I am excited to announce a new line of posters in my CocoBohemia Big Cartel shop! There are surf, skate, Hawaii and California themed images by both my husband, photographer Jay Watson and myself! I love the quality of these 18x24 posters, which are on a heavy-weight matte paper.
To celebrate, there will be a contest. We will be giving away one poster from Jay Watson, and one poster from my collection. To participate, all you need to do is leave a comment here naming your favorite poster from each collection. Winners will be randomly selected and will be given one of their favorites. I'll make the announcement on Surf Friday, February 8 at 12:00pm Pacific.
I couldn't wait to tell you guys about the winners and my surf story.
OK, so I don't love surfing in Pacifica. Everyone is super nice there though and that is worth a lot. I think I don't love it because that's where I learned to surf and I'd go there a lot and just get worked. But I am so glad we went today and here's why.
After suiting up, I was waxing my board on the bed of the truck. All kinds of old, dirty wax started easily coming off and I grabbed a comb and started removing it all. It was long overdue. I ended up with a huge ball of grey wax, as big as a softball. I walked over to the garbage can at the wall near the beach, and there was a group of guys there who'd just gotten out of the water and were standing next to a white van, chatting.
One of them said, "Whoa is that wax?" I said "Yes", and the guy said, "Can I have it?" I said, "Sure" and my heart skipped a beat because I handed my dirty ball of wax to none other than one of my art heroes, Mr. Barry McGee. In my mind, I was running and skipping back to the truck to tell Jay, but I'm pretty sure I walked. Check out this great article about the man also known as Twist...
Other than that, the water was extra cold and it was pretty windy, but how do you do it, ocean? It cleansed my soul. Seriously, that feeling like if you have any kinds of irritation inside of you - poof, gone. Gone and then you eat tacos and pick up some farm fresh strawberries, and maybe take a little nap.
Devo was taking a nap too, but I woke him up and gave him a dog biscuit and he was ready to pick the winners of Saltwater Buddha. Big congratulations to Ashley Moffat of Southern California and Kate Banazi of Sydney, Australia! Ashley is a surfer who rocks it on a Michael Junod pumpkin seed and Kate is an amazing artist who specializes in bold, graphic silkscreens. Please send your mailing address to pineappleluv @ gmail dot com.
Time to reward Devo with a walk. Happy weekend to you! I hope you smile a lot.
Happy Friday everyone and I hope everyone is feeling great! Gosh I feel like I've been away for a long time. Sometimes life gets busy and all the fun things you want to do, you kind of have to put off. But not for long, right?
I can't wait to tell you about a surfboard I've ordered which will be shaped in the coming weeks. A little dream come true. I'll keep you in suspense just for a short while and will share more very soon.
Today is going to be fun because PLuv is having a giveaway of a wonderful book! Two of them in fact and they are signed by the author.
I met Jaimal Yogis at his book reading in Half Moon Bay a couple of weekends ago, and he struck me as being a really great person. Jaimal is an award winning writer who has penned articles notably for San Francisco Magazine and the next issue of The Surfers Journal. His home break is Ocean Beach and he is currently touring California with his first book, Saltwater Buddha.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading his autobiographical story about discovering oneself through Zen and surfing. There is a lot of wisdom in this book, as well as some great stories from his journey, including running away from home to learn how to surf.
When Jaimal was sixteen, he left his parents the following note:
Dear family, please do not worry. I am somewhere in the world and I will call you when I get there. I had some dreams that led me to believe that I need a change and I could not make it here. I'm sorry. I took some money from Mom's credit card and I apologize. I plan to pay it all back when I get settled. I love you very much. Jaimal
He went to Maui. Tales ensue.
He started as "a white boy who couldn't surf". Even while studying at a monastary, he started to become in his words, a Surf Nazi, a fanatical surfer who woke up at five AM every morning, surfed twice a day and yelled at a kid who dropped in on him. This is one of my favorite parts of the book because he candidly admits what a lot of us have gone through.
Surfing becomes your life, your religion and in Jaimal's words, "...in my confusion I was twisting it into something unrecognizable, mistaking the method for the goal, the means for the end. I guess it happens all the time, to religious fanatics of all stripes."
"I knew very well I wasn't enlightened. And the day I screamed at the kid, I finally understood that I was carrying my surfboard around on my head and it wasn't getting me any closer to freedom. In fact, it seemed to be making me into an asshole."
Jaimal surfing Ocean Beach
There are so many good stories in this book and I can think of several more I want to tell you about, like when he surfed a gnarly break with a balls out Aussie and wasn't sure if he'd make it out alive...or a beautiful section where he took a job as a caregiver for a man and they laughed while passionately discussing their different viewpoints on religion...or when Jaimal got on a commercial fishing boat during winter conditions in Montauk for his thesis...or got wedged under some boulders surfing in Brooklyn.
In the book, you come to understand how important water is to Jaimal. He writes, "Upon his deathbead, the Buddha spoke these final words: All things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence. Ridiculous as it may be, I see myself doing just that as I flail around on the sea, gliding on the fringes of our blue world."
You don't have to surf or be a Buddhist to enjoy Saltwater Buddha. Leave a comment and we'll put Devo to work next Friday, May 22 to pick the two winners.
Aloha! I'm feeling so much Aloha that I want to say it again the way the Hawaiians do... A lo - HA!
Ready, said are you ready to go, Said are you ready, are you ready to go, Full Stop, Ranking Full Stop! Are you ready, said are you ready to stop, Said are you ready, said are you ready to stop...
Yeah we have winners! (You know you're all winners in my book).
Devo's first drawing was for Grand Prize Winner #1 - and it was...SurfSister!!! Yay SurfSister - you've got the Beach Blanket Burnout film, booklet and Lg T for the hubby. Check out her fun new blog feature, Dance Party Mondays, along with other thoughtful musings about surfing and life in L.A....
Grand Prize Winner #2 - the one and only...DANIMAL. You probably all know this cool dude, one of the creative collaborators over at Svrf & Destroy, a site that provides many of us with endless entertainment. Congrats D - you also get the film, booklet and a Lg T. Hope your home brewing is going well.
Now we're on to our 3 remaining winners, who won a T-shirt and a Beach Blanket Burnout booklet.
And Devo picked...Jair! Jair is a photographer from Brazil and his blog is Pureness in the Imperfection. He is the one putting together the über amazing event, II Santos SurfArt. You may have read about it on Ryan's blog earlier this week. Keep your eye out for an interview with Jair on an upcoming Interview Wednesdays...
The 2nd winner of the T-shirt and booklet goes to...Lesley Bruening from Lake Tahoe! Yeah! Les is a gorgeous young woman who makes everybody feel at ease and loves to laugh. She won the shirt for her husband-to-be Kris, soon to be married in Maui next month! Hope you catch some good waves on your honeymoon, cuz.
Our final winner of the day is quitecontrary1977! She has a blog called Now Entering Momville. Devo really liked your entry as you can see, he is licking it. From your blog it looks like you share giveaways with others, so I am glad you are on the receiving end!
Winners please send your mailing address to me at pineappleluv @ gmail dot com.
Thanks for playing you guys, I am thankful and have some cool new blogs to check out as a result. Hope everybody has a rockin' weekend and to end today's Surf Fridays...let's watch a video of Curren vs Occy from 1986. Nice neon!
Both Mr. Knost and Mr. Kopps were there, each with a somewhat quiet presence. No big introductions or discussions on the film took place, although that would have been neat. I was pretty surprised at how 'arty' Knost's film was and parts of it reminded me of David Lynch. Except for the surfing. And when you see him on his board, man does he move fast. Reminded me of Buster Keaton in some way.
We collected some T-shirts, a couple of films and booklets for you, so all you need to do is leave a comment and mention if you want a large or a medium t-shirt. There will be 2 grand prizes containing the T-shirt, film and booklet. 3 more lucky winners will receive a t-shirt and booklet!
We'll get Devo to announce the winners next Friday, August 22 (needs to pay his rent somehow, he can't just go around looking cute all the time...or can he...).
Friends, may the strength of the ancient surf gods be with you! Good day.
Update: I will gladly send the giveaways to Brazil, UK, Australia, Spain...who ever wins and has an address is getting one!
Hi everyone, it's Devo here. Thanks for putting your name in the hat! It was nice to see all your friendly comments.
Who's it gonna be?
Oh boy, it's Blessed78! Congratulations!
Blessed78, thanks for stopping by and I hope you are feeling like today is your lucky day! Please e-mail me: pineappleluv at gmail dot com to tell me what your address is and I'll ask the mailman to send them to you in a hurry.
This was a lot of fun and I'll definitely do more giveaways in the future. Hasta luego, amigos!
Good morning! I'm so excited to have the first giveaway on PineappleLuv. I made sets of cards for Open Studios earlier this month. And I never told you how that went. Well, it was really slow this year, so there wasn't a lot to tell. But while I was there I thought, if there are any of these card packs left, I would love to give one away on the old blog!
It's a set of 6 cards and envelopes (size 4x6) with my original artwork printed on them, on linen paper. They would be perfect for sending a sweet note to a friend or relative.
All you have to do is leave a comment, and someone at the Watson household will draw the name out of a hat on Monday night. I will announce the winner on Tuesday morning, June 3.
Even if you've never left a comment, come on and participate! Even if you're a close friend or relative, yes! Even if you're a guy, you could give them to a lady friend. Or impress a lady friend by writing her a note!
