Serendipity

I shouldn't change the blog name, I know.

I risk to loose the 3 readers I have.

But

serendipity knocked at my door and suddenly I realised it was all about it. 

I was talking with a guy this morning, someone who I met by chance, and we were saying random stuff and then, randomly surfing came up, and he said serendipity along the way. And it all became clear.

If you read it all started you should know how surfing came to me. It knocked at my door several time, with several disguises, and I resisted it for years. 

Ok, here it is:

20 years ago a dear friend of mine started surfing in Sardinia, Italy. How the hell do you start surfing there? It's like skiing in Australia in the 700's. Sure there's snow sometimes, somewhere.. but.. you know what I mean? 

A friend, know for less that a year, was leaving Australia and we had to celebrate with some ozy activity. Surf lesson. Whatever. 

I bought a second hand car. It had a second hand 7'2 surfboard fitted inside. 

I met an italian painter to help him with some stuff. He was in Gold Coast to paint surfboards.

An old friend, supposedly lost in Japan, moved to Brisbane taking all by surprise. After a glass too many he decided it was time to learn surfing, and he included me in his reasoning. 

I resisted for more than 10 years, but it was not enough. Surfing kept coming to me from every direction. 

Than, the second part of the serendipity story is that, once I started, I discovered the beauty of it, which I didn't expect at all. And the consequences of surfing on me.

So today it all became clear.

Serendipity will be!

Bustin' Down The Door

It's time to write something about this surf movie.

As I said before I'm reading and watching as much stuff as I can about surfing. I actually have quite a queue of items I should write about but I never have the time.

So, in this surfless and painfull saturday I just watched again Busting down the door and I have to say that it's by far the best thing about surfing I've found.

If you have a soul you cannot not love this movie and put it way high up compared to classics like Endless Summer, Crystal Voyager and such. Most of the dvd you can find are about guys surfing waves and that's all, but BDTD is actual storytelling. 

Beautiful storytelling. 

It's about the crew of australians and southafricans who in the middle 70s changed surfing in Hawaii, with the most difficult and amazing waves you could get.

It's a great movie and it's a great story because it's told by the surfers themselves with an open heart. They make you cry and they make you dream. They make you fear the waves and they make you love surfing more than ever.

Also, it's very interesting, to say the least, to listening to -almost old- men tell the story of their youth, and feel how age and wisdom -of some sort or any sort- has changed and put things in perspective.

I guess there are two things that stay with me after watching this movie: the love for riding waves and the consciousness that life goes fast, and you really should try to enjoy your time, this time, now, as much as you can.

It's great and scary at the same time to watch such beautiful and brave and great young men surfing Hawaii and seeing their older, current faces and bodies telling you what happened. I feel like driving to the Gold Coast and shake hands -to some of them- right now. And tell them thank you. Thank you for sharing this. Thank you for your surfing. Thank you for reminding us that beyond every old man or person, there's a world of experiences, and love, and fights, and life and things.

Two quotes:

"The white water picked me up, shot me forward, and I leaped to my feet and stood up. That feeling of stoke instantly imprinted itself on my being; happiness and fear, exhilaration, speed, and conquest all melded together into one rush of sensation. And the view! looking over and above it all, racing along on an invisible band of energy, two inches above water, separated by just a sliver of glass fiber - for a brief moment a master of my little universe. Right there, right then, surfing gripped me hard and fast- and it just never let go." 

Shaun Tomson

"Very few people can go through life and say they have been doing something for forty-five years. What have you been doing for forty-five years? I will surf till I die."

Mike Tomson


Ps- BDTD is also a beautiful book. Which I have, of course.

A Picture - Una foto #5

I'm busy with stuff.

Meanwhile I post this pic of Coolangatta last Sunday.

Yeah I know, no waves.. 

But what a beauty.

 

 

Impegnato dagli impegni e tradito dal mare piatto, vi propongo questa foto scattata a Coolangatta questa domenica.

Lo so che non ci sono onde. Ma quanto e' bella?

 

Essere in acqua in queste giornate, con l'acqua cosi' cristallina, una luce splendente, il verde e l'azzurro.. anche senza onde e' una goduria.