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Saturday, June 22, 2013

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


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

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.

Monday, June 10, 2013

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

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

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.