Birdwell Beach Britches

The classic California beach wear company Birdwell has a "Buy a Mask, Give a Mask" program going....it's worth participating in, for sure. Here...

Also, they have a blog with some interesting interviews with fascinating people in the surfing world!

Here...

From Andre

Hope u n ur family are well. Much love from the Islands and Krikorians.

Here's Velzy girl 6 months old at waimea bay...Before waimea gets 15ft this weekend for a spring time winter swell!

Alohas 

Andre

From Robert

Richard Harvey pulls In!

From Googlefog

Hi Paul,

Hope you and yours are well in these crazy times!

I just came across these pictures from Chile back in 2017.  I’m pretty sure I was riding a standard.

The tide, sand, and swell direction this afternoon were absolutely flawless! The glass tells what the wind was like!

Fingers crossed for next year!

Take care,

John

From Jim

Not today, but a few years back. Share on the surfmatters blog. 

Jim

From Surf Sister

It's a moment to be celebrated for the mats!

This all happened organically. It's a testament to how much people love the mats, as well as how word about them is getting around.

:)

Mary

From Oily

  

Hey PG, 

Hope this finds you and yours all happy ( as much as you can be in isolation) and healthy.  Been some tough times over our ways this year so far particularly  in our little hamilet on the South Coast NSW,  first we had the fires over the summer that devastated so many areas and communities around here over the holiday season then we had some floods happening and now  its been several weeks since we had the freedom of doing what we want when we want replaced with the current virus crisis worldwide. It has  its good and bad points i suppose as you know where us SCUMMbags reside down here and with the fires and now the travel bans and  social distancing and isolation rules ( not lockdown ha) it has kept the city dwellers and non locals out of our breaks  for the first quarter of 2020 well the majority of them anyways still the odd outa towner.. We are still managing some slide time under the banner of daily exercise. The Autumn (Fall) weather has been kind with some glorious mornings enjoyed around our local stomping ground.

Philfee Phil Harper celebrated a Birthday the other Saturday so we through him a wave party at one of our regular breaks Flatties nice fun early morning slide then a wander up the beach to another sneaky bommie we knew was working for some low tide right handers was a great morning indeed.  The swell was forecasted to jack up overnight with Sunday morning proving to be a bit more of a challenge at Flatties but hey Paul you know us we SCUMMbags love a challenge. Here are a couple of short videos  of the weekends fun and mayhem we hope you enjoy seeing your craft being put through its paces SCUMM style.

 

Take care my friend 

Oily 

SFFS

2 Lockdown Go Outs

 Zaf, in Australia

 

Matt, in New York

From Brandon

I can’t express how stoked I am on matting, I prefer to mat over riding a board most days. and if someone else is matting with me I am like a giddy child!  Hope you and your family is staying safe during these times.

I included a picture of me at the 28th street pier on a blown out day...I had to myself.


Brandon

From Jeremy

Hi Paul,

Matt surfing is one of my favorite things to do. When I have a moment, I search for the smallest waves to mattress surf.

I shot it with a Digital camera positioned on the beach. 

Jeremy

Bill's Mat Art

More From David

Paul,  

I went back this last weekend and got some more slides on the Lotus.  Took some gopro video.  Fun!  

Thank you always,

David

From David

Hi Paul,

 I hope you and yours are happy and healthy during these trying times.  I just wanted to share with you the joy your mats give me whenever I have a chance to ride them.  I was able to go down south last weekend on a windy afternoon and decided to ride the mat after seeing some small peelers off a jetty.  I was preparing to keep my social distance from anyone in the water but was thankful to see that there wasn't anyone else out as far as the eye could see.  I got many fun rides and my wife was able to catch a few on her cell phone.  Thank you again for these fun vehicles that help me keep my stoke and sanity during this pandemic!  Praying for everyone to get through this and on to a better tomorrow.

Sincerely,

David

Sand Marble Racing

While Marble Racing has been around a while, lately it has picked up steam as a spectator sport.

The above pictured coastal-centric race is appropriate for us!

From Andre

 

This is Smokey the cat once again, with best friend and matting protege Velzy. We named her Velzy after my favorite wave and love and respect for Dale Velzy, the great Dutch woodworker. His lifetsyle and contributing to surfing from the beginning..

Yet to my knowledge, Dale never even surfed Velzyland!

 

Alohas nui loa.

 

Hope y'all are good

 

Andre

From Tusked Beast ...

An insane number of mat surfers share the waves in Pacific Ocean Park back in the 50's...sans leashes, sunblock, or concerns about a pandemic. You can't say those were better days for any number of social reasons...but these kids are sure having fun!

Mysto Lockdown ...

Greg and Bill cracked one of the mysto spots along the Central Coast...with a lockdown camera. Some fun little zingers!

From Andre: Covid 19 Lockdown !!!

Smokey the cat, patiently waiting for the green light to crack it again...

WTF ??? From Maria ...

On The Fear Of Missing Out

From Becoming Minimalist ...

By Seth Riley

Up until a month ago, it seemed like everyone else in the world was getting what we’ve always wanted.

Every time we opened social media, there they were: taking some awesome trip, fielding the opportunities we ought to have gotten, achieving what we only dream of.

Meanwhile, we sat on our couches, missing out on everything. Even worse, it felt as if this cycle would continue forever. Given the constant advance of technology, it seemed pretty impossible that any of this overwhelm would lessen anytime soon.

But these days, there is a lot less to miss out on. Everything has been cancelled and, for a while, we’re all living the same shut-in life.

It’s hard, in the thick of this global tragedy, to see many positives. So many people are horrifically sick, and so many others are reeling from the sudden loss of their livelihoods. Despite the many encouraging shifts in society—the refocus on community, the renewed sense of our shared humanity—this is just a tough, scary time.

Yet, as with any sort of catastrophic event, there are small mercies even in the midst of the anxiety and loss. And, to me, one of the most life-giving positives emerging from this disaster is that we have been given a break from the constant sense that we’re missing out on life.

Now that our digital feeds are quieting down from the constant barrage of “everyone’s eating at cool restaurants, attending events, sitting on the beach, having the time of their lives, or buying that thing we’ve always wanted,” we’ve been given a precious opportunity.

We suddenly have the freedom to evaluate our lives with almost no external pressure to keep up.
All of the voices that tell us, 24/7, that we are not enough are, to a large extent, gone.

For right now, we’re all relative equals living very similar lives. The celebrities we spend our days idolizing are stuck in their houses too. They are in their living rooms as we are in ours. Maybe we go out for a walk. Maybe we have to run out to Trader Joe’s. But, the rest of the time, we’re all just at home.

For the next while, there’s nothing we’re missing out on. If you have your health, if you have a roof, and if you have people to love, you are incredibly blessed.

This is a rare chance to take stock. Through all of the anxiety, we still have the option to start practicing those values we usually ignore and, with all of the closures and cancellations, we have been given the blankest slate we can ever expect to receive.

Given the opportunity to clear the decks, to perform a hard reset on our lives, we can emerge from this tragic historical moment as better versions of ourselves.

But, to do this, we have to use this interim time well. We have to be willing to truly cut ties with our unhealthy patterns and to replace our taste for FOMO-driven distraction with something better. And, most important, we need to take a deep—and probably uncomfortable—dive into ourselves to root out those things holding us back from being who we are truly meant to be.

It’s often hard to make changes in our lives because we usually have the option not to. But, tragedy has a way of jarring us toward clarity. Now that everything has been paused, we have a chance to re-align our actions with our values.

So, what will we do?

We could begin with our families. We always claim that our families are our number one priority. Yet, how often do we put them on the back burner?

We could refocus on our creativity, finding ways to use our talents to bring life to the people around us.

We could make time to slow down, to enjoy the many blessings in our lives, to spend less time looking at the horizon and more time enjoying the things immediately around us.
Only you can know the right answer.

Life is precious, beautiful, and limited.

Start being the you that you have been missing out on.