Tunnel with grazing horse
Two quotes from R. Moss interview, Ross-on-Wye, Wales
"The flow state and peak experience always involve the whole body. In surfing, the whole body is involved and every wave is different so you can’t plan, you have to respond without thought, you are using a different part of the mind, a deep, background part of the mind. The wave, the board, your body are really a continuum and so when you start to really become able to surf you are entering that space where you’re no longer trying, no longer thinking about it but you are in a totally receptive and totally active process simultaneously, that’s what invites peak experience."
"When you are in a peak experience you don’t need words, and it’s like you’ve come home to something you intuitively recognise as rightful, and trying to explain it in words just ends up diminishing it. And once you have that kind of experience, the world of ego-drives and desires and narcissistic self-involvement and competition, it becomes unimportant because there is something much more essential that you understand about life. The question of the importance of peak experience to what we as human beings are doing to the planet is really important. "
That old stoney chap - Photo by John Eldridge
And there it was. The last possible point before the wind turned the swell ragged. Feathering and bending down a point, the outside section clearly shallow, the inside a little small to reel, but doing a passable impression. Could you surf it? The decision was quickly taken. On the way down to the point, a stone head guarded the path, features a blur of orange lichen. I silently excused myself, asked permission.
The wave itself was no Malibu
Extract from 'Mosshead Point' part of Cold Glass - 20 winter surfing stories... due for release if it ever gets finished
It has to be done right... and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get to your ears. The only sounds are the wind and a dull roar.
Hunter S Thompson
Pull from unpublished interview with Nat Young, day of the London Bombings. I remember it felt strange talking about something as trivial as surfing, then I went for a surf
Me: Andrew Kidman’s film Litmus started off with a direct quote from you, it goes something like ‘I wish when they’d asked me what surfing meant, I’d replied a spiritual activity instead of a sport, because that put us on the wrong track.’, do you stand by that statement?
Nat: Yeah. I still believe that surfing is much more of an artform than a sport. I think that it is a misnomer. When the media and the general population had to put us into a box, they went- this is a sport. Because they were on the psyche… But it could have just as easily gone the other way, and be considered as a legitimate artform, if it would have been projected as such. Literally, it would have been adopted instantly by the London Ballet company, and the Sydney, by all these different places as a form of dance, and expression, then we would probably all be in a lot different position. I’m only saying this because I feel it probably would have been a more accurate label for the activity.
Auks are seabirds of the family
Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes.
They are superficially similar to penguins
due to their black-and-white
colours, their upright posture and
some of their habits. Nevertheless
they are not closely related to the
penguins, but rather are an example of
m o d e r a t e
c o n v e r g e n t
e v o l u t i o n .
Snips from 'Skua & Auk' Limited edition handmade zine. If you'd like a pdf or would like to swap zines, get in touch using address at right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
