But recently I’ve paddled out feeling like he does here. It’s a summertime thing.

And a jolly good show it was, too.
There’s a lot of nonsense written about ’surf art’ - an incredibly ill-defined genre occupied at one extreme by surfsploitative cheese, dripping with hackneyed cliché – and at the other by obscure ravings of untidy minds which seem to have little to do with either ’surfing’ or ‘art’. And there’s a lot of debate, too, about the inherent creativity of the surfing impulse, and wether or not to surf itself is to create in the most fleeting and ephemeral of forms. In my humble opinion, surfing tends to attract a fair proportion of knuckle draggers and closed-minded cynics – as well as a legion of creative types who would probably put stuff out there in the world whatever might constitute the raw material of their lives. With something as elemental, all-encompassing and intensely engaging as riding ocean waves, then there’s bound to be more creativity that sticks, and the work has a fair chance of having crystallised some of the beauty of the surf exeperience. Whatever your opinion about the relationship between surfing and art, the travelling show of (largely) Californian artists put together by Will Pennartz with healthy assists from Roxy/Quiksilver, is for me one of the high-points of surf art curation. But down at the ’sifter last Friday, you didn’t only get great work from Thomas Campbell, Barry McGee, Herbie Fletcher, Alex Kopps and a host of other heads who have dialled something unexpected from the surf aether; you also got a smattering of sounds, vision and a really positive, friendly vibe to boot. The high point in terms of the visual art on display were for me Thomas Campbell’s amazingly colourful, textured tapestries. Thomas has been around making art and films for a good long time now, but he keeps coming up with the truly original goods. Look out for the third and final part of his surf film tryptich later this year. (see clip below). The place was packed, a fact encouraged by the scandalous rumour that Jack Johnson would be stopping by to hang out and perhaps to strum a few chords in warmup for the following nights’ scheduled Kernow concert.
As the current surf boom moves into its third generation, it’s really encouraging to see a surge of genuine interest in the creative side of surf culture. Surfing might be as plural as talcum these days, but I like the fact that a few grains manage to survive that are reflective and questioning of what it is we do when we surf. See below from some snapshots of the crew. Of course, we were there to represent our wares.

Don’t miss the eagerly awaited traveling exhibition of surf-related creativity that is The Happening, down at the Sandsifter, Godrevy in Cornwall tomorrow night. Neil Halstead of the Mojave 3 and G-Love will be there amongst others provising the sonic spectacle, and visual artists like Wolgang Bloch, Alex Kopps and a host of others will be representin’, including our own Scandinavian friend and Norse god Thor Jonsson. We’ll be there with copies of the Killer Guide, as well as the few last remaining copies of the first edition of The September Project. Looks like the sea might welcome us with some nice waves and clement winds too. Hope to see you there.