It's the golden era of surf writing!
We live in a golden era of surf writing and I think it is impossible to argue otherwise. William Finnegan won a Pulitzer Prize for his surf book Barbarian Days. Matt Warshaw has refined his Encyclopedia of Surfing entries into art. Derek Rielly dances in a delicious, singular literary style so delicious as to taste like dessert. Nick Carroll, seasoned and prolific. James Bickerton, able to turn the most subtle phrase into high-brow laughs. Wiggolly’s Paddling Style, able to turn the most subtle phrase into fine Australian art…
…I could go on all day but my list of golden era surf writers will always end with one of the most important.
The one-time professional surfer loves the craft of writing more than anyone I know. I’ve had the privilege of sitting with him on a few occasions now, talking about writing, talking about writers, talking about style, voice, tone, mashing words together, thoughts… all of it. Jamie is a writer’s writer and his new non-fiction collection Dazzling Blue is some of his finest work to date.
I read it on a PDF on my computer, the worst way to read anything but testament to how good it actually is. Taste this paragraph with me.
Short, bow-legged, blond silky hair and a blond thick moustache, Mickey Rat rode a yellow single fin, awing pintail caked with thick beads of dirty wax. Like many surfers of the era, he drove a van with a mural on the side—a Monument Valley-looking scene with a howling coyote atop a rocky peak. Mickey Rat wore powder blue boardshorts. His shoulders were broad; his upper chest hairy and dotted with freckles. He had a terrific tan. He did not walk from the Malibu parking lot to the top of Third Point, he trotted. If the surf was really good he ran. At water’s edge he set his board down on the sand and went through a quick calisthenics routine—jumping jacks, toe touches, windmill arms, karate kicks. Then he slipped out of his boardshorts, tied ‘em around his neck , strapped on his leash, and paddled out.
Delicious, no?
Gimme Jamie any damn day.
I’ve also found the Surf Splendor podcasts recently. I started at the beginning, but often jump to the present for say the Martin Daly one.
The Parmenter and Munoz ones were also good.
Hope you recover, I never forgave the pavement after finally crashing. Still ride, just cruisng tho.
Water is more forgiving.
As a fellow long-term pushy-commuter, I TOTALLY FUCKING FEEL YOU.
May the Patron Saint of Bicycle Commuters sneak into your darkened room and give you a hand-job.
Cool . My grandmother always said if you try to please everyone you please no one . so you might as well please yourself and make one bugger happy .
I hope some of you will give this a read: https://www.surfersjournal….
Thanks very much!
Sun Bear , just wondering if Buck was the international playboy archetype or more Mardi Gras Mustache Music / Arty Farty type ? I am just trying to capture the essence of who the showman was trying to show off to …
Push-bike or motorbike?
yer a happy daddy.
Wonderful news LGR , it’s going to be a fun ride for him ,and all the family ,growing up on the North Shore .
in the meantime, he’s got quite the piece of writing in the newest The Surfers Journal…
Jay-Briz is the shiz. Aloha emoji.
It’s a bit raunchy
Edit: changed from question to statement
DLS is incredibly dull. I really do respect his efforts in podcasting something he loves though.
He’s a plower!
You can watch and listen to Jamie Brisick and William Finnegan talk story here about this very book
https://www.facebook.com/bi…
Here I am feeling sorry for myself with a strained shoulder and a looming Frane trip organised. All the best man, thanks for keeping it in perspective.
I have no coffee table with which display this tome.
So I’m out.
I hope there’s another ‘Grit’ thing on Davey-Dave-dave’s Thing on Friday because I have to drive somewhere retarded, and could use the vocal wanderings to distract me from my disgust.
Don’t tell me you are driving ……. inland ? Don’t forget your passport CB
Near bonny Cessnock.
We used to have an annual swimming club city country visit held out there in the middle of nowhere when I was a kid and so I was so shocked recently visiting one of my wife’s German friends ,just up the road from Cessnock , who was running a large up market resort in the Heart of the Hunter Wine Country ….
I think it’s that same large upmarket resort thing that I’m visiting. Golf-adjacent?
A Disneyesque hellhole of over-moneyed fucktards with nothing but ‘aspiration’ and ‘vanity’ between their earholes. Certainly no taste to save themselves.
Fuck!!! I hate it. Have to go up once a month for my work.
That’s it , our mate moved on to WA , but from memory the pool was cool ( though not an option in August ) and the breakfast was tasty , and we spent more money on accommodation and dining for the night, than we did for nearly 5 days at a little overnight van at Elizabeth Beach, but there was no little left hander out the front or white sandy beach.
try the betoota advocate podcast. good spread of guests and usually pretty funny.
thanks!
Is the place you are going retarded or are you in character aka sean penn in I am sam?
All the best for quick recovery!
Underrated by us Beach Grit commenters apparently!
Brisick also wrote about the Malibu fire for the New Yorker after his house burned down. And talked about it http://wearelookingsideways…
Get well soon big man.