Mon/Two

Happy tuesday everyone!

I wanted to send out a thank you to everyone who commented, shared and cared about my mini-essay on hand shaping so far. I was a bit hesitant to share it because surfers tend to be a bit ehem, sensitive, but the response has made my heart all warm and fuzzy.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of shaping two boards for Gregg Tally, one of Santa Barbara's fewest and finest surfer/shapers. He's been letting me sneak around his shop and make a few boards between projects. When he asked me a few days ago to shape him a pair of boards as a trade for my time there, I was floored.

I spent the better part of yesterday shaping those two boards while Gregg watched on from the doorway, and I'm proud that step one on each board was penciling out a template and grabbing a hand saw. Foam dust flew for the next few hours and what came out are two boards that have a story, a feeling and a life, before even being glassed.

Yep, I got a case of the mondays :)

Intuition and Reassurance

A number of years ago my friend Hiten passed the novel Siddartha on to me while I was feeling a bit lost. After reading it I made a few decisions about who I wanted to be and how I wanted to conduct myself in life; I gave myself a direction, I guess. A month ago I picked it up and read it again for the first time in a little while...I wanted to see if I was living up to the hopes that I had for myself...I was reassured as I read along.

Every year I write a blog post on New Years eve, to be posted the next morning. It takes on different forms every time and serves as an open and honest thank you to everyone around me that helps fuel my "job" [ha.]. I took a look back at last year's post to see what I had written and what I was feeling around then and was glad, once I gave it a gander, to feel like I've lived up to the goals that I set for myself at that time. And to know that I made some extremely tough decisions to keep myself in line with those ideals.

I told myself to follow my passions and curiosities and trust in people's goodness as long as I held my end of the bargain as well. I told myself to be honest and open with people, and to share with my friends my opportunities and thoughts. Again I'm reassured as I think back on my last year.

I made one decisions in particular that tested every bit of my will and commitment to being honest to myself and to what I want from life. Leaving my Point Concept to the past was a choice I made in early 2010 that was based on some revelations made early in the year; It was a hard way to reverse a mistake but one that had to happen no matter the circumstances it put me in.

I can honestly say that I have followed my passions to the best of my ability, and am pushing the boundaries of the life that I thought possible.

I do my best to give everyone a window into my journey, and to work my buns off in the shop, behind the camera and on the internet-machine to keep everyone satisfied; and everyone includes me. I'm chasing something for myself. I don't know what it is, but the path is through surfboards and the questions they keep presenting. I'm entering the new year excited for the amount of work I am capable of and the new space I have to perform it in, and grateful that you all keep putting the challenge in front of me so readily.

Happy New year everyone. I'll start the new blog-year off with a short edit I did from some footage Michael Kew gave me a few months ago...I've been saving this one in my back pocket for a while, waiting for some reason to let it out of the bag. Seems like a good time for that.

Fullscreen this one and turn it up...it'll increase your mellow:

Intuition

Ultimate footage courtesy of Michael Kew.