HUCK magazine - The Mos Def Issue (Digital Edition)

SURF

SKATE

SNOW

TRAVEL

MUSIC

FILM

ART

FASHION

MORE THAN JUST THE RIDE

STRAIGHT-TALKING RENAISSANCE MAN RYAN SHECKLER CHERYL MAAS OLD SURFERS SHARKS!

made in the uk £3.75 VOL. 04 ISSUE 016 Aug/Sep 2009 MOS DEF by Andrew Dosunmu

Photo : Hélène Giansily

WeSC activists Lady Tigra, Love Eneroth, Danijel Todorovic, Ricky Sandström, Mika Edin, Jonas Wiehager and Chris Pastras contributing to ”WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy” Pick up a copy at your nearest WeSC retailer.

For more information visit www.wesc.com

DAN DREHOBL HURRICANE

DAN DREHOBL WEARING Dans Plaid and the Dan Jean in Raw Indigo TO view the making of this ad visit:

W W W. E LW O O D C L O T H I N G . C O M

Mos Def

Silver Surfers

44 Lyrical truths, straight from the heart.

74 Catching waves in the twilight years.

Himalayan Boom

Cheryl Maas

54 Snow means business in Gulmarg, Kashmir.

80 Quietly forging her own snowboarding path.

O’Neill Cold water Classic Sunny Side Up 82 Cardboard cut-outs of stylish specs.

KaraUke!

Crimson Tide

62 A ukulele sing-a-long? Jolly good stuff!

86 Miles Masterson debunks the Killer Shark! myth.

Street Food

Donostia Dreamin’

68 Recipes for roadkill, with Arthur Boyt.

94 Local girls, global style.

SPENCER MURPHY

56 The geology of surfing. By Michael Fordham.

14 HUCK

ALSO STARRING

TERJE HAAKONSEN MAT REBEAUD KAJ ZACKRISSON DAVID BENEDEK NICOLAS MÜLLER JEREMY JONES RICHARD PERMIN ROBBIE MADDISON FREDERIK KALBERMATTEN PHIL MEIER MIRJAM JÄGER SAM LAMIROY BUSTY WOLTER JOONAS KARHUMAA XAVIER DE LE RUE GERALDINE FASNACHT CHRISTIAN „HITSCH“ HALLER CODY TOWNSEND SVERRE LILIEQUIST JAN SCHERRER LAURA BOHLEBER MARC WILLERS ROB DE WILDE THOMAS DIET SEB MICHAUD LANCE COURY NADJA PURTSCHERT ANNE-FLORE MARXER A SWATCH OUTLAWS PRODUCTION 2009 · DISTRIBUTED BY SWATCH & SWATCH PRO TEAM · CMYK-COLOR

20 FRONT

Shark Attack!

22 FRONT

Bryan Iguchi 24 FRONT

Mike Blabac 26 FRONT

Ryan Sheckler 28 FRONT

Kevin Olsen 32 FRONT

JAMES DODD 34 FRONT

Plastiki 36 FRONT

Cold water Cape Town 40 FRONT

Norman Ollestad 100 BACK

SUBSCRIBE 102 BACK

Emma Critchley 104 BACK

Tim Shaw 106 BACK

The Yes Men 108 BACK

Music 110 BACK

Movies 112 BACK

Games 114 BACK

North Shore Initiation

RICHARD JOHNSON

K’Naan

42 FRONT

16 HUCK

“DEDICATED TO SKATEBOARDERS EVERYWHERE”

SEE THE 224 PAGE BOOK AND LIMITED EDITION SHOE AT DCSHOES.COM/BLABAC

Publisher & Editor Vince Medeiros

Creative Directors Rob Longworth & Paul Willoughby

Advertising Director Steph Pomphrey

Associate Editor Andrea Kurland

Designer Victoria Talbot

Advertising Manager Dean Faulkner

Global Editor Jamie Brisick

Words King Adz, Ruth Carruthers, Michael Fordham, Gemma Freeman, Clare Howdle, Miles Masterson, Cyrus Shahrad, Camilla Stoddart, Alex Wade, Steve Yates, Olly Zanetti

Online Advertising Lalita Powell

Skate Editor Jay Riggio Snow Editor Zoe Oksanen Music Editor Phil Hebblethwaite Latin American Editor Giuliano Cedroni Website Editor Alex Capes Translations Editor Markus Grahlmann

Editorial Interns Suzan Ahmet Jenny Cusack Shelley Jones

Assistant Publisher Anna Hopson Managing Director Danny Miller Subscription Enquiries subs@thechurchoflondon.com +44 (0) 207-729-3675 Editorial Enquiries editorial@huckmagazine.com +44 (0) 207-729-3675

Distributed worldwide by COMAG UK distribution enquiries: andy.hounslow@comag.co.uk Worldwide distribution enquiries: graeme.king@comag.co.uk Printed by Buxton Press The articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinions of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial team Made with paper from sustainable sources Huck is published six times a year Š TCOLondon 2009

Advertising & Marketing Enquiries ads@huckmagazine.com +44 (0) 207-729-3675

On the Cover Mos Def by Andrew Dosunmu

ANDREW DOSUNMU

Editorial Director Matt Bochenski

Images Mike Blabac, Ruth Carruthers, Emma Critchley, Vernon Deck, James Dodd, Andrew Dosunmu, Chris Fallows/apexpredators.com, Richie Hopson, Richard Johnson, Mark Leary, Abigail Lingford, Guy Martin, Spencer Murphy, Yacha Olsen, Fats Shariff, Camilla Stoddart

Marketing & Distribution Ed Andrews

Published by The Church of London Top Floor 8-9 Rivington Place London EC2A 3BA

18 HUCK

Please visit the Eastpak store at N째1 Carnaby Street, London or for your nearest Eastpak stockist, please call 0845 601 1151

www.sharktrust.org

REFERENCES: www.archipelago.gr.

Abigail Lingford. Special

thanks to

Archipelagos,

Bigeye Thresher (Alopias superciliosus)

Compiled

by

Olly Zanetti. Illustrated

by

Angelshark (Squatina squatina)

Shortfin Mako Shark (Isurus oxyrinchus)

Sharks are under attack. Overfishing, accidental bycatch and a lucrative industry that encourages Bull and Tiger sharks – decline by more than 90% of their original numbers. Thankfully, the lost In his book Images of Science, writer Brian Ford traces the origins of this

era, and the minute details of organisms scrutinised under the world’s first

forgotten art to cave paintings now 32,000 years old. Over the decades, it

microscope. Given today’s advances in digital imaging, why is illustrator for

became a tool for documenting periods of major discovery – depicting the

Greek environmental organisation Archipelagos, Abigail Lingford, persevering

mysterious plants, animals, and people of far-off lands during the colonial

with what is surely a redundant technique? “An illustration represents

20 HUCK

Blue Shark (Prionace glauca)

Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus)

Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias)

the practise of shark finning has seen populations of many iconic species – Hammerheads, Great Whites, art of scientific illustration is helping to save our cold-blooded friends from the jaws of extinction. a generic example of a species. You can emphasise particular parts of the

are interpreted. “A studied illustration allows people to appreciate the beauty

anatomy far more clearly than a photo can, which is vital when it’s to be used

of an animal rather than the drama of it. So with sharks, it gets away from the

for identification.” Though Abigail’s work has appeared on posters promoting

horror movie depictions of wide-open jaws and bloodied teeth and brings

conservation, the biggest ecological gain comes from the way these images

the rationality and importance of conservation back into people’s thoughts.”

21

Snowboarding zen-master Bryan Iguchi has swapped carving for canvas. Text Gemma Freeman. Photography Vernon Deck “There’s no longer this anti-establishment feeling of playing our own

something down in a drawing or painting. I just paint my surroundings, or

secret game,” says snowboard legend Bryan Iguchi. “We were part of this

things I’d like to remember.”

cool counter-culture – creating this new lifestyle. But there’s no longer

So when it comes to expressing himself, what’s Iguchi’s tool of choice:

just a handful of snowboarders at the local ski area. People know what

stick or ink? “Art’s more meditative,” he explains. “Riding is physical and

snowboarding is now – it’s an established sport.”

mental at the same time, while when painting you can tune out too. They

‘The Guch’ is old-school – from a time when snow sliding was a youthful

definitely have a similar satisfaction, I guess: the creativeness of drawing a

movement infused with punk spirit. He grew up skating and surfing in

line or riding a line is relative – you express yourself with what inspires you.”

the San Fernando valley, Southern California, and started snowboarding

And his art, it seems, is finally getting the recognition it deserves. First

at fifteen after seeing the tweaks of Noah Salasnek, Steve Graham and

came the ‘Mount Guchlynn’ show in Sapporo, Japan, with fellow Volcom-

Damian Sanders in 1989’s film (All Quiet On) The Western Front. Back then,

lifer Jamie Lynn in March 2007, and then ‘High-Plains Drifters’ in Innsbruck,

snowboarding was a blank canvas with no rule-book – perfect for creative

Austria, with Lib Technologies illustrator and Volcom artist Mike Parillo,

young minds.

in January 2009.

Spotted by Mack Dawg riding pipe in Big Bear in 1992, the now thirty-

With both his art projects and design input on a range of snowboards for

five-year-old pioneered the flowing ‘skate style’, applying a street skater’s

Volcom, is a veteran like Iguchi proof that you can be a life-long ‘pro’ in our

imagination to riding mountains. Alongside peers Terje Haakonsen, Jamie

ageist industry? “There’s a difference between being a ‘snowboarder’ and

Lynn, Janna Meyen and Craig Kelly, his artistic approach has moulded

a ‘professional snowboarder’, and between being a ‘competition rider’ or

the sport, with sections in Mack Dawg’s The Hard, The Hungry and The

‘media rider’ – there’s always various avenues to explore,” he explains. “But

Homeless, The Garden, Subjekt Haakonsen, Alive We Ride, and high-def

snowboarding’s constantly evolving. It’s always moving forwards and hasn’t

masterpiece That’s It, That’s All.

been defined yet.”

But snowboarding isn’t his only outlet: “I always enjoyed art, but it was something I’d do when travelling. It was my way to record things, scribble

22 HUCK

www.volcom.com

59Fifty Apparel EK Apparel -

Hound Em Timer Track Top Trapper Felix Core Double Hood Franken Monster Tee

neweracap.com

Danny Way by Mike Blabac.

Skate photographer Mike Blabac celebrates twenty years in the game. Text Ed Andrews. Photography Mike Blabac “If you think you kill it every time, you are never going to get better. So I’ve

was used in a Pure Wheels advert which earned him his first $200 pay cheque.

always been really hard on myself,” grins Mike Blabac, through a thick but

“I figured that in one afternoon taking photos I could make as much as working

neatly trimmed beard. If this is the case, then DC’s resident skate photographer

two weeks folding T-shirts in Gap, so why not do it all the time? I’ve been

must be the epitome of self-doubt. He’s sitting in a two-storey gallery in east

doing that ever since,” he shrugs.

London surrounded by a selection of his work from the past twenty years.

And, from the looks of things, he has been killing it, for two decades solid.

A moody artist he is not. In fact, one thing that becomes glaringly apparent when talking to Blabac is his simple love of skateboarding. Much like a burning

The exhibition has just toured the world to promote the launch of his new

teenage infatuation, you see it in his eyes and notice that he can’t help but

book, Blabac Photo: The Art of Skateboarding Photography. It features a

drop it into his sentences. It’s this that has earned him the respect of everyone

variety of portraits and action shots – crisp, beautiful and inventive photos

he works with and, ultimately, helped him achieve an impressive portfolio and

of such skate icons as Danny Way, Eric Koston and Stevie Williams. Coming

the coveted role of resident photographer for DC for the past ten years. “If

from a photographer who has had no formal training, impressive is an

you are cool, genuinely stoked on skateboarding and are there just to be part

understatement. But condensing twenty years of skate photography into one

of the session, that helps a lot. If you are really pushy and try and get the

book must have been quite a task.

skater to do something unusual, that really works against you. I can be pushy

“I just didn’t sleep for two months,” says Blabac with the sort of pained

sometimes though,” he concedes. “After all, I’m there to do a job as well.”

laugh that suggests this is not an exaggeration. “I started out with a head-high

Over the past twenty years, technology has drastically changed

stack of photos, then I got it down to my waist then, when it was at my knee,

photography. Digital cameras and software like Photoshop have helped turn

I started to scan them into my computer.”

thousands of wannabe paps into fully-fledged photographers. Accessibility is

A skateboarder through and through, Blabac moved to San Francisco in the early 1990s with the simple intention of spending his days with a board

always a good thing but, at the same time, has something been lost from the art of taking that perfect shot?

under foot. “The first people I met in SF were Mike Carroll and Scott Johnston,

“Yeah, all these things are cheating,” he admits, “but everyone is still on the

so I knew that I wouldn’t ever be pro,” he says. From there, his involvement in

same playing field. In the end, you’ve just got to take photos that make other

the scene would become a balancing act between capturing a session on film

people want to skate.”

or simply joining in – with the latter very often winning out.

The tipping point came, however, when a chance photo of Scott Johnston

24 HUCK

www.dcshoes.com

OakleyReinvent.com

Freak of nature.

Brian Conley. Big wave surfer. Mexico transient. Hideout king.

Secret spot seeker. Citrus-fueled freak of nature. At about a buck thirty five, it’s hard to believe that Brian can handle this kind of surf.

I guess skill, ambition, and balls go a long way past the limits of

Oakley Icon Ltd.: (+41) 448296100, www.oakley.com

physical capability. Whether he’s got a camera strapped to his head or charging barrels in Tahiti, he’s not scared. Or worried. His casual style and laid back presence shows. That’s why the new Cigar Box boardshort from Oakley works so well. Laid back, stylish, and cool.

Brian Conley in the Cigar Box boardshort

When skateboarding wunderkind Ryan Sheckler comes to town, the whole goddamn show is never far behind. Text Ed Andrews. Photography Ruth Carruthers

London’s Bond Street Station is under a marketing attack. Slap bang in

hesitation. “The first two series were good,” he begins, “and I had no problems

the middle of this subterranean cesspit, a gigantic poster of a fresh young

with it because that’s what was happening in my life. Everyone was cool. But

face beams down over the crowds. It’s the face of Ryan Sheckler – skate

then the backlash and the haters came.”

prodigy-turned-teenage heartthrob – and right underneath there’s a video of

‘Haters’ are something he’s all too familiar with. Despite Sheckler’s huge

him doing a 360 flip down a flight of stairs. Just 100 metres down the road,

credentials – he’s on the Plan B team (the A-list of skateboarding, skills-

another mammoth Sheckler grins out of Footlocker’s Oxford Street store.

wise) and his part in their upcoming vid is rumoured to be insane – on core

Skating’s big superstar is in town for the launch of his signature Etnies skate

skate forums across the Internet comments range from childish to obscene.

shoe. And, clearly, they want you to know about it.

It could, of course, just be a case of tall poppy syndrome – the need some

Away from the frenzy, inside a plush hotel suite, Ryan sits and waits for the

people feel to cut others down to size.

show to begin. I find him flicking absent-mindedly through a shop catalogue,

“It’s stupid ’cause any of these dudes that are talking shit on me would

ignoring the small entourage pointing a camera at his face. As I put out my

take what I have at the drop of a hat,” he says, defiantly. “They are just haters,

arm, he snaps into business mode, shaking my hand firmly. When I mention

I don’t have any respect for them. No one cares about them, that’s why they

the posters, his eyes light up. “Yeah, I haven’t seen that yet, but I saw it on

hate. So keep on hating, it’s great! I had fun doing the show, these guys can’t

someone’s phone. It’s cool,” he says. “I mean, it still trips me out to see big

tell me what to do.”

pictures of me on the street. But it’s a good feeling.”

But how does he feel about putting his private life on TV? “That doesn’t

Ryan may be smaller than I’d imagined, but he’s suitably attired, sporting

really matter to me. I’m putting my life out there so people can see it. The fact

a backwards baseball cap emblazoned with the Red Bull logo, chunky

that people are watching and interested in what I’m doing is great. I love my

diamond ear studs and a diamond-encrusted ring (a look he once described

fans, my fans are crazy and they are so supportive.”

to younghollywood.com as “keeping it original gangsta”). Along with the

It isn’t hard to speculate that these hordes of adoring fans might have

many tattoos on his arms, several fresh large scabs and even larger scars act

had something to do with Ryan being cast in a new Disney film called Tooth

as a healthy reminder that, beyond all the hype, Ryan Sheckler is a skater first

Fairy, starring Billy Crystal and Ashley Judd, which he refers to as “a kid’s

and foremost. And a very good skater at that.

movie, rated PG or something”. It won’t be his first Hollywood gig either.

In 2003, a thirteen-year-old Sheckler became the youngest ever athlete

He’s also appearing in Street Dreams, a film written by fellow skater and

to claim gold at the X Games after winning the park contest. That year,

MTV reality TV star Rob Dyrdek. “I had a blast learning how to act,” he says.

he also won the Gravity Games, Slam City Jam and Vans Triple Crown

“I had no acting coaches. I just did it how I felt they wanted to see me act.

events – victories that propelled him straight into the limelight. With brand

There were some scenes where I didn’t feel comfortable, but you just have

sponsorship thrown at him from every angle, Sheckler officially entered

to let yourself go – just like skateboarding. So I took that feeling and put

the world of professional skateboarding, and spent the following few years

it into acting.”

touring America, entering contests and, of course, winning – a lot.

Soon enough, my allotted fifteen minutes are up and Ryan goes back to

“I was always travelling to skate contests, but I’d have loved to have

flicking through his catalogue. As the entourage leave the hotel to make its

been able to hang out with my friends more,” he says. “I’ve missed out on

way to the Footlocker store for the launch, Ryan steps away from the crowd

a ton of shit but if you take skateboarding and compare it to a high-school

with an air of youthful awkwardness. That boy, shunning small talk to cross

life – I got paid to travel the world and skateboard, so really I don’t care

Oxford Street by himself, says so much more than any media-savvy bravado.

what I missed out on.”

As a gaggle of teenage girls flock around for photos, Ryan politely

The more Ryan skated, the more people took note. In 2007, Ryan was

obliges, smiling and putting his arms around them. Something he said earlier

given his own reality TV show called The Life of Ryan, a fly-on-the-wall

suddenly springs to mind: “If I could do half of what Tony Hawk did, I’d be

documentary that has run for three seasons on MTV. With his fresh face and

psyched. I’m definitely trying to follow in his footsteps and be the face of

teeny-bopper fan base, Sheckler was soon vying with the likes of Zac Efron

skateboarding.” And, for some people at least, that’s exactly what he is: the

as America’s number-one teenage heartthrob, and guest appearances on

face of skateboarding, in a reality-TV age.

shows such as American Idol did his position no harm.

So is he happy with how he comes across in the show? While every other question has been met with an instant response, this one brings visible

26 HUCK

On my way back to the tube, I pass the Sheckler monument and pause for a moment to watch that perfect 360 flip. No matter what the circus demands, skateboarding is the one thing it’ll never take away from him.

27

Kevin Olsen, once paralysed, is surfing again – and then some. Text Miles Masterson. Photography Yacha Olsen “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous

forest. “It’s been a challenge [but] we got to know the locals and how the

circumstances, would have lain dormant.” So wrote ancient Greek

system worked and after four years it is going nicely,” Kevin smiles broadly,

poet Horace. Though he penned his words centuries ago, Horace could

his Saffa lilt brushed with a slight French accent.

have easily been referring to South African ex-pat and European surf entrepreneur Kevin Olsen.

KO Surf House is two combined entities. One is a surf camp that offers accommodation, coaching and access for surfers from all over the world

Olsen, thirty-two, was an aspirant WQS campaigner in the 1990s, until a

to the best waves in the area; the other a surf school. Kevin also keeps in

car accident left him immobile. “I had to learn how to walk and surf again,”

touch with his roots as a coach for the South African surfing team and is

recalls Kevin, surfed out after a spring afternoon session of barrels in his

involved with the ‘Plonka’ surfboard, a thick, hybrid fish/old school shape

adopted home of Hossegor, France. “And that’s how I started. I thought,

he originated and now produces with shaper Mark Phipps, and is available

‘Hey, I can do this and I can actually teach it to other people.’”

in Quiksilver stores across Europe.

So Kevin opened a surf school in Durban and, during the five years he

It is surf tuition, though, that gives Kevin the deepest sense of

worked on the local beaches, he married his French wife Yacha. As she had

satisfaction. Case in point, the scores of Czech Republic surfers who flock

to eventually return home, Kevin realised he could not grow his business

to his school annually and for whom Kevin recently contest-directed a

with the limited tourist trade in Durban, and together the surfing couple set

national surfing championship for the second year. “They don’t have access

out to do the same thing on a larger scale in France instead.

to the sea, so they have to travel far to surf,” laughs Kevin excitedly. “You’ve

But limited resources meant they had to grow the school organically –

never seen such a passionate group of people. You teach them to surf on

and slowly. In addition to giving lessons, Kevin also fixed dings 24/7 as a

the weekend and then you just see them get better and better. Then they

sideline for a few years to keep the Francs flowing, which ultimately led him

come up to me fully stoked and say, ‘This is a dream, this is a dream.’”

to shaping surfboards.

Clearly, the talented Mr Olsen can relate to that.

The Olsens persevered though, and eventually moved into their larger, picturesque new premises near the coast, on the edge of the Seignosse

28 HUCK

www.kosurfhouse.com

Eric

Geiselman

wears the T-REX SKINNY JEAN CAPRIKA JACKET SPRUNG BEANIE

FOXHEAD COM for

STYLE DETAIL FIT +44 (0)191 487 6100 info@foxeurope.com

Australia’s James Dodd is taking outsider graffiti to a higher brow. Text King Adz. Artwork James Dodd Jimmy and I met by chance when we were both guest speakers at

a concept – like the time he built a facsimile of a Darwin bus shelter

some insane Belgian street art fest, where there were more artists than

(renowned for being covered in kitsch paintings of sunsets) and covered

punters. It was a strange but interesting weekend and it was one of those

its surfaces with the collected scrawls. He then shows his work in galleries,

meetings where it feels like you’ve known the person forever, which is

in the context of informed art discussions. Thus underclass outsider art

what friendship is all about: eternity. The only downside to the weekend

becomes high art. I fucking love it.

was the inedible vegan shit masquerading as food. Anyhow… me and Jim

Having spent years knee-deep in the Melbourne stencil scene, Jim

hit it off and he very kindly let me into his world. The life of an original

knows what he likes and, more importantly, what he doesn’t. “I find

artist is one of the most interesting places for a writer.

most New York/train oriented graf very derivative,” he says. “It often

Now thirty-one, Jimmy used to be one of the most prominent stencil

doesn’t support innovation and experimentation. That’s why outsider

artists in Australia until he gave it all up to go back to uni and study for

graffiti is so exciting, because it doesn’t adhere to a set of rules and

a Masters in Visual Arts. This was an astute move as now his work has all

is unpredictable.”

the influence of the street but with the heavy-weight conceptual backing of the art establishment.

Having relocated to Adelaide for the “slower pace”, Jimmy’s been giving up his time to work on community projects, like the stencil technique class

“I’ve always been attracted to graffiti and to people who do things

he teaches at a local high school. But in between it all, he’s still looking for

that they’re not supposed to,” says Jim. “There was even a period when

those outsider kids who love scrawling on the street: “I look at the streets

I thought that street art could solve all of the world’s problems. Fortunately,

wherever I go, and they remain a constant source of inspiration for me.

that’s passed.”

Right now, non-disciplined graffiti turns me on the most.”

What Jimmy does is travel the world collecting other people’s graffiti scrawls. He shoots them on a digital camera, and then comes up with

32 HUCK

www.james-dodd.blogspot.com

A boat made of recycled plastic? For real? Yes, for real… Interview Ruth Carruthers When someone says the word skipper to me, I immediately think old

North America alone each day, and almost 80 per cent of marine debris

man, woolly jumper, beard, peaked cap, bottle of rum. Skipper Jo Royle,

is from the consumer. We’ll centre round the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,

however, is nothing like my stereotype. Instead, she’s an attractive young

although in fact there are five areas like this in the ocean, which are caused

woman with no beard in sight, and the only bottles onboard her vessel

through ocean circulation trapping trash in a vortex, which in a way can be

are the 12,000 reclaimed plastic soda bottles that will be used to keep her

described as a toilet that never flushes. In addition, a lot of plastics don’t

boat, the Plastiki, afloat on a three-month expedition from San Francisco to

actually float so we haven’t got a clue about the damage they are causing

Sydney. Her mission: to change the way we consume by showing just how

on the bottom of the sea and we want to highlight that too.

much garbage we have dumped in the sea.

How did you become involved with the project? I was working Tell us about the Plastiki. It’s a 60ft catamaran based on the traditional

with Earthwatch and the CEO knew David de Rothschild [magnate

Polynesian craft, and the idea is that it can be almost 100 per cent recycled.

environmentalist], who was looking for a sailor at the time. I was looking

We’ve spent a lot of time researching and developing how to manufacture

for a change from racing, so I met him on a night out and ended up being

the PET to form this solid structure, and hopefully this concept will then

the skipper for the Plastiki.

go to market. The dream is that it will replace the use of one-life plastics that can only go to landfill after their first life. The idea is that at the end of

What’s the difference between what you’ll be doing on board the ship and

the Plastiki’s life it can be upcycled and made into other useful products.

what David will be doing? I will be responsible for making sure that the

As for the buoyancy, it is made up of 12,000 PET plastic bottles that are

crew is safe, and that the boat is safe. But it’s very much David’s project,

all post consumer.

and he’s got a huge presence and a huge network of people, plus he’s an incredible communicator, so hopefully he’ll be really inspiring to go to sea

What’s the message, then? We want to raise awareness, make us rethink

with and help engage as many people as possible on our adventure.

the way we consume and think about everything that we buy as having a multiple use. It’s just crazy – 70 million plastic water bottles get used in

34 HUCK

www.theplastiki.com

S ABOUT WHO CARE E DAY? SOUP OF TH K TO BE QUIC IC, YOU HAVE SSIONS AVES ARE EP -ALL SE -IT OP DR WHEN THE W E S TH OT ENTS: ST SURF SP PROTEST PRES EUROPE始S BE PROTEST.EU S EVENTS AT AT OU TS NE ER TA AL SPON EMAIL R TEXT AND T THERE! SIGN UP FO SEE YOU OU

-ALL THE DROP-IT Y SESSIONS B

Riders: Anne Paar and Lars Musschoot www.protest.eu

36 HUCK

Australia’s Glen ‘Micro’ Hall, Kalk Bay Reef.

Hardy surfers. Heavy waves. Cold. O’Neill’s most celebrated event hits Africa. Text Miles Masterson. Photography Richard Johnson “I’m happy to surf in wild places.” So says former WCT pro Royden Bryson,

They had no leashes, and without the comfort of modern helicopter

who moved to Cape Town, South Africa, a few years back from the much

evac, these hardcore old-schoolers literally risked their lives to catch a few

warmer clime of East London, over five-hundred miles away. Attuned to the

waves. “In the old days if you lost your board you swam for it,” recalls Dave

often-freezing surf conditions, Roy and the handful of local contest surfers

Meneses, who became one of the best big-wave riders of the time and

were relishing the opportunity to enter the first international surfing contest

nearly drowned at the Outer Kom. It’s hard to comprehend that these guys

here in more than twenty years, the O’Neill Cold Water Classic.

usually surfed in little more than speedos and they had to keep driftwood

This event reminded the surfing world of the hardy roots of surfing in the Cape, which run as deep as the impossibly thick bull kelp that infests most of its breaks, and more than justified the ‘wildest’ tag bestowed on it by O’Neill.

fires stoked on the beach, where they would also keep nips of cheap wine or whisky to thaw out.

Though they embraced wetsuits when they arrived, John Whitmore himself almost never wore one (as for some reason he never felt the cold,

Thanks to the upwelling of an Antarctic current, the water temperature

probably because he was made of stone). However, the first surfing wetsuit

in Cape Town is on average less than ten degrees centigrade. High-

his crew ever saw was a prototype O’Neill shorty, brought over by US surfer

period groundswells, spawned deep in the icy Atlantic, stomp into the

Walter Hoffman on a visit in the late sixties.

steep, mountainous continental shelf of the ‘Cape of Storms’, which was

After the Endless Summer era, the surfing world forgot about Cape

so named centuries ago by the frequently shipwrecked captains. Along

Town, and it wasn’t until the ‘Surfabout’ events in the eighties that the city

with the kelp and sharp rocky coastline, fickle waves make for a hugely

returned to prominence, scoring heaving double-overhead waves at spots

inhospitable cocktail. Even today, with powerful car heaters and space-

such as the Outer Kom and the Factory, and opening the world’s eyes to

age wetsuits, to surf around here you need a tough hide and plenty of

Cape Town’s latent surf potential. Indeed, comparisons to a cold water Oahu

patience and time.

were made. But thanks to apartheid, by 1988 Cape Town had disappeared

Most of the spots on the Atlantic coast were pioneered in the 1950s

from the tour. Red Bull’s Big Wave Africa, which ran from 1999 to 2008, did

by John Whitmore, who gained world fame when he appeared in Bruce

remind the world of the region’s waves, but breaks such as Dungeons will,

Brown’s Endless Summer. The ‘godfather’ of SA surfing, Whitmore was the

of course, always remain the domain of select hellmen.

first to shape a modern surfboard in South Africa, and along with a handful

So when O’Neill included Cape Town as a stop on its Cold Water Classic

of his cronies, introduced surfing to Cape spots, such as the notorious

Series this year, the locals were in raptures. Like the ‘Surfabout’ events, (and

Outer Kommetjie.

practically every contest ever held in Cape Town), this comp had to have a

37

The final day drew a large and diverse crowd eager to watch the first international contest held in the Cape for more than twenty years.

mobile format. The southern part of the Cape Peninsula is exposed like an appendage dangling in a champagne bucket, and the weather and surf here are too moody to confine proceedings to one spot.

on a nearby mountain range, the temperature plummeted.

The next day could only be a lay day, unless you had some sort of death wish. One of the biggest swells in the past decade hammered the

The choice of venues included the Kom and a variety of heavy, tubing

coast, along with gale-force winds, rain and hail. As news stories filtered

beach breaks and ledgy reefs, with the comparatively unremarkable but

in about shipwrecks, flooding and other storm damage, the remaining

contest-friendly beaches of Long Beach and Misty Cliffs as back-ups. As it

surfers hunkered down.

turned out, the event commenced at the latter, a shifty beach break lined

Fortunately, the front waned through the night, and as it turned to

with blocky boulders, beneath orange granite cliffs, so named for the sea

vent its fury up the east coast, the swell shifted in direction into False Bay,

mist that always hovers above the coastal road and a favourite of Whitmore

on the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula, home to Kalk Bay, a punchy left

and co. back in the day.

reef break. “I think that would make this the first pro surf contest to be held

This is one of the few spots that is offshore in the sunny, but chilly, pre-

in two different oceans,” laughed Chris Bertish as they set up.

frontal northwest wind, and also because it requires a small swell, which was

The surprise casualty of this round was Jordy Smith, clipped in the

the case in the quiet lull before the impending storm. Early round standouts

pinching barrels of the lower tide at K-Bay. Into the quarters, natural-footer

included Hawaiian Jon Jon Florence. You would think the young North Shore

Blake Thornton, who had quietly ripped through the rounds, now seemed

prodigy would have been held back by the chilly conditions, but his lust for

to drop out of the sky into sucky bowls as if born to it, eventually meeting

razor-wire snaps, airs and tubes testified otherwise. “It’s hard to do turns

resident WCT surfer Royden Bryson in the final.

with stiff legs,” he said in casual understatement about the temperatures, ”but I like the challenge, it’s fun.”

Despite vanishing beneath the curtain on his first ride and support for Royden from the hundreds of spectators braving the odd rain squall,

Jon Jon continued his blitz here in the next round, his uncanny ability

a tactical error and a bad wipeout on his last wave meant that the backside

to sniff out barrels putting a damper on the WCT dreams of surfers of the

bravado of Thornton won through. “I am so excited to win this,” said Blake

calibre of Aussie Nathan Hedge. This day had dawned much cloudier and

on the podium. “Royden fell on his wave at the end. I think maybe the cold

featured the odd deluge as the cold front drew nearer. As Jordy Smith

was getting to us,” he added, shivering in his wetsuit as he lifted his trophy.

jetted into the city from Reunion that afternoon, the storm began to blast its way over the horizon into full view, and thanks to a light dump of snow

38 HUCK

www.oneill.com

www.nineplus.com - info@nineplus.com - revealing its quiet beauty amongst the chaos

Somali rapper K’Naan sheds light on pirates, poor journalism and making music with Mos Def. Text Steve Yates “Why’s K’Naan supporting the pirates and the terrorists?” Questions don’t

named it World Music Album of the year, it won Canada’s Hip Hop Juno and

come much more loaded. But it’s one the Somali rapper-singer has had to

another alternative award.

answer consistently since the release of his latest album, Troubadour. His

If he was happy straddling both worlds, Troubadour is a big step towards

song ‘Somalia’ tackles the roots of the recent wave of piracy, providing a more

hip hop. The sound is bigger, more expensive and features a smattering of

nuanced history than many in America and Europe, who only know the country

stars from Metallica’s Kirk Hammett to Adam Levine and Mos Def. K’Naan

for kidnapping sailors and the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident, have heard.

has a simple message for anyone objecting to the switch-up in sound: ”I’m

We’re sitting in his record company’s West London offices when K’Naan

not owned by you just because you started to appreciate my music. World

explains that after the Somali government collapsed in 1991, the Mafia, among

music fans don’t really know how deep some of those histories go, I’ve been

others, began dumping nuclear waste in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast.

friends with people like Mos Def for years.”

“So the fishermen took to the waters to ward off the ships and make them

But while it feels more American, it retains one foot firmly in East Africa.

accountable. Then it became more widespread and just an issue of economics.

Half the tracks are built around Somali tunes or feature samples from Ethio-

When I was saying this, it was a very sensitive issue because they’d captured

jazz, the early seventies music that became a recent phenomenon thanks

that American captain, so I was the bad guy for a while. But if we’re not

to the Ethiopiques compilations and soundtrack to the Bill Murray film,

stopping pirates doing a lot more damage to the environment and human life,

Broken Flowers. Although he hadn’t heard the music in Somalia, there was

then don’t ask me about the other ones.”

something familiar about it. “When people in the West first heard it they

K’Naan left his homeland in 1991, aged thirteen, just as the civil war reached his native Mogadishu and the government collapsed. He saw his

heard something new, I heard everything I knew,” he says. “It was the same chord structures in Somalia, except we didn’t record our music.”

share of horrors, including the murder of his closest friends. His mother

However adept he is at detailing his personal experience, there’s a great

sold everything to buy plane tickets to the States, and they left on the

deal more to K’Naan than the national tragedy. “The danger for me was

last commercial flight out of the country. Raised briefly in New York, then

always the sensational idea of someone coming out of a war-torn country

Toronto, K’Naan translated his country’s tradition of poetry into the North

like Somalia. The music is good whether I came from there or not. It shouldn’t

American language of hip hop, developing a powerful fusion of East African

be, ‘He’s good because…’ It shouldn’t have a ‘because’ attached to it.”

folk and western boom bap. His first album, Dusty Foot Philosopher, recorded on a micro-budget, confused many with its mix of styles. BBC

40 HUCK

K’Naan’s new album, Troubador, is out now.

4 FGHAA<A: A8J FHE9 @BI<8 DAILY Telegraph

relentlessenergy.com

42 HUCK

From riding waves to cheating death, Norman Ollestad owes a lot to his father. Text Clare Howdle On February 19, 1979, Norman Ollestad chartered a plane to take his eleven-

Your father was a writer, and you talk about your grandfather’s writing in the

year-old son and namesake to Big Bear Mountain, California. The sky looked

book. Did you want to follow in their footsteps by publishing this memoir?

unwelcoming, but the flight went ahead. Just before sunrise, the plane

Yes, I think I did – it was mostly on my first trip as a ski-bum in Austria when

slammed into the side of an 8,600ft mountain engulfed in a blizzard. Norman

I was twenty-one that all these things started to come together for me. I

Senior died on impact. But, after a nightmarish descent that spanned nine

started exchanging letters with my grandpa, and his letters were so simple

hours, eleven-year-old Norman escaped the ordeal unscathed – having

and effective it really startled me and made me want to write, like he did, like

watched his father’s girlfriend plummet to her death. He was the only survivor.

my father did.

And at a press conference after the crash, he summed up his courage with one phrase: “You know, I never gave up – my dad taught me to never give up.”

It sounds like the craft of writing is as important to you as documenting what

It was a life lesson garnered from a father-son relationship built on risk.

happened. How did you go about blending the two? I only wanted to write it

From the moment Norman the father paddled out with Norman the baby

when I felt that my writing was good enough and that I wouldn’t screw up the

strapped to his back, ‘the boy wonder’ was included in every aspect of his

story – and when I was old enough to stay out of the way of the story and not

adrenaline-seeking father’s life. While other Californian kids were playing safely

get my ego in there. When I decided to write it three years ago, the first thing

on the beach, little Norman was skiing Mammoth’s black runs by the time he

I did was to capture my initial memories, and those unearthed other things,

was four, and getting into scraps with Mexican police on a hunt for perfect Baja

sort of linked or layered beneath it. Then I worked with my therapist on some

barrels aged eleven. For Norman’s father, the challenge was part of the buzz:

of the other stuff that was more blurred. Then I went back to the mountain.

with his son by his side they would take on the world and come up smiling.

As I was up there touching the same rocks, wriggling up the same gulches,

Thirty years on and Norman’s story is being retold through Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival. HUCK caught up with him in Seattle to

gripping onto the same trees and sort of scanning the terrain where it all happened, it all came back in extraordinary detail, I mean, flooding back.

find out more.

Did the writing process help you deal with the things you had experienced?

The story you tell in Crazy for the Storm is pretty mind-blowing. Why did you

Absolutely. In writing the book, in having to put things down on paper,

wait so long to write it? Well, now I have a son, Noah, and when he was four

I realised how devoted my father was to me. I knew he loved me, but the

I started doing the same things with him that my father did with me. I found

devotion, how he included me in all aspects of his life, was really beautiful.

myself expressing and sharing the same passions with him, and it tapped me back into my father and my childhood experiences… in a different way.

Did the relationship you had with your father come into play that fateful day on the mountain? Yeah, I guess so. When he took me out surfing and skiing,

Have you found yourself pushing Noah to experience things in the same way

when he forced me to challenge myself, he planted the seeds. He equipped

your father pushed you? Well, firstly, I am not my father. I just have to be who

me with the tools I needed to survive that crash, to make my way down.

I am. And secondly, I think that in the zeitgeist that we live in now… it’s just not in the air the same way. You couldn’t do some of the things my father did

What do you think your father would have thought of the book? I think he

with me – and I think my son knows that too.

would have been thrilled beyond… I think he would have been celebrating and loved the fact I’ve put it out there. I think he would have seen it as an

So do you think the kind of upbringing you had in Topanga Beach in the

apt use of the lessons he taught me about seeking the truth, about never

1970s wouldn’t happen now? No, I mean even then I was aware that I was very

giving up. It’s a real legacy of his spirit, and I think he would have been

different from the other kids in school. I was around adults a lot and around

pleased with that.

drugs a lot – I saw all the bad acid trips, you know. But as much as Topanga was a surf-bum hippie kind of place it was still very much a creative place charged

Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival, published by Ecco Books, is out now in

with ideas and opinions, and I think it shaped me from a very young age.

hardback. www.crazyforthestorm.com

43

Interview

Tim

Donnelly

+

Photography

Andrew

Dosunmu

Mos Def is rocking out to an obscure seventies black punk band called Death. His arms are flailing, his head is banging and his feet are running in place. “Dude, is this the sickest shit ever?” he says to me, in his room at NYC’s Hotel Greenwich.

We’re basically moshing inside the posh Downtown inn famously owned by Robert DeNiro. Much to the chagrin of his publicist and his girlfriend, his energy is as contagious as the rawk that’s pumping out of the speakers. “Can you believe these dudes are brothers?” he asks before screaming the words to the chorus, “Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Can

you

imagine seeing these dudes in 1974? Wow, man… Fuck…”

My interview with Mos Def has just ended and this moment pretty much says it all about my time with him. He is a candid and hugely passionate artist. His knowledge, beliefs and most of all his ability to relate who he is without blowing smoke up my ass, or his own, makes him a veritable dude’s dude.

In the entertainment business, the thirty-six-year-old is known as a triple threat: he can act (The Woodsman, Monster’s Ball, Be Kind Rewind), he can rap (Grammy winner, five albums) and, most of all, he ain’t taking any shit - especially from some suit who seeks to sell out his persona to peddle flavoured water. His principles are firm, and it’s those exact ideals that intrigue and inspire many - and frighten a few.

His latest and most stellar collection of songs, The Ecstatic, brings Mos Def to the upper plateau of artists making any kind of music anywhere today. For the kid from Brooklyn, it’s exactly where he should be and, more importantly, it’s where he needs to be.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mos Def, in his own words.

The New Yorker.

Born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, Mos Def grew up in a threewindow tenement apartment during a time that many in New York City would rather forget.

Mos Def: I was thirteen, fourteen when crack hit the streets and it was just like, the atomic bomb for the Japanese, and then there’s crack for my people and my generation. It hit a lot of people, but it hit us first, and hard. It didn’t matter if you were using or if you was dealing or not, everybody was affected, it just was indiscriminate. You didn’t have to be an active participant to feel the effects.

It was driving so many neighbours out of their minds and souls - and making others rich - driving them out of their minds and souls and sending them to the funeral home and penitentiary. There was a lot going on and nobody gave a fuck, the New York City local government... nobody gave a fuck about us, dude.

When KRS-One came out with ‘Stop the Violence’ he was telling them - he wasn’t just telling us - he was telling the world: stop the violence, stop your economic violence, stop your social violence. Stop the bullshit because you’re creating a generation of sociopathic people.

Sure enough ten years later, you know, those anti-violence campaigns… we told you what the fuck was gonna happen. You know, we told you there would be the Crips and the Bloods. You go to Flatbush [in Brooklyn], it was United Kings and MOB. We aren’t even talking about the Caribbean gangs and all that, so it was a bunch of shit going on that you know when you’re a teenager.

As a teenager going to school, we were under constant pressure and stress. Myself and others like me in that time, and in times now, are suffering from post-traumatic

47

stress disorder. You go to school with five million people on a train packed up like sardines.

And you get to school and the worst gang in the city is just waiting there to just whip people’s asses for fun. You know what I’m saying? It was nine o’clock in the morning.

And on top of that, nobody cared. We were criminalised for being young. It was a heavy time, man. That time makes me wanna cry, because a lot of young people didn’t survive that. And that shit is still going on today.

I talked to my brother, and my nephew is like twelve going on thirteen, you know, a pre-teen. My brother is looking at me with genuine concern in his eyes like, “Every time he leaves to go to school I say a prayer because anything could happen to my son.”

The Activist.

In 2006, a school yard fight got out of hand in Jena, Louisiana, between black and white youths. The aftermath of the incident led to scare tactics straight from the 1950s Ku Klux Klan playbook, including the hanging of nooses to intimidate the local black population. Among the hundreds of protestors, Mos Def was one of the few hip hop artists to take a stand against it.

Mos Def: You know the sad shit about that shit, is the fuck loads of people who came down there. People left their jobs, they got fired for that shit, bro. These people ain’t famous, they were just concerned. We had all the people power. The people knew what they were supposed to do. I called everybody, man. I called everybody I could call, man. And nobody picked up. And then it was like, they’re throwing us under the bus. I’m like, I’m not throwing anybody under the bus. This is the fucking facts, holmes.

I was there in that hot-ass Louisiana sun, wearing a $55,000 watch on purpose.

Those motherfuckers then see that this dude that you fucked with got big brothers who are big dudes and they’re not having it. But I was the only brother to show up. Shout out to everybody who was there, but I open up the magazines [and] the motherfuckers are on stage with millions of dollars worth of jewellery like it’s a motherfucking Fonzie moment.

You know, and this is like post-Katrina. You want to be Blake Carrington? Okay, what do you do after that? I’m sick of that shit, man, and it’s like you can’t even say nothing about it because it’s like, oh, you’re being judgemental, oh, you can’t understand. It’s like, listen, I can’t make no judgement because I don’t know these people. But I do know these people in power. I’m not making judgement on you. I’m making a judgement on your power policy. You know, you’re not just some random private citizen. You’re part of an industry that motivates people’s hearts and minds, like, what the fuck? You have to be checked.

The Hip Hop Parliament.

Initially the hip hop movement was a New York/New Jersey thing until it spread nationwide thanks to underground mix tapes and simple songs designed to get the party started. Thirty years on, it is a global force, musically, socially and politically.

Mos Def:You know, like Gandhi said, you have to be the change that you wanna see.

And with that being said, at the same time, people in power have to be called to

48 HUCK

some sort of accountability. That’s not just politicians. Hip hop and arts as a culture is bigger than the government. So if you’re in the position where you could influence millions and millions of people, people you’ll never see, why poison their table water, man? You can give them vitamins and nutrients that are delicious, they’d love to eat it.

You know, it’s not impossible, man.

They can’t kill my culture. Because this culture [is what] told the world that we was not dead. We were just Lazarus pushing that stone off that grave. I’m not here for the brass thing because hip hop, I believe God put it here so my people could get free.

Nobody came to save my people. They were very content to let us die and be where we was. And the world started looking at us through a lens of this culture and really dealing with the hell that we are living in, the hell that we didn’t create.

And these are good people with humble ambitions. They don’t wanna rule the world. They don’t want to be emperors and queens. They want to be able to make a decent wage and take care of their families and enjoy themselves on the weekend and have maybe one to two vacations out of the year, one would be fine. These are humble ambitions. You know, comfortable people do not become revolutionaries. They don’t burn down their towns, you know?

And to see somebody who is a concentration camp survivor and forget and try to act like that didn’t happen to him, you know, it hurts and it pisses me off and that makes me very angry. Because it’s like, you’re supposed to be here for us… that’s bullshit, those people don’t understand, they don’t even care. You’re some sort of charming sideshow for them.

To quote my brother, Kamal: “We came up in spite of America not because of America.”

The Apathy Killer.

The election of President Barack Obama temporarily motivated Americans to change, but to some rich Americans, both black and white, change is clearly not on the agenda.

Mos Def: A lot of people who should be showing more concern are not. And I don’t cry for the man in the business suit. As Supercat said, “I cry for the youth of America.”

I’m not crying for the Bank of America. I’m not crying for none of these people who are like, I gotta have a few bottles less of champagne. I’m not crying for you.

I’m crying for the youth, because the people should be giving them another type of dream, another type of inspiration…

Music changed my life. It was positive, you know, I heard Band of Gypsies and it gave me another type of dream; it gave me another vocabulary to negotiate my own feelings; it gave me another identity; it gave me another possibility. That’s not happening with these youths right now and not on par with the inspiration that has been provided before. That tradition is not being extended, it’s like, that was then and this is now.

I think that’s unfortunate and disappointing, especially for hip hop because, you know, at the end of the day, hip hop is really a synonym of sorts for black men. It represents black culture, but it’s all black men at the forefront, from a very defined generational space between fifteen and forty. That’s a defined generational space.

We had Chuck Berry, Miles Davis, Bad Brains, and that’s just the music. We’re not talkin’ about James Baldwin, Colson Whitehead and John Edgar Wideman, all of these people, you know?

51

Some people are more aware of them than others, but everybody is aware of the bright lights. […]

with me. That’s different. As opposed to just, like, you know, I’m smacking bitches just for fun. I don’t even know if there’s a song

You know, everyone thinks we’re gonna be the next leaders of

out but there probably is, you know, it’s just sad. Because the fifth

the world - the new leaders of this world we live in. We’re going to

and sixth graders hear that shit and that becomes a philosophical

be strong and compassionate. It’s not just about power. It’s about

premise. It’s an agent for how to negotiate a relationship with

strength, wisdom and compassion. There are too many [problems]

the world.

on Earth in this time and day for you to have some fucking cavalier attitude towards we humans, man, on planet Earth. And it’s like, we

The Musician.

[are] all in this motherfucker together.

The gauntlet is being thrown down. And it’s an uncomfortable scenario for a lot of people. For me included because I want… I’m a

In the ten years since his debut, Mos Def has been

peace-and-love person. I’m like, who the fuck wants to fight?

selective about what he delivers to the hip hop world.

He’s shaken them with his punk-funk-hip hop outfit,

The Prognosticator.

Black Jack Johnson, and developed a legion of followers through his work with Talib Kweli with Black Star.

Now the mic is his again.

Mos Def knows exactly where he’s from and how far he and the American people need to go to get to the place where

Mos Def: I feel that my contribution […] to hip hop and to

everyone is indeed created equal.

music is singular to say the least, and singularly positive and excellent. It’s a lot of that pound for pound, greatest fighter in

Mos Def:The Creator has a master plan… they make their plans, and

the world thing and, you know, I’ve always wanted to be one of

the Creator makes his plans and the Creator creates the best. […]

the best. I mean, you know, I grew up listening to people who

Barack was supposed to happen at this particular time and it

were considered, you know, like, legends and greats.

was written. We came over here as cargo. And the people who did

I’ve always wanted that Jimi Hendrix, Muhammad Ali, John

survive that when they were here, they were making plans and the

Coltrane, Miles Davis... I wanted to be that writer, I’ve always

people they got torn from was making plans too. My ancestors

wanted that. And to quote a proverb that says, “Do not speak too

prayed for a day like this. They prayed for, you know, Babylon war,

much, do not speak conspiracy. Be proud but do not remind the

and it happened. Babylon fall, anyway. If you think it don’t, then

world of your deeds.” And then it ends in, “Many heroes are not

go to the museum and check out the Greeks and the Romans, the

yet born, many have already died.” So, it’s like, be proud of what

Aztecs, the Incans, the Mayans, the Egyptians.

you do, but have a humble heart. I’m extremely proud of this.

Everybody that was like, it’s all about me, they become

Compared to that swill that’s out there, I mean, you know it’s

museum exhibits. And they’re not… they’re around but they’re

pretty easy to be better than swill but uh… it’s just on another

not necessarily vital. They’ve been designated to another page

level, man. I feel like my people needed it; I feel like the world

of history.

needed it. I feel like I needed it and it’s here and they can’t erase it. They can’t erase it. This is the celestial broadcast. It’s coming

The Man.

through loud and fucking clear. You know, you can shut down, you

Being a man is more than drinking legally, driving an

this is like a natural progression of everything I’ve been doing

automobile or knocking a woman up. It’s about doing the

as an artist, you know… you know things that you don’t realise

right thing.

can shut your blinds, but that is not going to stop the light. […]

It’s been ten years since my first solo album, so I feel like

you know.

So I’m realising that I knew things that I didn’t realise I knew

Mos Def: I’m a dude’s dude. I love neighbourhood dudes. I’m

but I’m recognising a certain comfort and settlement with, okay,

one, you know, I love that. I love men who are men. You know,

this is what I am, this is what I’m doing, this is who I am, and this

my dad was a real, and is, a real man. My grandpa… all these dudes

is how I wanna ride. It doesn’t have anything to do with anything,

are real dudes. That macho shit is like, come on, man. You can’t

just pure goodness relations, pure positive vibes.

live and die in that space. It’s bigger than that and… they [are]

I think a lot of it is kismet. I feel like this is supposed to

teaching people to be selfish… they got women, [and are] really

happen in this time, you know. I could have looked into the

just devaluing themselves. We got the kids violent. It’s a bunch

future and been like, “Where do you wanna see yourself in ten

of bullshit.

years?” This is a pretty good place to be

I’m gonna tell these motherfuckers, “You’re a pig, you’re a creep.” And yeah, I got a right to be hostile because you’re fucking

52 HUCK

Mos Def ’s new album, The Ecstatic, is out now.

-ALL THE DROP-IT Y SESSIONS B

Rider: Lars Musschoot www.protest.eu

54 HUCK

BUSINESS IS BOOMING… FOR KASHMIR’S SNOW-SAVVY ENTREPRENEURS. TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY CAMILLA STODDART

“Three Freddos and a large Kit Kat please…”

stay up here. Everyone else must leave by sunset.

of this little place, and a big pull for visitors like me.

The man decked out in a long Kashmiri Pheran

Kashmiris flock here to make their wage from the

He puts his mug down and tells me how ski patrol

coat beams at me over his cigarette. Satisfied with

tourists trickling back after years of war. And the Candy

are not allowed to keep explosives on the hill, so each

the sale, he reaches down and pulls off the lid of a

Man, whose sweet merchandise is a saviour for hungry

time it snows 30cm-plus the Indian Army must bring

treat-filled cardboard box, revealing a treasure chest

skiers, has a thriving business. Not long before I am due

up bombs for avalanche control. They usually rock up

of glinting chocolate bars, batteries and plastic

to leave I come across a door riddled with stickers of

when they please, sometimes as late as 1:30pm while

sunglasses that have seen better days. He rustles

familiar ski brand logos and wander inside to discover

the line of frothing skiers, chomping at the bit to bag

about and retrieves my order. The chocolates are

another entrepreneurial gem.

the first lift, have no choice but to wait. Other times

a godsend, and I stash them in my rucksack for

Inside the Kashmir Alpine Ski Shop I meet Yasin

they leave you hungry for days, looking up at metres

safekeeping. Skiing at 4,000m is a tad hard work

Khan and am quickly greeted with a firm handshake

of untracked fresh. But when this happens, says Yasin

and they’ll come in handy when we make our descent

and toothless grin from a weather-beaten face. He

through a gummy smile, the skins go on and it’s only a

from the summit of the Afarwat Peak, in the foothills

stands proudly in his gloomy shop surrounded by

four-hour trek to the top. No biggie.

of the Himalayas, to a small town deep in the valley

old skis and boots, skins and trekkers, jackets, pants,

I ask him about his store’s impressive stock,

some 3,000 vertical metres below.

sleeping bags and rucksacks. Yasin is clearly the man

which appears to have grown substantially since

to know in Gulmarg. And immediately he invites me

those first two sets of skis. But more importantly, I

upstairs to sample his Kashmiri tea.

ask him where the woolly jumper covered in New

The holiday destination of Gulmarg, Kashmir, lies in spitting distance from the Line of Control between India and Pakistan, and provides a base for

It’s story time, and Yasin tells me how he and his

Zealand sheep that he’s sporting came from. They

the Indian Army’s ‘High Altitude Warfare School’. I

good friend Hamid Dar opened the shop in 1989,

are all donations, he explains. People that come to ski

had come to ski the Himalayas and ride the highest

stocked with the arsenal of a mere two pairs of skis.

in Gulmarg fall in love with the place and bring back

gondola in the world. And driving into Gulmarg,

That very year fighting broke out between India and

equipment – and woolly jumpers, it seems. It all falls

I’m met with a mixed crowd. Indian tourists wander

Pakistan, and tourists fled the area. But this didn’t

into place – the ski guides sporting aged Whistler

around dumbfounded by the snow while militiamen

stop the Kashmiri partners opening their shop for

Blackcomb uniforms, circa 1980-something.

in berets stroll by casually with AK47’s dangling

business every day through nine years of war. I don’t

by their side. There are no permanent residents

dare ask how he lost his teeth.

in Gulmarg. Only tourists, the Indian Army and

Sipping on the gritty, mud-coloured tea, I ask

Kashmiris working in the tourist trade are allowed to

Yasin about the Gulmarg gondola. It is the backbone

As I leave the shop, I proudly stick Scotland’s Saltire sticker on his door and leave my mark. I smile and think about the present I will bring Gulmarg when I return

55

56 HUCK

O’Neill Cold Water Classic Scotland by Swatch: Geological ponderings on the waveriding frontier.

Text MICHAEL FORDHAM + Photography RICHIE HOPSON

Abstract 1 “One of the main drivers for the rate of change in the geology of the Earth is the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the planet. This changes according to the changes with the positioning of the Earth and the Sun, as well as periodic differences in the orbital parameters of the Earth. The eccentricity of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun varies from the circular to the elliptical, giving a fluctuation of incoming seasonal solar radiation of about 30%. This cycle takes 95,800 years.”

Thurso is a town of around 9,000 people on the north coast of Caithness, Scotland. It was once a significant Norse trading port, with relationships with other communities in Faro, Iceland and Norway. That lasted a couple of centuries. At the dawn of the industrial revolution, it became an important fishing town and a modern trading port that shipped the flagged stone that was its birthright all around the world. At the far reaches of the British Empire, Caithness stone was the foundation of roads, the boundary of lands divided, the physical structure of the oldest municipal buildings. Now the harbours that sent this primordial legacy around the planet are destroyed, victims of the winds of economic change as much as the fierce storms of the Atlantic. In terms of the geological time which created this stone, the industry disappeared in a blink of an eye. All that remains on the most northerly coastline of Britain is sheep farming and the decommissioning nuclear plant at Dounreay.

Off the coast of Caithness, there is a steely quality to the water. The colour pallete is cobalt to grey to green to emerald. You catch sight of marine mammals as you paddle through the flint, and on the shore the lichen clings to the slate and the slabs, which were forged in the infinitesimal forces of the flow and the creep and the retreat of glaciers. This is closest to a wilderness as still exists in this northwest corner of the European continent, an area twice the size of greater London though Caithness and Sutherland have a total population of just 40,000.

But the town of Thurso is inheritor of something else left by the legacy of geomorphic ebb and flow. The Surf.

Just a couple of decades ago, Thurso entered into the consciousness of the surf world as a whispered rumour.

Now it is crystallised into myth. And like all myths, the dream of the slabby Caithness reefs started with a small bunch of acolytes with direct experience of the mind-blowing potential of Scotland’s North Shore. The tales began then to filter out to the story-talking bar tables of the surf diaspora. There was the odd magazine piece. The odd few seconds of footage turned up on VHS surf videos in the eighties. But the North Shore of Scotland remained a mystic locale in the minds of surfers. The reality was that at least two generations have ridden the waves around the coastlines of hard-edged Caithness and the softer (but just as wild), stretches of lonely Sutherland.

Over the years, migrants from points south have made the place their home or travelled here, leaving their cultural influence on the way. In the same way as the west of Ireland gained its moment in the spotlight a decade To say the water is cold off the coast of Caithness is like saying it’s hot in the tropics. But the quality of the water here is more interesting than its temperature. Six millimetres of neoprene can protect you from

ago, whether it liked it or not, Scotland’s North Shore has lately been bouncing around the world’s surf media portals and spreading the myth. But know this: Caithness and Sutherland remain at the frontier of European surfing. As long as the cold and the wind and the power of the swell from the Atlantic remains, in our mortal timescale, it will always be so. Appropriate then that O’Neill, inventors of the wetsuit as we know it, have chosen to train the global spotlight on this northern latitude with the Cold Water Classic Scotland.

exposure – but you will be changed forever by the elemental beauty of the North Sea. 57

Abstract 11 “Much of Caithness is underlain by Middle Devonian Flagstones – thinly-bedded siltstones and sandstones which cleave to give sheets of rocks. These sedimentary rocks were laid down around 370 million years ago. The sedimentation was rhythmic – driven by similar astronomical cycles as those that determined the tempo of the Ice Age.” Standing on the reef at low-tide Thurso East the takeoff looks deceptively manageable. Lumps of swell in navy blue rear up on the horizon, and the 6 mil-swathed figures paddle and push and duck like seals to get into position. The gathered crowd, a crew of international lens-wielders, local surfers and the Gore-clad curious, call the sets early, perhaps due to the fact that in a light wind the reef at Thurso disguises all hint of its boneshattering potential until the wave rears and jacks and is spent on the stone.

Many Scots will swear to this day that there are no surfers in Scotland. When the set arrives there is no rainbow-decked feather. The peak rises as a solid spill of white water. Shoulders like the flanks of bulls then lunge and push outward from the wave’s solar plexus, until the right-hand wall steepens and bottoms and the lip overhead forms a barrel that pinches. In a moment, a son of Narrabeen or The Eastern Cape pulls through and scores a six point seven.

On the shore, meanwhile, the travelling charabanc that is the O’Neill competition machine, all branded busses, broadcast wagons, a rag-tag trawl of ambulances and catering vans, cuts an incongruous jib. In the earlier heats, down by Brims Ness, the alternate contest site ten minutes west of Thurso, the John Deere boiler-suited farmer’s son throws an unlikely shaka as you give way to his quad. Stoic houses sit nestled in the lee of stone stacks, and the sparse vegetation is frozen in a tortured attitude, pointing to the northeast.

The prevailing wind in these parts is offshore, though I’ll be damned if I could work out the vagaries of wind and tide in this latitude. Back down at Thurso East, the ancient textures of the reef and this wind-wracked farmland sit juxtaposed in the backdrop with the cuboid buildings and the cranes of the Orkney Ferry port over at Scrabster. Tavarua this is not.

Abstract 111 “Beneath these rocks lie the basal conglomerates and breccias of the Lower Devonian. The Scarclet Conglomeration is a particularly distinctive and attractive stone, with pebbles of granite, schist, quartzite and basalt set within a red sandstone matrix. These sediments are largely derived from the Moine metamorphic rocks of east Sutherland and the Caledonian granite intrusions.”

Access to the Caithness coast is courtesy largely of the most stoic genus of farmer in the universe.

Shakas, quadbikes and cheap cigarettes optional.

58 HUCK

Brims Ness is the catch-all spot on the Caithness coast: a series of slabs that give consistent form to swell focused in from the Pentland Firth. This was the arena for the early heats of the Cold Water Classic.

59

Though surf culture is at least two generations old in these latitudes, there are many locals who would still swear there are no surfers in Scotland. O’Neill’s pioneering Cold Water Classic Series has opened people’s eyes to the beauty on their doorstep.

60 HUCK

There is a refined gentleness to the locals of Caithness, despite the highlanders’ mythic reputation for drunken fury and a deep-fried diet. Jarred Howse, Sam Lamiroy and the rest of the O’Neill crew, well-travelled surfers to a man, remain a little incongruous behind their sunnies. The more exotic of the WQS guest list, including Hawaiian wunderkind Jon Jon Florence and Taurean legend Sunny Garcia, look a little lost. The Polynesian water-god selfconsciously struggles out of the neoprene, gingerly casting a towel around his ample torso in the car park behind the contest area. The blonde übergrom legs it before any of the gathered surf hacks can smugly wave a tape recorder in his face. The pair of them, superannuated superhero and poster boy, look like the cattle class transfer from Inverness to the nearest international airport can’t come fast enough. Neither progress very far through their heats, and to say they are looking forward to getting back to the tropics is a monument to understatement.

There was this one surf I had down in Sutherland that I will remember forever. It was late in the day, after the heats at Brims had finished. I knew there was realistically another three hours of surfable light this being the far north at the end of May. Driving west into Sutherland, I had been gobsmacked at the bursts of light, the sudden juxtapositions between the steel black of the rock and the hawthorn green of the land and the purple to yellow to white to grey of the sky. I had taken countless wrong-turns and wild-goose diversions, glimpsing points and till-strewn beaches from the track not quite happening as the swell pushed but the tide missed.

At around 8pm, with the light slanted low, and about to give up, turn round and head back to Thurso, I came across this: out the other side of an escarpment, a spectacular white beach with a reef to the eastern side, sending lines of white water and curves and bumps of swell into the small bay. I pulled over, pulled on the suit and ran for the beach.

For two more hours I surfed alone through a sunset season every ten minutes. Now it was autumn, a rain shower sending rainbows through each of the extremities of the bay. Now it was early summer, the sun shadowing fingers of light through water the neutral colour of iron-infused crystal. I drifted into little peeling rights and the odd reform left filling and pushing into the bay from the cobbles as the light so slowly faded. I ducked and paddled and stepped and slid, and with each wave the colour and the magic intensified and the insignificance of the things that had once seemed to matter became all too apparent.

Abstract 1v “In Caithness, where the ice thickness was greater than 500m, eustatic sea-level rise was a little less than isostatic rebound giving evidence of a modest relative rise in sea level. High-resolution, millimeter-scale pollen, charcoal and tephra data from Loch Leir in Caithness show a stratigraphic link between the decline of Pinus sylvestris pollen and the deposition of the Hekla 4 . The implication is that significant ecological changes occurred in this area of Scotland at about the time of the deposition of the tephra.”

61

Think the Hawaiian twang of the ukulele is about as jolly as it gets? How about a whole bunch of ukuleles and a karaoke set where you take centre stage? Welcome to KaraUke (carry-yookee) - a cultural collision of the cheeriest kind.

Photography Fats Shariff

Fred Zawadzki 51 Civil servant

“I got my uke from the famous Duke of Uke shop on Brick Lane, in London. It’s a concert one which is one size up from basic. We started jamming in the basement of The George in Soho and people always wandered down from the pub to join in so we decided to make an official ukulele sing-a-long night. They’re small, cheap instruments that are easy to play and they’re not very noisy so you can get lots of ukes in one room at the same time without too much pain.”

Watson Shirt, Slim Jeans, Beanie. All by WeSC

62 HUCK

63

Matt Tinfley 28

Dominic Preston 18

“My ukulele is a Mahalo and was a gift for my birthday. The reaction to KaraUke has been great – it seems to bring down social barriers. People don’t mind getting up on stage and looking stupid because it’s all about fun. Who knows what will happen in the future, we just want to keep playing our ukes and singing along badly.”

“My uke was built in the 1930s and it is the lightest one I have ever come across. Ukulele karaoke is something that almost everyone loves, even if they don’t know it yet. All my uni friends want a chance to see us live and those who do just keep coming back. I hope KaraUke will bring fame and fortune because then I might not need a real job. I’m happy just gigging, playing festivals and having a brilliant time.”

Feature film and visual effects assistant

Philosophy student at Cambridge

Jocke Tee, Abdon Shirt, Standard Jeans. All by WeSC Tapio Vest, Kazuki Tee, Kelvin Corroded Jeans. All by WeSC

64 HUCK

Sally McCleery 28

Jez Allerton 49

“I bought my sky-blue Mahalo because it matches my eyes and I’ve pimped it up with strings and pegs. I saw the Night of 100 Ukes gig on the main stage at Bestival a couple of years ago and became hooked. Then I found KaraUke and after getting really drunk at one of their gigs a year ago, ended up getting on stage. Luckily, they let me stay. It’s not an intimidating instrument so people are not afraid to get involved.”

“I’ve had a Lehua uke for about seven years and it’s completely worn out with two holes. There’s been a massive ukulele revival. When I started playing six years ago nobody was into it. I was into dance music until I saw Gene Pitney on Desert Island Discs and fell in love. I co-organised the London Uke Festival this summer and we set the Guinness World Record for the most amount of ukuleles played at once, 841.”

Sylvi Dress, Alessandro Men’s Jeans, Tusso Beanie. All by WeSC

Yasin Scarf, Francesco Cardigan, Ziggie Shirt, Slim Jeans. All by WeSC

Care worker in a children’s home

Social worker/Musician

65

Scott MacDonald 19

Alice Driscoll 28

“My ukulele is a Bushman from California because it has the best tone.

I played guitar in a band for four or five years and never got anywhere, but since I’ve played uke we’ve been so successful. None of us can sing so karaoke gigs make sense. We have a hardcore fan group who come to all of our gigs but there are usually new people too. I would love to make a Mark Ronson-style ukulele album with lots of celebrity guest vocalists.”

“I have a very pink uke that was a cheer-me-up gift after a bad week.

My friend says, ‘It’s impossible not to be cheery when you’re playing the uke.’ There were about fifteen when we started and now there are about seventy-five! We realised that people love to sing with a live band so we started KaraUke. We don’t take ourselves seriously – we like to have fun and be inclusive. It’s quirky, different and unexpected and people come every month to feel like little stars. We all work full-time, it’s just a funny thing we do on the side.”

Government student at LSE

Snowflowers Ladies Tee, Marcello Scarf, Alessandro Jeans. All by WeSC

Advertising

Karolin Shirt. By WeSC

66 HUCK

Susie Healey 30

Colin Shearing 57

“I have a cheap and cheerful yellow Mahalo that has survived many festivals.

It has been painted and decorated by friends including a picture of my face on the back. I got into ukes after seeing the National Ukulele Orchestra on their first big tour. A lot of my friends in real bands are jealous because we have become so popular but it’s all about the punters. We love giving all people the chance to sing at festivals and gigs. My ambition is to tour Japan.”

“I have a Hawkes 1926 banjo ukulele that I bought for £40 at an auction.

I had never played a uke before I bought mine but now I have more than twenty. We used to jam at The George in Soho and one of the group, Lorraine, was in a uke orchestra too. She wanted to start an evening bashing the ukes in more of a party atmosphere, and they mix well with a few pints.”

Assistant online producer

Illustrator

Coat, Watson Shirt, Marvin Jeans. All by WeSC Alyssa Dress. By WeSC Big thanks to WeSC, the street fashion brand for intellectual slackers. www.wesc.com www.karauke.net

67

Text Cyrus Shahrad Photography Spencer Murphy

Arthur Boyt likes to forage for his food, shunning the supermarket shelf for what lies beside the road. Could his unusual

lust for roadkill be a lesson in subsistence? Cyrus Shahrad stumbles past the carcasses to meet the man and find out.

“After eating badger, I felt as though I’d stepped into a world where nothing was too fanciful or far-fetched to end up on my plate.”

There’s something of the surgeon about Arthur Boyt.

really throw that out,” he says, closing the lid. “I can’t

potatoes. But that day my mother showed me how to

With white hair poking from the brim of his green

imagine I’ll get around to eating it.”

prepare the pheasant: how to pluck it, how to gut it and

woollen hat, scalpel in hand and glasses pushed to the

Arthur then walks down the rain-lashed driveway

how to cook it. I can’t remember how it turned out: my

bridge of his nose, he looms over a pheasant lying cock-

of the sixteenth century farmhouse he shares with

suspicion is that it was probably a bit dry, as game birds

necked on the table of his cluttered garden shed. Sub-

his wife and two cats on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, a

tend to be when you roast them.”

atomic particles of fluff and feather fill the air as the

pheasant carcass dangling from each hand. He dumps

What he does remember is the sense of satisfaction

breast is plucked, followed by a rank smell of ammonia

the birds on the abandoned airfield that constitutes

that accompanied the clearing away of the plates that

escaping the first incision. “I think this one might have

their front garden, its runway riddled with what look

day; the pleasure of having enjoyed a prize bird that

gone a bit green,” mutters Arthur cheerfully.

like bomb craters. “The foxes will have them tonight,”

may have made a dent in the car that ended its life,

says Arthur, nodding at the pheasants. “Nothing goes

but left the Boyts’ weekly budget unblemished. It was

to waste in nature.”

an experience that stayed with him over the following

With the assured ease of a pianist performing his favourite sonata, Arthur peels back the skin and reaches into the chest cavity, cutting away both breasts

This ‘waste not, want not’ attitude plays a large

years – years in which he cycled everywhere with

and letting them fall into a yellow bucket at his feet.

part in Arthur’s relationship with the animals around

one eye on the hedgerow, dining on more salvaged

Nimble fingers then remove everything from legs

him, but it’s a philosophy rooted in nurture as much as

pheasants than he could possibly count. It wasn’t until

and thighs to heart, kidney and a pair of tiny testicles,

nature. His was a far from privileged childhood: Boyt’s

his early twenties, however, that Arthur found himself

before pushing the carcass to one side and replacing it

grandfather had gone bankrupt with the sinking of the

staring unsteadily at his first plate of badger meat.

with a second that is plucked, peeled and pilfered in

Titanic, or so they were told, and his father died when

“I remember my head starting to swim and my

the time it takes most people to chop an onion.

he was just ten years old. ‘Parsimonious’ is a word that

hands shaking, and the sudden realisation that this

His hands decorated with blood and feathers,

crops up regularly in Arthur’s descriptions of the home

was unknown territory – that for all I knew it could

Boyt bags up the legs and breast of one bird for a

his mother ruled over, throwing away nothing so much

be poisonous. I had to take hold of my emotions and

friend before returning the rest of the spoils to a deep

as a crust of bread and making sure that the remains

convince myself that I was being ridiculous, and of

freezer humming innocuously in the background. The

of a Sunday roast reappeared throughout the week in

course it was fine in the end. But that was definitely

contents of this cabinet have made Boyt everything

stews, sandwiches and stocks boiled from bones.

a gateway in the grand scheme of things: after eating

from a national celebrity to a local pariah, depending

And while it was his elder brother who sparked

badger, I felt as though I’d stepped into a world where

on who you ask, and he clearly enjoys gauging the

Arthur’s interest in taxidermy – giving him a book on

nothing was too fanciful or far-fetched to end up on

reactions of those granted a glimpse beneath its lid.

the subject for his twelfth birthday, after which Arthur

my plate. Although every new animal is a gateway of

“Otter’s balls,” he says, removing a small plastic bag

began cadging carcasses from a local gamekeeper’s

sorts: you never know how they’re going to taste, even

and rubbing frost from the hand-scrawled label. “This

gibbet and restoring them with varying degrees of

if you’re pretty sure they won’t poison you.”

one here is badger meat. These are ram’s balls – much

success – it was his mother who first introduced him

Arthur has traditionally done little to enhance the

bigger than the otter’s, as you can see.”

to the idea of eating roadkill. Aged fifteen, Arthur had

natural flavour of his finds: his simple, slow-cooked

The majority of his roadkill is bagged and tagged,

been cycling through the countryside when he came

casseroles seldom feature seasoning whether they’re

but there are entire animals that provide colourful

across the body of a pheasant. So beautiful had the

made with badger or bat, rabbit or rat. Yet he admits

exceptions – bats, polecats and small birds, all furred

animal appeared that he felt incapable of leaving it

to a few recent concoctions of culinary ingenuity: a

or feathered and frozen in the contortions of the

behind, and when he arrived home with it slung over

blackbird pie, for example, and a rice dish cooked

collisions that ended their lives. There’s also the severed

one shoulder his mother had immediately suggested

with otter and called, ingeniously, ‘risotter’. Nor is

head of a deer dating back to Arthur’s taxidermy days,

they cook it.

there anyone better placed to offer an insight into the

plus a shoulder of pork retrieved from a Sainsbury’s

“Up until that point my role in the kitchen was

skip and still bearing its 1994 use-by sticker. “I should

limited to making porridge and gravy, or peeling

70 HUCK

culinary qualities of animals ordinarily curled up by the living room fire.

“Cats aren’t much to get excited about, but dog is

cultivating his image as a sort of culinary bogeyman

rustling of one eyebrow suggests a knowing irony as he

definitely top of my list in terms of flavour. I’ve eaten a

in the British media: when we leave, he insists that we

describes a pathologist friend who offered to furnish

Labrador and two Lurchers, both of which were killed

take a Carte D’Or tub containing the frozen leftovers

him with something from the chopping board.

on the road outside a gypsy encampment. Neither

of a badger casserole that he recently served to a guest

had a collar, and when I spoke with the gypsies they

before a squeamish audience on a BBC show.

“Leg would be best: that’s where the most meat would be. It may well be that consuming human flesh

seemed uninterested in tracing the owners. They were

Yet there is one episode of his media portrayal

is the ultimate carnivorous experience, though I rather

horrified when I told them what I planned to do with

that Arthur reflects on less fondly. In BBC Two’s

cringe at the idea of eating someone’s child. I’d sooner

them, but a Lurcher is a big, lean animal with lots of

Wonderland: The Man Who Eats Badger And Other Strange Tales From Bodmin Moor, filmmaker Daniel Vernon’s camera is constantly seeking out something sinister beneath Boyt’s pastoral existence. There are countless references to his vegetarian wife Sue’s perceived misery, with unsettling use of the Donnie Darko soundtrack making it seem as though the walls are about to start running with blood. There is also an unhelpful emphasis on Boyt’s recent spate of obscenityridden prank calls, in which inebriated youths dial his number and pretend to be animals he’s peeled off the central reservation (“Do you believe in reincarnation, Mr Boyt? I am that rabbit you killed six months ago.

You dirty, filthy…”).

“It happened quite a lot,” says Arthur, who can be seen laughing the calls off in the documentary.

“Someone put our phone number on YouTube, which didn’t help. We’ve had to pay for certain lines to be blocked from calling, but you can only block twelve at any time. I think the calls are more amusing than malicious, but there’s definitely an unpleasant element to them, a sense of invasion. They certainly upset my wife.”

One thing the phone calls failed to do is deter Arthur from his daily routine, or incline him towards being less outrageous in discussing his beliefs. The subject of cannibalism is one example: only the faintest

eat someone who doesn’t have relatives upstream.”

lovely meat.”

The issue of consuming household pets may not be an easy one for the general public to swallow, but Arthur considers himself no danger to domestic animals, always going out of his way to unite dead cats or dogs with their owners before considering vegetables to pair them with. Except racing pigeons, which have usually come too far to be worth the effort.

“I’ve eaten pigeons with people’s contact details on, after which I’ve phoned the owner and said that I’ve come across their bird, and they tell me where it started and where it was going. At some point I always confess that I’ve eaten the thing. Reactions tend to vary, although they’re usually a bit surprised.”

‘A bit surprised’ may sound like an arch understatement, but with his deadpan delivery and epic, shuffling eyebrows, it’s never entirely obvious when Arthur is pulling your leg. His home may be an embodiment of rural self-sufficiency – laundry dries over the Aga; cabinets spill teetering piles of Ordnance Survey maps; mountains of mud-caked walking boots clutter every corner – but Arthur is more technologically savvy than his rustic backdrop suggests. He regularly refers to clips of himself on YouTube, orders most of his purchases on Amazon and has been a Facebook user for some time. He’s also perfectly comfortable

72 HUCK

Plans for his own corpse are equally unconventional.

He’s contacted the Natural History Museum about displaying his skeleton, and is currently looking into an American research facility that studies the rate of natural decay in human bodies. Most of all, he’d like to be fed to vultures.

“Someone’s got to get the flesh off first, because I don’t want my bones carted all over the countryside.

It’s something I need to arrange sooner rather than later, as it’s a bit unfair to expect my wife to sort all this out when she’s going through the joy… sorry, the

tragedy of losing me.”

Whether his wishes will be granted or not, time will tell. In the meantime, Boyt knows that eating badger means more cash in his pocket.

“Eating roadkill won’t necessarily give you a longer life, but it can certainly give you a better life: I lived as a wealthier person and travelled to places I wouldn’t otherwise have seen thanks to the money I saved by not buying meat. But people are limited by their own social paranoia. Even in this current financial climate, when I find myself extolling the virtues of eating badger, the reaction is usually the same: ‘I’d sooner have my leg amputated,’ they say.”

Either way, Arthur Boyt won’t be going hungry anytime soon

photo : Alex Wright / Dragon

Jamie Lynn - Kandi Coded - Dragon Mystery Tour La Mongie France, April 2009

Photography Mark Leary

You may very well think that there’s an upper limit, chronologically speaking, to when you can get in the water, trim, maybe even get barrelled. You’re wrong.

What follows is a look at some of the coolest – and greyest – surfers in Britain.

74 HUCK

CJ is in his early sixties and one of the best shapers the UK has ever had. He has been shaping since he was about fourteen, learning his trade at Bilbo Surf Shop, which he joined only two years after they opened in 1965.

75

Janet and John are sixty-five and owned a surf shop for most of their lives. They live in Perranporth, North Cornwall, and still compete in belly-board competitions. They surf weekly, if not daily, and will either surf a longboard or one of their belly-boards, and they make sure they go for a surf on Boxing Day every year, without fail. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I remember during the war my friends and I would sneak down to the beach and have to crawl under the barb wire and avoid the mines just so we could get in the water and have a belly slide.â&#x20AC;? - John

76 HUCK

Little Al is seventy-one and has been surfing since he came on a family holiday with his wife and children.

He loved it so much he moved to Braunton, North Devon, just so he could carry on. Al has competed and judged competitions but now just gets in when he can. The board he is holding is one he shaped himself.

“I was sat on the beach when my wife turned to me and said, ‘Why don’t you go and rent one of those boat things that everyone seems to be trying to stand on?’ So I went over and rented one and was able to stand up so I started saving to buy one.” - Little Al

77

Dot is eighty-two and surfs every day unless there isn’t any swell. Peter doesn’t surf. They live in Mawgan Porth, twenty minutes north of Newquay. Recently, Peter bought Dot her very first wetsuit as he didn’t know what else to buy her.

“To me swimming in the sea is dead now. If the surf’s flat, I don’t bother to go in – it’s unexciting. It’s the thrill of it – the fact that you wonder from year to year, ‘Am I going to get on that wave again?’ And then when you do it, when you go up on the beach and scratch the surfboard, you realise, ‘I’ve done it!’” - Dot

78 HUCK

The finest handcrafted surfboards in the world - made in england

Loose-Fit Surf Shop & CafĂŠ The Forecourt,Exeter Road,Braunton. EX33 2JP tel. 01271-813-300

loose-fit.co.uk

80 HUCK

Holland’s Cheryl Maas may have kick-started her career on artificial turf, but in the glitzy world of pro snowboarding she’s about as real as it gets. Interview Gemma Freeman + Photography Spencer Murphy

“I’m not the loudest one in the room,” says Cheryl

contest commitments,” she says. “That’s what I did a lot

a few miles north. It’s here that we meet again. In her

Maas. “If I’m waiting for a table in a busy restaurant,

when I started, going on missions with the UK riders

own environment the wary approach that I witnessed

I still get nervous.” The surprisingly shy Dutch has no

around Mayrhofen every night, trying to spot a rail.”

in London has been dropped for something far more

need for extrovert antics. As one of the world’s most

Often mistakenly labelled a rail rider due to her

chilled and friendly, as we munch crepes doused with

fearless freestyle snowboarders, her riding screams

background on artificial slopes, it’s actually big booters

Nutella, before heading off for a late afternoon surf.

volumes enough.

that Cheryl loves: “It would be cool to go to Alaska once

But having lived there during her teens, Mayrhofen is

for the experience but being a big-mountain rider is not

still where she spends much of her winter. And, boasting

my thing. It’s all about jumping for me.”

possibly the best park in Europe, it’s the perfect place to

At twenty-four years old, Cheryl looks younger than her age. Sat in the grand dining room of London’s Marylebone Hotel, she’s fidgeting with her layered

But when it comes to planning next season’s bag

build an immunity to fear – a key component of Cheryl’s

bob as elderly ladies lunch and portly suits peruse

of tricks, she prefers to keep things zen. “It’s more

famously progressive snowboarding, which was inspired at

the broadsheets. The ostentatious surroundings – all

what feels good at the time,” she says, “expanding your

a young age by films like Forum’s debut, The Resistance.

baroque mirrored walls and kitsch chandeliers – is an

repertoire in all different ways. I don’t have one trick

“I looked up to Nichola Thost and Cara Beth

atypical environment for this Biarritz local. Outside,

I focus on – I just learn and see what comes naturally.

Burnside,” she remembers. “But I don’t have heroes

the clichéd British summer hangs over the city in a

Sometimes a trick is in your body without you knowing

as such – it was more the snowboarding that I liked to

thick oppressive fog. But as a rumble of thunder cracks

until you’re like, ‘Oh, that feels good.’”

watch. Before I was sponsored, I watched the X Games

the high pressure, Cheryl visibly lights up and, flashing

It was this mind-body intuition that saw her

on TV when they had big air for women and I wanted

her signature pixie smile (complete with dimples), she’s

compete at the Torino Olympics 2006, after training in

to do that. Unfortunately they don’t do it now, but the

ready to talk.

half pipe for just a year. Cultivating her own collection

first time I got invited, my brother flew out with me to

A global team rider for Volcom, Electric and Vans,

of flip tricks, she walked away in eleventh place. Not

see it in real life.”

Cheryl earned kudos as the first ever Ticket To Ride

bad, considering lower-placed pipe addicts had been

Women’s snowboarding has rocketed since then –

Women’s World Champion. Her win did surprise a lot

training for four years-plus. But don’t expect to see her in

with 900 spins the new standard. But why now? As well

of people, especially when you consider she grew up on

Whistler for 2010: “The FIS have asked me to compete,

as new training facilities, Cheryl believes it’s because

the flatlands of Uden, Holland, learning to shred at the

but I don’t want to go just for the experience – that was

the industry has finally cottoned on: “There are a lot of

local dry slope at age eleven, and doing her first season

my motivation the first time. I want to get a good result,

brands who are concentrating on the women’s market –

in the Euro shred centre of Mayrhofen, Austria, as a

but I don’t want to train for years riding pipe for that

they realised it was growing quicker than the guys. We

wide-eyed seventeen-year-old.

one chance as anything can still go wrong.”

get more support than ever.”

Growing up away from resort glamour, a professional

So, what’s her opinion on the Olympics circus? “It’s

It’s the need for support that saw her switch sponsors

career seemed preposterous for the teenage Cheryl. But

great for getting the public to see that we’re not crazy.

to Volcom in late 2006, after declining a head-to-toe deal

it’s these roots, perhaps, that helped mould her into

When I did interviews, journalists would say, ‘Oh, you

with Forum when the company joined Burton: “Volcom

one of the most unpretentious people in snow. With an

must party loads because you have a nose ring,’ but you’d

came to me and said, ‘Why don’t you ride for us?’ I was

explosive ability to huck with style, the goofy-footer’s

explain that this has nothing to do with it. We could

stoked. Forum wanted me to restart my career in the

done well in contests – claiming wins at the Roxy

show it’s a real sport. On the other side, everything

US, but I’m European and want to ride here too.”

Chicken Jam, US Open and more – but the media circus

was so strict. It’s all about training, eating right, a real

With women’s clothing proving more lucrative

surrounding events doesn’t suit. Modest and down-to-

regime. That’s not my idea of snowboarding – I prefer

than hard goods, many pros are seeing their identity as

earth, she’s the antithesis of the media savvy ‘pro rider’

to ride and have fun.”

accomplished athletes watered down to peddle clothing

for whom self-promotion is a breeze. Preffering the

For Cheryl, career highs so far include landing a 900

to the masses. But Cheryl’s no sheep: “I’ve never been

intimacy of movies, she’s built a close relationship with

at the Vans Cup Tahoe in 2008 – “I’m stoked on that” –

bothered about fashion; I never listened to anyone

uber-creative production house, Yeahh, and appeared

and making history as the first female champion on the

else. I’ve always done baggy style and never ride in tight

in landmark women’s movies Transfer and Dropstitch

Ticket To Ride World Snowboard Tour in 2006, even if

clothes, even if that’s what’s cool now – just because

when she was just a teen. And after a nasty shoulder

there was nothing of the current $200,000 prize fund

styles change, doesn’t mean I will.”

accident at this year’s Winter X Games, Aspen (she

at the time. “That was cool,” she remarks casually. “But

It’s about finding your niche, she explains: “There

hit the floor between the infamous channel gap jumps

on the other hand, they didn’t have any big trophy or

are so many different companies now, that if you can

that also took out king of big booters, Travis Rice), she’s

anything – I kind of missed out on that.”

snowboard well, you’ll find somewhere where you fit

visibly buzzing about an upcoming trip to New Zealand for a new Nitro Snowboards team film.

Since 2006, Cheryl’s been based in Biarritz, South West France, a beautiful Basque coastal town frequented

“When you film, you go on trips scoping for rails and

by rich weekenders and surfers who prefer the longer,

natural hits but I’ve not done that recently, because of

mellower waves to those of neighbouring Hossegor,

in without selling out. You don’t have to be just pretty anymore… you can find your own way.” www.volcom.com

81

From Front to Back: Dallas by Anon. The Aliator by Fox. Gecson by 55DSL.

82 HUCK

Hoodlum by Electric. Will Barras by Oakley.

83

From Front to Back: Madness by Sabre. Nolte by Smith.

84 HUCK

La Woman by Roxy. Flyboy by Adidas. Southpaw by Von Zipper.

85

86 HUCK

in d t e os e s . o ro it p eed be at ind .com e y ma thrrealators d k the y re ar sh but verpexp a e , th ear , is S / of al f rsonLLOW te S FA ion on at rati MasCHRI s i y n ir s mo d Mile raph de an g e s to l ra lor say Pho ltu of es, ON + u c ies eci RS E e Th nture sp AST ce th ILES M to T M X

TE

87

“When they saw a see the shark you they saw a monst Sharks. Conjure up, if you will, a world without them. It seems hard to do. Even if you have never swum in the ocean, you’ll be aware of their killer instinct. You’ll be able to visualise your spilled blood, colouring the water around you crimson, as the shark’s scythe-like grill sinks into your soft edible flesh. You can imagine the excruciating agony as those rows of impossibly sharp teeth clamp down and slice into your limbs or torso; envisage your own mad panic as those cold, unfeeling eyes bore into your soul, and sense the plunge of despair as the beast, thrashing around like a deranged gothic monster, unleashes its magnetic, prehistoric power and pulls you under the surface to a manifestly painful, lonely doom.

I have a friend who won’t surf at a certain beach. He’s resolute. Miles long, and covered in acres of crispy bleach-white dunes, it has the best sandbars within a half day’s drive, arguably among the finest in the world.

Epic A-frame peaks, to rival Hossegor’s La Gravière, offer tube rides up to ten seconds long. But he simply won’t surf it. You won’t catch him dead there, he says.

Why? Because the beach, at Noordhoek in Cape Town, South Africa, has been the location of a frightening number of great white shark attacks and close calls. Most notably, a fatal one on a nineteen-yearold Capetonian bodyboarder, David Bornman, who in 2003 was taken across the chest and stomach and bled to death in minutes, as his distraught fellows tried to gather his intestines on the shore. And another in 2005, when a British surfer, Plymouth school teacher Chris Sullivan, was bitten on the ankle and, hanging by a ligament onto life, was fortunate enough to be airlifted to a nearby hospital for a life-saving blood transfusion.

Though the local authorities limply banned surfing here for a few weeks following the two incidents, these days more than one hundred surfers can still be seen at the wave on a Saturday afternoon. But not my mate.

And he’s not alone. Many Cape Town surfers won’t go near the place.

88 HUCK

The fear of sharks – selachophobia or, more popularly, galeophobia – is an irrational dread that manifests itself as uncontrollable anxiety. Many humans who will never set foot in the sea have an inexplicable tendency to urinate involuntarily in response to the always-evocative word. Say, ‘Shark!’ (better yet, shout it on a crowded beach) and see the reactions. Terror.

Screaming. Tears. Wee. So the question begs: Why have humans always been so afraid of sharks? It’s not as if most folk, besides surfers and divers perhaps, will ever encounter one in its natural habitat. Shark experts will reiterate that almost all attacks on humans are due to them mistaking us for natural prey. Number nerds will confirm that you have considerably more chance of meeting your maker digging for a lost crust in your toaster. “People get sick of statistics, but we know through science that sharks are not targeting us,” says Alison Kock, chief biologist at the South African Save Our Seas Shark Institute.

Unsurprisingly, it is Peter Benchley’s notorious novel and subsequent blockbuster movie franchise, Jaws, that is widely regarded as being responsible for most modern shark prejudice. “Jaws very cleverly touched on three basic fear patterns,” agrees UK shark expert Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Trust UK. “The fear of being out of your natural element, so you haven’t got your feet on land; the fear of the unknown, the fact your feet are dangling; and the fear of being eaten alive... and that film hit all three of those buttons in the first two minutes.”

Peirce is a vocal critic of the way the media – daily newspapers especially – portray sharks. Tabloid headlines blast the five-letter noun at us in 80-point type whenever there is an attack or – as was the case in Cornwall, England – alleged sightings of great whites.

Peirce says that thanks in part to the negative publicity in movies and newsprint, our mindset towards sharks is very different to the one we have in relation to land-based predators, such as alligators, hippos or big cats. “We have this kind of weird thinking that we might be able to outrun [land-based predators], but unfortunately with sharks this ain’t the case,” he says.

“But I honestly believe this irrational fear of sharks in many cultures goes way back before Jaws, and they just capitalised on it.”

The ancient Greeks of 600 to 300 BC were among the first to contribute significantly to both nascent shark lore and documented shark science. Like most classical stories, many of which are referenced in the Dictionary of Roman and Greek Biography and Mythology, the origins of their fables are often contradictory. Yet, considering the fact that many larger species, including blue and white sharks, would have been plentiful in the region at the time, they may well have seemed supernatural enough for the early Greeks to demonise.

“The source of many of these fantastical tales could have been sharks,” agrees Marina Pearson, a South African classics scholar, “as whales, octopuses and mythical monsters were widely feared.”

Several of the most enduring Greek gods hail from the ocean – Poseidon, the god of the sea, the Tritons, Oceanus – but there are many lesser-known tales, such as that of the Daimon Goddess Lamia, probable daughter of Poseidon and muse of Zeus, who is said to have lost her children to Zeus’ jealous wife Hera.

In revenge, Lamia turned to snatching, murdering and eating children, her evil actions causing her appearance to morph into that of a shark-like creature with great teeth, according to some texts.

Another legend tells of Zeus bestowing Lamia with the curious ability to remove and replace her eyes at will. It is interesting to note that, as a protective measure, blue sharks have a nictitating membrane which covers their eyes, and white sharks similarly roll their eyes back into their head during feeding or an attack, which may or may not be a telling coincidence. Scylla, who is believed to be Lamia’s daughter, was reputed to have further shark connotations. She was a bloodthirsty sea monster who had between three and six heads of various sharp-toothed animals and inhabited the treacherous

shark they didn’t and I see today, er of mythology.” strait of Messina just off the southern coast of Italy,

gods were also believed to be custodians of the sea,

and exaggerated tales of returning seamen, in Europe

where she devoured hapless sailors.

known as Aumakua.

the public conception of sharks as monsters grew

Scientifically, in the fourth century BC, the Greek

In the Trobriand Islands of the Solomon Sea

disproportionally. “When they saw a shark they didn’t

philosopher and zoologist Aristotle was the first to

and among the Maoris of New Zealand sharks were

see the shark you and I see today, they saw a monster of

distinguish rays and sharks – selachii as he termed them

similarly held in high esteem. Like many other Pacific

mythology,” concurs George Burgess. “An exchange of

– as cartilaginous species separate from bony fish. He

islanders, people here shared the widespread belief that

erroneous information passed on from one generation

noted and described that the young of the ‘dogfish’ (the

sharks were not harmful and in some places, such as

to another [of which] sharks are an unfortunate

word ‘shark’ had yet to be coined) are linked to the womb

Fiji, catching and eating them was even prohibited by

recipient to this day.”

by a navel cord and placenta, much as in a mammal.

royal decree.

Throughout this time sharks were depicted as

“Nothing has contributed more to Aristotle’s modern

savage beasts in art, such as John Singleton Copley’s

scientific reputation than the rediscovery of this in the

painting Watson and the Shark, dated 1778. The shark

18th century,” notes the Oxford Classical Dictionary.

also appears regularly in Western literature, and almost Europeans held an entirely different view of sharks.

always in antagonistic fashion. Shakespeare refers to

Though historical references to shark-like creatures

the “ravin’d salt-sea shark” in Macbeth and Herman

after the classic civilisations are sporadic, as most of

Melville treated sharks similarly in Moby Dick, in

Sharks also appear in the verbal history and

the continent entered a period of warfare and cultural

which he notes their cannibalistic tendencies when

superstitions of scores of other cultures throughout

regression, shark tales resume with a vengeance at the

wounded by whaler’s knives. “They viciously snapped

the world, from the Australian Aboriginals to the

end of the Middle Ages, when exploration became

not only at each other’s disembowelments but also at

South African Xhosa tribes. Unlike the early Greeks,

de rigueur once again. As South African shark hunter Theo Ferreira puts it: “Ever since the 17th century, the only good shark was a dead shark.”

In his book The Shadow Below, author and shark historian Hugh Edwards refers to the writings of European traveller Samuel Purchas of 1617 regarding Hindu pilgrims on the Indian subcontinent, who cast themselves to ‘sea dogs’ in the Ganges as a fast track to paradise (these were conceivably bull sharks, still found in the river today, although in far fewer numbers).

Notably, the god Vishnu is often depicted coming out of a creature believed by many scholars to be a shark.

“Just as some say vultures recognise the presence of a corpse by its smell, many leagues away, so some believe that sharks have the same divinatory power.”

So wrote Ferdinand Columbus of an encounter on one of his father Christopher’s earliest voyages to the West Indies in the early 1500s. Zoologist Thomas Pennant similarly documented the supposed lust of great white sharks for human flesh. “They are the dread of sailors,” he wrote in 1776, “they constantly attend the ships in expectation of what may drop overboard; a man that has that misfortune perishes without redemption.”

Thanks to descriptions like this and the fantastic

their own,” he wrote.

their perspectives towards sharks were not necessarily based on a fear of ‘monsters’, but rather on respect for the inherent power of these predators, often depicted on pottery and tribal emblems. Shark teeth have been found in ruins of the Aztec and Inca cultures, and throughout Central America, the Caribbean and the middens of North American Native Indians as far inland as Illinois. “White and bull shark teeth with their triangular shape and serrated edges held value in trade as well as presumably some spiritual significance in ceremonial use,” says George Burgess, a leading US shark academic and director of the International Shark Attack File.

Many cultures, he adds, have used shark teeth in one manner or another, notably in weapons, where their power was thought to transfer to the warrior.

Sharks, continues Burgess, were admired and revered as deities throughout the Oceania region of the Pacific. Polynesian societies incorporated them into their mythology, and the Hawaiians have a rich history of association with sharks, with shape-shifting shark men, sporting shark jaws on their backs, warning people when there was danger in the water. Shark

To add to the stigma, zoologists called the subspecies of mostly larger, predatory sharks (such as hammerhead and white sharks) ‘requiem’ sharks which, in the Roman Catholic Church, denotes the Mass for the repose of the dead. To this day negative connotations continue in rapacious terms such as ‘loan shark’ and ‘card shark’.

It was a shipwreck in 1852 that first brought the terror of a shark feeding frenzy into sharp focus when the British troopship The Birkenhead struck a rock off the South African coastline. Of the 680 people onboard, 455 died, most killed by sharks. “Hundreds of them were around us and I saw men taken quite close to me,” wrote one survivor, Lieutenant Frank Girardot. A similar tragedy occurred on the same coast nearly 100 years later, when the Nova Scotia, a British ship transporting Italian prisoners of war, was sunk by a German U-boat in 1942, leaving the survivors with an equally gory story.

But it is the USS Indianapolis that had the deepest effect on the perception of sharks – albeit with a telling twist. On July 30, 1945, having departed Guam, the

89

ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Around

installed vastly improved nets at its main beaches in the

900 of the 1196-strong crew made it into the water but

early 1950s), had kept sharks top of mind. But during

were left to float for four days in a bloodied sea before

the summer of 1957 this spilled over into paranoia

eventually being rescued. During this time sharks were

reminiscent of New Jersey. During the so-called ‘Black

believed to have killed almost two thirds of them.

December’ five attacks resulting in two deaths rocked a

The Shark Attack File’s George Burgess is a leading authority on the incident and has interviewed many of

number of resorts in popular holiday destinations along the South Coast.

the survivors. He has another perspective, saying that,

Another two attacks in April 1958 – one fatal on

like many of these incidents, most of the feeding was

a mother of four as she waded in knee-deep water –

actually post-mortem on drowned sailors. “It turns out

exacerbated the panic. Similar to NJ, the authorities

there was a lot of distortion,” he explains, “and much

responded to public pressure but this time killed every

of [it] was intentional. The captain of the Indianapolis

swimming creature along the coast with depth charges

was court-martialled for what happened… much to

and rifles in a spectacle that drew huge crowds. The

the chagrin of his crew… I was told by survivors that

attacks also meant that shark nets were installed at

[they] often clearly overstated the shark situation as an

most of the beaches concerned. Back then, these were

indication of how the captain had saved their lives.”

thought to be the ultimate solution, but as we now

Unfortunately, by then the fate of the crew had been widely reported and the damage to the shark’s

know, they indiscriminately kill many forms of sea life other than sharks.

reputation was done. But sharks had already been a

The 1957/58 attacks in SA also inspired a number of

favoured headline to sell newspapers in the US from

shark fishermen to hunt the ‘evil beasts’. One of them

the turn of the century, best exemplified by a spate of

was shark hunter Theo Ferreira, who first encountered

attacks in the state of New Jersey in the summer of 1916

a beached shark as an eleven-year-old boy on the South

when, in just under two weeks, five attacks occurred

Coast that same summer. “I was excited,” he recalls. “I

along the coast (two in a river), resulting in four

wanted to catch and conquer it, but I was also scared

deaths. Whilst there is still some disagreement among

and my first instinct was to kill it. I was influenced by

scientists whether the attacks were all by one shark,

the shark folklore about these monsters... created by

and whether it was a white or bull shark, newspaper

the hysteria of Black December.”

headlines featured mad hyperbole, such as ‘Jersey ManEater’ and ‘Twelve Days of Terror’.

The ‘Killer Shark!’ myth had by then become accepted as fact worldwide. After one attack at a resort

“This set the tone for the era and why things

on the Adriatic Sea, the government of Yugoslavia

were primed for a panic,” says Burgess. “The attacks

placed a bounty on sharks. With strong public support,

occurred in New Jersey, which was close to the cultural

shark hunters such as Ferreira and his Australian

epicentres of New York, Philadelphia and Washington

equivalent Vic Hislop (a.k.a. ‘The Shark Man’) caught

DC and at the time that’s where the major media

and killed thousands of sharks. The most famous shark

were in the United States.” These beaches were of

hunter ever though was probably the character named

course closed and most resorts, all too aware that they

Quint, played by Robert Shaw in Jaws. A grizzled, bitter

would lose vital tourism dollars, petitioned the federal

fictional survivor of the Indianapolis, he was the perfect

government to protect bathers, instigating shark hunts

depiction of their devotion to their murderous cause.

and preventative measures such as crude steel mesh

The movie and sequels (as well as numerous pretenders)

nets and armed shark patrols.

fuelled the denigration of sharks in the public eye to

If the story sounds similar to Jaws, that’s because

the point where author Peter Benchley later admitted

the NJ attacks inspired Peter Benchley to pen his novel

that he may well have inadvertently caused the death of

some sixty years later. But long before Jaws could spread

more sharks than anyone.

its own special brand of shark hysteria, similar scenarios

However, in the early eighties, when it was starting

unfolded as attacks continued, feeding the growing

to become obvious to scientists that shark numbers

fear of sharks, especially great whites, around the

were beginning to decrease, many did a sudden about

world. Before and in-between the world wars, attacks

turn. Benchley, Hislop and Ferreira, among others,

and media reporting in Australia had increased shark

became vocal shark conservationists. Ferreira tells how

awareness and with it fear. Two incidents in particular

he had an epiphany when he was hunting a female great

in Western Australia between 1923 and 1925 provoked

white that simply refused to die and realised sharks were

a public reaction that resulted in the construction of

really magnificent creatures. “I can’t believe we were

protected swimming areas and, though they did not

that stupid,” he says. “I thought I was doing mankind

survive winter storms, more rudimentary shark nets.

a serious service by ridding the ocean of these man-

Meanwhile, sharks pervaded the minds of those

eaters and I thought I was a hero.” Benchley is quoted

living or holidaying near the sea in South Africa.

as saying before his death in 2006: “If I had known then

Intermittent attacks on people over the years, mostly

what I know now about sharks, I would not have been

in Durban (which had taken lead from Australia and

able to write Jaws.”

90 HUCK

91

Thanks to the efforts of Ferreira and other local

Kingdom in 2007, when The Sun printed a huge

headlines. As for the controversial shark cage diving

conservationists, South Africa became the first

headline claiming that a great white shark had been

industry – thought by many to be the reason for recent

country to list great white sharks as a protected

spotted in the waters off St Ives, Cornwall. “I did

attacks, thanks to sharks associating humans with

species in 1991. Since then, white sharks and other

battle with them all summer,” says Richard Peirce,

food due to ‘chumming’ with blood and bait – many

species have been protected in many nations. Yet, as

“and that story resulted in an 18 per cent increase in

shark conservationists, including Kock and Peirce, are

attacks by great whites and other sharks continued

the quietest month of the year for the newspaper,

supportive. Properly run by legitimate operators, they

through the nineties and into the naughties, much

which is a big increase for a circulation of 3.2 million.”

say, cage diving plays a vital role in bringing revenue to

of the media – newspapers and websites mainly, but

Though the supposed great white was actually a

coastal towns as well as educating people that sharks

also books, documentaries and Hollywood films –

harmless basking shark, Peirce cites this incident as a

are incredible, reticent creatures worth preserving.

maintained their sensationalist approach.

prime example of how newspapers use sharks to sell more copies. “It is not news that an elephant lives in the jungle, or was spotted in Africa, but a shark is

Thanks to both legal and illegal fishing, it is estimated that more than 100 million sharks are removed from the oceans worldwide every year.

spotted in the sea off Cornwall and it is news?” he

Ironically, it could be human consumption of sharks

says vehemently. “Well, where do you expect it to

that will decide the species ultimate fate. Thanks

be, on the top of a building? But it goes back to this

to both legal and illegal fishing, it is estimated that

extraordinary fascination that sharks have... they

more than 100 million sharks are removed from the

sort of send a shiver up the spine and it is very hard

oceans worldwide every year. As a result, more than

to remove this from the psyche of people.”

one hundred shark species large and small are listed as

To The Sun’s credit, Peirce continues, they ran a

exploited – including the basking shark and porbeagle

shark conservation article recently and earlier this year

shark, both found in the UK – with scores either

the paper declined to print a fuzzy photo of an alleged

endangered or threatened. “Studies have looked into

white shark taken off Bournemouth, which, like the

historical data from the different parts of the world,”

2007 case, turned out to be a basking shark. “Now I was

says Australian shark population PhD student Adrian

really impressed with that, two years ago they would

Gutteridge, “and in the Mediterranean Sea... the

have got away with it being a white shark, so maybe a

bigger species such as the mako and hammerhead have

degree of responsibility is creeping in. We’ve all worked

declined by ninety-nine per cent in the last twenty-five

very hard at it, so it might be.”

to thirty years, and in the Gulf of Mexico and some

Alison Kock has also seen a notable shift in public

parts of the Atlantic they’ve seen seventy-five per cent

and media attitudes towards sharks in recent years. Like

reductions [of the bigger pelagic sharks] in the last

many similar initiatives in places such as the UK, the

fifteen years.”

US and Australia, Save Our Sharks (SOS) concentrates

Though superstition and antipathy towards sharks

on education around the plight of sharks. Last year they

may continue to pervade their thinking, it seems

launched their Rethink the Shark advertising campaign,

Western fishermen are both indiscriminately scooping

which featured among other things a toaster floating in

up all kinds of sharks, mainly as incidental bycatch in

the ocean, making a clever statistical point. SOS are

a variety of fisheries, but thanks to ever-dwindling

also involved in the ‘shark spotting’ programme, which

fish stocks, to also bolster their profits. Most of this

places unemployed people on the high crags above

exploitation is due to the high premium placed on

some of Cape Town’s surf spots to sound an alarm when

shark fins. In places such as the Middle East, India and

they see a shark moving in. “From 2004, there has been

Japan, ‘Killer Shark!’ mythology persists – much like in

a huge change in how people see sharks and how they

the West – and shark products are revered for, among

have accepted that they are here,” adds Alison.

other things, aphrodisiac qualities. But it is Hong Kong

While most people might acknowledge that the

and China, where there is a massive demand for shark

threat of a shark attack is not as great as they once

fin soup (used primarily as a status symbol at weddings),

thought, conservationists are still up against a host

who are most responsible for the sharp drop in shark

This kind of publicity has long irked Alison

of other obstacles – including parents dropping their

numbers worldwide.

Kock of Save Our Seas. “It is very frustrating,” the

offspring at the beach for surf lessons or lifesaving

The disappearance of sharks from our oceans is not

conservationist says from behind her small desk in a

on a Saturday morning. “It’s often those parents that

as unlikely as it might once have been. And if it were to

cramped office at the institute’s Cape Town HQ. “It

are looking for something to protect their kids in the

happen, the repercussions would be far-reaching as, for

blows my mind how when there is a shark attack the

water,” notes Kock. South Africa has the most shark

example, world fish stocks could decline even further as

newspapers will still be running the story two weeks

nets in the world (and with Australia is the only country

lower-tier ocean predators thrive in their absence and

later. Even wildlife documentaries are often inaccurate.

to still use them). It’s down to the public, says Alison,

gobble up everything in sight. “In many ways the shark

I’ve personally been involved in scripts that have been

to apply pressure on authorities to get nets removed by

is the poster child for the decline of the sea,” sums up

sent to me to fact check and told them, ‘Look, this is

joining relevant organisations and signing petitions for

George Burgess. “If this apex predator, which through

completely wrong, we know this isn’t true anymore,’

the protection of shark species.

400 million years of evolution does kill humans, rightly

but it doesn’t make it as interesting, so they leave it in.”

Richard Peirce in turn advises that individuals

or wrongly, is able to so readily be struck down by

Perhaps one of the most obvious cases of media

should also refrain from purchasing teeth, jaws,

humans in less than 100 years, what does that say for

shark hype gone crazy took place in the United

etc. – and, he laughs, newspapers with glaring shark

the rest of the sea?”

92 HUCK

Maialen wears: Laura Shirt, Move On - By Rip Curl. Erika wears: Collins T-shirt, Move On. Kate Gilet, Muse - All by Rip Curl

n in norther Sebastián d. When they n Sa f o in irls ity, the For the g ostia is a state of m eir home c Spain, Don asque name for thof pride. They’re B utter the nfurl with a senseels both left and f the vowels u the break that pe the edge o proud of that secret spot atble to say that a right, and ouder still to be iend for life.” beach. Pr made here is a fr “a friend Photogra

ARTIN phy GUY M

Elise wears: Amber Tee, Folk & Blues. Pattie Cardigan, Move On - All by Rip Curl. Ibo wears: Beckhman Jumper, Muse - By Rip Curl

Eva wears: Mary Vest, Folk & Blues. Diana cardigan, Folk & Blues. Amy Grey Cast Wash Jeans. Flower Beanie - All by Rip Curl Erika wears: Stansfield T-shirt, Muse. Coldean Trilby Hat, Muse. Kent Pant - All by Rip Curl

Erika wears: London Dress, Move On - By Rip Curl

Ibo wears: Hendrix Jumper Dress, Folk & Blues - By Rip Curl

Maialen wears: Keira Cardigan, Move On. Dylan Vintage Wash Jeans - All by Rip Curl Erika wears: Helsinki Hoodie, Northern Ethno. Dylan Blue Rock Wash Jeans - All by Rip Curl

Erika wears: London Dress, Move On - By Rip Curl

Ibo wears: Jenny Shirt, Muse - By Rip Curl. Check out the new womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection from Rip Curl at www.ripcurl.com.

.COM

www.

HUCK MAGAZINE it’s just like HUCK magazine but

on a screen!

}

DAILY

web

BLOG

exclusive}

WEEKLY

features

HUCK COLUMNISTS LEX KING

A

comp ADZ wade etitions ruth CARRUTHERS O L LY

Z A N E T T I

FREE

HUCKDIGITALEDITION subscribe to HUCK OUR

&

@

online shop

£50 £30 £18 EUROPE REST OF WORLD UK

pick up BACK ISSUES & exclusive special edition prints

WIN

FOLLOW HUCK ON

100 HUCK

TWITTER

twitter.com/huckmagazine

VISIT WWW.HUCKMAGAZINE.COM

FOR THE CHANCE TO WIN A PAIR OF

&

DC BLABAC AZURE MID SHOES

A SIGNED COPY OF BLABAC PHOTO: THE ART OF SKATEBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY (closing date august 31)

The ar t of subme rg e n c e,

by E m ma Cr itchley .

Fixing the world, one prank at a time.

Tim Shaw

Uncovering darkness at the heart of war.

Plusâ&#x20AC;Ś

Memories of a North Shore initiation, by Jamie Brisick.

Wastwater #1, Emma Critchley.

Back Pages The

The Yes Men

101

Emma C under ritchley’s photo water soake graphy is d ne sai in that je s quoi .

If you dig Emma Critchley check out...

Kurt Tong The absence of people in Tong’s brooding landscapes of the Canadian town of Labrador says more about his subjects’ isolation than any portrait. The award-winning photographer creates eerie yet serene compositions that often focus on oppressed or

Not everyone can take a photo

crazy and I suppose those were

water cycle that spanned from

underprivileged minorities,

like this. For one thing, there’s

the pictures I got really excited

the snow-capped mountains

from Inuit communities

talent – not everyone has that. For

about. Ever since then I’ve been

down to the rivers and streams,

and females affected

another thing, there’s terrestrial

interested in looking at the human

which then led into the lake. I

by infanticide in India,

limitations – you know, that

relationship with the underwater

was also interested in looking

to ballroom dancers who

irritating fact that, as creatures of

environment and how, as land-

at the landscape both above

are a slave to fake tan.

the land, we can’t survive below

based mammals, we interact

and below the water’s surface

www.kurttong.co.uk

water for any length of time.

with this space – what attitudes

and how the rocks and plants

we change and what alters, both

beneath the water reflect the

Carolyn Lefley

psychologically and physically.”

huge mountains surrounding the

In a deserted dolls house

lake in both colour and form.”

with garish over-sized

Emma Critchley, on the other hand, can take a photo like this.

The twenty-eight-year-old was first

With that in mind, Emma’s

struck with the urge to take her

forged a photographic path

camera underwater while on a

that’s pooh-poohing Darwin and

swimming pools into studios

childish memories of

marine conservation course and

devolving mankind back to a

or braving Baltic baths, Emma

suburban incarceration. Her

month-long diving trip in Sulawesi,

semi-aquatic state. An impressive

likes to venture away from her

gloomy scenes of domesticity

Indonesia. She was slap bang

wedge of her portfolio is devoted

fine art work into documentary

have a nursery-rhyme quality

in the middle of a photography

to statuesque portraits of people

territory. In 2006, she travelled to

that suggests adventure

degree at the University of

Myanmar with a BBC producer

and magic may be waiting

Brighton at the time so, on top of

submerged in H O. And if her ² muses are holding their breath,

and camerawoman to document

through the looking glass or

the water-induced epiphany, she

you can bet Emma is too. “It’s

the buoyant lives of the Moken

under the bed, giving the

had the skills to match.

about me being underwater,

people – a community of families

familiarity of daily life a dark

and how it feels to photograph

that live on boats (kabang) for

and sombre twist.

being in that underwater world

down there,” she says from her

ten months of the year, freediving

www.carolynlefley.co.uk

that really got me into it,” she says.

studio in Brighton, England. “I

for seafood and raising their kids

“It’s really quiet and you have time

never photograph through glass

away from dry land. “They’re just

Tom Pope

to think about things and the way

or anything like that. It’s important

amazing to watch underwater as

A pointy-shoed man (who

that everything behaves when

that I get into the water as well.”

they’re so at ease and stay under

is actually Tom Pope) with

for such a long time,” she says.

spidery hair hangs mid-air

“It was the experience of

you’re underwater. A lot of the

Sometimes, however, man

When she’s not turning

photos didn’t come out – we were

and water simply do not mix, and

on the remote island of Hoga and

in the Lakes project, pictured

able to take a photo like this, well,

countryside utopias. The

I was shooting on film and had

here, there isn’t a wrinkled inch of

that may never change. But now,

catapulted body haunts the

never shot underwater before.

flesh in sight. “Well, that’s because

thanks to Troika Editions, they

landscapes using time-based

But it was more the process that

I almost killed someone!” she

can at least be yours to own.

photography to distort the

got me hooked, rather than the

laughs. “I went to the Lake District

Bringing fine art photography to

viewer’s concept of reality,

photos themselves.”

to shoot someone in a natural

the people, Troika releases three

defying gravity and prompting

environment as the water is so

limited edition prints at affordable limited-edition

the questions,“How did he get

as such that got Emma thinking,

clear. But it was freezing! So I

prices every week, including the

up there?” and “How does he

but the way that mankind has

used the opportunity to explore

work of a certain Ms Critchley. “It’s

get down?”

to bow down to its force. “There

the Wastwater Lake instead –

such a great idea,” says Emma.

www.tompope.co.uk

was a series of three that I took,

staying there for a week and

“It’s still valuing the art, but making

just some people jumping off

slowly working around the lake,

it accessible to more people.”

Buy limited-edition prints from

the boat. But with the power of

photographing it from different

Andrea Kurland

these photographers and more

the splash in the water, their skin

perspectives and exploring its

and everything looked really

tributaries. The work looks at the

It wasn’t the oceanic environ

102 HUCK

As for any old Joe being

wallpaper, Lefley captures

in images of otherwise calm

at www.troikaeditions.co.uk.

www.troikaeditions.co.uk

103

Wastwater #2, Emma Critchley.

104 HUCK

Casting a Dark Democracy, Tim Shaw.

If you dig TIM SHAW check out…

Sculptor Tim Shaw uncovers the terror at the heart of war.

BANKSY VERSUS BRISTOL MUSEUM Bristol Museum, Bristol June 13 – August 31 The King Kong of guerrilla street art returms to his hometown with a political tirade against modern society that features a ‘pet shop’ of animatronics including chicken nuggets pecking at

Tim Shaw is no stranger to

The image of the prisoner,

stench. It was all so much of

corn and fish fingers swimming

controversy. The Belfast-born

who was reportedly told that he

darkness and the void – and

in tanks while elsewhere a riot

sculptor leapt into mainstream

would be electrocuted if he fell

inescapable, too. You couldn’t

policeman rides a carousel

consciousness in October 2007

off the box, abided in Shaw’s

get away from the destruction.”

horse and chimpanzees sit

when Silenus, his sculpture of the

consciousness for months on

Hence, his Abu Ghraib figure is

in parliament.

Dionysian figure from Ancient

end. “I studied the picture of

condemned to gaze at its own

www.banksy.co.uk

Greek mythology, was vandalised

Satar Jabar [believed to be the

twisted and ugly reflection in

by a man wielding an iron bar.

name of the Iraqi prisoner] in

oil. It’s a contemporary version

Silenus – naked and priapic part-

detail,” says Shaw. “The more I

of the Narcissus myth, but

PAUL MCCARTHY: AIR PRESSURE

man, part-stag – was on show in

looked at it, the more it seemed

while Narcissus was beautiful

Botanical Gardens in De

London’s Vyner Street but suffered

to me that the image was almost

to start with, here we are in the

Uithof, Utrecht

a mutilated arm as his attacker

more important than what had

Nietzschean territory of having

July 4 – September 13

shouted, “You’re worshipping the

happened. Horrifying though

already gazed so long into the

Infamous for his deranged and

wrong God!”

this was, the image seemed to

abyss that it’s where we belong.

sexual sculptures, including

tap into something archetypal,

This is a sculptor who is not

Then came another

meat-cleaver-wielding pirates

controversial piece – a vast,

something sinister and evil which

afraid to move the language and

and a pig-bodied George

overwhelming sculpture based

recalled the hooded figures of

preoccupations of modernism

Bush, McCarthy has reached

on the infamous Abu Ghraib

the Ku Klux Klan or the Spanish

into the 21st century. Gone is

new highs (or lows) with

prisoner. Standing five metres

Inquisition. The image became

the knowing self-consciousness

this exhibition of inflatable

high, the figure, which formed

an icon.”

of post-modernism and the

sculptures that reflect an

vapid pyrotechnics of Brit Art

‘inflated society’. Among the

part of Shaw’s late 2008 show,

The sculpture, made of

Casting a Dark Democracy,

welded steel and barbed wire,

sensationalism; to the fore is

anti-consumerist objects is a

recalls a photo of an Iraqi

over which black polythene was

a politico, perhaps religious

giant Santa Claus with a butt-

prisoner which, in 2004, helped

stretched, stood like a forlorn

sensibility allied with a fearless

plug, a decapitated pig and

bring to public attention

sentinel in a sand-strewn room,

determination to create art to

the former president’s head.

accounts of abuse and torture

denuded of everything save for

make us think. No surprise that

www.airpressure.nl

in the US-controlled US controlled Abu Ghraib

an oil slick in its own likeness.

Shaw should be so lauded for

prison in Iraq. Upon its September

The sense of hope abandoned

Casting a Dark Democracy, nor

TELLING TALES

opening at the Kenneth Armitage

was intensified by the sound of

that its work may yet emerge as

V&A Museum, London

Foundation it was hailed as

a drum pulsing rhythmically – a

art’s most telling comment on the

July 14 – October 18

“the most politically charged

heartbeat maybe, or perhaps an

BushBush the administration. administration.

Leave your grown-up cynicism

but poetically resonant new

allusion to the glugging of oil, the

work in London” by respected

commodity that drove the United

fellowship at the Kenneth

magical exhibition that takes

Financial Times art critic, Jackie

States to invade Iraq.

Armitage Foundation, Shaw is

everyday objects and gives

working on a bronze sculpture

them a fairytale twist. Expect

no doubt also played its part in

that will be unveiled in Truro,

a bath that is actually a boat,

but so too was its most

his fascination with Abu Ghraib.

Cornwall in Cornwall, in September September 2010.

2010.

cabinets made out of china

immediate prompt – the Iraq War.

“Bombs going off were a regular

Meanwhile, we are left with the

teacups, and mushroom-

“I recall seeing the image of the

part of life for me as a child and

image of Abu Ghraib, one of the

cloud cushions among the

hooded Iraqi prisoner standing

teenager,” he He explains. “There

hollow men, a shape without form

ethereal furniture dreamed up

on a wooden box, and feeling

was always a strange feeling

whose unseeing eyes we dare

from tales of princesses and

shaken to the core,” says Shaw. “It

immediately after an explosion.

not meet in dreams. Alex Wade

poisoned apples.

summed up everything that was

I can still see wires and metal

wrong about the war.”

and rubble. There was a peculiar

Wullschlager.

It was the stuff of nightmares,

Shaw’s Belfast upbringing

Having completed his

at the door as you enter this

www.vam.ac.uk

www.timshawsculptor.com

105

if You dig The Yes Men fiX The world CheCk ouT:

serial pranks ters the Yes Men, , give political a a mischievousctivism up the backsidkick e.

BurMa VJ (2009) Director: Anders Østergaard In September 2007, Buddhist

traile

r

monks risked their lives to lead an uprising against the military junta in Burma, resulting in a violent clampdown by the regime.

This documentary is made up of hand-held camera footage smuggled out of the country.

It’s all too easy to turn a blind eye to some of the

fossil fuel called Vivoleum.

But it’s not just about

as we know it impossible”.

But all this has a serious

The shoCk doCTrine (2009) Director: Michael

injustices being meted out by

pissing off a few corporate suits

point, explains Bichlbaum: “It’s

Winterbottom

corporations and governments

–- many many of of whom whom nod nod scarily scarily in in

about contributing to a much

Naomi Klein’s best-selling

around the world. One group,

agreement when presented with

bigger movement that’s fighting

book on disaster capitalism

however, refuses to let these

some of their ridiculous ideas.

to change things. If they didn’t

is brought to the big screen.

offenders get off the hook. They

“We’re hoping to inspire a lot of

exist, things would be much

It focuses around the idea

are the Yes Men, a “genderless,

people to take direct action,” says

worse than they are. There

that neo-liberal capitalism

loose-knit association of some

Bichlbaum, who once posed as a

would be no hope of fighting

exploits war, terror and natural

300 imposters” spearheaded by

spokesman for The Dow Chemical

climate change or reducing our

disasters around the world

two guys who go by the names

Company on BBC News and

carbon emissions. Right now

to push through radical and

of Andy Bichlbaum and Mike

claimed full responsibility responsibili tyfor forthe the

there’s still hope.”

unpopular reforms to the

Bonanno (as well as many

Bhopal disaster of 1984 – where

other monikers).

a toxic gas leak from a factory

to stop agitating corporate corporate

Clearly the pair don’t don’t plan plan

belonging to the Dow subsidiary,

interests anytime soon, soon, having having

Union Carbide, allegedly led

recently involved themselves themselves in in

some of the group’s most

to the deaths of nearly 10,000

a large protest outside outside Dow’s Dow’s

enron: The sMarTesT guYs in The rooM (2005)

ingenious and outlandish

people. “There’s a whole bunch

head office near London, London, armed armed

Director: Alex Gibney

stunts, in which they can

of social and environmental

with bottles of /B’Eau-Pal/ 'B’Eau-Pal' water water

The film exposes the rampant

be seen “impersonating

injustice issues out there that, if

taken from the contaminated contaminated

level of corporate abuse

big-time criminals in order

we don’t fix, pretty soon we could

ground in Bhopal. The The result? result?

and fraud that lead to the

to publicly humiliate them.”

end up being really, really fucked.”

Dow evacuated their their offi offices ces for for

collapse of Enron, one of

the day. “Direct action, action, putting putting

the biggest corporations in

Whether it’s meant setting up

Recalling the film Fight Club,

a fake consultancy website or

the pair’s first pranks involved

your body on the line, line, risking risking

America’s history, and takes

blagging their way onto an

former computer programmer

arrest is the only thing thing that that

apart the company’s main

empty conference podium,

Andy slicing images of men

actually changes things,” things,” says says

protagonists with near-

the Yes Men have managed to

kissing into a computer game

Bonanno. “Taking to the the streets, streets,

surgical precision.

pose as spokesmen for the likes

called SimCopter. Meanwhile,

taking over government government offi offices ces

of the World Trade Organisation

Mike’s first foray into activism

and sitting on buses where where

hoMe (2009)

(WTO) and ExxonMobil – before

saw him putting Barbie voice

you’re not supposed to to sit sit –– all all

Director: Yann Arthus-Bertrand

proceeding to lampoon them

chips into Action Man dolls,

that actually does work.” work.”

This epic and beautifully shot

in the most extreme of ways.

so that the hardened soldiers

This has included advocating

could be heard saying, “Let’s

going to take a lot of balls,” hints

Glenn Close puts our planet

the reintroduction of slavery

go shopping!” At one point

Bonanno with a laugh. “It’s very

under the microscope

in Africa on behalf of the WTO

in the film, the pair pose as

ballsy. And I mean that directly,

to examine how humans

or recommending that the

representatives of Halliburton

it’s not an abstract statement.”

are both the cause and

National Petroleum Council

to promote a climate-change-

Ed Andrews

potentially the solution to

turn the dead bodies of the

proof ‘SurvivaBall’ suit to “keep

millions who may die from

corporate managers safe even

The Yes Men Fix the World is

climate change into a new

when climate change makes life

released is out now. on August 7.

106 HUCK

As for their next stunt? “It’s

r

benefit of big business.

Men Fix the World, documents

Their new film, The Yes

traile

documentary narrated by

our current environmental problems.

traile

r

traile

r

Andy Bichlbaum in the 'SurvivaBall'.

traile r

107

Mayer hawthorne A Strange Arrangement Stones Throw If Mark Ronson wasn’t rubbish, he might sound like Mayer Hawthorne. Actually, in Mark Ronson’s deepest and most erotic dreams he thinks he is Mayer Hawthorne, because where the Ronster does the most inane, supermarket-lite soul, the Mayer delivers vintage doo-wop and Motown with ease, grace and slightly creepy style. He’s a hip hopper at heart (he’s part of the Now On crew, originally from Detroit) and he claims he discovered his golden voice and ability to write classic soul songs by accident. Debut single, ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’, came out at the beginning of the year and confused the shit out of everyone: Is he black or white?

Is this old or new? Ad nauseam. The album has a broader palette, taking in West Coast pop, barber shop vocals, and a lot of Curtis Mayfield. Retro to its core, but it sounds beautiful and his lyrics are hilarious to boot. Phil Hebblethwaite

atileenr tlirs

Chali 2na

listen

Fish Outta Water Decon Whoah, flashback to 1998. There’s been talk of this former Jurassic 5 MC’s solo album for years and now it’s here it’s impossible to care.

Chali’s the one with the baritone voice that worked well as part of a multi-MC crew, but it beats you down over the course of an album, and this seems to go on for 1000 years. Competent at best, but seldom more than really flat-sounding. PH

shit and shine 229 229-2299 2299 Girls Against Shit! Riot Season Live, Shit And Shine are a trance-inducing, brain-melting barrage of a million drums combined with heavy bass and piercing shards of spastic electronic noise. Heavenly. On LP seven, their best yet, they’re equally deranged but more calculated. Ostensibly the feral sounds inside main main-man man Craig Clouse’s head burnt onto a CD. So damn right in every way, and funky as fuck. PH

Taken By Trees

atileenr tlirs

listen

East Of Eden Rough Trade Sweden’s Victoria Bergsman, former Concretes frontlady and the woman whose guest vocal on Peter Bjorn and John’s ‘Young Folks’ secured them the only hit they’ll ever have, journeyed to Pakistan to cut her second solo album. It’s almost infuriatingly righteous, but that gorgeous bittersweet voice of hers and genuine artistic ambition ensures a rich listen. More than that, it’s audacious and compelling. PH

The Very Best Warm Heart Of Africa Moshi Moshi Proper cross-cultural showdown here as Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya teams up with Swedish/French production duo, Radioclit.

All three are currently East London-based, but this is not some hideous fusion music botch job; it’s a profoundly forward-thinking and organic meeting of ideas and flavours. The production is superb and the joy you hear in Esau’s voice is utterly infectious . PH

108 HUCK

listen

Mesrine: killer instinct Mesrine: Public enemy number one Director: Jean-François Richet France’s most charismatic actor takes on the country’s most notorious criminal in this two-part, four-hour biopic. Vincent Cassel plays Jacques Mesrine – lover, murderer, bank robber and freedom fighter – who left a trail of destruction across France and Canada before being executed on the streets of Paris in 1979. It’s the role of a lifetime for Cassel, who duly rips into it with depthless energy. Not quite a modern gangster classic, but still epic entertainment. Matt Bochenski

traile

r

The hurt locker

traile

r

Director: Kathryn Bigelow action, Billed ashand-held the most exciting photography film yet and to be authentically inspired byparched the Iraq War, visuals. But Kathryn Bigelow’s here’s the latest thing: follows there theisexploits no Iraq of War, bomb just an disposal illegalhot occupation, shot William James and The (Jeremy Hurt Locker Renner). is the And modern sure, it’s equivalent full of tense of rooting hand-held action, for the Nazis photography against the and French authentically Resistance.parched MB visuals. But here’s the thing: there is no Iraq War, just an illegal occupation, and The Hurt Locker is the modern equivalent of rooting for the Nazis against the French Resistance. MB

inglourious Basterds Director: Quentin Tarantino There’s There’s a really a really shit British shit British film about film about football football hooligans hooligans from 1995 from 1995called calledID. ID.But Butthere’s there’saareally reallygreat greatline lineininit:it:“’Fuck, “Fuck,fuck, fuck,fuck’. fuck.

That’s all you ever say. And the more you fuckin’ say it, the less you fuckin’ do it!” The same applies for Quentin Tarantino and filmmaking. The more his movies reference past classics, the less capable he seems of making one himself. So Inglourious Basterds is an homage to every war movie under the sun, but a joyless and inert experience itself, long on waffle, short on fun. MB

traile

r

fish Tank

traile

r

Director: Andrea Arnold After the sleazy, queasy thrills of Red Road, Andrea Arnold proves that she’s no one-hit wonder with Fish Tank. It’s graced with an explosive debut from non-pro Katie Jarvis as Mia, an unloved teen, all snarling anger and spitting confrontation, who is slowly and helplessly drawn to the new boyfriend her mum has brought home to their tiny council flat. Tight, focused and resonant with an authentic urban energy, Fish Tank cements Arnold’s place in the front rank of young directors, and announces the presence of a powerful newcomer. MB

Bustin' inglourious down Basterds the door Director: Director: Quentin Jeremy Tarantino Gosch This There’s documentary a really shit tellsBritish the story filmofabout a group football of fame-hungry hooligansAntipodean from 1995 surferscalled who descended ID. But there’s on Hawaii a really in great the 1970s line and in it:helped “’Fuck, take fuck,surfi fuck’. ng from That’s a counter-culture all you ever say. hobby And the to a more lucrative youcareer. fuckin’ The say now it, the middleless aged you protagonists, fuckin’ do including it!” The same Rabbit applies Bartholomew for Quentin and Tarantino Shaun Tomson, and recount filmmaking. their stories The more with wit hisand movies a hintreference of sadness past which, classics, alongthe withless an capable informative he narrative seems ofand making awe-inspiring one himself. archive So footage, Inglourious makes Basterds for an entertaining and inert experience education itself, in thelong history onofwaffl pro e, surfi short ng. Ed onAndrews fun. MB

110 HUCK

traile

r

Wii Sports Resort Wii The sequel to the most universally appealing game ever is finally here. But where the original Wii Sports suffered from a few dodgy controls, Wii Sports Resort comes with a new peripheral device called WiiMotion Plus, which sharpens up the accuracy of the controls nicely. This allows some new tweaks to old favourites like Bowling and Golf, but new games like Swordplay, Basketball and Table Tennis really take advantage of this leap in technology. And along with Wakeboarding, Frisbee, Cycling and Canoeing, it will give you plenty of new ways to accidentally smash your living room furniture. Ed Andrews

Wolfenstein Xbox 360, PS3, PC Nazis are back! Not physically but commercially. It seems people can’t get enough of history’s ultimate bad guys, and the gaming world is no exception. Before you can say fetishising-a-darkperiod-of-human-history, the original first-person shooter has been resurrected once again, giving you another shot at stopping Hitler dabbling with the Occult. The very un-cerebral gameplay involves shooting everything with an extremely right-wing ideology, from mad scientists to supernatural assassins. With a few extra inventive touches like slowing down time, Wolfenstein at least attempts something ‘new’ – old beat-up formula aside. Ed A

The Beatles Rock Band Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 It was only a matter of time before boardroom executives pushed the the button button on on this this one. one. The Beatles Rock Band follows the usual Rock Band formula letting you rock out (ie. tap plastic toys in time) to your favourite Beatles tunes. The game takes you on a magical magical musical musical journey journey from from the the Cavern Cavern Clubs Clubto tothe theOctopus’s Octopus' Gardens Garden –- all carefully designed to get fans literally soiling themselves with nostalgia. It also comes with special-edition replica instruments that the Fab Four used before they became either bloated, sanctimonious, dead or the voice of Thomas the Tank Engine. Ed A

Dead Rising 2 Xbox 360, PS3, PC George A Romero must be about one phone call away from suing the developers of the Dead Rising series seeing as it’s basically just Dawn of the Dead but without any of those pesky royalty issues. However, if mutilating the undead is your thing, the game is nothing short of awesome. Now set in gambling haven Fortune City, you have to fight your way through swarms of walking cadavers using any weapon you lay your hands on to complete various missions. With lots of power-ups and the ability to customise your own unique zombie-killing armoury, it’s vital training for the real zombie apocalypse. It’s coming soon, no really, it is… Ed A

112 HUCK

ction to the North Shore

A Harsh and Indelible Introdu

My first trip to the North Shore was in ’82. I went with my older brother Steven who was sixteen at the time. I was fifteen. It took at least three months of relentless badgering to convince our parents we could go by ourselves. The North Shore was a big deal.

We ran beach sprints, practiced holding our breath underwater in the bathtub, and added two eggs to our after-school chocolate chip milkshakes in order to build up our strength.

Our good pal Novak, who’d been there for most of the winter, arranged for us to stay with a crew of guys he’d met out in the surf. He and a Hawaiian friend picked us up at the airport, ran us through the North Shore do’s and don’ts, then dropped us off at a small beachfront cottage.

All our months of training and mental preparation went straight out the window on that first night. There was somewhere between eight and ten people staying in the two-bedroom house – some from Florida, at least two from North Carolina, one from New Zealand - it was hard to keep track. We laid our sleeping bags out on the linoleum kitchen floor and tossed and turned while in the adjoining dining room our new roommates played poker, drank beer, smoked joints, snorted what appeared to be cocaine, and listened to Blue Oyster Cult at an excruciatingly loud volume until three or four in the morning.

What looks large from a distance, close up ain’t never that big, goes the great Bob Dylan line. This applied perfectly to my North Shore experience in all areas but the actual waves. To begin with, those hallowed surf spots we’d seen in magazines and movies were in fact right on top of each other. Pipeline, Backdoor and Off The Wall were essentially the same wave, separated only by the direction the rider chooses to go. Velzyland, Backyards, Sunset, Kammies, Monster Mush, Rocky Point, Gas Chambers, Pupukea, Ehukai, Rockpile, Log Cabins, Waimea Bay, Marijuanas, Alligator Rock, Pidleys, Chuns, Laniakea, Himalayas, Haleiwa, and Avalanche all fell within a meager seven-mile stretch. The superstar surfers who, according to the magazines, ran beach sprints, practiced yoga, and gulped down raw eggs for breakfast in fact partied as hard or harder than our wired, insomniac roommates. There was a severe lack of female, both literally and spiritually, which resulted in a torrent of machismo. Caveman ethics prevailed. Brawn ruled over brain. The North Shore was surfing’s Mecca, but it was also a cultural backwater, a haven for dropouts, potheads, and Peter Pans.

It was amazing how everything revolved around the surf. The ocean seemed to dictate moods. When it was flat, surfers got on the bong, the Häagen-Dazs, the around-the-clock TV watching.

When it was up, the collective buzz was palpable from the parking lot at Sunset to the checkout line at Foodland. And unlike Los Angeles, where surfers were treated as second-class citizens, here we were royalty. Big-wave riders were like gladiators; shapers aquatic Henry Fords.

114 HUCK

On the day the legendary Waimea Bay broke, traffic came to a near standstill on Kam Highway. Bermuda-clad tourists gathered along the lava cliffs with binoculars, awestruck by the thirty-foot waves. Muscled surfers huddled at the shoreline, waiting for lulls.

When the timing was right they’d sprint down the steep slope and mount their spearlike boards with a terrific flourish, stroking madly for the horizon. The waves broke so far out to sea that it was impossible to tell who was who. A mountain of water loomed, a cluster of surfers stroked, a handful hopped to their feet then spilled like ants over the ledge. The details were lost in the explosion of whitewash and shroud of mist. It was like trying to follow golf balls.

But while this essential rite of passage was meant to be about big waves, it became something else. We got brutally pitched over the falls at triple-overhead, thumping Log Cabins, which is said to have sporadic coral heads lurking inches beneath the surface.

We paddled out to massive west swell Sunset and hovered fearfully in the channel as the infamous Inside Bowl did a kind of yawn before thudding down violently. We got ragdolled under massive explosions of whitewash, kept our eyes open underwater just like they said you were supposed to, and groped, groped, groped – then groped some more – before finally breaking the surface and getting that first glorious gasp of air.

But more importantly we met locals whose worlds were radically different from ours. Brock, a fearless fifteen-year-old, took great pleasure in paddling out alone on big days and kamikazeing off the ledges of huge, evil waves, just for fun. Jimmy, a smiling Hawaiian straight out of a C&H Pure Cane Sugar commercial, lived with his brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, pit bulls and chickens, listened exclusively to Steel Pulse, seemed to be totally void of ambition, yet seemed happier than any ninth grade kid I’d ever met. Novak told us that he’d had money stolen out of his suitcase by the Hawaiian family he was staying with, but that this was a kind of ‘tax’, happens every year.

We learned to avoid eye contact with locals and to never so much as glance at their girlfriends. We heard about ‘Beat Up Haole Day’ at Kahuku High, on which we’d for sure get our asses kicked. We were told never to write our addresses on our board boxes because embittered baggage handlers have been known to hack away with baseball bats.

On a windswept day at Pupukea, Novak pointed out a stocky, mustached North Shore heavyweight that had allegedly killed people in the cane fields behind Haleiwa, and for a moment, for a few days in fact, the world felt incredibly slippery, there seemed to be no safe haven. The ocean was full of teeth and a simple stop at Kammies market for a bag of Doritos could easily end in a parking lot brawl.

Only after several North Shore winters would I come to understand the reciprocity, how the life-threatening ocean and on-edge lifestyles were inextricably linked. Jamie Brisick

MAGAULAY