Lewis Samuels' wonderful surf journal is put on display!
And I am finally just home from Japan. Tokyo. Shabu shabu. Kawaii. Pow. Etc. My brain is wrapped in a blanket stitched of lag. It feels as if I’m swimming through the world very slowly. Stuck in deep molasses. Maybe a ponzu reduction.
In any case, this general malaise found me scrolling through Instagram very early in the morning and do you know what I saw? Do you know what impressed me greatly?
The great Lewis Samuels‘ surf log!
Just look at it! Look at it in all of its glory.
He writes:
My surf journal from January 1992 – twenty five years ago. Includes earnest statements such as “2-3′ EPIC tubes” and “caught as many lefts today as @natemccarthy”
If you zoom in you can make out some phrases like:
January 8th: Go wide in tube as strong watches, then speed then second section…
Or:
January 9th: A pristine day of surfing…
And it impressed me greatly because of the seriousness with which surfing is taken. It is no frivolous pursuit. It is a science, here. A series of noted experiments. And it made me think of how much better at surfing Lewis is than me and also make me wonder if what separates us is this level of exactitude.
My memory being bad and such, every time I go surfing it is like the first time. My body retains enough memory for me not to look overtly foolish (I hope anyhow) but my mind is a blank and shallow landscape. An empty pool. Thus progression stalls. I have fun but the same sort of fun every time I surf (I think anyhow).
How do you approach your surfing? With the eye of a surgeon or the eye of an drunk?
Should we all keep surf journals and see if we can improve our skill?
a surf journal for an east coaster is blank for 360 days a year
Surflog:
Friday night: Set alarm for 6:30am for an early surf
6:30AM Saturday Morning: Wake up, check cams, look good. Gonna be great. Wife draws back to bed with promise of sex at 7:00, hints at the possibility of backdoor.
7:30 Sex begins, turns into 10 position romp. Backdoor denied. Told I am a pervert.
8:10 Kids knock on door, try to open it. Locked. Hide the semi under a long t-shirt.
8:20 Try to leave. Kids see leaving, demand blueberry pancakes.
8:50 Pancakes made.
9:20 Pancakes eaten.
9:30 Try to leave, kids want to come. Start to get kids ready, take 20 minutes to get a wetsuit on a 4 year old grom.
10:00 Wife asks me to wait for her too.
10:30 Wife is ready, boards are packed in the car.
10:45 11 year old didn’t bring their wetsuit. Turn car around.
11:00 Got wetsuit, forgot sunscreen. Turn around.
11:15 We are on our way, have everything.
11:45 Arrive at beach. No spaces for car. Drop off kids, wife, and boards.
12:00 Find space. Park. Walk.
12:10 Arrive at beach. Waves are blown-out shit. Not gonna try.
12:15 Push grom (4) into white water.
12:30 Get inspired to push grom into actual waves.
12:45 Paddle out with him, push into wave, catches 2, wipeout on 3rd. Cries.
1:00 Wife suggests we leave because no one is having fun.
1:20 Leave.
4:30 Back at home, check cams again. Wind now offshore, waves fun looking.
4:45 get in car, alone, catch 30 mins of decent surf.
this is my nightmare
Solid effort, C+
It doesn’t have to be that way! From experience – as the child, not the parent – you just stuff them into the car at 6.30 a.m. and force them to spend their 5th birthday camping at Shipwreck Bay, kicking around in rock pools and eating an Ernest Adams raspberry slice in lieu of a birthday cake. Meanwhile you get to snap clean in half the surfboard you bought your wife for her birthday at 6ft Supertubes.
Ha, Ha, your Dad is a legend! It is so hard not to be a selfish bastard when it’s pumping! The trick is to not appear selfish, and let wife and grom have the first half hour in the waves, so you can have two hours afterwards. You can also set the older kid deep and drop in on him, like Kala at the Eddie. Not that I’ve ever done this, of course.
haha x by 30 for your monthly data logging. I was trying to convince the missus for sex every day of the year!!! its not working
I’ve seen Guillermo Del Toro’s diary. Let’s just say some folks were meant to write about themselves, I mean surfing, for a living.
all hail Del Toro! Genius, that man!
I can assure you that a blank space in my teenage surf diary from 1991 does not equate to an sexual encounter with a member of the opposite sex. I was far to busy working on an end of season pie chart for those sort of juvenile antics https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Spencer? Assuming that kaik’s is a major improvement…
I was still a virgin in 1990 and I popped a cherry before I could grow legitimate hair above my dick. How old are ya now, Nega? I always thought we were the same age. Maturity wise, anyway.
43
You’re a good man Nega
I’m glad that I’m not the only old guy on here.
Not allowed to surf on Chrissie – blasphemy! Wheres the spirit of giving and all that?
I usually forget the specifics of my surf sessions roughly 15 minutes after they’re over. Lately though, my fullsuit has been generating crazy amounts of pelvic suction. It’s all I can think about both in the water and many hours after getting out and finally releasing the death grip from my nutz.
At no point in my life have I been able to surf that many days in a month. That makes me sad and a little green envy jealous of ol’Lewis…
We keep a log of fishing trips. Tide, moon phase, location, species, numbers, size, etc. That’s useful information, but a surf journal? I can’t see knowing how many waves you caught being any help whatsoever.
yeah, what’s he going to do with this, come back 365 days later and try to duplicate a tube from the year before?
And what a let down it would be to come back 365 days later and it’s flat or not as good. “Awe man last year I got a solid barrel section and ended the 3rd wave 4th section with a long floater.”
I guess if it includes spot info it’s a pretty handy way to gain a deep understanding of conditions / seasons / tides etc vs wave quality. Also he is (was?) a dedicated surf writer, and one of the best and funniest analysts of individuals surfing. Honing his craft?
getting in the water would be honing, this is just documenting. i’m not sentimental, i think people that keep a journal are weird. photos i get, but how often do you even flip through the album?
Never write anything down. Don’t have to hide evidence that doesn’t exist.
Not often but it’s sick when I do
Are you actually a Captain?
Yes, I prefer Master mariner but it was taken. I run tour, fishing, and private yachts.
Salute!
Ghaargh!
Imagine Occy’s surf diary!
Backside snap recurring to the power of 3 divided by tube
Will you start keeping a journal of every kawaii thing you do? Just the little things that make you say, “Oh Chaz, that was so kawaii of us.”
Obviously on January 30th he got laid.
Totally blank! Always a good day when you get to do both..
To the contrary, I expect Lewis is quite alone given the effort he puts into that journal.