Stoked to open this week's New Yorker and find a story by William Finnegan about surfing on the South Shore of Oahu in the 1960s. Finnegan accurately portrays an organic experience of being new to a break and figuring it out. He watches the other surfers in the water and stays away from the main peak until he has built up his abilities and has made friends with some of the local Hawaiians. He also writes a succinct paragraph on wave dynamics that I could not have written better myself. I did a little googling and found out that Finnegan is on staff at the New Yorker, and that he surfs on Long Island when he's in town. Finnegan is on the move a lot covering issues of social unrest. This focus on the social is apparent in his sensitive illustration of race relations in mid-century Hawaii. The fact that someone like Finnegan lives and surfs here is a testament to the depth of the New York surfing community.
2015 Surf Lessons and Coaching Packages Update
Conatus student, Kyungmi, going left with style in Rockaway. Pic: Eric Perkins ericperkins.smugmug.com
I am excited to announce new lessons and packages for the 2015 surf season! The same beginner packages are still available, but now include video sessions and Skype consultations, as I believe that to be a key pedagogical tool for better surfing. I have also added one hour consultations for advanced intermediates and new coaching packages. Also in the works is a fall surfing weekend in Montauk and winter surf retreats in Costa Rica. I am also working on building a larger quiver of surfboards so that clients will be able to purchase the board that they learned on and get right to surfing without the hassle of hunting down a board in New York. Still communicating with local shapers to make this real, but it's in the works! For full details about lessons and packages please go to the lessons page. For interest/inquiry about the Montauk/Costa Rica retreats simply keep following us here and on Instagram (@conatussurfclub) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/conatussurfclub) for updates and details.
Machine Musik.
Here's another little video to amp you out on all that is surfing. I am going through all of my old footage (for the sake of my hard drive) and am putting together clips that I always meant to put together. I shot this time lapse of local shaper Joe Falcone shaping me a board we ended up calling the Google Drive in August. Joe and I worked out the dimensions and overall shape together. It has a 2+1 set up so that it can be ridden as a single fin or a tri fin. Both ways work depending on the waves but it works best with two big side fins and a smaller center fin. It's also the board I'm riding in the video Sick Little Nor'Easter Pits.
Three More Months Till Summer
It's been a brutal winter but there is light at the end of the snow tunnel. This morning we sprang ahead and in tribute to the warmer months I put together this little video of my friends and I mucking around in the less than perfect waves of NY/NJ last year. As you will see, this is not a shred flick. It's very home movie style with not so good waves and average surfing. But I like to believe there is something novel in watching this kind of surfing, something approachable, reasonable, and down right get-you-a-bit-stoked-able. The song is by the krautrock jam band CAN off of their album Ege Bamyasi.
Mid-winter vid stoker
As promised, I'm posting a little video I made from a nice day of surf back in November or December. I cannot remember which month it was. It was the first Nor'easter swell that rolled through and the first really cold day of surf we've had. I'm riding a 5'7" handshape by Joe Falcone. Joe's got a new website up so check him out at http://www.falconesurfboards.com. He's got a shaping lineage that you wouldn't believe and skills to show for it. I was there for the whole shaping process and even got to put my hand on it with the paint brush before it went out to Faktion Surfboards to get a sweet glass job. Mark at Faction has also been shaping Conatus Surf Clubbers some really beautiful eggs. I've been delivering them to Brooklyn on my drives down from Cape Cod and the people are stoked. Loving the local shaping out here in NY! Enjoy the vid. And stay warm out there!
Happy New Year!
I’ve been on a long blogging hiatus over here at Conatus Surf Club. Winter. Holidays. PhD catch up. Lack of gumption. Surfing. Excuse time over. Just wanted to pop in to let you know all is alive and well here. We had a stellar first season* operating in New York. Lots of happy clients. Lots of improvement. Got some new equipment. Especially excited about the Malwitz Surfboards 8’8” egg—perfect for smaller people and advanced beginners. Tried a bunch of different wetsuit brands. At this very moment Ripcurl and Nineplus are out in front and Billabong is at the bottom of the pile. In pure surfing terms, we had a pretty killer fall here on the East Coast. Gonzalo was by far the swell of the season, producing perfect barreling waves in New Jersey two days in a row. Certainly expert only stuff, as is the case in any hurricane swell situation, but there were plenty of small perfect fall days to be had too.
And now we’re in the real thick of winter. Winter storm Juno just passed through and by the looks of it some truly diehard winter surfers seriously scored some epic blizzard barrels. I scored too, but not here on the East Coast. A week before the storm, I flew to CA to my hometown and break to spend quality time with my family and friends. I surfed every day and worked on papers every night. My dad got some great shots of my friends and I, a few of which are posted below. In the next few weeks I plan to post some more pics, a little video I made, a book review, and updates about what to expect in the upcoming season.
Cruising through the pocket on an old school single fin.
Photo: Richard Mattison
Layback lookback.
Photo: Richard Mattison
*As many know, I’ve been teaching lessons for quite some time, but this was the first season I’ve done so under the official name Conatus Surf Club. It was also the first year of this website.