RIP BUTTONS KALUHIOKALANI

A few weeks ago my favorite surfer of all time passed.
Today I postponed a camping trip to paddle out with over a hundred of his friends and family.
I paddled out on my twin fin and my wife on the long board with our son.
It was a beautiful experience.
In the process we got to meet a lot of kind people, like Kiki, Christian Hosoi's cousin, and Mark Liddell. It was my first funeral/paddle out.
If I die, I want my ashes to go dumped at my home break Suicides right by Graveyards on the South Shore of  Oahu, and for all my friends and family barbecue and surf all day. Hopefully there'll be waves. It is also my goal to give back to the community with my art. My representations of the how the ocean makes me feel.
So glad I went.
RIP BUTTONS!!!
Thank you for showing so many people the way on how to get so stoked, including myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJlv1H3irwU
http://vimeo.com/78432451

My First Big Wave Experience.

I'm not sure if I'm exaggerating, but today I paddled out to waves the size of two story houses, apparently smaller than yesterday when we lost a brother. RIP.

It was 10-12 ft Hawaiian scale waves, or 20-25 ft faces. Thanks to my friend Alex for lending me the appropriate gear. 8'6" (probably a little under gunned, it didn't look as big from shore),
and a floatation vest. I am yet to ask him what size he claims it was. For all I know I'm exaggerating.
All I know they were the largest waves I've ever paddled out to.

I had the opportunity to make a couple, but this one uncle kept taking my thunder, and blowing it. I gladly gave them up. I believed I could make it, and when the wave came to me that I thought I would catch, I'd say to myself "I"m gonna get this BITCH" But maybe I should of approached it like, "May I have the Honor?"- Been a little more cordial to the beast.

I almost scraped into an elegant mean one, one of the larger set waves.  Maybe it was better  that I didn't make it. I was at the top of the lip and thought I was in. Alex gave me a tip that I didn't follow, which was to keep paddling down the face of the wave before you drop in. I was at the top of the lip.  I could of sworn I was in. The lip grazed my whole body and board, like a tap to a baby's bottom or a mild slap on the cheek. Then I thought for sure I was going over the falls and was ready for the pounding of my life, but somehow I miraculously slipped out the back.

I was happy enough to see what I saw-
Some BIG ASS MOTHER F$%#IN' WAVES.

It was like some Danny Way Mega Ramp shit but a little scarier because waves move and march towards you, and are in a constant mega morphing form, that you have to decipher and coordinate with.  And if you wipe out hard you can go under where its difficult to find you. The ambulance can't just roll up and scrape you up off the floor. They'd have to risk their own life to find you.

My friend Alex was owning it out there. Handling Solid. He is an ex rugby player and built for taking hard hits. He reminds me of my brother Bob. Dudes with BIG BALLS. I was stoked to see him shine out there. Thanks bro for being my guide.

Easily larger than a one story house. and more like the size of a row of three two story houses rolling your way and looking larger in the distance, but maybe I'm exaggerating. Alex, if your out there,
What do you think?

The site is burnt in my memory- a beautiful nightmare,  probably the most sublime experience I've had yetf to date.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't make it into one of the large ones. I was thankful to scrape into one about half the size.

I may not ever surf that size ever again. I don't have the total desire. Although it was thrill, I have more fun surfing 4-6 ft Hawaiian, or 10-15ft faces and smaller- Good clean fun.
Better yet, my favorite size is 3-4 ft Hawaiian.

-Manny Aloha signing off.

The gnarliest people I've ever been inspired by continually

Are skaters. 

Collage of Thoughts

Please sit through the monotonous intro to this song, wait for the lyrics to kick in and start reading.

Aloha Party Peoples. I'm truthfully a lost soul but blessed none the less, most of us are. One of the biggest blessings I have beyond my radical family, is my radical friends. I owe it to all of them for showing me the way. I have taken what they have shared with me and become a leader on my good days. A leader of Good times. And a follower of my homies when I need them to lead.

Thank God.

My wife too. She'll lead the way when it comes time to create a routine to brush my boy's teeth every night. And I'll take the lead when it comes time to surf, skate or create.... 

Then sometimes we turn up the music and have a dance party all together.

That's how I met my wife. Her dancing caught my eye.

The other day I was skating home from the skatepark after work and saw some cassette tapes in the trash. I picked up the one that said "Success with Positive Mental Attitude." It talked about how in order to succeed in anything, you need to have self-discipline blah blah... Actually there was some very cool words in that roll of audio tape. But more interesting are the thoughts that arose the early morning after. 

It was 4:30 am and I woke up thinking about how the cool thing about skateboarding, surfing, art, climbing, snowboarding, learning, is that passion can drive self-discipline, so you don't even feel like your disciplining yourself.

When kids ask me, how do you ollie (one of the most basic tricks in skateboarding)? If you really want to learn it, try it a hundred times and then talk to me. If you don't get it then, then try it another hundred times. Heck thats what I did.  If your like me and not my brother Bob who learns physical feats in day, your like most people who try and try again. Once you learn, then you'll learn what it means to be "STOKED"

The cool thing about young passion is that if you are lucky to have a passion for something at a young age and no one to stop you from delving into your passion, you will likely get good it. When you're young, without adult obligations, you have all the time in the world.

If there was one thing I benefitted from when my mother and father divorced, was that during my teen years they were involved raising their newborn children from their new marriages. They let me do as I please and unknowingly developed a practice routine for skateboarding which went as follows, "Dkate every day after school before doing homework. Most kids would probably have those two priorities switched around. Not I. Thank God I had a deep desire to skateboard.. Thank God they instilled in me some good values. 

Thank God. Now that I come to think about it, I was a pretty mean kid. Just ask my friends from my neighborhood on Amundsen Lane. Some how I'd like to think that I turned out to be a respectable and kind human being.

Yeah so the cool thing about passion and self discipline, is that passion can replace self-discipline, or make self discipline a breeze. That was my interesting discovery after listening to that tape I found in the trash.

Unfortunately when I lived in Brooklyn I was passionate about NYC Night Life. I was really good at it. But thankfully I realized that the rock star life style is a dead end street. Thankfully my passion for surfing was greater than my passion to party hard.

I'd rather continue seeing the world.. So here I am on the island of Oahu writing to you and sharing whatever I can scrape from this soul.

Posted below is the final IN4MATION ad that went to print in Flux Magazine Fall 2013 Issue, a Hawaii Arts and Culture Magazine. Stoked on it. 

Time to catch some Zs.

-Manny Aloha

Best Moments of Summer 2013 so far

Picking Mangos with Danny Chambers

Eating the most mangoes I've ever eaten in my entire life

Discovering what the Hawaiian Slang term Choke meant while choking on a mango

Surfed my favorite surf break by myself on a Big Windy Day of Double UPS
I turned into a sea creature.


Wrote an article for NYskateboarding.com about Nimbus Skates.
Interested to see how it comes out.

shooting a skate ad for IN4MATION with John Hook

Basically, I eyed a tree stump hump for like 6 months always imagining to blast an ollie off it.

I did it one day with wifey Marisa watching.

I called my favorite photographer John Hook to find him stoked to take the shot.

we met out there at 8am on Sunday Morning and got the first shot which I pitched to Jun of IN4MATION. He was stoked on it Jun gave me a bunch of shirts and we went back and shot my first skate ad with me in it for first time in all my 32 years of skateboarding.

The other photo is a sneak peak of the ad I have yet to see. 

(I'll post it the day it comes out.)

The only bummer is that I bought the Gonz deck to do the ollie and I was skating in my neighborhood yesterday and cracked it. In all my 30+ years of skateboarding, I have only cracked one deck and that was a Kelly Rosecrans. I am in the process of requesting a replacement from the shop. Wish me luck.
I spent my hard earned cash and paid full price for that deck.

Thats it for now.

-Manny Aloha

Mangoes, Waves and Quality Peoples

Dear friends and family. I've poured a glass of wine at 1am to sit and write some words off the top of my head.

Days have been rad and lovely. Summer in the Northern Hemisphere brings out good feelings- fertility. Summer in Hawaii brings choke mangoes and choke waves on the Southern Shores. In Hawaii, if you didn't guess, choke means a lot. I have been blessed to have neighbors that share their mangoes.  No one family could eat all the mangoes off a bountiful tree. It would make them sick. 

One average size mango tree can supply many mouths with the delicious fruit and if you have a tree and don't share, then that means, a lot of wasted mangoes.

I live on the South Shore. My favorite thing to do these days is surf, and my favorite fruit in the whole world is the mango. So life is good.

But what is more important to most? Making a dollar bill and having high quality things. I do love riding my aunts convertable BMW on Sunset Blvd, but I do also love going for a bike ride with my homeboy Danny and a fruit picker, hunting for mangoes. Or waking up at the crack of dawn to surf a board I made from a broken longboard I found in the trash. 

What I love even more is surfing my home break with a big crowd of people and knowing exactly where to sit in the ocean for the wave to come right to me, and not to them. Knowing what exact board to ride that will best suit the wave condition, and thus provide me with the most fun and intimate  play with my favorite wave. 

I love surfing without my leash and becoming one with my board on a sunny day with glassy crystal clear water. 

I love putting the ocean water in my mouth and squirting it out.

While sitting in a crowd of surfers, I love shooting my board out to the horizon toward the incoming set and swimming under water to my board to emerge and mount my board just in time to catch the wave that comes right to me. Drop in and fly down the line carving with the attitude of Johnny Depp in the Hunter S. Thompson movie Fear and Loathing, Saying "Awhhh YEAH". Then sitting inside waiting for my homey Johnny E. to catch his last wave so we can paddle in and discuss where we want to get a cup of coffee and talk about art and design.

Its 2am and I'm fading. Time to catch some Zs.

-Manny Aloha Signing off.

SKATE ART SHOW! DON'T MISS IT!

Aloha Friends. I am honored to be in this Skate Art Show with some of my favorite artists.
Check it out if you're in Portland or passing through. Should be Straight up Underground as it gets.
July 3, 2012 Don't Miss it!
Grass Hut Art Market
400 NW Couch St
portland oregon 97209

Poem 2004

As the sun rose
Awakening birds chirped.
A young man
gathered all his strength and
showed the cosmos
what he was feeling.
He painted a simple thing
and that simple thing held
the essence of life.

Surf Story "Surf Junk and the Double Up"

I get out of the water, I get back to my truck and I forgot my towel.
But its cool because at least I have a big Thermos filled with hot coffee.
Better than that I just surfed my favorite break by myself.
It was super windy. Rad waves disguised as junk.
But I know my break well, and I know that it can withstand winds
and still hold. And I also never forget the time I surfed Rockaway,
just my friend Colin and I, we had it all too ourselves because the
winds were so gusty it scared all the dawn patrollers away.
We waited two hours, until the wind died. The waves still looked
junky but through the chaos were plenty of rideable morphing but
pealing waves.

This day was similar. Rad waves disguised as junk.

So I get there and there's two guys talkin' and starin' at the spot.
One has a long board. The other a boogie board.
I could hardly say hi because I had limited time before I had to
go to work. The day before there were over head waves, so I knew
there had to be some action.

I get out and there is no one out. Very seldom does this happen.
No one out when I paddle out. No one out when I paddle in.

More importantly than all this, are the magic moments I was yet
to harvest.

Waves were all over the place, disguising the top of the line up.
The usual coordinates didn't seem to line you up to the magic pocket.

So I said to myself, "Sometimes you gotta fuck all coordinates and
hone into the rhythm, essence, storyline, soul, melody of the waves.

If you were to compare this morning's waves to music, they were
very similar to Noise/ the Boredoms which morphed into
My Bloody Valentine, then inside section.

Every kind of wave morphed in and out during this messy hair day,
cornucopia of waves.

The one one that stood out was the infamous "Double up".
Oh how I love the Double up.

My friends used to blurt out "The Double UP!" so often in the past,
but only now do I understand what they actually meant.
It's when two waves are very close together, you catch the first one,
and as you are riding, the second one catches up and they morph together
into a turbo moment.

So the best part is coming.
I catch a wave here. I catch a wave there. But none are connecting the
outside section to the inside section. So I figured I'd try the trusty
old "Line up the chimney with the palm tree indicator".

I paddled to the spot, and sat far out. But bigger sets kept rolling in
forcing me to paddle deeper and deeper out until i was finally at the
"Outside Pocket" A nice size wave came, but behind it was one
a little bigger. I said, "Oooh, OK. Here we go." The first wave came and
three sea gulls or albatrosses flew the face of the wave coming right at
me. They looked me in the eye and said, "Its on Homey!"

The next wave came, It was bigger, and I caught that bad boy,
almost wiped on the take off but recovered to a glue foot stance,
just in time for the inside Double Up.

The sun shined on the blue bubbly face. The mutant wave morphed
into a raging youth beauty of a face with turbo injection.
Tick Tak, to MACH MODE, and race across the face and kick out.

Back to the top for one more. Through the junk, I paddle. A big mama
rolls through and I catch it. A big blob, I ride it on my belly through
some weird flats and pop up for, that's right, you guessed it,
THE INSIDE, DOUBLE UP, TURBO SECTION BABY!
My soul said, "OH GOD! FUCK YEAH!"SOO NICE! SOOO FAST! SO GOOD!"

The moral of the story? If it looks shitty out and 2 dudes are checkin' out
the waves contemplating, TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS. SHUT UP AND SURF.
Become one with the ocean. Watch what the birds do.
Tune in your radar to THE DOUBLE UP.

Sometimes fuck your trusty coordinates. When all else fails, trust your
trusty coordinates, and always keep your eyes on the waves to decipher
and HONE INTO THE POCKET.

-Manny Aloha aka Sir Glidesalot April 29, 2013

Surf Poem

Craving waves
Water on my face
Ultimate connection
Beyond a rat race

Hone into the pocket
Drop in like a rocket

Exhale to the bottom turn
Inhale up and yearn

Slash and burn some speed
Back down for more
Watch a bird soar
Feel my soul roar
Surf I adore.

-Manny Aloha

Biggest Stresses of Living in Hawaii

Do I have ripe apple bananas in the house for my dawn patrol breakfast and some left over for wife and kid.

Do I have coffee for after tomorrow morning's dawn patrol.

Do I have surf wax for tomorrow morning dawn partrol. If so, do I know where it is.

Where to surf in the morning. What board I'm gonna ride.

How to learn more about how people know when there will be waves a week in advance.

How can I make the dopest abstract painting of waves.

Will I ever become the surf poet I dream to be.

Making sure I don't surf too hard this evening so I can surf tomorrow morning when the swell will be peaking.

Which board I should ride tomorrow morning. 

Should I ride my Trusty Twin Fin (Wave Whore)

or try the 6'10" gun previously owned by my friend who surfs big pipe and moved to Kauai.

Looking at all my boards and realizing they are all slowly turning into "Beater Boards" and

How am I going to manage to buy the board I really want that runs about $650-$700

Making sure that I don't surf too hard tomorrow morning so I don't fade during my 12 noon Sales meeting.

How to be self disciplined enough to share waves and be ultimately Zen Surf Master.

How to not to be a surf addict and make time for family so I can be a good husband and father.

How to be cool when surrounded by wave hogs who are not sharing waves.

How to be a surf wizard. (The dude who always finds another section to surf that no one else is surfing and is having the most fun and never says a single word.)

Remembering that I really don't have any serious stresses and not to add on any unnecessary stresses to make me feel like I'm being more accomplished in life.

Remembering to balance out working on art as much if not more than I surf.

Remembering to find time to visit and stay in touch with my homeys and family.

LOKI: AN ELEGANT YET GNARLY SKATE MOMENT

Our friend Justin Pierce had just past. It was a tragic feeling. Shortly after I heard a bunch of bros were going to have a  "Skate for Justin Day" where we would go Uptown to his old neighborhood in Washington Heights to skate and bomb hills in memory of him. And shoot some photos for a Japanese magazine. Harold, Jamie Story, Brian Loki, Giovanni Esteves, myself, Neal, and a bunch of other Supreme heads were there. Loki led the session. This one moment I will never forget.

We went to  Overlook Terrace which is one of fastest hills Uptown. It was night, and dark with the occasional street lamp light. We dropped in and within a few seconds guys started wiping out and taking each other out. I remember dodging bodies trying to keep up with Loki. A slide here, a mega slide there and into full tuck to catch up with Loki. We were flying down the dark straight away. At the bottom is a stop sign. I was right behind Loki and about thirty feet before the intersection he gets super low, bows his head down, as if closing his eyes, spreads his arms out like an eagle and drags his finger tips lightly on the pavement as he blazes past the stop sign. It was one of the most elegant things I have ever seen. For a tough solid dude, it was such a graceful, sincere, yet gnarly maneuver.

The visual is burnt in my memory.

To my Lady Marisa and Homey Loved Ones.

Aloha Lady Love,

Before you went to bed last night you wanted to go out and dance. It was just approaching midnight on a Thursday Night in Honolulu. I said "it's a perfect time, it should be going off ". You came back home  by 2am and said everything was over or closing up every time I walked in the door.

There is a part of my life that I never shared with you that is hard to share. It is my love to dance to House Music.  A good dance club is hard to find, even in the best cities. You always asked me  what House music is and it is tough to find an awesome House Music Track, because usually there is only a short portion of the song which is awesome. And that is why a good DJ is necessary, "TO PLAY THE MOST AWESOME PARTS OF EVERY AWESOME SONG HE/SHE KNOWS" 

I want to dance with you for a few hours until were sweating bullets, not drinking alcohol. Here's a house song with some good parts. Remember you have to play it loud, and shake it like you know how. Be patient through the parts you might not like. 

I love you so much. It aint over til it's over. We have a handful of years to create some good life.

And to all the rest of my Homey Loved ones and myself. No doubt, we gotta keep rockin'. Making the beautiful rad life a reality, especially when the circumstances that you wish to live don't exist yet. 

Make it Happen. Create it. Paint what you like to see. Trend Set Like you know how. 

Last Sunday Pools Sesh

Elements of Magic: a note to self.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The same full moon seen by one may be non existent to the other who sits inside watching television.
The world and universe are doing magical things all day long. Its just a matter of surrounding yourself in the magic: magical people, magic places, magical scenarios... setting yourself up for magic... creating a fertile ground for magic to happen. Listening to awesome, beautiful music.

Like putting yourself on a Ferris Wheel.

But What is Magic. Webstser Dictionary defines Magic as:

Definition of MAGIC

1

a : the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces

b : magic rites or incantations

2

a : an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source

b : something that seems to cast a spell : enchantment

3

: the art of producing illusions by sleight of hand

To me the super natural is the ability to make a choice.

Magic is the act of doing things unseen or unfamiliar, beautiful of mystical.

Setting yourself for magic means to keep practicing and seeking what is good for you and exciting.

To keep putting yourself in magic scenarios, like putting yourself in the ocean.

To keep practicing art. Arranging dots and lines in a magical order to create beauty.

If a thousands of people read my blog everyday, I'm not sure I would be sharing this, but because it is usually my friends and family keeping up to date with my doings, that I feel I can share. Because it seems when the magic is let out of the bag to too many folks, the magic dies.

Because the magic becomes too familiar and is taken for granted.

However, the ocean, no matter how much I enter it, never seems to be filled with magic. Leaving me feeling magical. Where I have nothing to figure out. Succumbing to the fact that no matter what, I will never be able to control the magic of the universe. And that's ok because I've accepted that the universe is magical, and thus life is magical. We just have to put ourselves in the right place in this complex labyrinth of so many things that we have created that can be so confusing. The labyrinth which is so easy to get lost in. We must focus on the magic of nature and keep it alive, because that is all we have. We must preserve the magic.

Life is short. Loved ones pass. We need to be a part of the magic every day if possible.

And cry sometimes because life is good and painful at the same time.

I'll stop here for a while before my tangent veers too far from magic.

Aloha.

*Manwell*

Inspired by surfing with a bro, Aaron Suis.

Revalation

A magician is not a magician if he reveals his tricks.

Confessions of a Surfer Artist

So Yeah I surf. Work Hard too. So what.

What makes me so special. I'm an artist. What does that mean?

It means a lot of things. One of those things is that I express myself.

Yeah, but everyone expresses themselves, just by living. Living is an expression of the soul.

But what makes me different than an ordinary person that expresses?

As an artist, I choose to express myself and present that expression to the public for ridicule, judgement, entertainment, admiration, inspiration and whatever else.

So how is art therapeutic? By laying out my feelings and thoughts, I can lay them out and arrange them.

Realize Dreams.

So let's see: I've been working solar for the past 3 months. I've been paying for a studio that I don't use.

I've been surfing some pretty awesome waves.

I have a beautiful wife and child. And I feel little uneasy, not completely on it.

I have some goals for this year.

1) To do the best art show I've ever done to date. (First Priority)

2) Financially Maintain Studio

3) To see my family this year.

4) To go on a a surf trip to Indo with some friends

5) To continually have enough money to travel once a year.

These are the things I've been juggling around in my head and sometimes the priority balls are bouncing off the walls of my head and its a big mess. I put a big blanket over it all and go surfing and everything looks radical. Oh yeah, Manny lives a good life, he has a modest job, surfs rad waves all year round, has a wife and kid. What a perfect life.

But life is definitely not all about surfing. There is so much else, especially if you have grande modern dreams. So my goal is to keep it simple. Not trip up in complication or wanting too much.

As an actual person that can juggle, juggling 3 balls is cake. Any Joe Shmoe can juggle 3 balls and go through the motions. Its juggling 4 or 5 balls that is stunning. And that is where I personally want to be. Or if 3 balls, make sure those dream balls are original, dynamic. OK enough of that analogy.

The Wrench

Oh and a big wrench in this whole equation, is that I got into an argument with a big guy in the water yesterday when he dropped in on me. I was deep in a barrel at my favorite home break. It hardly barrels like that all year, and he just caught the last awesome wave. It was my turn and I was lined up perfect. I drop in, he drops in, we're both in the barrel, and he kicks out fast,  we were so close that his leash caught the nose of my board, and yanked it beneath my feet and my head got caught in the face of the tubular wave, and tweaked my neck out a bit. Before I could get my head out of the water, my arm and middle finger rose out of the foam and I imagine he saw it. I came out and said "come on man?"

If I was zen master, I would have said nothing. Maybe that experience has brought me one step closer to zen master, where all my energies are at peace and I can handle any obstacle and accident with grace.

But at that point, this was not the case. It was a guy that surfs there all the time. I see him in the water and as well as on land checking out waves. He knows a lot of the people I know, but we don't talk very much.

Anyway he proceeded to say "don't say anything to me", I said "all I said is come on"He then proceeded with I've been surfing here for 20 years and remember when you started surfing here."

"Yeah so what"  I said. He said, she said. Who cares. The main deal is that I lost my cool and said Ok then well "Fuck You" and F this, F that. And that is something that I am not proud of or happy about. So this incident made me realize that I need to take a step back and get all my priorities in line so I don't snap.

End of Wrench 

Writing is so much better than venting to a friend over the phone. Although it may be very valuable, there is also great value in figuring out hardships on your own. And having it drawn out so you can reference it yourself, or better yet laying it out as inspiration or a trail so the next seeker or awesomeness can learn from your mistakes, trials and tribulations.

So back to the dreams. They need to be tackled one at a time. Here they are again.

1)Art Show

2) Maintain Studio.

3) See Family on East Coast

4) Save for a Surf Trip with friends

5) Make enough money to consistently travel.

Art Show

What do you need to do to have an art show in September.

1) Find the venue you want to show in.

2) Make the art

3) Invite the people and have a small agenda and let the rest play out itself.

Process breakdown. One painting per month.

Maintain Studio

One small studio show per month to fund rental.

Bring all art work wanting to sell to studio and frame and hang for sale.

To see my family this year

1) Find out when you want to go

2) Find out how much tickets and how much spending money needed.

3) Save money every week or month for trip

Surf Trip to Indo

1) Find out when you want to go.

2) Find out how much tickets are

3) Surf Camp or Place you want to stay

4) Spending cash needed.

5) who you want to invite and how much they need to save per week or month.

6) Make the invite.

7) Save the money, 

8)Purchase Tickets, 

9) Make Reservations. 

10)Go.

Have enough to Travel once a year.

1)  Decide where you want to go each year and when 

2) Decide on a budget for each trip

3) How much you need to save per week, per month

4) When the deadline is to purchase tickets, and make reservations

5) Save the money

6) Purhcase Tickets and Make Reservations

7) Go

What to do today.

Home. Breakfast. 

Greet Mommy and Hayden.

Ask what they want to do?

Family time.

Make a visit to studio to drop off all art and Hang for show.

Spend some time prepping walls and art for hanging.

For Friday?

Thanks. 

-Manny Aloha

Clear Communication with , Systems more organized tools or studio,  finishing following through. See them through.

Revalation

By playing the fool, I learn how not to be one.

Scattered Thoughts

Sunday Surf Session

Holy Guac.
Time Flies.
Months have passed since I've kept up with the blog.
Why write? Because it kills a million birds with one stone:
It keeps my inner voice alive.
Keeps my friends in touch with an old bro.
Inspires others to do better
And entertains?

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty much stuck in the grind, with a morsel of energy left for myself to make this minute effort to express myself. My blog is my sketchbook/journal.

Life is passing before me while I work the 9-5 to take care of my wife and son Hayden.
Any free hour or two are either spent bonding with my wife Marisa or son Hayden or surfing, skating or making art.

I tell you what. if you don't practice your passion, your skill dwindles.
Out of all of my passions, Art is the toughest to keep satiated, as well as most difficult to be good at.

As for Surfing or Skating, I've admitted the fact that I am not going to turn pro. and I am not working on being the best skill wise. However, one pro gave a tip once and said that the best surfer in the water is the one having most fun. In that sense, I may be up there with the best.

But.... well this leads to my secret dream which I will remain secret, because this is one thing that I am trying to get better at.

But back to the Art practice... Damn! I have a new studio that I pay good money for. So far it is half way through January and I've been in there once.
Enough self pity.
Writing this makes me realize how I need to grab a hold of my life and come up with a better game plan of being more efficient with my time, as well as manage more time for creating.

It aint easy. But thats the game. How to be free when there are all these things/ necessities / forces that keep you busy... mostly the need to make a dollar bill.

Anyway I won't bore you with any more rant, but maybe interest you by sharing my dreams.

1)Do an art show this year.
my biggest and most well planned out show ever in the history of my life.

2)Go on a surf trip to Indonesia with friends this year

3)Be a radical Husband and Father

Ok. Thats enough. This is all I want to do this year.
If I can do 2 out of 3 of those this year. especially number 3,
I'll take another deep breath and smile.
Shoot.
I'll take another deep breath and smile right now.
I'm blessed.
You're blessed.
We are blessed.

Photo above is a photo of my window of surf time last Sunday Morning.
Time to go to sleep.
Thanks for reading.
Signing off.
Manny Aloha.
11:17pm Tuesday 1/15/13

Moments

Cruising emotions:
With a glass of wine in hand under stars... Or
In the ocean in the rain early when most are asleep... Or
Driving on the highway when everyone else is stuck in a traffic jam in the opposite direction... Or
Dancing under blinking lights... Or
Painting a picture...or
bouncing to your favorite song playing in your headphones...
Staring at the moon, sunrise or sunset.
Set aside chasing a dollar for a moment and Know that life is amazing.

To Homeboy Richard/Favorite things in NYC

It's late, I'm tired but I want to give a shout out to my homey Richard.

He is a bro I used to skate with in Hawaii and he just moved to the East Coast Metropolitan Area to get a change from Hawaii. 

I feel for the bro, because I know how difficult it can be for a Hawaii free bird to move into a hight intensity rat race, especially if it isn't the territory he grew up in.

To be in a place without family is no easy task.

I can speak from personal experience.

Anyway Chard as we call him, if you are out there and ever read this, I wanted to share some of my favorite things about NYC that can make the rat race worth it.

And for anyone living or visiting the place, here are some of the things that never got old even after 30 years of living in New York.

•Chicken Parm Sandwiches on a hero from your average joe pizza place or corner deli

•Meat Ball Parm on a hero

•Mid-day Early evening order of Calamari and a Pint

•Hopping on a train with a Honey or Homey to find shelter at the Museum of Modern Art on a freezing snowy day.

•Giving 25cents or a $1 for two at the Metropolitan Museum while watching everyone else pay $20 each (Suggested Donation) then seeing all the art that you can't see in one day then going out for lunch or a beer mid day.  or Grabbing a bottle of wine and going into Central Park with your lady to post up on a big rock and bake under the mid-day sun. (don't forget the wine opener)

•Seeing your favorite bands (or new bands) or comedians at the numerous venus all over mid-town/downtown.

•Dont get stuck in 42nd street at night seeing the lights. Just pop out of the subway check it out, then hop back into the subway Downtown and go eat or drink.

• Unreal bagels. Remember not every bagel shop has good bagels. Very few in NYC have epic bagels. Ask a local where the best bagels are and drive to that spot. Mostly Jersey, Upstate New York, and random spots in Manhattan/Brooklyn have the best bagels. David's Bagels in NYC (pretty good)

•Bagel toasted with butter.

•Bagel with cream cheese

•Bagel with cream cheese and lox

•East a cinammon raison bagel plain

•Order a dozen and bring them home to your fam

•BACON EGG AND CHEESE ON A ROLL WITH Salt Pepper Ketchup. (ALWAYS EPIC pretty much anywhere)

My homey James and I along with millions of others order this everyday sometimes. 

•Ordering a "Coffee Regular" everyday - a coffee with perfect amount of milk and sugar 

•A street vendor cart hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut. 

• A street vendor cart Kinish with mustard and onions

•Chinatown. You almost can't go wrong walking into any Chinese Restaurant.

But Mid/Radical grade is "Hop Kee" or "Wo Hop" both right next door to each other.

•Any Random Broadway show is worth it. The more you go to the more you learn about theater.

•Spring and Fall

•A mid day walk through SoHo ending up in Little Italy

•The Museum of Natural History

• If you're going to explore Central Park, a good place to start is at Linclon Center or Near the Metropoloitan Museum. Find a Rock Hill and take a break there and enjoy the view of the buildings to a lunch or a glass of wine.

•Any of the epic restaurants that you hear about, Tons of new ones down town, lower east side area.

If you are going to drive into Manhattan on any day besides Sunday when there is a lot of free parking, Park in Hoboken an catch the Path train, to Manhattan, but before you park stop off at Maria's Bakery at 

261 2nd St

and pick up any random loaf of bread that looks good to you and OMG you are stoked.

Hoboken Bakeries have some of the best bread on the planet earth hands down.

munch on that bread while walking to a some nearby store which sells fresh mozzarella and olives

then throw that in your back pack for a snack in the park.

Remember if you go into the city during the winter, be prepared wearing your most efficient cold gear or layers with gloves, scarf, hat, thermal underwear, so you can be a True "40 below Troopah"

**for me thermal underwear aka-long johns top and bottoms** were the top secret tools that got me through da wicked winter.

A trip to Europe from Newark or JFK... like to Italy, London, Amsterdam, Paris, is like 4-600 bucks sometimes. Hmmm. Much cheaper than from Hawaii. Take advantage brah!

So that's what I got Chard Braddah.

Enjoy the East Coast, and I hope to see you back on the island when your done catching your East Coast Frills.

Aloha,

Call me anytime.

Man Dog

Art Realization

For me, my studio is not a space for harnessing brilliant ideas, but the place to fabricate the idea into a work of art. Ideas come out in nature, or out in the street, or in my cozy home trippin' out in my sketchbook, on my skateboard, or in the ocean while surfing.

I need to tell myself this so I don't go to my studio without an intention or preconceived idea to create.
Brilliant ideas first manifest and develop in the sketchbook or on my skateboard, or in the ocean surfing.

It is not a good idea to go into major production, without any idea. Or materials will be wasted in what should have been figured out in the sketching phase. Imagine building a house without any plans. Not to say that this approach wouldn't work, but...time yfor me to crash.

Thought

Don't constantly try to reinvent the wheel