The Leash ruined surfing, agreed the world over ...

No leashes, but goggles are ok...some quality downtime in the beers home country

So we now have a little stockpile of both Leash Ruined Surfing AND Give Hawaii Back Stickers for sale if so inclined.
Keep in mind that I'm not tech savvy and I'm still working out the kinks on this thing. Feel free to contact me, Jesse at jferris_enc@yahoo.com or Turtle at bajaf350@gmail.com meanwhile ill be working on getting a singular email and PayPal up and running to make things easier on both ends
Yew!

A short story from leashless

            A California Story  

                  By Jesse Ferris

            I hate the term California gold. It’s one of the oldest clichés in the book and it’s been overused for decades. I hate it because it works so well that it’s hard to coin a better term. It’s in the lighting and the shadows and the contrasts and the colors and the land itself, it’s all there subtly stark and poignant all at once. California is the land of the endless promise, some dreams realized and plenty dreams broken. The Spanish were lured here only to be disappointed and the Mexicans failed thereafter. California Dreamin’ was on the minds of many long before John and Michelle Phillips dreamed of escaping a New England winter, and the thought has surely endured through the years.

            Some of us are more fortunate than others, with luck often times being the only deciding factor to those of us who are geographically privileged. Thankfully my parents were smart enough to leave the Midwest.  My dad packed up his 1974 Datsun pickup truck on his 18^th birthday in the winter of 1977 and waved goodbye to his folks and seven siblings in knee deep Dubuque snow as he left for a place called Pacific Beach. The name itself just had a beautiful ring to it. To those of us who don’t care for seasons, wintertime on the Pacific suits our temperaments just fine. I’m sure a sunset over the Appalachians or a Nebraska cornfield have their merits but I’ll take a pastel sky as seen through twisting cypress trees any day of the year, finish it off with a green flash and you’re pretty much there. And the best thing about the California coast is that unlike the rest of the vast majority of the country the canvas of the land has an end and that’s a good thing, as the seemingly endless Pacific takes front and center stage.

            Hawaiian photographers, especially those focusing on water shots will tend to laugh at their Californian counterparts who do the same thing. And you know what, most of the time that’s pretty warranted. There are exceptions to every rule of course, there always are. All you need is proximity to the coast (walking distance is a plus), motivation to put on a wet wettie when most are bundled up with a beer in hand, a lot of commitment, and a lot more luck. Put all these together and you have the recipe for photographic success, sometimes, maybe.

            If you happen to live in a coastal town with a Spanish name and are motivated, or crazy enough to withstand long periods of flatness, lots of wavestorms and SUPs, sometimes rewards come in golden moments of solitude and beauty.  California Dreamin’ suddenly becomes much more than a thought or a dream or a song, and it’s the temperamental aspect therein that makes it special. Like Mickey Munoz said, “If the waves were perfect everyday it would get boring.” Some people scoff at that notion but I believe it. If everything was beautiful all the time then nothing would be beautiful.

            The west end of the beach town with the Spanish name is good at producing quality and varying moods as Aaron Howard knows. I live with him, I would know. With a view of the ocean through the eucalyptus from the backyard the critical merging of place and timing is pretty ideal. I’m usually one of the folks on the cliff with a beer in hand while half the time he is off in some nook or cove swimming around fiddling with his water housing. The ongoing joke is, “Boy, Aaron you’re getting pretty good with Photoshop.” It’s not a funny joke, not even sarcastically funny it’s just more out of jealousy of the fact that I can’t even take a good photo on my Iphone let alone with a pricy manual focus camera in water housing.

            If you’ve never heard of Aaron Howard, it’s probably because you haven’t. He’s just another stoked surfer from Southern California, a dime a dozen in that sense. But the difference with him is that while most people talk about doing things he just does things, almost always with camera case in tow.

            “Jesse stop and don’t move”, I’ll hear him shout sometimes while were riding bikes out to the point as he tears his camera from its case snapping away at some sight that missed me. Other times he will disappear for five or ten minutes and return all giddy. Some say if you’ve seen one sunset, you’ve seen them all. I couldn’t disagree more, and Aaron laughs at the thought. Say what you will but there is something very unique about a California sunset, and also uniquely as difficult to capture in its full glory.

            In the digital age where every other surfer has a GoPro mounted to their board creativity can sometimes be overlooked. It’s a far different world than when George Greenough was documenting his escapades nearly a half century ago. He had thirty pounds of equipment on his back, while today’s photographer can nearly fit his gear in his back pocket if so desired. The eye however is the critical component that endures and that’s all that really matters. With the right positioning and wave and timing sense it’s not all that difficult to put yourself in the right spot, be it surfing or photography. All it takes is patience and time, two things that most people either don’t have or don’t care to think about.

            Of course living in the small beach town with the Spanish name helps. Jimmy Buffett once said, “Without geography, we’re nowhere.” Very true statement that is, and it goes further than that because without that same geography, wherever you’re at, those beautiful things probably wouldn’t be possible. That’s only part of the story however. It’s easy for someone like me to stare at the landscape around us at a moment in time and be awestruck by the beauty of the golden hour on the edge of the American continent but it’s a whole different ballgame to be able to capture it forever.

            That’s the beauty of the contrast of the place itself. From (occasional) solitude to light turquoise greens and blues of a fall afternoon to the deep pastel reds and oranges as the sun drops behind the Pacific, variety is still the spice of life. Sometimes the magic moments don’t require an overseas flight and boat ride. It may be colder and more temperamental than places of surf resort packages, the spots you see on every other page of Surfer Magazine but the satisfaction of staying at home for those golden moments often resonates that much more. California is good at doing that sort of thing, and Aaron Howard is good at capturing it all. I guess that damn cliché still rings true, because we still love it when it does.  

 

            Cruise on over to aaronhoward1.tumblr.com to check out some of his goods

 

Even some hicks from the sticks like to surf

No Shame self promotion. Thanks to Michel Junod for the board, and Aaron Howard for the photo

Hey all,
   So its been quite the break on my end. Swells have come and gone just like my college career and with no more homework and a job instead I can come home and fiddle around with time on my terms rather than dealing with schoolwork. That's a longwinded excuse for laziness and neglect. So were back at The Leash Ruined Surfing, whatever that means. These days were home-based in Isla Vista but have our roots in Leucadia and friends throughout the golden state. Keep an eye out for pics, stories and whatever other little blurbs and goodies that we seem to like and we hope you like them too.