The Black Squid, good times, good beer, good people.  I will bring a bunch of art and stuff.  Also I will make some vegan cheese, so that's pretty fun.  I wish I had a beer right now!

Commissioned art work all done.  These carrots make me want to make a hearty soup in these cold and increasingly dark days on the Oregon Coast.  Stay stoked.

I have been super inspired by a buddy who unhooks the pivot fin from his longboard and slides down the line, spinning and trimming fakie.  I don't have words to describe how amazing it looks.  I have spent half an hour sitting, typing, trying to describe it and I have no words.  I feel like I need a math equation or some universal law that transcends words, you just have to see it.  I painted this beer dude with a conventional finless outline I have seen, it has a fishy vibe and deep concaves that run parallel to the rails and run a couple inches from the nose and end a few inches from the tail.  Derek Hynd is an acolyte of these boards so check him out for sure.   Surfing is free expression guided by the energy flow of the universe, so surf your own line!

Beer, Skateboard, Mini Simmons.  A painting I finished yesterday of my favorite things.  Fog is rolling in, the swell looks good on the report but cant see the water from the beach.  Maybe surf tomorrow?  Go skate, Go surf, Stay stoked.

Hang ten even when you are dead!

Ode to the twin keel fish

Twin keel fish, the kill of the quiver, the insane speed giver.  Outshoot the lip like a sunray escaping gravitational forces.  Disperse yourself into many forms like a ray of light thru a prism.  The cool trim, the slashing, gouging turns-men, the intense barrel holder.  Layback cutbacks blend into a blue fantasy of barrel rides, sky light, and life light blurring for a few precious moments.  The wave emerges from the ocean and as if shaped by unseen hands, folds and unfurls itself.  The water curls out of the ocean, defying gravity, caught in its embrace.  You are in between worlds, a place above life and death, a bliss filled nowhere that you spend your entire life searching for. 
  Where does the wave go when its gone?  Does it lose track of time and place like creatures past?  Is there a wave boneyard at the bottom of the ocean where the skeletons of waves go after they have lived, roared, and died?  Perhaps the waves merely fall asleep after crashing on the beach and rest.  Awakening and letting loose another powerful yawn and roar and crash!  Before resting again.
  You see the dark burgeoning wave before you, turning, you paddle.   Hands thru freezing water, your shoulders on fire, the wave picks you up.  To catch those awakening waves, the fish glides happily over the lip and speeds along the face.  You cruise and swoop and mellow the vibe of the wave, so smooth and quiet, like you are part of the wave breaking itself.  Shift your feet, dig the rail, and a moments hesitation, then the bite of the keel fin hurls you in and up the wave, staying low you let the board pivot beneath you.  Grab the rail, whole body dragging thru the water, the fish tears thru the lip, showering sweet salt spray into the air.  The board orbits your body and reverses direction, rolling under you as it picks up speed.  The wave closes itself, and you are covered in a white blanket of water.  You have found that sacred space, you are home, you smile, and paddle back to the lineup. 

Lee Leatherman, twin keel fish

In Oregon the calm of the morning is the time to surf.  My buddy Lewis Smith took these photos.  Thanks dude!  A cup of coffee and a morning surf to start the day out right.  Enjoy.

Bumping up on the outside sand bar

A good wipeout is worth ten good rides

white water, a friend and a foe

a super fun drop under the morning sun

Thanks mother ocean

Keeping an eye on places to go

A casual observer of the human condition