RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Where does the 'Vale' come from? Don't think I've heard it before.

Bootmarks on the ceiling, what an unforgettable image. A really moving piece, Nick.

Oh yeah the old guy is an amalgam. Four of five old guys I've talked to - great old guys, lions!

That's the point, ChrisB. Or one of them. Bruce Brown also filmed Katsuura, where they held the Quiksilver thing last year. And I think that's where the police stopped and talked to them. Here's a picture I took of that place yesterday, by the way. Bit of a crowd eh, but what a wave. http://www.japa...

what do you want to know about these guys, surfscracking? are you putting together a file on them?

Did I do double-posts? They're not showing on my screen. Sorry if I did! But the reason I did it this way is I imagined it would encourage people to take their time in reading it, stopping to think a little about the old man's simple statements and to look a little closer at the old photos. Maybe it...

'We used to surf there,' the old man said, 'but not anymore.'

'Everyone knew everyone else. We watched the younger surfers grow.'

'We always surfed there - why surf anywhere else? The waves were so good, so long! And we all surfed there - young and old, sometimes five generations of the town's surfers in the water at once.'

'It held size. It almost never closed out. Once, Ogama-san rode it by himself at twelve feet. On the beach after his surf the police arrested him for recklessness.'

'It was a perfect point.'

'We never had to duckdive. Never got our hair wet.'

'Or if waves were breaking over the end of the jetty we paddled out through the rivermouth.'

'...and jumped off the jetty's end.'