<----TWENTY-ONE---->

thought for the day----> we carry about us the burden of what thousands of people have said and the memories of all our misfortunes…..to abandon all that is to be alone, and the mind that is alone is not only innocent but young….not in time or age, but young, innocent, alive at whatever age….and only such a mind can see that which is truth and that which is not measurable by words…..

Togat/day 66

…….in today's "tales from the hollywood bowl"……this is the second time I am starting this blog(the indo/retard factor)…..we did a dawnie today, and by the time we got out the back at 620am there were 2 boats and almost 2 handfulls of people already in the water….which makes it hard to quickly get my 6 wave quota before going into the boat to shoot photos, but  managed to get 6 waves as well as a couple of good ones…….I got the camera out, connected the lens……got the settings to my liking, shot a couple pics, and the indo-fctor kicked in, in the form of an ERR-99 message came up…….which is canon-speak for "I am fucked"…….so after pulling out the battery, as well as the memory cards, my just fixed(less the 20 frames shot) back-up camera body is broken……my "just-fixed"($700's later) lens just arrived, yesterday, my other camera is in transit between jakarta and padang, on its way out to me with the new guests hopefully……the indo-factor is in full effect…….I am the photographer here, and haven't shot anything yet……..there are other activites I am able to participate in like monkey-wrangling/bar-shifts/this and that to be of service, but my main job as photographer has been plagued with mechanical problems and the ramadan holiday, really helped the slow down all the things at the canon factory……so I jumped back in the water and got another 5 waves before we came in……the afternoon paddle was fun as well, until the brazillians started hassling me……yes a boat load of brazos on their last day, trying to block for each outhe and also doing the tricks that make them the most hated race in the mentawai's……so they were carrying on, and I never back -down so I was having a go, and pushing buttons, and poking the hornets nest…….it didn't stop me from getting 19 waves during the session……the aussies of f the 1 boat were saying what dicks the brazillians were, and good on me for saying something…….then during our magic hour(the hour before dark, that we usually get alone)another boat showed and dumped 6 guys on us……they were americans who have been surfing twith these brazillians for the past week, with horror stories, and they were happy not to surf with them all day today……only 1 was left in the water at this point…..on his last wave I was near him when he kicked out so I said "adios", which set him off, shouting and screaming……he'll be back to his miserable, life in brazil, in a couple days, and I'll be surfing good waves, right here in the mentawai's.….on another note it's my 21 year anniversary of being drug and alcohol free……living and enjoying life without the use of drugs, has become quite interesting during the past decade……keeps getting better and better…….so the july recap goes like this for wave count - waves in july/year to date/for the past 29 months - 166/1619/7355 - I am way below my quota of 333 waves a month, this month, only did 1/2…….oh well, I'll just have to make it up in august……......today's photo is of Ainsley on the longboard, playing in the front-yard with her new seea 1 piece on………below……………the sign-series continues……….below(sea-level)……….………..below……………….is from the un-ridden wave series……below………….……is from the point-&-shoot series……below…….……..………is the 2015-mentwai-surf-section…….…below……..….…is from the "shoot-from-the-hip" collection.….…….below………………in the "as fink sees it" section, it's sasha and mike playing in the indian ocean……….and finally, some more ogoh ogoh's from the not so recent Nyepi celebration………………