The problem

After a month I just watched the webcam to have a look at what I'm missing.

Well.. today I'm missing waves big time.

My frustration is sky high. Actually, I'm getting over this phase. I'm becoming pure sadness now.

Today is a grey, ugly, rainy winter day. Almost no wind and a fair size swell hitting the coast. It's been a long time since the last time I was surfing in a rainy day. I don't love it but it's special in its own way. Today I'd loved to be out there filling my soul with happiness despite the poor weather. 

Patience. Like a monk I have to heal my body with rest and peace. Then I'll have to approach my fitness and work gently, step by step, without pushing, and again be patience. Wait, peace, patience.. I can probably learn to levitate by the end of this journey..

Anyway.

The problem in the title is not my problem.

I'm posting a famous video of a reasonable famous web face/surfer. 

He's a guy who travel the world and surf and has a website and blog and youtube channel etc.

Don't ask me more about him. Google him if you want.

My point is: this video is poorly made and there's nothing special in the surfing to be seen. But.

I believe this is possibly the surf/most awesome/ happy video ever made.

Basically he's somewhere in South America and he's surfing his mind out after 3 days of perfect conditions.

His voice, his face, his smile.. he's going crazy.. he's the most stoked surfer I've seen on video. 

You really should understand spanish to fully appreciate what he's saying. 

There's a sentence which has not been translated just as he says it and it's something like:

"it's has been a constant concern for three days.. turn or barrel?"

What a concern! How do you fix this problem? Three days and no solution!

I love it.

Dopo un mese di nulla ho dato un'occhiata alle onde in webcam. Mai l'avessi fatto.

Mi sto perdendo il miglior weekend di onde da qualche mese a questa parte.

L'inverno da queste parti e' una stagione secca, col sole splendente, e vento sempre flebile e indeciso. Piu' si avvicina il caldo e meno il vento collabora girando spesso da nord, portando l'aria calda dei tropici, e rovinando o azzerando le onde.

Per questo motivo il weekend attuale e' una eccezione: piovoso, scuro, freddino, con vento e onde da sud. Perfetto per tenere lontano i turisti e gli usufruitori casuali del mare, e surfare in santa pace. 

Sarei stato in acqua sicuramente. 

Poi quando piove e' una esperienza particolare. Non che ne vada matto, preferisco il sole, ma e' tanto che non sono in acqua mentre tutti si chiudono in casa.

In ogni caso niente. Riposo. E attesa. E pazienza. E ancora riposo.

Sto sviluppando la pazienza di un monaco tibetano. Se vado avanti cosi' tra poco sapro' levitare. 

Frustarzione l'ho detto?

Vivo pensando a quando saro' in acqua a divertirmi. Non so se il pensiero mi faccia piu' male che bene..

Comunque, volevo parlarvi del problema del titolo, che non e' il mio.

E' invece il problema che affronta il tizio del video che ho postato sopra, un surfista giramondo, relativamente conosciuto sul web. Anche il video di per se e' conosciuto e non e' certo nuovo.

Ma per me, premettendo che il contenuto e la realizzazione sono assolutamente poveri, rappresenta la quint'essenza di felicita' da surf. Lo trovo bellissimo.

Sostanzialmente il tipo si filma al terzo giorno consecutivo di onde perfette, quando ha la mente soffocata da un dubbio (e dalle risa): giro o tubo?

Nel senso: giro la tavola, vado su e giu', oppure rallento e mi faccio inghiottire dentro il tubo dell'onda?

Verso la fine del video ribadisce il concetto piu' o meno cosi': tre giorni con questa preoccupazione costante! giro o tubo?

Le sue parole e il suo viso dicono piu' di mille parole. Troppo bello.

Surf Art

I should have wrote this post before.

I'd like to promote an italian painter who surfs, or an italian surfer who paints.

For me his art is beautiful. I believe he's really gifted, and I think that what he does is above most of the surf art I see around in shops or on the web.

I don't want to be disrespectful to anyone but let me express this thought of mine:

most of the surf art I see it's like coming out of street art. Gifted painters (I refer mostly to painting) with no specific studies that ended up depicting sea scenes. And they do that mostly bringing the self taught graffity/street style to the ocean scenery. 

Vincenzo Ganadu on the other hand, had classic italian art studies in his youth and only later in his life surf, or surfing, came to the equation.

I believe his paintings are just amazing and they give you the feeling of it, rather than a sort of comic illustration.

Again, no offence please. This is just my impression and it means nothing.

Here's a link to his website, and below a video where he paints D'Arcy's surfboards:

Segnalo piacevolmente il video (che vedete sopra) ed il sito di Vincenzo Ganadu, un artista che surfa od un surfista che dipinge.

In Australia si trova cosidetta Surf Art ovunque. E' molto comune trovare quadri e decorazioni e anche oggetti che ritraggono scene di surf.

Cio' che mi colpisce pero' e' come la sensazione che tutto quello che veda sia il risultato di un poco di talento mischiato all'arte di strada dei graffitti o simili, trasportato in contesto marino. Mi sembra spesso di vedere quadri o decorazioni venduti a caro prezzo che non si discostano molto da illustrazioni da fumetto o riviste per ragazzi.

Rimango sempre perplesso.

VG invece ha scoperto il surf dopo aver fatto i suoi studi d'arte, come si fanno per bene da noi. Ed ecco che i suoi quadri, ai miei occhi, si elevano decisamente al di sopra della media, abbandonando quelle illustrazioni naif da funetto e donandoti forti visioni e sensazioni.

Ovviamente queste sono solo opinioni personali.

Vi invito a visitare il suo sito o almeno a dare un'occhiata al video.

The long wait

I had a serious health problem.

No I'm recovering, slowly. I'm not fine yet. 

I have to take it easy and wait. As if I didn't wait already. This is the fourth week of nothing: no surf, no gym, no skate, no bike, no nothing. Yes couch.

I may be able to go surfing again in few weeks. And my fitness will be close to zero.

I know I can go back to normal, just need to wait.

I shouldn't complain too much, given that I'm not missing memorable days. But I love winter, I love surfing in a sunny, warm, winter day, with crystal clear water and small funny waves.

I miss it so much. 

The worst thought of all has been the idea to loose surfing. If I was to give up surfing, I'd be extremely, extremely depressed. I don't think it's possible to substitute it.

I'm a later in life beginner and you know.. I suck. But surfing has filled something in my life that I think it was somehow missing. 

I really want to keep it with me. 

E' un mese che sto male.

Una serie di cose ed un problema che poteva risultare molto brutto.

Invece grazie a Dio, si sta risolvendo con riposo. Riposo e attesa. E ancora riposo.

Un mese che non faccio nessuna attivita', tra surf, skate, bici o palestra.

Riposo e pazienza, e attesa.

Forse a settembre saro' in grado di tornare in acqua, con la forma di una mozzarella.

La cosa peggiore e' stata, ed e', l'idea o l'eventualita' di dover rinunciare a fare surf.

Una cosa del genere mi deprimerebbe troppo. 

Ho iniziato da relativamente poco tempo e sono una schiappa. Eppure questa attivita' ha come riempito un vuoto nella mia vita. Non saprei come spiegarlo. Ma so che rinunciarvi sarebbe una perdita enorme. Non ci sono sport che possano sostituirne la bellezza e la gioia.

Vai di attesa.. 

Frustration #3

This is the lowest point so far.

In the last two months I missed several occasion to go surfing, then two weeks ago on saturday I was free but a northerly wind ruined the small swell. It was supposed to be better on sunday but on sunday I had to work. And my workmate was sick. Really sick. And there was a strong smell of paint all over which came from who knows where. So by the end of the day I felt shit. And then I felt worst. I didn't have fever but my body ached.

I spent the week looking forward to go surfing and at the same time feeling shit.

I didn't go surfing.

I started having pain on my arms, specially the right.

Now it's the second week that I drag myself around and obviously I'm here, writing this, instead of being at the beach having fun with the small swell passing by.

Yet again I'm not surfing, and worst of all I can't lift my right arm.

What the fuck is it?

Blood test are done and say nothing.

My mood is six feet under.

There's no comparison between a frustrating day in the water and the frustration of not being able to go surfing. 

I'm not surfing, my body aches, I don't know what to do and I just feel like crying.

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.

 

Quicksilver sport watch - Review!

To talk about this watch is need to talk about the Swatch brand.

Do you know it?

Swatch is a Swiss idea. Originally they created a cheap, plastic, colourful, fun and disposable watch for teenagers. They gained great popularity and over time the range and models increased.

Not long ago, with just 30 years -or so- gap, they finally arrived in Australia. 

This is to say that basically since I was a teenager I always had a Swatch at my wrist. They looked good, lasted 2 to 5 years and never costed me much.

My last one, all plastic, already a couple of years old, has gone through all my surfing initiation: 3 years of all sort of wipe-outs and stuff.

Then it died. Just like that. But it actually surprised me for lasting that long in the ocean.

So when last year I went to Torquay, I decided that my souvenir would be a brand new "surfing watch", made to face the greatest wipe-out and last a million years.

See the picture? That’s the one I chose. Very thick and heavy (twice a Swatch) stainless steel plus don't know what special glass and what else.

I bought it on July and by February it started to die. I couldn’t I believe it. 

But yes, as a matter of fact, it didn’t last 1 year.

10 months. Dead.

Thank you Quicksilver.

So, what's my review?

I rate this shit 0 star out of 5.

Does it work?

No.

Do I like it?

Not really. I got the smallest, but it was still uselessly too heavy. Too thick. The knob on the wrong side.

Would I recommend this watch?

Never.

Any suggestion?

Any cheap watch will last longer.

Save your money.

Per la review di questo orologio mi occorre menzionare lo Swatch.

L'ultimo che ho comprato, un modello di plastica, era gia' vecchio quando ho iniziato a surfare.

E' durato quasi 3 anni partecipando a tutte le botte che un principiante con tavola epoxy puo' garantire. Poi un giorno e' morto, di punto in bianco. Ma ero sorpreso che fosse durato tanto.

Cosi' quando sono andato a Torquay, citta' surfistica del Victoria, ho voluto prendere un souvenir che fosse utile: l'orologio della Quicksilver in foto.

Ho cercato il piu' piccolo possibile, per non darmi fastidio. Eppure e' grosso e pensante il doppio dello Swatch. Fatto in acciaio e con vetro criptonico testato coi rutti di Hulk.

Insomma, una roba speciale per resistere alla vita da lupo di mare! 

Cosi' son rimasto perplesso quando dopo qualche mese ha iniziato a perdere colpi. Pensavo magari fosse la batteria. Invece no.

Non e' durato nemmeno un anno. 10 mesi. Morto. Fine. 

Grazie Quicksilver. Che cagata di orologio.

Valutazioni finali:

Voto 0 stellette su 5.

Funziona?

No.

Mi piace?

Non c'era molta scelta e il design lascia il tempo che trova.

Lo suggerirei agli altri?

Neanche per sbaglio.

Consigli?

Qualsiasi orologio del marocchino dura di piu', sicuro.

Risparmiate i soldi, va.

A special moment - Un momento speciale

..still waiting to go back to the ocean..

 

 

Thinking about surfing lately I have this moment stuck in my head and I love it.
 

It's the moment while you are paddling and you know the wave is upon you and you wonder if you did everything well and if the wave will take you with it (here I'd rather write "with her", for some reason..) and then.. there's a split second when the longboard.. I don't know.. it's like it sinks, or stops, or fly.. it's hard to describe.. it comes just before the tail get lifted.. it's like a void.. or maybe a suction effect by the water..

When I feel that I know it's time for a ride.
 

Then the tail goes up and the slide starts and you put your hands on the deck and I also love the exact moment when your feet take control and your hands just leave the white surface of the board and there are drops of water flying and everything is ready and waiting for you.

 

The first one is the moment the promise of a ride become true. The second one is the moment I make it happen.

 

I live those moments every day in my head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sto ancora aspettando di tornare in acqua.

 

E pensando e fantasticando di essere la, ultimamente ho messo a fuoco un momento speciale che amo.

Si tratta di quando stai remando e sai che l'onda e' praticamente sopra di te e ti chiedi se hai fatto tutto bene e se hai abbastanza velocita' e la posizione giusta (distribuzione dei pesi) per prenderla. E poi c'e' questo momento, che viene prima che la coda si alzi, e dura una frazione di secondo, in cui succede qualcosa ed il longboard ha una reazione che non ho ancora decifrato.. E' come se si fermasse, o affondasse, o venisse risucchiato. Un dettaglio piccolissimo che tempo fa non ero in grado di sentire. E che ora mi dice e mi assicura che sto per partire.

Dopodiche' la coda si alza, la tavola inizia a scivolare giu' e tu metti le mani sotto al petto e spingi, e amo anche quell'esatto istante  in cui le mani hanno appena lasciato la tavola e i piedi stanno prendendo il controllo e ci sono gocce d'acqua ovunque ed il sole splende e tutto e' pronto per te.

 

Il primo strano momento e' quando la promessa di una corsa diventa realta', il secondo e' il momento in cui io inizio a crearla.

 

Ultimamente rivivo questi momenti, queste immagini, tutti i giorni. 

Some pictures - Foto

I've been busy with life and I didn't surf much lately.

Also I let this blog dormant a bit too much probably.

So today, just to prove that I'm alive I put out there some pictures. They come from my back-up hard drive and they have been taken in 2008, more than three years before I discovered surfing.

I already had an eye for waves.. :)

These were taken on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy (check the location below), close to where I grew up.

If you wonder, the waves here are 10cm high. 

But not too far from there, there's a surf spot which is one of the best in the Mediterranean Sea. Sadly I've never seen that place with waves and surfers, and for the record I never surfed in my Country. 

One of the thing that I miss the most are the long sunsets on the beach. I really miss that.

When it's 7pm and you see the sun sliding north.. and you still have two hours or more to wait before it touches the water, and it's so close but still it doesn't want to get wet, and the day is still warm and there are few people on the beach and it's so calm and peaceful. 

I miss that. And I'm missing surfing right now.

I need to get out in the water and just be there.

E' da on poco che non scrivo causa impegni.

E non surfo da quasi 3 settimane.

Allora per dimostrare che sono vivo pubblico queste foto che ho fatto nell'estate del 2008, ben piu' di tre anni prima che scoprissi il surf.

Come si vede le onde gia' attiravano la mia attenzione.. :)

Le ho fatte nella costa ovest sarda, vicino casa. Quelle onde la sono da 10cm ma non lontano da quella spiaggia c'e' uno dei posti migliori per surfare nel Mediterraneo. Sicuramente sapete di che parlo. 

Io ci sono stato in tempi non sospetti e non vidi mai ne onde ne surfisti. Non solo: non ho mai surfato a casa mia! Sarebbe bello vedere con i miei occhi le fantomatiche onde sarde.

In ogni caso una delle cose che mi manca sono gli interminabili tramonti estivi del Mediterraneo, sul mare ovviamente. Se leggete in italiano e' inutile che ve li descriva, ma vorrei tanto poter essere in spiaggia alle 7 e godermela ancora per qualche ora..

Mi mancano quei tramonti e mi manca surfare.

Ho bisogno di andare in acqua e starmene li a galleggiare sulla tavola.

Night thoughts - Pensieri notturni

Lately every time I watch tv I end up watching some very interesting docu about the most different things.

But mostly they turn out to be about people. People living in different places and conditions. Mostly bad conditions.

 

There are some really sad things happening in the world.

I'm so, so lucky to be born in the right side of it. I'm so grateful.

And I wonder what did I do to deserve my little life.  Nothing is my answer. I did nothing. Sheer luck. Sheer fucking huge luck.

And if you're reading this, then you too have been lucky enough to be living a life where internet and spare time exists.

 

Most people in the world, the very biggest part of people around the world is fighting for food, shelter and medications.

And then there are those who were born on the right side but were carried away in bad things and lives of unhappiness.

I refer to them right now, when I watch those things on tv and I just can't understand their lives, their worlds and their minds.

 

And so the only thing that comes to my mind is roughly this: if only I could just take them to the beach and show them how beautiful is to catch a wave, how peaceful is to just be there.. well , if that could be possible I think , I wonder if they could save themselves by falling in love with surfing.

 

 

 

 

Ultimamente quando guardo la tv mi soffermo spesso su documentari di ogni tipo.

 

Spesso riguardano persone, o gruppi di persone. Vite diverse nei diversi posti nel mondo.

E spesso sono cose negative. Ci sono molte cose brutte che accadono ed esistono nel mondo, continuamente.

 

Sono fortunato ad essere nato nella parte giusta del mondo. E ne sono riconoscente.

E mi chiedo cosa abbia mai fatto per meritarmelo. E niente e' la risposta.

Non ho fatto niente. Perfino nascere non e' stata una mia decisione.

Fortuna. Fottuta fortuna.

E se stai leggendo queste righe, anche tu sei stato fortunate/a abbastanza da vivere una vita nella quale internet e tempo libero esistono.

 

Un sacco di persone nel mondo, la stragrande maggioranza delle persone nel mondo vive soffrendo per avere un poco di cibo e protezione.

E poi ci sono anche quelli che sono nati dalla parte giusta del mondo, ma che si sono fatti invischiare in brutte cose e finiscono a vivere vite di pura infelicita'. 

E mi riferisco a loro in questo momento quando affermo che vedo certe cose e non riesco a comprendere e concepire le loro vite, i loro mondi e le loro menti.

 

E l'unica cosa che penso ultimamente quando vedo queste storie in tv e' piu o meno questa: se solo potessi magicamente prendere queste persone e portarle in una spiaggia assolata, e potessi mostrarli la bellezza e la poesia che esiste nel mare e nel prendere le onde, e quanto e' bello per la tua anima startene anche semplicemente li ad aspettare, ecco se potessi fare una cosa del genere, mi chiedo se queste persone potessero guarire se stesse innamorandosi del surf.  

Question - Domanda

It's Tuesday morning.
I'm checking the webcam and see this:

Question: is anyone working in Noosa today?
I hate you guys!




Martedi mattina e guardo le onde delle webcam.
La domanda e': ma a Noosa c'e' qualcuno a lavoro oggi?
Li odio!

Frustration #2

I was waiting for a frustrating day.

I was waiting because of that many good days I had lately.

I knew It would have come and I was getting ready.

The last two or three sessions haven't been great, in fact. Mostly due to the conditions and partly due to the crowd. But that's the good news: 1) I was psychologically ready for that to happen and 2) I understood a bit more about my frustrating days.

I'm not sure but maybe I'm on the track to understand when people (surfers) say that the Ocean teach you to be patient. In my first two years of surfing I've been pretty stressed about -not- catching waves and/or wasting them with stupid nose dives or wipe outs. So now, it may depends because of my improving, I can live the waiting with a more relaxed approach, and enjoy more my time in the water.

This is not to say that I don't curse the other surfers and stuff, but I now know that there's not point in cursing against the Ocean, at least! There's nothing I could do if there are no sets for me when all the good surfers have taken a wave.

The last session below Greenmount has been the most disappointing. Waves were small and the low tide made a very strange condition with a powerful side current which effected the waves too. There weren't too many people but there weren't many rideable waves either.

In days like this I'd spent my time waiting and doing nothing and cursing all the time and going back home feeling crap. This time around I waited and kept looking for a good spot and chated with my friend and enjoyed the water and caught what I could, until three hours later bigger waves came around beside Greenmount and I had some great, exciting, partly scary, a bit painfull rides.

I've learned that even if my skills are improving and my board is a rocket, I can't surf some waves in some conditions. I've learned that those frustrating days in the past were not because of me only. And that even in a day like that, if I'm ready when the right wave comes, I can get a beautiful experience.

Frothing over the webcam - Morendo d'invidia

Checking out the waves from the office..
I'm dying to be there..

Rainbow Bay, Coolangatta, on this beautiful autumn morning
Coolangatta in questa bellissima mattina autunnale

Controllo la situazione onde guardando le webcam dall'ufficio..
e muoio dal desiderio di essere li in questo istante!

XM leash review

I just want to write down this little post about the XM Tangle-free leash.

I bought it online after seeing the ad on some mags.
As I always have problems with the leash, I thought this one could have been the solution.
In fact they sell you the idea that the little yellow thing will sink in the water keeping your legs free of the cord.
But this is not the case: the yellow thing doesn't sink at all and mostly ends up sitting at the end of the cord, doing exactly nothing to solve the problem.  Yes it may adds a bit of drag while paddling, but wtf, when you paddle the leash is always behind you and it's not then that you have problems. Troubles start when you sit down and wait, and turn the board, and paddle, and turn the board, and sit, and turn, and sit and so on..

I'm the king of tangled legs, and this leash doesn't make any difference at all. At all.

Meanwhile the only thing that helped a bit is to free the leash when I don't use the board and keep it nice and loose on a hook in the garage.

Vote: 1 star out of 5
Does it work?
Not at all.
Do I like it?
Not at all.
Would I recommend this thing?
No.
Any suggestion?
Save your money.

 

Review veloce sul fantastico XM tangle-free leash!

Ho comprato questo leash gabbato dalla pubblicita' (questa) che ti fa credere che il pesetto che sta lungo la corda affondi in acqua tenendo le tue ganbe libere dall'annodarsi.

Ma la pubblicita' non rispecchia la realta'.

Mentre remi il pesetto fa un poco di resistenza e tiene il leash indietro, ma certamente non e' quello il momento in cui e' richiesto il suo aiuto. 

Quando si sta fermi in attesa, il pesetto - leggerissimo- non affonda realmente e quindi non allontana il leash dalle tue gambe. Inoltre le dinamiche di Poseidone fanno si che il cosino giallo finisca immancabilmente alla tua caviglia o all'altra estremita', vanificando ogni possibilita' di aiuto anche casuale.

Insomma, non ho notato nessuna differenza dal precedente e continuo ad annodarmi le gambe come un salame.

L'unica cosa che aiuta a risolvere/diminuire il problema e' appendere il leash ad un gancio tra una surfata e l'altra, dimodoche' riposi senza pieghe/curve non gradite. 

Insomma questo leash e' una fregatura.

Voto: 1 stellina su 5.

Funziona?

No.

Mi piace?

No.

Lo raccomanderesti ad altri?

No. 

Consigli?

Risparmiate soldi.

New toy - Giocattolo nuovo

Right now I'm sharing a big stoke with my friend, the one I went to Noosa with, this last month.

Being at roughly the same level we are talking a lot and sharing thoughts on our surfing. Also he bought the Goofboard not long ago and agreed it's an amazing tool to speed up the learning process. But one thing the balance board cannot teach you is carving. Cargving left and right, like a cutback or something. And I mentioned some skateboards I saw recently to him, made with the only purpose of teaching you the carving techniques. Well, he was thinking about that too, and so after few days checking the web, we agreed in wasting some money in buying one of those miracle skateboard.

And here I'm: thinking and thinking about my new skateboard and turning that little bloody thing properly. We already had two two-hours sessions in a parking lot. 

I have to say that I've never had a skateboard before. I was very scared at the idea, but after ten minutes I was standing up decently, and to waste no time, we went down the slope and start pushing with toes and heels! 

It's a lot of fun I have to say.  But only down hill. Pushing a skateboard has nothing to do with fun and using it like a mean of transport makes no sense to me. But again, I'm an alien discovering things and my opinion on this doesn't count much. 

What counts is that it gives you a very similar feeling to surfing. And to turn tight you need to push hard with the back foot. It also made clear to me that as I'm always surfing the points backhand I have a decent but not tight right turn, and a very poor right turn. I thought I was better than that. 

But you know what?

I will spend hours going downhill and carving the scary asphalt. In the next ten days I will have skated more than what I've surfed in two years. I really want to be good at this and progress my surfing to where I want. 

The balance board helped a lot. I'm very curious to see the effects of this. I can't wait. 

By the way: how do you stop with a skateboard?? 

Ultimamente sto condividendo la mia passione con un amico che è più o meno al mio stesso livello e soffre della stessa fissazione.

Abbiamo avuto bellissime giornate a Noosa e parlato molto di cosa facciamo, come, e soprattutto cosa dovremmo imparare. Anche lui ha preso la Goofboard e concorda sul fatto che ha grandi effetti benefici in acqua. Ma la tavoletta non ti permette di praticare il carving, cioè ritagliare strette curve dentro l'acqua. Così una volta ho nominato degli skateboards creati apposta con lo scopo di ricreare il movimento delle tavole sull'acqua. Anche lui ne aveva sentito parlare ed in men che non si dica ci siamo ritrovati a buttare i nostri soldi in un acquisto dettato dalla voglia di onde.

Ed eccomi qua, col cervello impantanato a ragionare su come far girare quel diabolico  aggeggio. Abbiamo già speso forse quattro ore in due giorni a fare avanti ed indietro con lo skate. 

Non ne avevo mai usato uno prima e l'idea dell'asfalto vicino e duro non è molto invitante, ma questo non ci ha fermato dal provare una piccola discesa dopo i primi dieci minuti. 

È una attività molto divertente, e constatare i progressi a vista d'occhio è entusiasmante.

Quando eri bambino era ovvio e non ti aspettavi niente di meno che dominare il "gioco" nel giro di una giornata. Ma da adulto constatare che puoi imparare cose nuove e mai fatte è una figata grandiosa. Quindi è bello, ma solo in discesa. Spingere lo skate è una rottura pazzesca e non capisco chi lo utilizza come mezzo di trasporto. Ma poco importa.

Ciò che importa è che ti sembra quasi di essere sul surf e per girare devi spingere molto col piede dietro. Mi sono già reso conto che surfando sempre i points destri ed essendo mancino, ho una girata a destra decente ma non fantastica, ed una sinistra penosa. Insomma, molto da fare.. 

Ma sapete cosa? 

Probabilmente nei prossimi dieci giorni avrò già messo insieme più ore di skate che di surf in due anni e mezzo. Sono motivatissimo e sapendo cosa ha fatto l'esercizio con la Balance board, non vedo l'ora di vedere gli effetti di questo particolare skate. 

A proposito: ma come ci si ferma? :) 

Before the very first try with the new toy. Should I put it on the ground?

 

 

 

 

 

Poco prima del debutto. Ma devo metterlo in terra?

GoPro Review

It's time to resume the still young review section of this blog!

I already have a few items to talk about, and today it's the Gopro sport camera turn.

First: yes, I'm one of those kook who don't know how to surf but have a camera on the surfboard. (actually I don't have it on the new board yet but doesn't change much).
And yes, I get bad looks by older or -cooler than me- surfers. But you know what? Fuck that! 

I have the very first model. I honestly think that you really don't need to buy the last one. Any version has a good quality and buying the last one it's just a waste of money. I'd go as far as saying that a second hand one will do the job saving you hundreds of dollars. 

Quality is good, and you don't need me to confirm this.

There are two way to attach the camera to your surfboard: you can screw it in like a fin, this means you need to make a fcs compatible hole in your deck, or you can use the sticky pad, which means you'll probably never take it off the deck. The sticky pad I mean.
Both solutions are painful if you love your surfboards as I do now with the new one. But I didn't hesitate a second to stick it on the nsp. And it was worth it!

It was worth it -and it still is- because, and here I finally get to the point, watching yourself in action is one of the best tool to learn from your mistakes and make progress.

People who give me the "oh my another dumb kook with a camera" look really don't have idea how good and useful is to watch yourself.
So far watching and watching myself and other videos on the net (comparing me to others, I mean)  has been the key to understand so many little things!
So I don't give a fuck about the others. The cooler you think you are, the pathetic you are. 

Also, there are two more aspects about recording your session: one is the simple fun to watch it at home and revive the stoke, the second is that if you have a bit of passion for filming or photography, you can get some pretty good stuff. Or really good. 

The downside are: if you put it on the very nose, like I did, to have the biggest frame possible, you will need to stretch to reach it (I refer to longboards). And the power buttons are not that easy to press, when your are in that position. Obviously you can slide your ass up the board, but I find annoying to move back and position yourself back in the right place. Specially if a wave is coming. And the problem is that, second point, you need to start and stop the camera all the time if you don't want it to get foggy or fill up the memory card very soon. 

So I think this is the thing: if you like filming or photography, you'll enjoy this little toy and you'll benefit from it (as long as you study yourself); if you buy stuff just for the sake of it, then you'll use it twice and get bored. 

I personally think it's a great tool and after two years it still works perfectly.

-----

Si lo ammetto, sono uno di quei kook sfigati che non sanno surfare ma hanno la telecamerina sulla tavola. Ma sai che c'e'? Fottetevi. Sono troppo vecchio per sbattermene degli altri.

Ho il primo modello della GoPro e credo proprio che non ci sia bisogno di comprare il piu' recente. La qualita' e' ottima ed e' quello che conta. Diro' di piu': odiando -io- questo continuo sfornare di modelli nuovi a distanza di dieci mesi uno dall'altro, vi suggerirei di non farvi fottere e di comprarne una di seconda mano. Si risparmia un sacco e non cambia niente.

Gli attacchi per il surf sono due: l'adesivo e l' fcs plug. L'adesivo, il primo che avevo su una vecchia e sgangherata tavola, era enorme. Recentemente lo hanno ridimensionato ed e' molto meglio. Specie all'inizio delle mie peripezie, ho avuto modo di testarne la tenuta in molti roccamboleschi modi e non ho mai avuto problemi. L'aggancio fcs invece richiede di fare il buco sulla tavola e non me la sono sentita. Un amico l'ha fatto e l'unica differenza e' che la telecamera rimane piu' in alto rispetto all'adesivo.

Funziona? Serve a qualcosa? Ne vale la pena?

Si, si, ni.

Come detto, e come e' noto, le immagini sono molto belle, non si discute. (Lo sfondo qua sotto piu la foto profilo piu' alcune foto nella pagina Foto fatte con la GoPro).

Secondo me serve molto ha chi sta imparando o a chi vuole imparare una manovra particolare.

Lo possibilita' di rivedersi, bene, e' grandiosa. Posizione dei piedi, postura, movimenti, motivi del perche' si cade (esempio). Ritengo che studiare le mosse dei pro su youtube e confrontarsi con loro sia molto ma molto utile. Poi rivedersi su una bella onda e' sempre bello e tiene alto il morale nei periodi piatti.

Sul ne vale la pena faccio un distinguo. Ne vale la pena se piace fare filmati, editare, giocare con le immagini in generale, ed ovviamente se si e' determinati a migliorarsi. Se contante di usarla anche in vacanza, in piscina, col cane, sulla bici. Non ne vale la pena se non ve ne e' mai sbattuto niente di possedere una telecamera e vi stressate a ricaricare le batterie e svuotare la simcard. Allora dopo le prime due uscita saranno soldi buttati. 

Due limitazioni.

Si appanna spesso ed occorre spegnerla dopo ogni onda. (In acqua, all'asciutto il problema e' minore).

Come si deduce da youtube, ci si vede, ma non si vede il contesto. E' difficile percepire la grandezza dell'onda e la dinamica tavola/onda.  Per quello occorrebbe che qualcuno filmasse da fuori. Ma cio' comporta ben altro.

Aggiornamento: 

ultimamente molti surfisti si filmano usando lo stick o tenendola in bocca (esiste l'affare apposito). Usare lo stick mentre serfo mi risultera' impossibile per i prossimi 200 anni, quindi non saprei; averla in bocca, o in testa, o in mano, invece crea filmati che personalmente causano il vomito. Non mi sembrano soluzioni efficaci. 

Saturn surfing

There are many posts in my mind that I should write but I just don't have the time.

One of those left behind is this one.

I almost finished a sci-fi book titled 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson. Just for the record I have 5 books on my bed side table and every night I decide what to read according to my mood and my tiredness.  

This one has nothing to do with surfing and I bought it because of the description and good reviews on the back cover that somehow reminded me of Isaac Asimov. (btw- I never ever read the synopsi of a book or movie I want to read/watch)

So there's this story of a fascinating future where humans are all over the solar system and obviously there's a kind of mystery that someone have to solve. And this someone is a girl, and this girl goes around looking for answers and in the middle of the book she goes to Saturn and she get invited to surf!

To be precise she goes surfing the inner edge of Saturn's F Ring, which get influenced by the proximity of Prometheus, a very small moon -asteroid- rotating around Saturn.
So Prometheus goes around and pulls material stuff from the inner side of the F Ring. Basically it pull up a wave of ice and rocks.  And this is a fact.
In the novel this wave is described as 10m wide -left to right- and a couple of Km high!

The girl wears a suit with jets to bodysurf the wave. She launch herself timing the passage of Prometheus and then she glides among the ice chunks for hours. She also mention other surfers standing up a board (!!) but she prefers the full control/experience.

Basically she surf the gravitational pull itself! We surf the result of many forces, she surfs the purest form of wave!

Two little lines from the book:
..In effect the F ring was being swirled in the tides created by its two shepherd moons, making for some waves. And where there were waves, there were surfers..

..She could feel Prometheus tugging her along; this must be what a pelican felt like, surfing the air pushed by a water wave. A gravity wave, throwing her through the universe. The howls of the other surfers sounded like wolves..

On K.S.R. 's wikipedia page there's no mention of surfing. But this is the greatest idea!

Back to Cooly - Ritorno a Cooly

After many weeks my friend and I went back to Coolangatta.

As I said many times this is the place that I love the most: the water, the sand, the sunshine.. I don't know. I just love it. Even though this surf spot can turn easily in a punishment for me.

Anyway, I just wanted to write down that we surfed all morning with some reasonable waves. Specially during the first hour I got some kind of big waves and I surfed them as I never did before. As I said my surfing is evolving and now I'm enjoying moving my board as much as I can.

But don't get me wrong: I don't care about upscaling my waves. It's just that I'm stoked about being able to surf them and being able to do my little things.

Once again. I'm so stoked. :)

ps- On a side note I just decided to create a "wild life" tag. Unfortunately I didn't write yet about all the wild life spotting I do while out in the water. I kwon that for australian surfers what I see in the ocean is nothing compared to their lifetime experience, but nevertheless I'm so surprise and amazed every time it happens.

Yesterday a stingray cruised below me, while a Pied Cormorant popped up from under the water just few meters away. It was fishing and didn't give a damn about the waves, or the surfers! I love australian wildlife. I love Australia.

Dopo piu' di un mese sono tornato a Coolangatta.

Come ho scritto altre volte amo questo posto. Sara' per l'acqua, la sabbia, lo scenario, il sole.. non lo so.

In ogni caso volevo scrivere brevemente che specialmente durante la prima ora ho beccato qualche bella onda alta quanto me e le ho cavalcate degnamente.

Il mio surfare sta cambiando e si evolve. Muovo la tavola sempre di piu' e sono in grado di interpretare -se mi passate il termine- almeno un poco l'onda, invece che esserne sempre e solo un semplice passeggero.

La soddisfazione e' enorme.

Ogni volta ho un sorriso enorme mentre remo per tornare in posizione.

Cavalcare poi onde cosi' alte e' una bella scarica di adrenalina. Non che mi interessino onde grandi, tutt'altro. E' solo che quando non c'e' scelta ti devi adeguare, e sapere di essere a mio agio e' una grande soddisfazione.

L'utimo mese e' stato fantastico e anche ieri ho finito molto contento.

ps- Aggiungo ora una Tag chiamata wild life-animali. Purtroppo ho sempre dimenticato di scrivere a proposito degli animali che vedo mentre sono in acqua, ed ho deciso di farlo da adesso in poi. Gli avvistamenti sono sempre tanti e belli, ma parto da ieri e lascio al caso il racconto dei prossimi. 

Ieri mentre aspettavo e riposavo, una manta e' passata sotto di me, radente la sabbia, in planata. Poi qualche tempo dopo, un Pied Cormorant e' comparso da sott'acqua, mentre pescava. Era a due metri da me e di certo non se ne preoccupava minimamente.

Non c'e' giorno che non veda qualcosa che in Italia era riservato ai documentari. Amo questo posto.

Noosa waves

I've been so busy I lost the chance to write about some of my last sessions.

So I'll sum them up with this post.

Noosa and Byron Bay are beautiful places which never gifted me with good waves.
But this last month, which had a consistent run of good swells, I followed my friend who insisted to go to Noosa no matter what.
So we have been there from dawn to sunset, festival or not festival, crowded or semi-crowded.
We surfed Tea Tree and Little Cove all the time.
And the waves were sooo good!
It's the first time in my -actually short- surfing life that I get two good days in a row. Well, I've put together 6 beautiful consistent days in few weeks!
The comfort with my new board is growing fast and my joy too.
Something new is happening to my surfing. Little things. It's always about little things. Little things that all together make your ride different. Look different, feel different.

I can definitely say that the Goofboard helped me a lot. It cut short months of tryal. My balance is way better than before and that's the key to be able to think about doing stuff.
My board seems to like steep faces and I got the impression that the more I move it the better it feels.

I'm so happy, I'm so stoked!

A new purchase is on the waiting list. And it's about improving my surfing again.
I can't wait.

Sono stato cosi' impegnato che ho perso l'occasione per scrivere di alcune bellissime giornate passate a Noosa.

Noosa e Byron Bay sono due mitiche localita' per surfare, specialmente col longboard, ma in questi due anni non mi hanno mai regalato onde veramente belle come quelle dei racconti dei tempi che furono.  Anzi, spesso mi hanno fregato!

Ma quest'ultimo mese e' stato ricco di onde perfette ed il mio amico mi ha convinto ad andare a Noosa a tutti i costi. Anche se c'era il festival, anche se la folla sarebbe stata da stadio.

Sono quindi stato capace di mettere insieme 6 giornate di surf con onde spettacolari, cosa mai successa nella mia -seppur breve- vita surfistica.

Abbiamo surfato a Little Cove a Tea Tree tutte le volte, il piu' a lungo possibile, arrivando a fine giornata distrutti e felici.

Nonostante la folla, la qualita' e consistenza delle onde mi ha permesso di provare e riprovare ad oltranza, e questo e' il solo segreto per poter migliorare.

Il mio affiatamento con la nuova tavola finalmente si affina, e comincio a capirne il carattere. E il mio surfare piano piano sta cambiando, anche grazie alla Goofboard, che mi ha risparmiato mesi di tentativi. Il mio equilibrio e' migliore, la mia postura diversa, il mio approccio piu' attivo, la soddisfazione enorme. Sto evolvendo!

Un nuovo acquisto e' nell'aria, ed ovviamente riguarda ancora il surf, o meglio, migliorare le mie capacita' mentre non sono in acqua.

Non vedo l'ora.