ECHOES '78 - '80

Some sounds echo forever in my head.

I've waffled on at length before about Talk Talk, Marvin Gaye, The Beatles, Meat Puppets, Bentley Rhythym Ace, Tortoise, WOO, Gregory Isaacs & Rory Gallagher amongst others.

So here are just three of the albums that I heard between 1978 and 1980 that have remained as part of the soundtrack to my life ever since.

Q: Are we not men? A: We are DEVO! 1978.

Steel Pulse - Tribute to the Martyrs. 1979.

Talking Heads - Remain in light. 1980.

There may be more...

THE TAMANA TREE FIN

Phil & Pochi with the hand-made fin in the Ogasawara Islands (1000kms south of Tokyo) before it began its long journey to Cornwall.

Out of the blue a parcel arrived from my old friend Phil in Tokyo.

Inside was a letter, some photos and another well-wrapped package. Proper old-school, typed letter and prints on photographic paper. I was intrigued and already lovin it!

This is what the letter said:

Hey Sqz and Roisin

Hope this letter finds you and the kids well. While we were in the Ogasawara Islands, I met up with a local surfer called Pochi. He's 60 years old and has lived there for 30 years. He ALWAYS rides a single-fin and for 20 years he's been making his own fins.

He makes them using wood from a native tree that grows in abundance on the islands called the Tamana tree. He'll spend a week or so getting the fin right, then gives it three coats of resin. He also sells/displays them in a gallery space attached to a bar in 'town'. The owner of the bar could trace his family line all the way back to one of the original settler families in 1830.

I used to see Pochi most mornings there was surf and sometimes later at the bar which is called 'Yankeetown', built coincidentally around a massive Tamana tree. The reason for the name of the bar is that the area (Okumura) used to be known as Yankeetown when the islands were run by the Americans after the war - they only reverted back to Japanese control in 1968.

One night after Pochi showed me his latest fin, an addition to what could be called quite an experimental quiver of fins, I decided to make both him and hopefully you guys happy by linking up The Bonin Islands and deepest Cornwall. This fin may be mostly for you Sqz, but I'm sure Roisin will have a go and both of you will get a buzz from the look and feel of it anyway. (Actually, Sqz may well end up having to ask for his turn with it...)

Either way I hope you enjoy it. Pure and simple, I saw something in a place you'll probably never get to visit, that I really thought you'd love. Hope you do.

Phil & Miki

"Pochi said he'd tried the fin out & if you add a bit of insulating tape around the base it should stay solid in any fin box."

"Ishiura on the East coast where Pochi reckons there is always a bit of swell if it's offshore. No direct access. 45 minute walk down a steep jungle track to the main beach of Hatsuneura in the foreground, then a 20 minute paddle around the headland into Ishiura."

"In this photo you can just about make out small swell lines tickling Ishiura, which means Rock Inlet, Pochi's local break."

Apologies for picture quality. Photos snapped on crappy old mobile - no camera currently.

WHY NOT?

A quick evening mission to the beach for a splash...

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Pics by Tyde.

FREEDOM

Skateboarding in Afghanistan - pic courtesy of Skateistan.

Freedom is a skateboard.

Freedom to roll, freedom to defy gravity, freedom to both create and destroy.

A few years ago I made the decision to ease off skating and replace it with surfing - I could foresee that slower reflexes and older bones would limit my ability to be free on a skateboard. During my last year of serious skateboarding I felt the balance between freedom and fear slipping too heavily towards the latter. So I now spend any spare time I get surfing. It's just not the same...

Surfing is reliant on way too many factors to be truly free in the way that skateboarding is. There has to be the right conditions; tide, swell, wind and even daylight must be considered.

Suddenly get the overwhelming urge to bomb some hills at midnight - no problem. Fancy going for a surf after dark - good luck with that.

Surfing doesn't even feel particularly free either - not where I live anyway. Carparks and kooks are just two elements that clutter up the experience. The only way to avoid them is by living right on the beach or getting up really damn early.

Skating is both singular and plural. If you wanna just cruise on your own, then grab your stick, walk out your door and go skate - simple. If you want to be social, that's fine too, skaters are incredibly friendly and inclusive. Surfing doesn't really give you the choice. Catching a solitary wave is wishful thinking mainly. Surfing by its nature is exclusive. Making friends in the line-up, sharing waves, taking turns, spreading the stoke - all fine in theory but in reality it's every man, woman and child for themselves.

I'm the same in all honesty, even though I try and be as mellow as possible in the line-up I can all too easily become a rabid wave-hunter seeing my fellow humans as obstacles rather than compadres. To me that doesn't feel like freedom, it feels too much like all the other shite that I tried to leave back in the carpark.

Freedom is a choice, freedom is a state of mind - I need to remember that.

SLIDE PROJECT

The Slide Projector 8'6 x 23".

I've loved this board since even before the day I got it.

Partly because it was conceived at least a year before the day I collected it from Jolly Roger. I spent hours sketching shapes and researching outlines and rockers and tail shapes before I finally bit the bullet and handed it over to Roger to bring to life. He did a great job and from the very first surf it felt good under my feet.

But I've realised it is very hard to have one board that can ever be an all-rounder. The broad, slightly hully lines are great in certain conditions yet not so much in others. So I mix it up with a very traditional 9'4 single-fin noserider (which I also then try and ride in anything, often when it really isn't suitable)...

I've had this board (which I call 'Yelo' although officially labelled 'The Slide Projector') for a few years now and it's served me really well, I've had some great waves on it. I wanted a wide, high-volume board with low rocker, which has worked a treat in getting me into waves early. And the sharp-railed diamond tail fitted with a 7" 4a Greenough flex tip fin gives surprisingly good manoeuvrability too.

Having said all that I'm considering heading back up to Bude to ask Roger to make v2.0. Get everything tweaked a bit. Take it down from 8'6 to 8'4 or maybe even 8'0, slim it down a bit too and increase nose rocker by an inch or so. Definitely won't make it an all-rounder (they don't exist) but it will make it a little slicker in the drop, a little quicker off the bottom and maybe push my surfing a little harder too.

It'll still be yellow though!

PSYCHEDELIC GARDEN

A true story.

Admittedly my phone pic is poor quality, but the colours in this garden are genuine HD!

CLEAN N BLUEYGREEN

Clean but a tad too much offshore.

A nice sesh today at Gwith, but the wave count would have been through the roof if the offshore had eased back a bit...

SLOTTED

VERY WEST

LOVE&HATE

Can't have one...

... without the other.

Been paying a bit of attention to the opposites lately - a perfect moment is perfect purely because so many others aren't. Fun feels good precisely because not having fun doesn't. Night has to follow day.

Spexism* states that: You can't have one without the other.

When R and I got married we bought our wedding rings from a jeweller in Sydney called 'Love & Hate' - always thought that was cool.

*Wisdom from the Tao of Spex.

WINTERLOGGED

Winter fuel allowance.

ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT

...apparently.

ONSHORE

Chapel Porth looking heavy in the corner.

Flat rock.

Looking south, now that's a lot of whitewater...

GREENOUGH 4a 7"

Green, purple, yellow!

I've been itching to try out this new Greenough 4a 7" that I got from Finshack.

Got a chance today in some clean chest high waves - instantly felt good, really smooth underfoot, easy to draw out turns yet nice and snappy on quick directional change. I'm a happy chappy!

CALIFORNIA SOLE

Sweet feet!

ADRIAN PHILLIPS INTERVIEW

Another work of art from the hand of Adrian Phillips.

Adrian Phillips is one of the nicest guys you could meet, he's also one of the best surfboard shapers in the country. Combining a huge wealth of experience and knowledge with a grommet's enthusiasm he continually produces top-quality boards for his Fluid Juice label. He very kindly took a break from the shaping bay to answer a few questions...

Where did you grow up?
South coast of Cornwall.

When did you start surfing and what got you interested in it?
12 yrs old and my school had a surf club.

I know you trained as an electrician, so what prompted you to start shaping surfboards?
I started repairing my own and my friends boards and it was a natural progression.

Did you learn or apprentice with anyone as a shaper?
Back then you just had to have a go and learn from everywhere you could. Shaping methods were closely guarded secrets.

Can you tell us a bit about the origins of Fluid Juice?
Initially I just shaped my own boards and then friends starting asking for boards and the circle got wider and wider.

NINENINENINE

Push the button.

1977

October 1977 - Issue No 2, 20 pence.

This issue of Skateboard Special from 35 years ago just arrived on my doorstep...

BREAKIN' ROCKS...

I fought the law...

...and the law won.

CUTTING BACK

MP 'The Cutback' by Albe Falzon

I'm finishing off this year of cutbacks (financial etc) by re-reading 'MP - the life of Michael Peterson' by Sean Doherty. Not many will ever be able to slice a cutback the way he did. Tom Curren comes to mind...

TC's Cutback by Tom Servais

RIPPED

Now that's what I call a rip!

JACK'S BACK...

Looks like Summer is over.

WATERSMEET

Man is 70% water, the planet is 70% water. 98% of the water on Earth is saltwater. Whichever way you look at it, that's a helluva lot of water.

Quite easy then, to understand why I'm so addicted to splashing about in the stuff. Not only am I in my element, but the H2O element is mostly in me as well.

One of my favourite breaks locally is a a particular high tide wave that under certain conditions offers up a beautiful little left that spins perfectly across a rivermouth. The swell rolls in, jacks up and then peels swiftly across the bank leaving the door open all the way for sweet slotted fun. Although it would be hard to prove, I'm convinced there's a special quality to the water here as the fresh river water merges with the saltwater. It is after all where the waters meet.

Funnily enough one of my watery pleasures is surfing in the rain. I've always loved it. The puttering of the rain drops, the freshwater drizzling down my face, the unique pockmarking texture of the surface as it seems to boil and then flatten beneath the drumming of the raindrops. Always one of my happy aquatical moments.

Oh, and as if that wasn't enough, the last thing the back cracker said to me as I left his surgery last week was, "Drink more water!"

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE

...

The boys went surfing today, marking the day one of their compadres reaches the teenage era - it was a big, chilly, onshore, blownout mess - they had a great time :)

HANDPLANTS

Bones Brigaders - Chin ramp.

Lately I've been vibing on handplants. What a manoeuvre. Upside down, balancing on one hand, on the edge of a ramp or pool, gripping an inverted skateboard and that's just the halfway point! Grosso has already turned in a worthy ode to the handplant in one of his loveletters, but I also wanted to throw up a few pics here. As it was the still image of a handplant frozen in time back in the 80s that first transfixed me as I tried to work out just how on earth anybody could ride a skateboard and get into that position.

In no particular order here are... The Handplants:

Bucky Lasek - Extreme Tuck-knee - also a Knee-on.

NO KA OI - (Mo Bettah)

Powell Peralta 44" No Ka Oi longboard.

This old sled has served me well.

When I lived in Harbord, NSW. I would pop over the hill and ride this daily along the beachfront from Queenscliff, past North Steyne, up and down Manly Corso and out to the Bower and then back again. It was an easygoing flat, smooth path with a surfcheck across the beach on one side and a lovely avenue of Norfolk Pines on the other.

Nowadays living in rural Cornwall I don't really get much opportunity to cruise the old longy. It just gets used when I feel the need to practise some dry land cross-stepping.

Sweet retro Hawaiian graphics.

Thunder trucks ground right down to the axles.

Red Kryps - turned inside out to minimise coning.

HAND JOB

My new wooden toy - a custom diamond tail handplane.

Just scored this top quality, custom wave catcher, hand shaped from tulip wood by Andy Garner of Against the Grain Handplanes.

I've watched Andy spend over two years developing his ideas and in my opinion these are the Rolls Royce of handplanes. In his rural workshop he has been experimenting with dozens of different types of wood, assessing their various strengths and weaknesses, balancing weight with flotation. Researching the effects of salt water on each type of wood over time. He's also spent countless hours personally testing and refining his designs in the surf. Continually adjusting outlines, dimensions and contours to produce the most efficient and effective shapes.

Concave bottom contoured with tapered rails.

Detail of diamond tail.

Just the handle alone is the result of many, many months of development. Andy realised very early in the design process that the handle is as important as the handplane shape itself. He decided to really concentrate on creating a handle that is secure, doesn't interfere with performance (in the way a cut-out or slot does), is adjustable and fits in with his aesthetic of producing the highest quality product possible. Andy designed a unique strap that is exclusively manufactured locally, the result intentionally looks simple but combined with an incredibly strong integral fastening provides one of the best handle systems available.

Designed to go fast!

I'm totally stoked with the custom diamond tail version he's made for me. How good do those natural woodgrain stripes look?

The deck has a subtle domed roll out to the rails.

Andy is finally satisfied with his handplanes and is now producing these beautiful boards for sale to the general public. If you're interested in Andy's handplanes you can get in touch with him here.

SIMS SHIRT

Eff yeah!

This was my first skate t-shirt. I had it for years. Even took it with me to Australia when I emigrated in the early 90s. In Sydney somebody stole it from the washing line. I was deeply ticked off, but also grudgingly impressed that the thief had such good taste...

RIP Tom Sims.

SERIOUSLY...

Slow down - you're in Cornwall.

PADDLE!

Sandymouth Oct 2005

This shot was taken on a beautiful Autumn day in October 2005 from the clifftop high above Sandymouth near Bude. The surf was perfect and it was HUGE!

I was there with my friend Spex who was an entrant in the longboard division of the Roktober Surf Comp, conditions were challenging to say the least. At first glance this may look ideal, but believe me, when it's 10ft on the sets on an exposed beachbreak it's far from easy.

They did end up running the comp anyway - most were happy to just score a few inside waves. Paddling out the back was virtually impossible and the shorebreak and whitewater were relentless.

After Spex's heat we headed up to Hartland Quay where a headland offered some shelter. It looked do-able so we went for it. A rip running along the old wall provided an easy paddle out - but that sense of security quickly evaporated once out in the bay. The huge swell was causing massive water movement and even though the surf was relatively clean beneath the shelter of the cliffs, the currents were swirling through the bay like a rapid. It was a constant struggle to maintain position, any relaxation and the conveyor belt rip would carry me out and north into no mans land. At one point I was on the verge of panic when after 20 mins of concentrated paddling I was still drifting dangerously close to the exposed rocks of the north side.

Luckily I managed to catch my only wave of that session on the next set which took me back into the relative safety of the cove and I decided that maybe a pint and a pasty at the pub would be the better option.

Spex had to get back for the longboard finals at Sandymouth in the afternoon - which again were limited to battling the shorebreak for anything that resembled a wave (he got third). But we were both dissatisfied with our attempts at trying to get waves that day, so we made a dash back into Bude, hoping to maybe score something more reasonable at Summerleaze.

We got there at dusk and although it was still big, there were rideable waves. So we paddled out again, me for my second surf, Spex for the 4th time that day! We did manage to get a few finally, but the constant paddling was starting to take its toll. I noticed that Spex was getting sucked out and around the seapool by the rip. Then lo and behold I also got caught in the same rip and ended up being dragged around to Crooklets. As darkness fell and we stumbled back up the beach, thoroughly exhausted but equally stoked, we knew it was finally time to call it a day.