Oakland / Tehachapi

Burlface Greg - Sequoia Keyhole

Mojave Hydration

Afternoon in Santa Cruz, Color & Tragedy-

CHP Helicopter trains fire department in rescue technique

RED

Wanderlust

The politics of surfing

Surfing; a practice in ZEN, an achievement in self discipline, navigating shifting peaks, changing lines, short drops and deep barreling crests. It is a solitary contest in a crowded lineup earning the right to BE. Paddling into a set changes with every break, challenges mutating with bathymetry, wave interval and wind direction. Surfing is pure focus and pure freedom. Potential is realized. Truth is the actual lifestyle, surfers whose life blood mix with saline swell. There are soul surfers, pro surfers and both. And there are kooks. Not unlike many politicians. Both have an impulse to rise above the crowd yet suffer the consequences when protocol isn't followed. STOKE fires adrenaline and demands commitment, and the need to overcome all resistance to the NOW. There is no room on a wave for anything but thought of that wave. So, politics, where does it play out? Has commercialism consumed the sport of kings? Ask an ASP pro, a contest director, a Hollister Ranch barrel rider, Quicksilver. There are infinite scenarios when simplicity is corrupted 'buy' fame, money, ego and id. But the wave always levels the field. While politicians can cajole and fake their way into power, and even into surfing, the sea knows and breaks them apart, those who don't surf. As Big Wave charger Jeff Clark says "They don't surf". He used to run a contest. Now he doesn't. Mavericks, a 3000 mile wave train heading to a shallow, jagged reef unleashing reality, pure and simple, still, is not immune from politics. Blend personalities, agendas, greed and money, voila, politics. But a wave, any wave, doesn't lie, it punishes or it rewards but it doesn't bullshit. The edge of the continent, producing massive moving walls is the center point of energy and conflict, drama and comedy, respect and admiration, life and death. Politics, on the other hand, is hazy terrain that pollutes those who venture into the waves unprepared and lacking integrity. To know, to surf for passion you can throw away everything non essential and go for it.