What a start to the year. The surf continues to be superb in the far west of Cornwall and the cold has a major upside in having drastically reduced the crowd count. Strong south westerly winds are forecast so it'll soon come to an end, but with eight out of nine days' surfing so far for 2009, things couldn't be better.
I've plenty of work on so this is a brief post whose purpose is to commend three things:
1. Saltwater Buddha. This book, by Jaimal Yogis, hasn't been released yet in the UK, but make sure you get hold of a copy when it is. It's a deceptively simple tale of a surfer's quest for meaning not merely in waves but life. As a surfer, Yogis finds that surfing is more than merely a way of life - it is life, in a profoundly Zen sense. At no stage, however, is his fusion of Eastern mysticism and surfing pretentious. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's heartfelt, honest and self-deprecating, enabling the reader to empathise with Yogis at every stage of his journey, whether he's fleeing home to learn to surf in Hawaii, immersed in Buddhist ritual in a French monastery, grappling with surf Nazis in Santa Cruz or suffering for his art while aboard a commercial fishing boat. His art proves to be writing, but his embrace of the surfer's search - one which saw him keep the faith by subway journeys to surf New York's freezing waves in winter - is what got him there. It's great stuff with the words 'cult classic' stamped all over it. It's out here in May.
2. Kurungabaa. 'Kurungabaa' is a Dharawal word for the Australian pelican, a handsome bird with a peculiar way of gliding low over the waves. It's also the name of an excellent, (relatively) new journal of literature, history and ideas for surfers. I say 'relatively' because I was alerted to Kurungabaa a few months ago, and, to my shame, have only just got round to mentioning it. The prompt was the arrival of Issue 3 yesterday. It's packed with informed, intelligent writing, some moody black and white pictures and some lovely portraits by Jon Frank. It even contains Baudelaire's 'The Albatross' and there isn't a Reef girl in sight. Check it out if you can. It's a breath of fresh air.
3. The vests made by the good folk at Finisterre. The boys kindly sent me some vests - one was green, the other white, if you want to know - a few months ago. They stressed that their upper body undergarments (base layers, I think they call them) weren't designed to breathe during exercise but were specifically made for post cold water surfing. In other words, they'd get you warm fast, and keep you warm. This week, they've worked a treat.
Image courtesy of Jaimal Yogis. Check out his blog here.
I know what you mean about those crowds! I had fun size Godrevy on Thursday morning to myself for two hours...
Posted by: Lee | January 09, 2009 at 05:00 AM