DORA LIVES: The Authorized Story of Miki Dora

While dog sitting for my friend Derek a few weeks ago, I spotted a copy of DORA LIVES: The Authorized Story of Miki Dora in the bathroom while I was, well, you know... Now I know my fair share about Miki Dora, a gentleman also known as "Da Cat," or the guy that made Malibu (in)famous. But this book shed a whole new light on one of the most iconic surfers... ever. "When he didn't like the commercial direction of the sport he helped define, he turned his back on the beach, wandered the world, served time in jail, and, finally in 2002, suffering from pancreatic cancer returned to his father's house in Montecito to die at age 67."

To define Dora is to define sand slipping through your fingers. Something that seemed so solid, so real, and yet can quickly escape to where it originated. With a healthy disdain for "modern" surf culture, Miki Dora was, in my opinion, one of the few that escaped The Great Sellout of the 1970's. This book, albeit read briefly while using Derek's well-equipped Water Closet, helped me better understand someone I've known only through images. "Transcribed interviews with Dora and texts by former Surfer magazine editor Drew Kampion... are combined with nearly 100 photos and stills from photographers, filmmakers, and Dora's personal albums." Does this book do Dora justice? No, I don't think anything could. But it certainly allows us to see another side, one that wasn't commercialized, cut, pasted and promoted.

The Surf Café Cookbook

The Surf Café Cookbook was developed by Jane and Myles Lamberth, proprietors of Shells Café, which is located in Strandhill on the west coast of Ireland. It was the internet that introduced me to both their cafe and cookbook. Or perhaps I saw it on another surf blog? Or as a related item on Amazon? However I came across it, I'm sure glad I did. Because the book "focuses on locally-produced food that’s unpretentious and tasty. It’s food for sharing with friends and family, around the kitchen table or on a beach blanket thrown on the sand." It features interesting how-to information, a brief history of the Irish surf culture, essential items for anyone eating and drinking along the west coast of their country, as well as an assortment of recipes that are easy to make and damn delicious. And while I'm not much of a cook (I can heat a mean can of beans!), I figure the wife would like what's inside. Click here to learn more about the book.

Home Is Where Your Park It

My friend Foster has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the printing and production of his latest book, Home Is Where Your Park It. After quitting his job in July of 2011, Foster bought a Syncro Vanagon and headed west in search of surf and other such things. And now, after 80,000 miles and twenty-four months spent travelling all over North America, Foster is preparing to publish an assortment of images he's taken along the way. Click here to learn more about the book.

The Big Book of Bing

I recently received a copy Paul Holmes' new book, Bing Surfboards: Fifty Years of Craftsmanship and Innovation, which not only highlights five decades of surfboard manufacturing, but Bing Copeland's personal and professional life, as well as his role in the evolution of surfing and surfboard design. This hardcover coffee-table style book measures 9.5" x 12.25" and features 192 pages of information and images, including a variety of vintage photographs, handwritten pages from old-school order books and every Bing advertisement ever published. Separated into sections that help tell the story of both Bing and his surfboard business, Holmes' book pays homage to the Bing brand, as well as an assortment of individuals that were involved in its evolution.

In addition to highlighting the history, the book features a complete review of all Bing Surfboards models and the contributions they made to surfboard design, as well as three pages dedicated specifically to fin design. An excellent addition to my ever growing collection of surf history schwag, Bing Surfboards: Fifty Years of Craftsmanship and Innovation is more than just a book about boards. It tells a tale. A story that starts in 1959 and continues today, with Matt Calvani building boards the same way Bing did back in the day. So buy the book and learn a little something about surfboards. Just don't let it collect dust like all those other big coffee-table books you've bought!

Off the Grid

The idea of living "off the grid" is appealing to me in many ways. Our dependence on social systems and services has left us weak and unwilling to work. Once able to provide food and certain essentials for our own families, we now look to a conglomeration of corporations and the incestuous idiots in places like Olympia to feed and fend for us. Easy, it is, living on the grid, but the long term effects of our current corporate care system are starting to show. Build a fire, field-dress a deer, grow a bunch of broccoli - all of this seems so unnatural to everyone. With so many people spending their weekends sitting in front of screens, eating food from God knows where and purchasing imported products designed not to last a lifetime. Regress we have.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I heard about Nick Rosen's book, Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America. Probably picked it up somewhere and didn't set it down. Happens. Whatever the reason, Rosen's research about off-grid living is rich and rewarding. It's not a how-to guide, but more of a here's why. Offering a look into the lives of those living the disconnected dream - be it all the way undone, or just a few of the required wires - Rosen's book is broad in its appeal, providing insight and ideas for the serious and the not-sot-serious alike. So if you're at all interested in unplugging, whether you want to disappear into the woods or just reduce your dependence, I recommend you read this.

The Plight of the Torpedo People

I buy a lot of books. My wife would tell you too many. A nasty habit I acquired from my old man. Buy three, read one. But coffee table books don't count. Because you can't really "read" them. You pick it up on occasion, peel through a few pages, ogle some images and then return it to its home on the hardwood (cause glass coffee tables should have stayed in the 80s). This book, however, is an exception, as it accompanies Come Hell or High Water, a body surfing film made by Keith Malloy. Now, to be completely honest, I didn't watch the movie until after I'd already browsed through the book. Maybe a mistake. But the images inside The Plight of the Torpedo People are incredible, and as far as I'm concerned, they can be appreciated with or without an introduction to their importance. There are also screen grabs from the film, which offer the "reader" a window into the world of a surfer sans stuff. A poem by Mark Cunningham captures their connection - Torpedo People pulling to big peelers, falling down the face, escaping underwater. A connection us above water wave riders can't have. It's a beautiful book. One that'll make you wanna pick up a pair of fins and swim out when it's shitty. Or when it isn't.

A-frame

Over the last few months, I've become increasingly obsessed with A-frames. An architectural aesthetic popular in postwar America, A-frames were easy and affordable to construct, required little to no maintenance and often came in kits - you know, like LEGO's. So to further my ever growing obsession, I ordered a copy of Chad Randl's aptly titled book, A-frame.

Published in 2004, the book "tells the story of the "triangle" house from prehistoric Japan to its lifestyle-changing heyday in the 1960s." An architectural historian working at the National Park Service, Randl has compiled more than 200 images and illustrations, along with an abundance of information on A-frames and their influence on modern architecture. There's even an appendix with a complete set of blueprints in case you want to build your own!

Whole Larder Love

My friend Rohan wrote a book. A cook book. A grow it, gather it, kill it and then cook it kinda book. You see, Rohan lives in Australia, a place seemingly unaffected by the Nancy Drewness that has overcome a great deal of this country. So he grows his own goods, fishes for his own fish, shoots stuff with his shotgun and then cooks it all at home for his family to feast on. It's simple, really. But I suppose that's the idea behind the book. Simple recipes, seasonal stuff, locally sourced.

Rohan also runs a blog, from which his cookbook takes its title. On it, Rohan documents his cooking, hunting, fishing and harvesting, as well as his life on a small spot of land in the southeastern part of AUS. I bought his book for my wife, who, although unable to both kill and cook much of what we eat, seemed to appreciate the simple culinary style that Rohan writes about in his book and on his blog.

Click here to learn more about the book.

The Voyage of the Cormorant

Over the course of 22 months, Christian Beamish, a former editor at The Surfer's Journal, built an 18-foot Oughtred Ness Yawl in his single-car garage, and then sailed solo from San Diego to the southern part of the Baja Peninsula searching for surf and solitude. Published by Patagonia, The Voyage of the Cormorant chronicles Beamish's "low-tech, self-reliant exploration for surf along the coast of North America, using primarily clothes and instruments available to his ancestors." His journey, at least from what I've read, was an arduous one and is certainly worth reading about.

The Surfer's Bible

I recently received a copy of William Bascom's Waves and Beaches: The Dynamics of the Ocean Surface, a book that "examines the complex interactions between major coastal features and waves, tides, currents, and surf including man's attempts to control shoreline damage." It was a gift from my friend Shawn, who expects me to not only read, but review this bewildering book. Which I suspect will be a lot of work. But I'm up for it. It is the 'Surfer's Bible' after all ;) So stay tuned for some serious surf science!

The Wave Catcher's Companion

Earlier this week I picked up a copy of Gavin Pretor-Pinney's new book, The Wave Catcher's Companion. Gavin is the author of The Cloud Collector's Handbook, "a whimsical guide to the wonders of the sky." Gavin is from England. He grew up in West London and now lives in Somerset. He is also the founder of The Idler, a yearly publication intended to "return dignity to the art of loafing." His latest book is a "discursive and entertaining guide to entities that control our lives in ways we rarely appreciate." I haven't read but a few pages, still trying to finish Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, but as soon as I have some time, I'll be sure to post my impressions. Click here to learn more about Gavin's new book.

WAX Magazine

Aeriel Brown, along with two other like minded surfer (slash) city dwellers, are preparing to launch a bi-annual magazine for urban surfers. The publication, entitled WAX, will explore the intersection of art, culture and surfing in and around New York City. According to Brown, "the idea (more or less) is to make a magazine for the surf set found in the city. At our local breaks, we find the people we meet are artists, architects, writers — and often the leaders in their fields — and we wanted a publication that spoke directly to them." Their first issue will feature interviews with filmmaker Mikey DeTemple, artists Garth Weiser, Danny Gordon, Ann Pibal and Ann Woo and writer Michael Scott Moore, among others. Brown and her constituents have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund their project and have already raised roughly half of their goal. Additional information is available here.

Sports Illustrated - May 18, 1964

In May of 1964, a small group of Southern California surfers were featured in Sports Illustrated. The piece centered around the burgeoning So-Cal surf scene and what swimsuits these young folks were wearing. Ricky Young was among those photographed for the magazine.

Merry Christmas!

For Christmas, my girlfriend's mother bought me a subscription to The Surfer's Journal. A first. Not sure why I've never subscribed. My father used to buy them off the newsstand when I was a kid. Had a collection that went well into the 90's. When Cheka-Looka relocated to Fremont, I donated my father's collection to the shop. Not sure where they went. Suppose they're somewhere in Jeff's garage ;)

In this particular issue, Nathan Meyers highlights Deus Ex Machina and their 'Temple of Enthusiasm' on the island of Bali (a most inspiring piece of property) while Kimball Taylor retraces Bob Simmons' Oahu bike tour, searching for the origins of Pipe surfing in the process. A must read.

You should subscribe.

West Coast Road Eats

While attending community college and looking for a place to develop my writing skills, I worked as an editorial intern for Citysearch, an online resource for restaurant and retail reviews. During my six month tenure at Citysearch, I worked under a young woman by the name of Anna Ross. As it turned out, Anna had attended the same high school I did and had since received an English degree from the University of Southern California, before taking a job as the editor of Citysearch's Seattle office.

She was quick to point out grammatical mistakes, happy to help when I asked for it and encouraged me to pursue projects that I might have otherwise neglected. Anna has since left Citysearch and is now a content manager for Demand Media. She is also the author of West Coast Road Eats, "the definitive guide to the cuisine of the West Coast."

Saltwater Buddha

I recently purchased a copy of Jaimal Yogis' Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer's Quest to Find Zen on the Sea. But before I could begin reading it, my fiance picked it up and has yet to put it down. So this isn't a book review, more of a book mention. I'd ask Karissa to write the review, but that might take a while ;) Anyhow, I promise to read and review the book at my earliest convenience. Scout's honor.

Hōkūle‘a

After reading Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki and feeling convinced that the Polynesian islands had been settled by seagoing South Americans who crossed the Pacific aboard balsa rafts, my father reminded me that the Hōkūle‘a, a full-scale replica of a waʻa kaulua, had sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti in 1976, essentially disproving Heyerdahl's migration theory.

To further prove his point, my father dug out an old VHS tape on which he had recorded a National Geographic special highlighting the Hōkūle‘a and its 1976 voyage. Funded by the Polynesian Voyaging Society and led by Mau Piailug, the 35 day trip was completed using traditional Polynesian navigation techniques, without the use of modern instruments.

Since the 1976 voyage to Tahiti and back, the Hōkūle‘a has completed nine more voyages to destinations in Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan, Canada, and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation. Her last completed voyage, a five month trip through Micronesia and ports in southern Japan, was completed in 2007.

For additional information on the Hōkūle‘a and the Polynesian Voyaging Society, click here.

Crazy for the Storm

On my way back from Westport a few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad. The book chronicles Ollestad's decent of an 8,000ft mountain after the plane his father had chartered crashed, killing both the pilot and his father. Ollestad was only 11 years old. Additionally, the book highlights Ollestad's formative years living in the counterculture paradise of Topanga Canyon, and his "larger-than-life" father who pushed him to excel in a number of athletic endeavors, including surfing and competitive downhill skiing. Written more than 30 years after the fact, Ollestad's memoir is a stark reminder that anything can happen and that mental toughness is essential to survival.