One Swell

One Swell from Kookingitup on Vimeo.

I remember watching "Distant Shores" back in 2012.  I was a middle aged grom who was still developing his bottom turn but stoked on travel, surfing being the vehicle.  Watching Kepa Acero get barreled, chase swell and do all those things that we as surfers dream.  I won't lie, gets me jealous.  Especially since I was working at a job miles and miles away from the Pacific, watching waves on the cam go vertical while particles sprayed on to it's wet back from all the offshore winds that come through during fall at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. 

My buddy Steve calls me a "GoPro addict".  I bring my GoPro out a lot.  The video that the GoPro captures helps me really see where I need to improve, what I should have done, and a sense of accomplishment and development when I do something right.  GoPros, like one friend in NorCal has said several times, is not for everybody.  I had this discussion with Steve, and we agreed that for the majority of soul surfers, not only is the purity of surf taken, but that singular moment of riding a good wave is something that should be remembered and told through human discourse (this goes back to the Hawaiian culture of "Talking Story").  For them, moments aren't suppose to last forever.  And they can't be contained.  But with a GoPro, that moment is captured and bottled, forever changing surfing and it's community forever.  

But I enjoy watching the waves that I catch.  I enjoy seeing the ripples rise up the face as the wave hits a shallow shelf, and if I have the GoPro angled right, the nose of my board as it skids across that giant plane of liquid as a pelican flies high above at the same time.  I think moments like those are meant to be captured and shared.  It gives us and others we choose to share it with, beauty.  And that's where this video was born.  Capturing one swell, from it's birth to it's death, around the town where I live.  To share and rejoice about.  Even if the waves were mushy.