The alaia is the newest incredibly old idea around. The below video has some interesting point-of-view footage, check it out.
I'm not usually one to point to large institutions and suggest leadership. And perhaps I'm not doing that here... maybe we're years past the stage where the word "leader" should be associated with any entity making a stance to ban single-use plastic bags.
After all, countries as large as China weighed in on this issue awhile ago in support of similar measures.
This time around it's a representative from the United Nations.
"Single use plastic bags, which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere" (more on that story here)
I don't mean to disrespect the United Nations with these comments but rather suggest that they, the intersection of interests from cultures around the globe, have a very challenging time agreeing on issues. I'm glad to see movement from them on this issue.
I've written in the past about unspent ordinances (shells, ammunition and bombs) ending up on beaches after beachfill programs.
It's happened over the last few years in the Garden State, New Jersey. Read about that here and here.
I remember when I first heard about this from our former Chairman of the Board, Bill Rosenblatt. It was hard to believe... truly stranger than fiction. Yet tragically true.
Then a similar thing happened in the Empire State, New York. Read about that here.
Now... it's happened in three more states.
Massachusetts, the Bay State, read that story here. Again in North Carolina, the Unspent-ordinances-on-the-beach State here. And one more time in Florida, who cares what the state motto is when there is ammo on the beach... read that here.
The past was only the spoken/printed word and the future is increasingly video-oriented, I think that reality has been absorbed by most by this point.
What I love about this reality is the opportunity to have stories, cultures and history captured and distributed to more audiences than they would have hit in years past. Are there downsides to a world-is-flat mentality? Absolutely. I'm simply choosing to focus on the upsides.
Lightweight, ten-minute video vignettes offer people an onramp. They give people knowledge and understanding. They enable people to contextually see an area and it's issues. They can also eventually point to the need for coastal and cultural protection.
This video is about Oahu. It's about lifeguards. It's about the living history in front of people as they interact with the North Shore.
Plug into our Oahu chapter here.
I'll stop jabbering, the crew over at Explore have created some nice vignettes in this mindset. Here's one on Guardians of the Sea.
Let it load and watch the entire film, it's worthy.
Happy Forth of July... if you find yourself in Malibu you may want to bring some Cipro.
Does anyone else find it hard to comprehend how this can be 2009 we can be talking about this level of bacteria and pollution from a high-end community like Malibu?
Ground zero for this issue is Surfrider Beach. Watch and weep.
I know, photography... like any of the arts... it's subjective. One person's Picasso is another person's trash. Still... when I think of surf photography one of the first names that pops into my mind is Ron Stoner. Here's why...
Call me retro, or anything you'd like, but Ron Stoner captures more than an image of surfing, he captures the feeling. And he captures that feeling with elegant, organic simplicity.
One person is perched on the nose of a log. Glassy waist-high peeler. One buddy has paused paddling back out and is stoked... pointing to his friend. Even the third person is looking over his shoulder, acknowledging the ride. All this via a point of view that makes you feel like a bird, sitting on a tree... taking it all in.
The photo has some issues to be sure. The color pallet is muted, it's grainy and various elements are out of focus. Heck even the wave isn't anything too special. Yet even those add to the mystique and the feel. If had perfect color representation, auto-focus and the wave wasn't sectioning I'm pretty sure Ron wouldn't have snapped the shutter. Part of a Ron Stoner photo is it's approachable...that is, we can all feel what it's like to be IN this photo.
Ok, I'll stop pontificating... I just love Stoner's eye and composition.
I love that he captured the joy of riding waves.
Check out the larger gallery at Surfer Mag's site.
