Kleenman & Mike

San-O' Sunday

Work...

Small, glassey, and fun looking this morning while I was driving to work. Didn't get out though. Maybe tomorrow morning if the wind doesn't blow everything out. The Southern California grind doesn't lend itself to paddling out on a daily basis. At least not when you're paying a mortage with a 100% commission job. I can't complain though. I have a good life, I just need to work a little harder now so I can play a little harder later. I don't want to have to put in this kind of hours when rugrats come along in the future.

Coming from surfing daily and working at surf shops for years, I kinda feel like a kook now. I'm that guy in the suit going to work where at one time I'd be "sick" and taking the day off when the surf was good. Its still feels weird when its firing and I drive by to work without a second thought, well maybe a second thought, and a third, but I do end up at work. Yeah, I'm a surfer.....

Everyone Surfs

For my birthday, my wife bought me Chasing the Lotus-The Lost Reels of Weaver and Wills. (http://www.wetsand.com/shop) This is a compilation of footage from filmmakers Greg Weaver and Spyder Wills as they documented the beginning of surf travel and exploration. For starters, its a great flick, but more importantly, it show what surfing was like years ago. Before chartered luxury surf trips, before Quiksilver, and Volcom (ZQK and VLCM) were listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and before PacSun and Tillys were selling boardshorts in Wisconsin strip malls.

All us "surfers" like to think of surfing as a primal release, a way of getting in tune with nature and away from all the goings-on in the normal world. Is it really getting back to nature when we drive our leather and chrome-clad suvs with our fresh new Channel Islands board, wearing our rainbow sandals and Hollister tee shirts to a beach break with 100 people just like us in the water? Maybe if we get a $1000 twin-fin fish and don't shave for a couple days we'll have the soul needed to really connect with what surfing is about. That or a 11' plank with a glassed-on wood fin at San Onofre with a straw hat and ukulele in hand. Chasing the Lotus shows us what it was like to be the first, to be an explorer, to really see and experience firsthand what all of us do our best to buy off the shelves.

Where did we come from? Where is surfing going? Is the economy going to continue to drive the expansion of a made-in-China cash cow or will this turn into the Hula-Hoop and disappear but for the few die-hard souls who would still be in the water if no leash or wetsuit had ever been invented? This blog is just one kooks comments on a pastime he loves. I'm not a pro surfer, I don't know people in the industry, I'm not really even that good at it. I just like uncrowded breaks, getting that great ride, and getting out in the water whenever I can squeeze in time between the more important family, and more necessary career.

Welcome to Everyone Surfs.

Danny

Edit: This is not a rant. I just find it funny how it seems like everyone wearing Volcom and Billabong claims to be a surfer no matter how much or whether they actually surf.