Sometimes a drop in is welcome - like when you are out on a small day on a log with a few mates and you have a 1964 Nikonos II and a roll of 35mm...

January 1978 - a couple of Aussie teenagers lean over the railing at Huntington Beach Pier. One of them is shooting the surfing action with a Fufica ST801 manual focus 35mm camera, a roll of Kodachrome 64 film inside and a Hanimex 28mm wide angle lens on the outside. Three decades later one of the exposures finds its way into a coffee table book called Switchfoot II. This is it.

I love this shot. Older chap with moustache riding a long board with a check stripe and a skin coloured full length wetsuit, at sub-tropical Noosa National Park. All the boxes for "Wrong!" are ticked. But who cares? He's obviously got the stoke happening. (And he avoids water born photogs).
Maybe he was doing it for a dare.
Or he lost a bet.
We were out checking some artworks yesterday arvo when we spied two young chaps wearing what even I thought was pretty strange and daring outfits - a nun-like "man" dress with heelless strappy shoes and the other in knee high gold lame girly boots. The Bride of Brine saw these two odd souls in a completely different light, "Oh look at those gorgeous gucci boots and that Jean Paul Gaultier man dress!" I thought that they had lost a bet or were doing it for a dare. Nope. They were members of Lady Gaga's support band The Semi Precious Weapons having a quiet stroll through the semi-precious artways of Brinetopia. And I had missed a paparazzo opportunity. Perceptions. Pre-conceptions. Odd.

Imagine you are John Lee Hooker in 1991. You are 74 years old and have lived through World War One, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and any number of high profile assassinations like Martin Luther King's. You're black and from Mississippi in The South. You know a thing or two about the sadnesses of life commonly called The Blues.

Two aborted surf missions lately. Number one - mate's car broke down about 5 minutes after we left the Brinecave ion a mission for multi-point perfection.
Number two - a different crew. We were supposed to hit the spot above, which is several hours and quite a few tunes on the 8 Track cassette deck  away. But it would have been easier to herd cats into a barrel. I developed dodgy teeth, got two fillings and a jaw that was still sore a week later. Mate had to stay home to look after kids. Other mate had tradespeople lined up to do renovation job.
But when the planets line up and the cats get herded, we'll be having a ball. It's like Greenough said in an interview - surfing with friends in scrappy waves is better than surfing alone on good waves. Have a great weekend.

Big shout to Corker, the first kid in our neighbourhood to ride a long board, to go to Noosa, to run away from home (year 7!), to hitchhike to Perth. In the words of Neil Young, "Long may you run". At one stage Corker used to drive around in a big V8 Ford nicknamed "Big Henry". Also known to drive unregistered ride on mowers massive distances on country back roads to get to the pub!

So today we remember the folks like my dad that made this such a great place and reflect on what we all can do to improve it.  You can believe whatever you like, ride whatever you like, worship whomever you like. And that's what I like about Australia.  It doesn't have a single culture. I believe it's a great place BECAUSE it's so multi-cultural. Whether it's American surfers like George Greenough or Rusty Miller up Byron way or Danish architects or Italian builders or Indian food chefs - it's all Australian now. It's all part of the big cultural melting pot of influences we live amongst.

Mark Lloyd hauling log through the summertime crowds at one of the few protected spots while the pesky northerlies blow blue bottles and bad ripples.
Summer 2009

Summer 2009

"Where is the beach?" and g'day are about my limits when it comes to speaking French. This board belongs to one of the French crew visiting this part of the globe. The owner's English is about as good as my French. Surfing and stoke, however are universal.
Summer 2009