Surf Thoughts

Aloha All,

Below are some surf thoughts.

Sometimes theres  a lot  swirling around in my head. Other times, often in the middle of the night 2-3am, I get single thoughts,  or realizations, that stand out.

As soon as I open my computer to write the thoughts down, I immedialty get temptations to check my email or write down a list of what I need to do, and in doing so, begin to bury that beautiful thought.

So let me get straight to it.

I feel like we’re all so lucky to be alive. Most of us are so blessed and we’re walking aounnd bored or jaded, or complaining about something or other.

In the Hawaii Surf Scene we’ll be surfing the most beautiful waves and often everyone this vibe like it’s no big deal. Meanwhile we’re surfing literally the most consistent, radical and diverse surf conditions in the world. With Waves somewhere on the island every day-some waves providing rides over a hundred yards.

I am thankful for:

 my beautiful wife, and  beautiful two sons.

My ability to surf - The aspect that I don’t have to think anymore, only do what I can. It’s plenty enough to be able to surf  safe and slide behind a curtain of water every now and then.

I am thankful for realizing that

You can only surf whatever is happening to the wave. You cannot surf what you think the wave will do, but only what the wave is actually doing in that moment. 

Once you see how the wave is transforming before your eyes, you can begin to understand how it is breaking and make adjustments to your movement while the wave make’s it’s adjustments right before your eyes. While it flows its movements,

Your body and board must flow with it, and after a while you understand that there are many different ways to flow with a wave, many different lines you can carve successfully. Some take more radical curvy lines. While  others go straight on a straight diagonal. I prefer the wavy lines riding as many sections of the wave as I can Surf every morsel- the bottom of wave, the top, and the very top off the for a floater, the inside of the barrel, up and down and all around.

I think time is best experienced slowly, savoring an appreciating every  morsal of millisecond where 3 -4 seconds is detailed memorable experience.

Most of the time we fly by hours of time without consciousness or steady breath.

Slowed down time often occurs when we are experiencing  a dangerous accident- where our senses are heightened, like on Sunday evening I went over the falls backwards and it seemed like a solid 3-4 seconds before I hit the water.

Or when I slid out on a hairpin turn fliying down a hill on amoped on  the Amalfi Coast, Italy on my way back from Positano to Sorrento. I slid about 20-30 feet on my chest and pelvis. I thought I scraped off my private parts. When I got up I stuck my hand in my pants and everything was still there. I escaped that accident with only a few scratches. But I remember every millisecond the slide. I thougth, “Oh you’re a cool guy now aren’t you?” Your mean to your brother and father, what a jerk you are!!! You deserve this!!! I had a whole sequence of thoughts as I slid on my chest.

Boy that was a little Tangent eh?

But slowed down time also happens during extreme moments of joy, like when surfing a wave.

Last night I got barreled and I can still remember how I looked down the line and saw a surfer drop in too deep and how he didn’t make the section, and how it cleared up for me to take on the shoulder. As I bottom turned I remember the sight of the lip beginning to throw horizontally over my head, and how I made the choice to turn up the wave and go underneath its curtain, just before it water falled behind me and created a tube.and how I shot out clean in front of a bunch of people I knew. I was stoked or elated.

If we can experience most of our day more slowly and savor every millisecond of life, the more fulfilling it can be. There is nothing like the feeling of gratitude.

The feeling of extreme thankfulness for life. It makes us a humble and more compassionate towards other’s misfortune.

I am thankful for life. 

Covid-19 March 28, 2020 Surf Journal

Aloha All,
Its been way too long since I've written in this blog.
I need to practice writing so I'll just go for it.

Friday after work (I'll try to save you the details of my day job)
I came home around 4:30pm desperate to surf.
I called my friend to get the surf report of the waves in front of his house.
He said it was on.
My son Hayden joined me.


The spot we would go to has a few if not a lot of gnarly reef heads in certain areas, so I drew him a diagram of the reef of where not to go.

When we got there, we paddled out to find our friends in the water.
The waves were  a little  unruly and all over the place, with a little wind factor.
 Head High waves would jack up from little mounds. It was hard to figure out where you were in the ocean since there were waves all over the place, difficult to see which one to ride then you'd take off on a wave only to find yourself headed strait for the reef patch.

A set was approaching from the distance. In no time it was 20 ft away. Hayden says "Oh no dad! What do I do? and I said, I don't know" I paddled away from him so we wouldn't crash into each other. Later he said the wave made him do a back flip underwater and held him down longer than usual. He said at first he kept trying to swim up, but then he gave up because he didn't want to waste his energy, and I said good, that's a good thing to experience- exactly the right thing to do in that situation.

He took off on the next wave and rode it well safely.

He paddled back out, and another wave came which we both took off on.
He rode it on his knees and was headed directly towards the reef patch with no escape.
Thankfully, he rode high on the wave which took him over the reef.
All my friends were scared for him.
I was afraid too.
He rode straight over it and was deposited in the middle of reef heads.
He somehow paddled out of the danger zone unharmed.
We went home. Ate dinner and Crashed.

Today is Saturday and Hayden asked if he could surf Queens with his friends.
So that's what we did. We ate breakfast then picked up Reed and headed to Waikiki.
His friend Mars would meet us in the water.
With all the Covid-19 Park Closures, we parked over by Publics and paddled to Queens from Walls. We went around the buoys and avoided the boogie boarders.
There was Reed, Hayden, Marisa, Cruz and Myself.
We all rode long boards and Cruz rode with me with his floats on my Yellow board.
It was a gorgeous sunny day, and a beautiful 300 yard paddle in clear light blue water.
I was happy that my wife Marisa joined us.

Hayden caught some long ones from outside, all the way into Baby Queens. Possilby the longest wave I've ever seen him ride. He pushed his mom into a wave and made her happy.
I'm a proud dad.
I caught some fun ones too.
Johnny the Ripper was out, Connie and his blond girlfriend ( I forget her name), Lala and Poey. They were ripping as usual - everyone riding the nose and catching epic rights.
Cade, James from publics and his daughters and a bunch of others we knew were out.

Afterwards, I rallied up the boys to paddle back to Walls.
Hayden was getting hungry for Mack and Cheese.

We showered up and found Marisa by the minivan with Kate, Reeds Mom.
The boys walked the dog for a 20 minutes then busted out the skateboards and skated on the sidewalk for another 30 min.
We left and wend to the grocery store to pick up Pasta shells for Mac and Cheese and some Ice Cream. When we got back to the house, the kids did arts and crafts while Marisa and I prepared some Pepperoni frozen pizza, mac and cheese, and green beans and mushrooms.

Reeds parents came by to pick him up and we sat for about an hour drinking a couple of beers and a bottle of white wine, while the kids skated around the neighborhood.
Mars, Reed, Cade and Hayden. Then they left.  Mars stuck around a little longer and skated in front of the house until his mom came.

But now my son has played Fortnight until 11:30pm and is having a temper tantrum.
So. I've decided to take it away indefinitely.

Being a dad is one of the toughest things to do for me.
I'm hoping he just stayed up too late and was totally exhausted.
It's 11:30 pm.
Time for me to crash too..

July 17, 2017 1:20am

Aloha All.
I've been trying to juggle too much. And I am working on simplifying my life.
I have a bunch of old art work I believe to be worthy that I need to find a home for.
I need to find a new home more suitable to my needs as a lover of the ocean.
But in the meantime I am doing my best to enjoy the struggle.
Here are some photos of my family during my downtime.

• I'd like to show all my old work together with full captions.

• Show my "Surf" Art work at boutique surf shops on either East or West Coast shops

• I'd like to write a Skateboard Stories Book.

• I'd like to write a Surf Stories Book

• I'd like to do my comic Surf Life

• Portraits of Señor Fin

• Paintings of Iconic Surfers and Skaters

• And finish selling of Roll Skateboards.

I think that is plenty to do for now.

If I can accomplish this stuff within the next 5 years or before I die, I will be happier.

Short Surf Stories by Manny Aloha

Preface 
Aloha y'all,
Its been way too long since I've written in this blog. I've left Hawaii momentarily to have my eight year old son Hayden, and 1 year old son Cruz get to know there grandparents back on the east coast. I currently live in a beautiful apartment above my father and amazing step mother in Clifton, New Jersey. It's 10:13pm and I am just getting to creative time.

I've started a skateboard company called Roll Skateboards and technically I should be working on the website, but instead I am risking juggling too many projects by writing. There's so much I want to accomplish, but so little time.  One of the things I've always wanted to do is write a book called Short Skateboard Stories and another called Short Surf Stories. On top of that I'm always thinking about the next art show of paintings. And there's more, but I'll save my breath for the doing. So here I go risking taking on too much, by writing my first Short Surf Story, which I have to do now so I don't forget the memories.

Introduction
I have many surf memories, but some are more magical than others, while others brand into my brain scaring me for life.

Surf Story #1: Rockaway, NYC November 2005
It was a Tuesday morning at Rockaway Beach. My friend Colin and I wanted to catch one more surf session together before I left for Hawaii. Days of messy surf and gusty winds kept most inside, but we went anyway for a Dawn Patrol.

Woke at 5am in a warehouse space on Spencer St Brooklyn
Called Colin at 5:15
Hopped on a subway at 5:30.
Met Colin at 6
Drove to Rockaway and arrive at 6:45am.
Waves are totally blown out.
You'd be lucky if you could make it into the water without having your board blow away.

When most would turn around and go straight home to catch a few more z's before work, Colin says, "Let's go back to the bungalow, watch a movie, and come back and hope the winds shift and die down. I got Office Space or Forrest Gump."

All I could think was, Rad! What an awesome friend! It feels so good not to rush.

We get to the bungalow, and plug in the space heater. I find a surf video called Glass Love and ask if we could watch it instead.  Colin say's, "Sure". I hadn't seen it yet and was stoked, but remained silent because it  was early and cold. The outside patio furniture was blowing around, knocking into each other making noise. The movie, if you haven't seen it, has a peaceful vibe and focuses on respecting life and surfing's long tradition and spiritual aspects. It put us both in a magical state.

As the movie is coming to an end, I hear birds chirping. So I say to Colin, "Did you hear that? I think that means the wind died down. Birds don't chirp when they're about to blow out of their nest."

Colin replies, "I think you might be right. Let's go check it out."

He takes the bike and I ride the flex deck skateboard. We get to the beach and within the mess of waves, there were 3-4 foot sets coming through- perfect waves under cover dressed up as un-surfable nonsense.

Colin and I saw right through it. With x-ray vision we looked at each other, smiled and said, "Let's hit that!"

We cruise back to the bungalow, suit up, wax the boards, and walk to the beach. There is still not a  surfer in the water or on the sand which is unusual for Rockaway. We paddle straight out through what looked like choppy waves. The ocean was in on our good time disguising the surf conditions as "Junk" and sending all the picky surfers home. We had the beach all to ourselves, from the first wave to the last- catching close to over twenty waves each in two hours. A few waves we rode halfway to the sand, while the rest we rode all the way in from the top of the line up to the sand.

The waves were diverse and had all around personality- not your perfect pealers. You had to connect the dots, but all the dots were there to connect.

I never forget Colin's last wave from the top of the line up all the way in as he dismounted with a small leap onto the sand. I was so stoked I did the same. I still remember that session twelve years and over 1,000 surf sessions later.


More stories to come.
• The first time I surfed M$%LEE POINT.
• The Boneyard at M$%LEEZ
• My first shack at Rockaway
• My best deepest shack at Bowls
• Losing my board at Left Overs and almost floating out to sea.
• When the hold Island was a windy rain storm, and it was a Sunny perfect day at Makaha with Luke.
• The First Time I Surfed The Banzai Pipeline
• The Right to Left at Suicides
• Magazine Material at Diamond Head
• The day I forgot my board shorts at Publics
• The day there was a big tear in my board shorts right at my crotch at Queens
• The time I surfed with Gerry Lopez.
• JUST WAIT! at Ricebowls.
• Surfing Doubles on a Big Black Wave with Ethan
• The East Side Ghost Dude who did the board shuffle on a long board on the gnarliest wave.
• The Day I saw the Crouching Lion.

Atlantic Romantic

I had so much fun at my old home break catching waves with my son Hayden.

Hayden suited up fast and beat me to the ocean. 

I kept an eye on him while I suited up, and noticed him paddling out farther than I expected where the waves were waist high. I started to get worried, but I wanted to see how he handled. I knew the current was taking him out. A wave bigger than he's ever caught had his name on it, so he says. He caught it and rode it all the way to the sand. I was surprised how well he handled. I ran to him and gave him a high five and a hug. I was so prouder than ever. We paddled out for more.

Signing off

The Atlantic Romantic

-Manny Aloha 

Morning Thoughts

Aloha,
It's 6:50 am and my mind is on, body tired.
I'm at my mothers where I grew up, painting exterior of the house.

I remember there used to be a small forest just past my backyard where there are now homes.
Actually where the homes are used to be a 3-4 acre field where horses used to be roam. There was a stable at one end. Beyond the "Horse Farm" (what I used to call it) there was the small forest, maybe 30-40 acres in total, where my brother and neighborhood friends used to explore.

We didn't follow any hiking paths, we walked straight through it to get to the other side, or followed small streams walking in the middle of them with our waterproofed footwear (2 plastic bags on each foot over your socks then your boot). We played in the swamp literally. We Mud Bogged one day and road are bikes in the swamp until were practically swimming wrestling in mud. When it was dry We built jumps, where the older kids tore paths with there dirt motor cycles. We raced sticks in a stream.
We did whatever we wanted in our little suburban sanctuary where Native Americans once roamed.

We skateboarded in the street, made forts in small wooded areas, played hide and go seek (which we called "Man Hunt") at night within a boundary of about 10 homes- about 10 acres. I learned to be un-noticeable in a shadow or in a bush 2 ft away from you.

What is the point of all this rant, I'm having memories of play, and I'm also just doing my morning exercise of thinking and writng to develop my thoughts, to practice my freedom of speech.

There is so little time to even complete a thought or chase curiosity when there is rent and bills to be paid and money to be made to pay for it all.
Thinking and writing are an essential exercise to developing thoughts, to getting free.

So here I am taking it one step at a time.
We're used to reading awesome moments.
Like Manny Aloha's Awesome Life in Hawaii.

I'm busy at the moment getting to where I want to be,
but somehow embracing the misery, and finding the beauty in it.
Singing off.

Surf, Skate, Create.
-Manny Aloha

SURFING AND SKATEBOARDING - ARE THEY SPORTS OR ART FORMS?

Lets just begin the conversation.
First off, lets define Sport and define Art.
Below is a what I found with a quick Google search.

Let me repeat what I find relevant:
Sport- an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
Art- 1. The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in visual form such as painting, sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
2. The various branches of creative activity such as painting, music, literature, and dance.

Using the two definitions above, I would have to say that surfing and skateboarding are both Sports and Art. When we look at the completion aspect of skateboarding: when skateboarders compete against each other for entertainment, Yes skateboarding is a sport.

When we look at the skateboarding outside of the competition- when one skateboards for the sake of skateboarding, then it becomes art. Skateboarding is also a form of transportation,  a form of exercise.

Fortunately or unfortunately, everyone loves to be entertained, and sports can often be far more entertaining than art. Why? Because its exiting to watch a game where theres a winner and a loser. There's drama and people love drama.

People love to watch people win or lose. There's only two variables to experience. Theres a simplicity   here and simplicity is comforting.

With Art on the other hand, there are often way too many variables. When there is no competition and someone creates art for no reason other than to make whatever it is they desire; when there is no winner or loser, or points to quantify. Art becomes difficult to quantify. How can you put value in something unquantifiable?

What is more valuable? Sports or Art? Well Sports are a form of entertainment while Art can more of a spiritual act of expression. I would gamble that more people would choose Sports over Art because sports are easier to judge, easier to quantify.

I've entered contests before, but I'll tell you there's way more to surfing and skating than the sport.
The Art of Surfing and Skateboarding is multidimensional, which is why I beyond love the activities.

I 'll save the multidimensional qualities for another series of posts.

I hope these words make some sense.
Please reply with thoughts to create a conversation. Since my life is bombarded with work and responsibilities and little time for my mind to wonder and develop, conversations could be the spark to set us free.

Sincerely,
Manny Aloha

photo by Ethan Lau 

at a sacred skate sanctuary on an island in the pacific

Diary of a Surfer, Skater, Artist.

Aloha Folks,
Its been 2 years and 3 months since my last post on December 15, 2015.
So much has happened since then.
Where to begin?
First off, This blog is a form of expression,
and is needed for me to write out and see what it is that I have been doing,
with myself, with my, wife, and now two kids, and with the world.
Through writing I can see my mind and give my thoughts form.

Why do I feel the need to share it with the world?
Well Why does a Star Shine?
It just does.

When I was 17 years old I filled a few sketchbooks of drawing and thoughts,
I stumbled upon the idea of being a prophet.
Below is the definition.

Laugh  all you want. Who the heck am I to try and claim such a task?

For whatever reason, this is what I felt like.

Am I the smartest person? For sure not.

But I don't care. I will write and throw my thoughts there because that is my freedom.

My freedom of speech, that I care to live and cherish. I care to have my own thoughts, and writing brings thoughts to life.

So I will go to my next post which creates the conversation of   

Surfing and Skateboarding- Are they sports or Art forms?

Signing off.

-Manny Aloha