I was watching a doco on airships and learned that they were lined with cow's bladders which apparently have an extremely low gas permeability.
So I was just thinking......... 8-D
But what would you name such a mat? Moo-matic?
May 31, 2009
May 27, 2009
Do You Feel Like This?
Sometimes when I'm out matting I forget everything and just be. Well, my Mom found this opinion in the New York Times that expresses the value of just being:
What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?
I teach philosophy for a living, so let me begin with a philosophical answer. For the philosophers of Antiquity, notably Aristotle, it was assumed that the goal of the philosophical life — the good life, moreover — was happiness and that the latter could be defined as the bios theoretikos, the solitary life of contemplation. Today, few people would seem to subscribe to this view. Our lives are filled with the endless distractions of cell phones, car alarms, commuter woes and the traffic in Bangalore. The rhythm of modern life is punctuated by beeps, bleeps and a generalized attention deficit disorder.
But is the idea of happiness as an experience of contemplation really so ridiculous? Might there not be something in it? I am reminded of the following extraordinary passage from Rousseau’s final book and his third (count them — he still beats Obama 3-to-2) autobiography, “Reveries of a Solitary Walker”:
If there is a state where the soul can find a resting-place secure enough to establish itself and concentrate its entire being there, with no need to remember the past or reach into the future, where time is nothing to it, where the present runs on indefinitely but this duration goes unnoticed, with no sign of the passing of time, and no other feeling of deprivation or enjoyment, pleasure or pain, desire or fear than the simple feeling of existence, a feeling that fills our soul entirely, as long as this state lasts, we can call ourselves happy, not with a poor, incomplete and relative happiness such as we find in the pleasures of life, but with a sufficient, complete and perfect happiness which leaves no emptiness to be filled in the soul. (emphases mine)
This is as close to a description of happiness as I can imagine. Rousseau is describing the experience of floating in a little rowing boat on the Lake of Bienne close to Neuchâtel in his native Switzerland. He particularly loved visiting the Île Saint Pierre, where he used to enjoy going for exploratory walks when the weather was fine and he could indulge in the great passion of his last years: botany. He would walk with a copy of Linneaus under his arm, happily identifying plants in areas of the deserted island that he had divided for this purpose into small squares.
On the way to the island, he would pull in the oars and just let the boat drift where it wished, for hours at a time. Rousseau would lie down in the boat and plunge into a deep reverie. How does one describe the experience of reverie: one is awake, but half asleep, thinking, but not in an instrumental, calculative or ordered way, simply letting the thoughts happen, as they will.
Happiness is not quantitative or measurable and it is not the object of any science, old or new. It cannot be gleaned from empirical surveys or programmed into individuals through a combination of behavioral therapy and anti-depressants. If it consists in anything, then I think that happiness is this feeling of existence, this sentiment of momentary self-sufficiency that is bound up with the experience of time.
Look at what Rousseau writes above: floating in a boat in fine weather, lying down with one’s eyes open to the clouds and birds or closed in reverie, one feels neither the pull of the past nor does one reach into the future. Time is nothing, or rather time is nothing but the experience of the present through which one passes without hurry, but without regret. As Wittgenstein writes in what must be the most intriguing remark in the “Tractatus,” “the eternal life is given to those who live in the present.” Or ,as Whitman writes in “Leaves of Grass”: “Happiness is not in another place, but in this place…not for another hour…but this hour.”
Rousseau asks, “What is the source of our happiness in such a state?” He answers that it is nothing external to us and nothing apart from our own existence. However frenetic our environment, such a feeling of existence can be achieved. He then goes on, amazingly, to conclude, “as long as this state lasts we are self-sufficient like God.”
God-like, then. To which one might reply: Who? Me? Us? Like God? Dare we? But think about it: If anyone is happy, then one imagines that God is pretty happy, and to be happy is to be like God. But consider what this means, for it might not be as ludicrous, hybristic or heretical as one might imagine. To be like God is to be without time, or rather in time with no concern for time, free of the passions and troubles of the soul, experiencing something like calm in the face of things and of oneself.
Why should happiness be bound up with the presence and movement of water? This is the case for Rousseau and I must confess that if I think back over those experiences of blissful reverie that are close to what Rousseau is describing then it is often in proximity to water, although usually saltwater rather than fresh. For me, it is not so much the stillness of a lake (I tend to see lakes as decaffeinated seas), but rather the never-ending drone of the surf, sitting by the sea in fair weather or foul and feeling time disappear into tide, into the endless pendulum of the tidal range. At moments like this, one can sink into deep reverie, a motionlessness that is not sleep, but where one is somehow held by the sound of the surf, lulled by the tidal movement.
Is all happiness solitary? Of course not. But one can be happy alone and this might even be the key to being happy with others. Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud when walking with his sister. However, I think that one can also experience this feeling of existence in the experience of love, in being intimate with one’s lover, feeling the world close around one and time slips away in its passing. Rousseau’s rowing boat becomes the lovers’ bed and one bids the world farewell as one slides into the shared selfishness of intimacy.
…And then it is over. Time passes, the reverie ends and the feeling for existence fades. The cell phone rings, the e-mail beeps and one is sucked back into the world’s relentless hum and our accompanying anxiety.
What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?
I teach philosophy for a living, so let me begin with a philosophical answer. For the philosophers of Antiquity, notably Aristotle, it was assumed that the goal of the philosophical life — the good life, moreover — was happiness and that the latter could be defined as the bios theoretikos, the solitary life of contemplation. Today, few people would seem to subscribe to this view. Our lives are filled with the endless distractions of cell phones, car alarms, commuter woes and the traffic in Bangalore. The rhythm of modern life is punctuated by beeps, bleeps and a generalized attention deficit disorder.
But is the idea of happiness as an experience of contemplation really so ridiculous? Might there not be something in it? I am reminded of the following extraordinary passage from Rousseau’s final book and his third (count them — he still beats Obama 3-to-2) autobiography, “Reveries of a Solitary Walker”:
If there is a state where the soul can find a resting-place secure enough to establish itself and concentrate its entire being there, with no need to remember the past or reach into the future, where time is nothing to it, where the present runs on indefinitely but this duration goes unnoticed, with no sign of the passing of time, and no other feeling of deprivation or enjoyment, pleasure or pain, desire or fear than the simple feeling of existence, a feeling that fills our soul entirely, as long as this state lasts, we can call ourselves happy, not with a poor, incomplete and relative happiness such as we find in the pleasures of life, but with a sufficient, complete and perfect happiness which leaves no emptiness to be filled in the soul. (emphases mine)
This is as close to a description of happiness as I can imagine. Rousseau is describing the experience of floating in a little rowing boat on the Lake of Bienne close to Neuchâtel in his native Switzerland. He particularly loved visiting the Île Saint Pierre, where he used to enjoy going for exploratory walks when the weather was fine and he could indulge in the great passion of his last years: botany. He would walk with a copy of Linneaus under his arm, happily identifying plants in areas of the deserted island that he had divided for this purpose into small squares.
On the way to the island, he would pull in the oars and just let the boat drift where it wished, for hours at a time. Rousseau would lie down in the boat and plunge into a deep reverie. How does one describe the experience of reverie: one is awake, but half asleep, thinking, but not in an instrumental, calculative or ordered way, simply letting the thoughts happen, as they will.
Happiness is not quantitative or measurable and it is not the object of any science, old or new. It cannot be gleaned from empirical surveys or programmed into individuals through a combination of behavioral therapy and anti-depressants. If it consists in anything, then I think that happiness is this feeling of existence, this sentiment of momentary self-sufficiency that is bound up with the experience of time.
Look at what Rousseau writes above: floating in a boat in fine weather, lying down with one’s eyes open to the clouds and birds or closed in reverie, one feels neither the pull of the past nor does one reach into the future. Time is nothing, or rather time is nothing but the experience of the present through which one passes without hurry, but without regret. As Wittgenstein writes in what must be the most intriguing remark in the “Tractatus,” “the eternal life is given to those who live in the present.” Or ,as Whitman writes in “Leaves of Grass”: “Happiness is not in another place, but in this place…not for another hour…but this hour.”
Rousseau asks, “What is the source of our happiness in such a state?” He answers that it is nothing external to us and nothing apart from our own existence. However frenetic our environment, such a feeling of existence can be achieved. He then goes on, amazingly, to conclude, “as long as this state lasts we are self-sufficient like God.”
God-like, then. To which one might reply: Who? Me? Us? Like God? Dare we? But think about it: If anyone is happy, then one imagines that God is pretty happy, and to be happy is to be like God. But consider what this means, for it might not be as ludicrous, hybristic or heretical as one might imagine. To be like God is to be without time, or rather in time with no concern for time, free of the passions and troubles of the soul, experiencing something like calm in the face of things and of oneself.
Why should happiness be bound up with the presence and movement of water? This is the case for Rousseau and I must confess that if I think back over those experiences of blissful reverie that are close to what Rousseau is describing then it is often in proximity to water, although usually saltwater rather than fresh. For me, it is not so much the stillness of a lake (I tend to see lakes as decaffeinated seas), but rather the never-ending drone of the surf, sitting by the sea in fair weather or foul and feeling time disappear into tide, into the endless pendulum of the tidal range. At moments like this, one can sink into deep reverie, a motionlessness that is not sleep, but where one is somehow held by the sound of the surf, lulled by the tidal movement.
Is all happiness solitary? Of course not. But one can be happy alone and this might even be the key to being happy with others. Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud when walking with his sister. However, I think that one can also experience this feeling of existence in the experience of love, in being intimate with one’s lover, feeling the world close around one and time slips away in its passing. Rousseau’s rowing boat becomes the lovers’ bed and one bids the world farewell as one slides into the shared selfishness of intimacy.
…And then it is over. Time passes, the reverie ends and the feeling for existence fades. The cell phone rings, the e-mail beeps and one is sucked back into the world’s relentless hum and our accompanying anxiety.
May 26, 2009
From Bob M ...
Hi Paul,
First, let me say that, between my 4GF and my Neumatic, this 63 year old (50yr plus board surfer)is getting more waves than ever.
I got a couple of weeks of warm water and real waves in Mazatlan in April, and my wife said its like I'm a gremmie again.
Thanks,
Bob M.
San Pedro, CA
May 25, 2009
New Fourth Gear Flyer Rider's Guide...
Most of you have seen the new 4GF Rider's Guide, but I wanted to make it available to anyone who might be interested. (The file is too large to post in Sufmatters..)
Send me an email at "fourthgearflyer at yahoo.com" and I'll email the guide to you.
Thanks!
PG
May 24, 2009
BZ Rubbers Swim Fins
More good looking flippers. Here's the marketing speak:By far the most advanced high performance swim fins on the market. Made from top quality floating natural rubbers, these fins offer an all new softer foot pocket with an extremely powerful hard blade. We even went to extremes to patent our own angled foot pocket that provides more thrust than conventional fins. These fins are designed for both prone and dropknee riding, which is maybe why Kyle Maligro says, "Rubbers are the best fins I have ever used!!!!"
Decisions, decisions...
May 23, 2009
From Jamie M...
Hey Paul,
New UDT's foiled. Working as well as the pair I lost, and a little more comfortable because I sanded the inside of the footpocket and straps to accomodate my ankles.
Haven't had much surf lately, but really enjoying riding the black and blue hybrid Standard. Very comfortable bareback, no rash at all, and has good enough grip for most days.
Sorry to say I still haven't gotten George his new proto hybrid mat. The head gasket in the car blew I've been pretty stranded. I called him to let him know, and have plans to ride down on Friday with a friend to drop the mat and have a surf.
Jamie
Haven't had much surf lately, but really enjoying riding the black and blue hybrid Standard. Very comfortable bareback, no rash at all, and has good enough grip for most days.
Sorry to say I still haven't gotten George his new proto hybrid mat. The head gasket in the car blew I've been pretty stranded. I called him to let him know, and have plans to ride down on Friday with a friend to drop the mat and have a surf.
Jamie
Winter Is Coming Down Under
Why can't every day be like this pict that I have on my pc desktop to remind me of the feeling of summer?
Talkin' Story Blog
There's a great surf story blog at talkin-story.blogspot.comwith an article by Pranaglider called I ride a mat.
Still Can't Paddle Out
10' and pretty good today with no way to get out there through nonstop shorebreak! No one around here is even trying.POD Fins
Has anyone out there tried POD 3s?
These look fairly futuristic! 
POD 2s look good for holding into steep waves with big side rails:
I'm searching for powerful flippers that suit wide feet and stay on.
Maori Greeting Ceremony...
Good read relating to the Maori people of New Zealand...http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/05/master-carvers.html
May 22, 2009
Too Gnarly To Go Out
No takers all day along the whole two mile stretch of beach. Tempting, but too cold, with 10' cleanup sets. If this was Ocean Beach in San Francisco there would be fifty surfers out in even worse conditions. I'll stay by the fireplace until things settle down.
May 16, 2009
Porthleven Dingy Club ... via Henry
What I love about this shot - as well as running amok in the waves on our inflatables - is the slightly odd sequence of events that led up to creating it. You can see signs of which if you look closely, such as how Mickey Smith is using a spade instead of an oar. Let me explain: being in the most hardcore sporting association in Cornwall is not as easy as it looks.
This shot was taken one fine Sunday morning. And like many of the finest Sunday mornings, we were all still half drunk. Maybe some of us more than half. In fact, as testament, Louis (in the red wetsuit) was throwing up over the side of his boat only moments before this shot was taken. Gaining many a disapproving look from the confused (bordering on scared) surfers sat nearby in the line-up, still struggling to comprehend the fact that we were out there in dinghies in the first place.
This shot was taken one fine Sunday morning. And like many of the finest Sunday mornings, we were all still half drunk. Maybe some of us more than half. In fact, as testament, Louis (in the red wetsuit) was throwing up over the side of his boat only moments before this shot was taken. Gaining many a disapproving look from the confused (bordering on scared) surfers sat nearby in the line-up, still struggling to comprehend the fact that we were out there in dinghies in the first place.
Rohan Inglis
More here!
May 15, 2009
From Wardie, via Jamie...
Hi Paul,
Found this on Wardie's YouTube page.
Greenough and friend on mats are the secondary attraction to the dolphins ripping it up.
A textbook take off from George at :44 ...
Jamie
Found this on Wardie's YouTube page.
Greenough and friend on mats are the secondary attraction to the dolphins ripping it up.
A textbook take off from George at :44 ...
Jamie
From Jamie...
Hi Paul,
This is my first attempt with handy-cam in right hand, controlling the mat with left hand. Burleigh from May 13th, just before the car blew a head gasket...
This is my first attempt with handy-cam in right hand, controlling the mat with left hand. Burleigh from May 13th, just before the car blew a head gasket...
May 10, 2009
From Ian W in Japan...
Hi Paul,
Here are a few random pics of my new break at 4am...and the food source!
Cheerio, hope all goes well,
Ian
May 9, 2009
Crime Only Pays If You Rip Off A Surf Mat!
Hey Paul,
Mat Max's most recent post inspired me to e-mail you on a point related to the hybrid. It seems to me that a touch more or less air in the hybrid makes quite a bit of difference relative to the conditions. I think this was Max's point in his post...that, for him, less air has worked well.
I have had a few days in a row of bitchin "stormy" windswell conditions (and by stormy, I mean glassy with no one around, just-short interval and a foot or three overhead (<: ). The advantages of the hybrid compared to lighter material are that it's easy to punch through waves and easier to hang on to the mat in wind and after throwing it over waves or white wash. Basically it's saved me quite a bit of swimming.
I found out the hard way yesterday that one disadvantage of finding a relatively empty fun spot...your car can get broken into, even in over-crowded So Cal. They got my debit card and charged 700 bucks in a few hours...and I'm still smiling, so I guess that means this mat really is a success! It'll all work out, but I thought you might find it kinda funny also.
For me, the hybrid mat is definitely a success and a lot of fun. Keep 'em coming.
Take care bro,
Jeff C.
May 8, 2009
Best Contest Surfing Ever...
Kalani Robb and Skyler Peak
Jimmy Gamboa
Ryan Conder
Hi Paul,
Here are some pictures from last year at the Malibu Invitational. I'm adamant about not surfing contests, and asked instead to give us an hour at the event with nobody out so we could take special needs children out for a surf.
The kid surfing with Jimmy Gamboa can't walk or talk. It was pretty amazing. She loves surfing. He actually took her again a couple weeks ago! Jimmy is one of the most gifted surfers with kids with special needs I have ever seen.
The boy surfing with Skyler Peak is a Malibu regular named James. He is non-verbal, and loves surfing more than anything. When he's at the beach, he bangs on the decks of boards until someone takes him out! He is obsessed with the movie Crystal Voyager also, and watches it over and over (along with March of the Penguins.)
Ryan
Note from PG:
Ryan and I are working on a two-person mat so he and Jimmy can take special needs kids for a mat surf. We should have something together by mid summer.
UDT mod by R.S.
Hey Paul,
Basically, I started out using a Japanese pull saw to trim the end and side rails, then a chisel to carve out a middle rain, followed by a lot of sanding till I went from "acoustic" hand labor to the electrical solution.
I busted out the Black n Decker 'dragster' electric planer on the UDT's. I think I've finally lost enough rubber and have the right flex for my feeble sticks to handle these now.
It was an interesting sculptural pursuit. It would be nice to model a pair of ultimate fins in clay and have them cast in rubber...some day!
I used them today and the flex seems suited to a longer kick for my size etc. I feel like they sit somewhere between a full UDT and a Viper fin. I kept the angle profile on the sides and just lost a lot of rubber whilst maintaining the fin design. I like how the blue marbling comes out when you taper the blade out thinner.
Nice session this morning at ****** **** with Ryan. The UDT's are now near perfect, and sweet on the ankles!
R.S.
May 7, 2009
More Gen2 4GF Impressions
I’m still really enjoying my black and blue mat. It just gets better and better as the fabric becomes increasingly supple. What stands out is how much control it offers with very low air volume. Due to the stiffer deck and slightly firmer bottom, I can ride much juicier waves using far less inflation. Yet speed is as good as the thinner Gen1 mats. So now I can get the hovercraft feeling with accompanying effortless velocity in situations where I would previously have puffed up my mat to significant extent to avoid speed wobbles and spinouts.
Also, when I need grip on the wave face, I now bunch up the deck material on the forward tops of the outer pontoons, rather than squeezing the sides or corners. The new canvas-like nylon top tends to promote squeezing more pressure into the mat due to being thicker and less pliable. This is great because I can remain in the Sphinx position while adjusting pressure and not drag my hands and elbows on the water.
Plus I can control inflation in each outer pontoon independently this way, so as to not have to wait for air to pass through the chambers to inflate or deflate the rail of my choosing. The deck grip is still ideal for my needs. And after riding the hell out of it for two months the "Blue Groove" (as I call it) still looks brand new.
Overall, I’m completely stoked on the performance, durability and versatility of my black and blue Fatty!
May 4, 2009
May 3, 2009
Another Matter
Hi Mat Max,
Ryan loves his mat and is learning fast! I figured Paul would be happy.
Thanks,
S. Hadley
May 2, 2009
Paraphenalia Lost
Hi Paul,Two good surfs at Currumbin Alley in the last two days, both on the blue proto 4GF. I'm very stoked with this new blue nylon, it's feeling better every day.
And now for the bad news...I just got out of the water and was in a hurry to get to work, drove away with my good pair of UDT's and the blue proto on the roof of the car, blown away, never to be seen again. I went back and looked all over the place, asked around, and left my info and descriptions with the lifeguards, but to no avail. Pretty crushed...just got my UDT's modded to where they feel better than ever, light and responsive and very snappy.
Oh well,
Jamie
Rincon, 1974
These shots were taken on a bumpy afternoon in the spring of 1974. It was a weekend, but there were only a few SU surfers out. George, Paul Masiel and I were out at the Indicator. My brother Dan was taking pictures. Most of the waves ran all the way into the cove. I remember making at least a dozen walks over the rocks back up the point that day.
Top photo is me, second photo is George and Paul M, bottom two shots are of me. We were all on Hodgman "Stripes Across" mats. All purchased at The Coast Chandlery in Santa Barbara.
We ended up eating tacos at "The Spot" in Carpenteria later that evening.
Outer Banks, Early 70's...
Hodgman "Stripes Across," five pontoon canvas mat. This was during blackball hours at the Frisco Pier...I was the only guy out all afternoon!
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