark foam" logo stamped upon the tail. But the fact remains that with the security that Clark's dominance left upon the surfing community, there was the definite potential that should the day ever come, that Clark closed its doors, that the surfing community would find itself in a state of panicked chaos. And that day came.

In yesterday's issue of The Honolulu Advertiser an article depicted the supposed rebound of the surfboard production industry. I suppose that there are times when I agree with my roommates that the media, and even myself, have blown the surboard "panic" out of proportion. When N. was interviewed by a local newspaper about the impact that this has left upon a business such as TheSurfboardShack he responded that there had been little or no impact that he'd notice in the following weeks. He told me that the newspaper remained persistent, calling him multiple times to ask whether his sales had been affected or prices had risen. The site, to this day, has seen little or no effect as a result of Clark’s closure. The newspaper never received the response they were looking for. Perhaps the media is as shocked as I am that surfboard shapers and surfers alike have been able to weather the storm as well as they did. Either way it is apparent that the “panic” has begun to subside. This is particularly good news to me since I still have hopes of a new 9’0 for a graduation present. Yes, I dream.

.back in shape.

I finally dragged my sorry behind to the pool today. Stuffed my now-extremely-short hair into a torn RHS swim cap and proceeded to swim a 1500. The experience was not nearly as painful as one would have supposed it to be considering the fact that I haven't been near a large body of water [with the exception of my bathtub and my frequent bubble baths] for nearly five months now. I'm beginning to miss surfing and 6 a.m. sessions. I even almost miss that grotesque callous-like bruise that has developed beneath the top of my left rip.
Surfing is going to kick my butt this summer.

.first summer south swell.

The first south swell of the summer is supposed to have hit this afternoon/early tomorrow. AND I'M MISSING IT. Typically by this time of the year [ie. the month of May] I am safely ensconced upon my island and trying to rush waves much to large for me to handle let alone ride. I call A. and drag her out in 4-5 foot sets when Ala Moana is closing out and we get held under for so long that we can't tell the sky from the ocean's bottom and get scared and paddle back in.

Though it's possible that surfnewsnetwork.com AND The Honolulu Advertiser are spreading falsehoods. Let's hope.

.being in the moment.

In an Asian Studies course I took last semester we were discussing the idea of Taoism – of being in the moment. My teacher brought up the example of surfing, as one of those acts in which you must completely absorb yourself in the moment. She said, that the second you stop to think about what you are doing, about the act of surfing [where you should place your feet, move your arms] that you falter and fall.

I don’t think that I ever remember the feeling of surfing unless I am actually up on a wave living it. That is why people get up every morning and do it again and again. Not in so much that it is a different ride every single time [which it is] but it is a feeling that is so intangible that you can’t commit it to the page or even to your memory.