Category: Writing
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The Privilege of Following Your Dreams
I have found that in (nearly) every conversations about and within surfing, the hierarchy of power and privilege is the single most often overlooked underlying assumption to each of these conversations. But I also believe that this open door, this obvious omission, allows the exact rupture needed for intense analysis and change to permeate the…
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Of Two Minds
Being a spectator of and a commentator on the symptoms of a surf industry in a toilet bowl spiral is something akin to (I imagine) how Jerry Stahl’s Lloyd feels about his job wording the side effects of prescription drug use in Happy Mutant Baby Pills. That is, Lloyd has all the information about the…
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The journey continues…
Working on ideas/stories/projects after a 2 week vacation where I was able to decompress from the last month of feverish activity. There is much work to be done (and it is being done) but while I work and before more updates or newsy items, I’d like to re-post a subtle story about what surfing might…
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Welcome to the Aquatorium! (a future of surfing)
Z(er)OSea The Old Man didn’t particularly care to join the frenzied masses that crowded the Aquatoriums to view potential Olympic heroes of surfing as they contended for coveted spots on the Olympic team, but his grandson was positively glowing since he had won the URMovies-Z(er)OSea-sQuik Design Rally. His grandson had been chosen as the American…
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“Beyond Gidget” – Cooler Magazine: Issue #38
“Beyond Gidget” in the newest issue (Aug/Sept 2012) of Cooler Magazine Excerpts: “…women’s purchase intentions increase up to 300 percent when exposed to diverse body styles and types in advertising.” “The women in Ben Barry’s study commented that what inspires them most in representations of women is ‘glamour, artistry, and creativity.’ Rather than focusing on…
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Quintessential Girl: Huck Magazine Issue #033
“My mother approached me when I was making a shift in my surfing career at the age of seventeen. She had come with a dire warning, one born of her many years as a competitive surfer. She had been discussing my future in professional surfing with the mother of a well-known local surf icon.” ……
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Newest! Sponsored! Imagined bliss
“Separation is the alpha and omega of spectacle (Debord, 1967).” The first, most important single element to grasp about today’s state of affairs, the reality we are currently entrenched in, is the ubiquity of alienation, that is, separation from our food, others, and ourselves: the subject-object duality. The second essential idea to grasp, is that…
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objectification ate my empathy!
A certain level of empathy is involved with revolutionary thought, innovation and social change. When being exposed to social, political and even economic disparities, brutality, inequity, oppression, etc., one of the key elements in motivating individuals to do something in order to better circumstances (for themselves as well as for others), is that there must…
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no place for politics?
John Carlos and Tommie Smith Forty-three years, one month and one day ago, two American athletes took the platform at the Olympic games in Mexico City to accept their gold and bronze medals. As the Star-Spangled Banner was played and the American flag crept up the flagpole, the two men took black gloves from…
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Champions in China and Meaning-Making Machines (link)
Swatch Girls Pro China, 2011 Some of my thoughts on the recent ASP Women’s World Longboard Championship in China, the first significant event to be held in China by the Association of Surfing Professionals. Champions in China and Meaning-Making Machines For more information about why I was not in attendance at this event:Why I’m…
