massive feet!

Ireland ‘among most vulnerable’ to peak oil
HERE’S a conundrum: restarting global economic growth will, by definition, push up energy costs. Rising energy costs will in turn choke off that economic recovery, leading to a fall in energy prices. Try to restart growth again, and the brick wall of energy costs magically reappears. Repeat ad infinitum.It is hard to overstate the extent to which our daily lives are subsidised by cheap, plentiful oil. Every 24 hours, Ireland burns around 200,000 barrels. That’s the daily equivalent of the muscle power of 2.4 million men, each working for a full year.

Our entire way of life depends on abundant, inexpensive oil. This era is now drawing to a close. Five years ago, the Hirsch report published by the US department of energy concluded that the world has “never faced a problem” as difficult as peak oil, adding that: “without massive mitigation more than a decade before the fact, the problem will be pervasive and will not be temporary”. Oil peaking will be, it warned, “abrupt and revolutionary”.

The advent of peak oil is, by definition, the end of decades of relentless economic growth, since this dramatic phase in human history has been entirely predicated on ready access to vast amounts of cheap energy.

The advent of peak oil is, by definition, the end of decades of relentless economic growth, since this dramatic phase in human history has been entirely predicated on ready access to vast amounts of cheap energy.

Saw this recently and thought it was pretty cool. Some really nice camera work, stunning spots and of course amazing surfing. Some of it is a little staged (or recreated as he says) but it’s well worth watching. Had me itching to travel by the end of it.

This skinny local dude was standing barefoot grinning, with nothing but board shorts and his short surfboard on the edge of Puerto viejo thumbing a lift. Since we were heading down to go surf we stopped to cram him and his board into the trunk of our tiny 4×4 car for the 10minute drive along the potholed dirt track to Coccles. He was a friendly fellow, and we got chatting as we drove. I had broken my board the day before and when we arrived he ended up helping me replace one of the two fins I lost (they only had one). He then taped up a ding in the board with electric tape before using a lighter to melt the plastic tape a bit to seal it, after which it was almost as good as new. We gave him a lift and he helped me fix my board. sweet. He told me he ‘Normally‘ surfs  at least 5 hours every day and he had done his whole life….

…later….some guy from Oregon is in the room next to us with his girfriend and since we shared a balcony we get to chatting. “What do you think of Puerto Viejo?” we ask him. “Well, I don’t know what you guys normally eat, but we normally eat hamburgers” he replied, “and the hamburgers here have ham on them. Like actual slices of ham on top of the burger”. He was a big man, sitting there sweating without his shirt on and he didn’t look impressed.

Normal is a fairly abstract concept.

Musquin owned all on the first day on his KTM and took the MX2 overall for the weekend.

Reed and Cairoli were swapping the lead back and forth but the Italian Cairoli came out on top at his home race to the cheers of the Italian crowd

There was a massive double step-up on the track. Not many people were doing the double to start with.

Cairoli was. Laying it flat.

Spot the rider. That’s a seriously big jump!

Jake Weimer

Tommy Searle above the crowds. There were 70 000 people there apparently on the Sunday.

My sister Cla and her friends Sarah and Sarah

this dude busted me taking his photo I think, although camera was in the same spot as the shot above.. Got a brilliant zoom on it..

home alone, missing the wifey!

Mash has been one of my favo(u)rite shops in London for about 20 years..

San Clemente is a really nice small surf town about an hour south of L.A. We stopped for breakfast.

The waves looked perfect

Just outside of Oceanside we saw these fools. American History X is bleak as hell.

So many empty stores along Melrose.

I was considering getting a snowboard jacket at the Burton store, but it was over 100 degrees so after trying one on I was overheating so bad I had to bounce. Not sure why they dont crank up the AC to make it cold so people can try on all of the winter gear.

Ended up going for a late night cruise the whole way down venice beach with Csaba. Lot of crazies and homeless people down there at 3am, but with a longboard you just fly by so fast they don’t bother you. First time I have ever really ridden a long board and although I missed being able to oli, the big wheels are wicked for getting speed.

You have to protect your area in the jungle, as everything is vying for space and survival. Anything coming into our corner runs the risk of a fast brutal death by man or woman. Outside of our small area, anything goes and we respect the environments of the other animals, reptiles, birds and insects, but here, in our space, it’s war.

Of course like in war you sometimes exist in a state of mutual unease. The huge tarantula that was not killed but rather encouraged to move on. The mouse that we left to the cat who lived with us, the geckos running everywhere in the rafters, keeping the insect populations at bay whilst singing along merrily together with the rest of the jungle and the pounding of the waves.

I take another pull of the joint and as the smoke enters my lungs, everything seems to be where it should be. Everything has it’s place at this moment in time. Breathing out slowly, the sounds shift, things dying and others being reborn. The cycles continue, micro and macro, oblivious to the Gregorian calender, uncountable, unquantifiable.

The next day we paddle up an estuary in kayaks, through mangrove forests and into crocodile country. I was nervous, but thankfully so were the crocodiles and as we approached, they would glide down into the water off the land and disappear, the only sign of them being the air bubbles popping on the surface of the water near our kayaks. I was reminded about the importance of protecting your area in the jungle and paddled a bit faster to move on.