SLAB issue 1 global
HELLO WORLD!
La gravière Shoot: Fléchet
SLAB issue 1 global
BP / Hawaii 09/10 Shoot: Tungsten
S
L A B L A S B
Pipeline 2009/2010 Shoot: S. Léquerré
Prologue. Bienvenue!
‘Slab, project of a few bodyboard addicts, is a 80 pages webzine created to propose a different vision of Bodyboarding, using a distinct angle Just general thoughts on the sport, trips reports and a space of expression for all kind of bodyboarders, whoever they are. It aims to be a space of artistic creation for the Bodyboarding community, through words and graphic means. The English version of the magazine will be released every 6 months, each “opus” based on a renewed graphic universe. Reading will be free online, and we are working on a printed limited collector edition. The will is to leave the mainstream approach of the sport to promote creation, sharing and community spirit. This project’s humble objective is to entertain our passion through a combination of images and words… Njoy.
French westcoast Shoot: Allano
Inside SLAB / France shoot: Allano
SLAB issue 1 global
Hawaiian Season / Galerie / page. 64
BZH Shoot: Le prevost
*SOMMAIRE
Sir Jack Johns / Interview / page. 50
9
Bodyboard - Art / Arcticle / page. 76
Parallelism / Articles / page. 22 / 48
French gallery / Galerie / page. 24
Madeira / Article / page. 14
SLAB issue 1 global
CONVERSATION N°1
MADEIRA
Texts & Adaptations : sérgio dasilva Traduction: Laurent Bory
What defines a good trip? The quality of surfing, sunny days and cheap local life? Not really. Well yeah, those things have some importance of course. But a good trip is also made of encounters, planned or fortuitous, with the People and the Land that welcome you. This is how we discovered an island with a soul during a stay in Madeira in the middle of the 2008 winter. Jardim do Mar. Our base camp during our stay on the island. Nestled at the bottom of cliffs, this village is home to a hundred people at most. Everything in this place suggests that silence is abundant. False! Jardim do Mar is a true chatterer. Its Portuguese draining systems, called levadas, constantly distil their whispers above the azulejos. Its mood is quiet and serene, so it is pleasant to live here, from early in the morning to late in the evening.
Cecilia. Cecilia is a little bit like an angel who welcomes you to paradise. How do I know? Because the first thing we heard was “take a seat at the terrace, enjoy the sea view” while we were offered a homemade orange-banana cake and a freshly pressed orangebanana juice (no, it is not a new local fruit, and yes, they like the orangebanana mix). Then you think that you are really close to Eden, and that the zealous customs officer at Orly airport is nothing more than a bad memory. Ponta Pequena. The first words coming to my mind when I think of this wave it is “the girl next door”. You know this neighbour, who lives right in front you, terribly shy person who, behind her glasses and beyond her attitudes, could send you straight to hell or to seventh heaven. Capricious and mischievous, she
is always open to chatting with everyone but only reveals her real nature to the boldest of us, the ones who are motivated enough to really try to understand her. One unavoidable hour (back and forth) of walking on stone blocks, along a cliff, at the bottom of which one always finds a stone that was not here the day before…, plus about ten minutes of paddling to reach the peak, at the third bowl… The dialogue can be fruitful, tubes and speed, or hostile. The Australian surfer with the broken clavicle (hope you are ok my friend) could testify of this touchy nature. Papy Boyington. Australian body and soul, in his fifties. Skin devastated by salt, the sun and the years of surfing everywhere on our good planet earth. He is, of all the riders met during this trip, the one who most impressed us. Equipped with long guns, we will cross the route of these old bandidos several times around the island, either at Bruxas, or on the wooden walkway of Sao Vicente or inside a bar at Jardim, having
Northcoast/ barlog.
SLAB issue 1 global
Full glass Paul do mar. /barlog.
SLAB issue 1 global
Lover’s Wall. Paul do mar / barlog.
some drinks before the long nightly “rat race” to come. The best expression of his talent and spirit will shine at the time of the best session at Ponta Pequena when fat sets of 2 metres were igniting the 5 to 6 sections of the spot. He did gain the award of the most engaged move of the day. Riding fullspeed from the 3rd section, knowing he would not go through the next one, and the wave closing behind him, he stared at us and BAM! Kicked-out through a back-flip, dangerously close to the reef. Paddling back to the peak, smiling and without a scratch, he’ll have this comment: “funny”. Clean. Costa Norte. It is like another island. Luxuriant, misty and always under a fine intermittent rain. Although the swell had not been completely present during our stay, the waves were never below 4 feet. And given the shore profile, they were often above 6 feet and even overhead
BlueBottle. A local cousin, but clearly inspired by the rest of the jellyfish family. Its contact did cost me a session and a “one-way ticket” to the nearest dispensary for the traditional “double injection, right arm and left spank” followed by a visit of the local pharmacies. The survival advice n°14 (the one that even Bears of “Man vs Wild” will never show you on TV): to urinate on the affected area. That will just ease the pain due to hot temperature of the liquid. If you do not feel (a bit) appeased, it is quite probably because you have already died. Only joking! It is just that you need to hurry for the injection. By the way the idea of driving at full speed with your hand outside the window thinking that the wind will ease the burn is totally stupid…
Bruxas. It is after the first session that we learned the name of this dead end on the northern side of the Island. Bruxas means Witch, and oddly when I remember the place it is clear that this isolated point could not be better named given the peculiar atmosphere reigning there. It is dirty, ugly and murky. In other words, it is “slab”. Like the Jellyfish, your blood freezes if you have the misfortune to cross its deep blue eye. It is aggressive; it plays with your nerves and almost caused me to have a heart attack, when the waves doubled in size in just 15 minutes, closing what we used just before as a quiet channel from the peak to the beach.
Sitting in front of my computer remembering these encounters, whatever form they took, I realise that all of them made this trip unique. Something different, which makes me think that without such moments, what would we remember about a trip when we are back home? Last Bowl Punta Pequena / DR.
madeira Pastels / Madère / Breluzeau.
SLAB issue 1 global
CONVERSATION N°2
PARALLELISM 1.1 Texts & Adaptations : Alain Pereira Traduction: Laurent Bory
Just take off your suit or overalls and slip on a wetsuit. Leave everything, including your worries about daily life, on the beach before jumping into the water, to refocus on the essential things the time a session lasts. A vision of bodyboarding, the one of a true amateur disconnected from the “boogie world”. –AP-
It often starts with a polystyrene board that looks like an ironing board. Good enough to slalom around swimmers’ legs during the 2-week summer holidays. The next year, the upgrade (after endless discussions with parents) is a pink sponge acquired at the local supermarket. Then a lycra shirt is added, to protect our bellies from the first irritations and, finally, a shorty. It seems like it was yesterday. Later will come the first true board, a “Morey” generally -as the name sounds more familiar to the purse holders- and at last a pair of fins. We start to enjoy rides outside the swimming area… and the first true feelings. From here comes the willingness to practise more, and outside the crowded summer period. Pushed by curiosity, the search of fellow bodyboarders leads to small communities giving life to their common passion. People entertain endless discussions on gear, tricks, spots… a whole culture to grasp. You gradually get closer to the “crazies” met in Winter waters. Soon after that, one starts to scan coastal maps, check the weather and swell forecasts. And one day you jump into a car with people you may hardly know, apart the only fact that matters: they want to escape the routine for a moment with a good session. The benefit is twofold: go to surf and meet people of varied horizons. And there is a huge variety of bodyboarders. For some people, bodyboarding is like the air they breathe, and their life is mostly built around it. For others, it is simply the best way of finding themselves, enjoying friends and refreshing their spirit. As often as they can, but never enough. Some live within walking distance of their home spot, some find themselves, or have always lived (too) far from the sea. Some people just have to open their window to know if they will be going to work with salty hair from an early morning session,
while others frenetically check the spots’ webcams and forecasts, in order to confirm the hope that the swell will be here 3 days from now, when they will be able to drive a thousand kilometres to reach the beaches for a long awaited week-end of sessions and good mood. But all feel the same rush of adrenalin when, arriving at the spot in a car misted and smelling of wet neoprene, a perfect peak unfolds before their eyes. It is impossible to find a bodyboarder who hasn’t a small moment of absence, before taking to the water, when the perfect tube appears, free of any rider. Note by the way that the so-called “perfect wave” often appears at the most inappropriate moment, just to mock you. When you are naked under your beach towel, the boardshort at your feet, struggling to keep your balance on vicious stones. Or when you look at your shoes on a slippery path to the spot, your arms full of boards, fins and the rest. And we’ve all felt, amateurs and “pros”, that sort of exacerbated frenzy when the fastest guy is already paddling while you are still struggling with your “f******ing wetsuit” … This insatiable eagerness for waves. This is all that we like in bodyboarding. All those moments, as important as the session in itself. Sharing, good vibes, quiet times when, after 600 km compressed in a small car, each rider enter his own bubble before paddling out. Then, the session itself overrides everything. But that is another story.
French coast / Swelly day shoot: M. Hemon
French Britany’ Slab / M. Merrien shoot: B.Hemidy
SLAB issue 1 global
28
Jeremy Arnoux vs 40 shoot: B.FlĂŠchet
SLAB issue 1 global
29
Secret Basque shoot: B.FlĂŠchet
SLAB issue 1 global
Jeremy Arnoux Summer invert shoot: L.Gouirriec
North france shoot: B.FlĂŠchet
SLAB issue 1 global
RĂŠ island / Jul Bourseguin shoot: N. Breluzeau
SLAB issue 1 global
Green room « Les landes» shoot: A. Allano
SLAB issue 1 global
French Britany / E. Genre shoot: B.Hemidy
SLAB issue 1 global
Young Blood Maxime Ausina shoot: M.Hemon
SLAB issue 1 global
Inside CentralCoast shoot: M. Annonier
SLAB issue 1 global
Furious 40 shoot: M. Hemon Britany Geometry shoot: M.Merrien Old mach7 shoot: J. Le prĂŠvost Yoan Cannevet vs 64 shoot: M. Hemon
SLAB issue 1 global
SLAB issue 1 global
Thomas «Golgot» Goyenetch / Anglet
shoot: M. Hemon
SLAB issue 1 global
44
Secret Basque shoot: B.FlĂŠchet
SLAB issue 1 global
45
PLC at home / shoot: M. Merrien
SLAB issue 1 global
South Oz / shoot: S. Powyer
Swell: 2.5 meters / period: 13 seconds / a light, offshore breath of wind, glassy water Rush, tomorrow morning. The magic session is close. Already some agitation in the Vans parked along the spot. Everyone wants to be part of it, the night will be short. To get a good seat at the peak and benefit from some waves in a not too crowded session, early wake up and some fighting spirit are required. Unless… China, the tensed sessions during which everyone shouts at everyone else for nothing, whistle to claim its priority, plague against the guy who falls on the wave that you could have taken-off so easily. To leave frustrated after 4 hours in the water, despite what were on paper “perfect conditions”. Some always decide to avoid that. “Foxes”. Surfers with good intuitions, gold diggers. The formula is rather simple: a lot of walking, sometimes for nothing. Hours of driving, in search of an exploitable reef or an unexpected sand bank. Time spent, trying to understand the coast, to apprehend the conditions that will turn an anonymous rock into a “secret reef ”. A little talking and exchanging. Because you need to give a little, if you want to receive. A small pinch of luck also, which sometimes makes you turn your head at the right moment and see a wave so fugacious that maybe no one will see it work for a year after that day. Finally, and especially, a lot of curiosity, motivation and desire. Curiosity to try to surf out of the mainstream paths. To jump in the water at low tide at spots known to work on high tide. To be able to park and turn off the car just to see whether the foam seen far away from the road and the shore reveals a pearl. To be able to study the numerous forecasts, maps and reports to make the most of the unmatched experience of the old local
guys and their anecdotes. And curiosity to go to see further, quite simply… “Just in case”. Motivation. You need some to take the risk to miss the easy and fat session announced for one week. To force yourself on a half-an-hour walk, then sometimes as much of paddling, knowing that within a few kilometres there are dozens of surfers enjoying good conditions on a beach with a car park, showers and truck-bar. Motivation is also needed to find the courage to set the alarm clock for two hours earlier, to leave the comfort of a house in the cold rain, barely 10°C, just trusting the weather man’s words. “Within two hours, the weather will be just fine”. Difficult to believe in it when the windshield wiper, at max speed, struggles to get rid of the water poured by Zeus on our poor car. But we keep faith. We believe in it because often, at the end of these efforts, there is the perfect session. The waking up at dawn, the empty roads. The long walk, which opens our senses, and gently prepares us for the effort. The occasion also to enjoy unique landscapes, lit by the first sun rays. A good moment finally, to record the past epic sessions, our cement as a bodyboarding crew. Past “killer days” stories evoked again as if it could guarantee that the session to come will be added to the list. And then the excitement, when after all that and some doubts, arises the perfect line-up. To know that THE session, the one with the spot just for a few of us, the long awaited and well deserved one, is to take place soon. To know that at the peak, the mood will be good. The positive emulation of the crew, en48
47
shoot: M.Hemon
couragement and whistles of the guys, good laughter. “Ah you left your teeth on the reef on this one buddy!”. To dry off on the beach and enjoy a hot cup of tea in front of a perfect, unridden wave once the session is over, when we have been pulled out by cramps and the cold. And leave the beach at the dusk, trying to retain this moment in our eyes just for one more second, before heading to the car with a strong intention to come back and relive the day, and even better…
10
CONVERSATION N°4
SIR JACK JOHNS Interview & Adaptation : sérgio dasilva Traduction: Laurent Bory
Oh my Lord ! with such a name, one expects to meet an English Aristocrat or a Wooden-legged Pirate... Both images are untrue, in the end we are pleased to meet a true ambassador of the new European School that is raising on the bodyboarding scene. Let’s embark into Sir Jack Johns’ universe.
Portrait shoot: www.alastairsopp.co.uk
12
ENGLAND / BRITISH ISLES/ EUROPE When you grow up in London, how do you come to boogie? tell us the small Jacky’s career, how fun transformed into passion, addiction and finally job ? I was always in and out the sea when i was young, but it wasn’t until i was about 15 when i went on my first trip. I was a standup surfer at that point, but i went away with Mickey Smith and he got me amped to get back on the boogs. So i guess it all went from there, i left college, started focusing on working to get the money to travel and find the best waves to further by bodyboarding. I hadn’t ever planned on it being a job, i just loved every minute of it and wanted to put all my energy into it. Even in Europe (shame on us), the UK boogie scene is not very well known: can you describe your island, the riders and the local codes and habits? There’s a large community of boogers over here but we seem to keep to our own separate groups and parts of the coast. I always surf with my best mates and we keep to ourselves a bit. Although this year, the BBC (British Bodyboard Club) have put together good little comp tour, which is bringing everyone together a lot more. I’m stoked to be apart of it. We don’t get world-class waves here, but if there’s swell, then there is always somewhere really fun to surf. During the last years, Ireland and to certain extent also Scotland have been under the international spotlights has an hardcore boogie destination in Europe: what is your relation with those regions and their spots? I did my first surfing trip to Ireland when i was 15 and have been going back every year since. We’ve found a lot of incredible waves out there and continue to find more every winter. The only thing is that you have to put your time in out there to get the waves as the good weather patterns are so fickle, but its sooo worth the wait when you do finally get waves! Scotland is awesome. I want to do a lot more exploring up there as there so many waves to be found, the coastline and countryside is beautiful.
Did you come to France for surfing already ? did you enjoy it ? I have a couple of trips down through France but had a bad experience a few years back, on our first day our car was broken into and all our stuff was stolen, sort of put a damper on the trip, but i do love the French culture and the waves are incredible.
The only thing is that you have to put your time in out there to get the waves as the good weather patterns are so fickle, but its sooo worth the wait when you do finally get waves!
Aileens shoot: Mickey smith
SLAB issue 1 global
shoot: Jack Johns
SLAB issue 1 global
OZ Evolution requires also trips and experiments of other slabs around the globe. A destination of choice, both for the waves and the level, is of course Australia. Tell us how you did land for the first time on this playground?How did you adapt to the local scene, and do you think now that you have been adopted by the local riders? I first went when I was 17 and have been back four times since, the selection of waves there are unlike anywhere in the world. Incredible beaches, reefs, wedges, there is just so much choice. I was pretty intimidated when i first went as all the kids were so good, but I got to know a few locals and they seemed happy with showing me around and i just learnt a lot from them.
We saw you in several purely Australian videos, among the current top riders: how did you penetrate this small world? Just surfing alongside the top riders helps your surfing heaps, so id make sure id be surfing were they were so I could learn off them, that lead to me getting into a few vids. What spots or region do you prefer there? The south coast bellow Sydney is amazing and it has some of the raddest people I’ve met in the world down there, but WA is pretty special also. You can get lost in the wilderness there and not see anyone for days. What are your next trips and projects? I plan on doing a few trips around Europe at the end of the summer with the Aussie boys, nothing set in stone just yet, but just see how things go.
SLAB issue 1 global
BUSINESS / MEDIAS / We never saw you in an international contest: what do you think of this aspect of the sport and the way it evolves? I like the way the IBA is taking things these days, it seems to be getting better and better each year, always adding new spots to the tour, but for me, contests have never been my strong point as I’m not a competitive person. I need to get 100% focused on bodyboarding if I ever stood a chance on doing well and at this point in my life, I have other things that are important to me. Saying that I would like to compete in the Pipe event next year maybe. Is free-surfing a choice, a strategy, or simply a natural evolution? I never really thought about it or made it ‘a choice’ but i guess just travelling to beautiful places and getting waves is the most logical thing for me to do. How do you combine free-surfing and sponsorship? What do they expect from a free-rider like you? JI never really got much from my sponsors except equipment, so they haven’t expected to much from me. Haha. I have always funded my own trips and enjoyed doing it that way. Although, if someone was to offer me a decent contract, I wouldn’t turn it down. In this context, do you manage to make a living with your passion today, and how? I don’t get money for bodyboarding and never have. I work hard when I’m at home, I’m a Lifeguard and labourer
57
shoot: Jack Johns
SLAB issue 1 global
Can you tell us something about your collaboration with NMD? I’ve been with them for 7years or so now and am so happy with them. Dan Sirvess shapes me the best boards I can imagine and they just keep getting better each year! I manage to get a Signature Model with them last year through the Uk distributor and its a dream come true. You also work with GUL, a UK specialist of wetsuits: how did your collaboration start and what vision do you bring as a pro-bber on their products? how they position themselves on the boogie market and what are their intentions in that respect ? will they bring innovation in the very competitive wetsuit market ? They were my first sponsor 10years ago and have been very good to me. They’ve been making suits since 1967, so they have great materials and a huge knowledge of what works and what doesn’t, we’re actually working on a bodyboard suit at the moment so keep your eyes peeled.
59
shoot: Jack Johns
BOOGTIQUE / What are your relations with the different brands? I met most of the owners of the brands we stock whilst travelling, so the companies we choose are ones we feel are putting 100% back into bodyboarding and make the best products. What do you think about the bb-ing market in general? in the UK, and more generally? I think if the products are readily available, bodyboarders are loyal. Before we started we didn’t really know how much of a market there was there and thus took a bit of a risk, but we’ve had a lot of support and have been posting packages all over Europe. Do you have French clients or exclusive products to be checked in your shop that French clients should be aware of ? Well, we have a lot of products that aren’t sold anywhere in Europe, plus the latest DVD releases such as Grow Up and Fever Dream. We do offers ever month so get on the blog to find out!
Big session / Aileens shoot: Mickey smith
SLAB issue 1 global
ART / MY WORLD As we are quite curious guys, we could not refrain to observe that you pay a lot of attention to design and graphism, for your blog or for your boogtique: is art and design an important thing for you? It’s a pretty big part of my life and has been since I was young. Although theses days, photography plays the biggest part. I am a bit of a camera collector and love the different qualities old cameras and different films give to a photo. Plus, I am quite a perfectionist when it comes to design, I like to think I have the eye but not the knowledge; I have no clue of how to do it, but I know the way I like things to look. Boogtique is still not complete but is slowly getting there! Do you like, or practice, an art-form in particular? I used to design and screen print my own t-shirts and really want to get back into it, I just need to find the time. Anything to add?... your free space starts here... Well, for one; Boogtique.com is great, check it out. Ha. Two, thanks to everyone that supports me, including SLAB. Thanx jack!
60
shoot: Jack Johns
Irish Invert shoot: Mickey smith
SLAB issue 1 global
Texts: Seb Lequéré Adaptation : Sérgio Dasilva
“Strange experience of feeling at home in an unknown place. Everything sounds familiar to me, as if I came already several times.�
Power reverse / BP - shoot: Tungsten
SLAB issue 1 global
“ What strikes me in this kind of session, apart from the violence of the lip, is the kids’ level in the water. Dropped by the school bus just in front of the spot after school, they stay here until parents come to bring them back home.”
Hawaiaan Lifestyle / Dre - old BZ - Won taloa shoot: Tungsten
SLAB issue 1 global
Invert Decomposition / Jarred Houston shoot: Tungsten
SLAB issue 1 global
Belly Air Decomposition / PLC shoot: Tungsten
SLAB issue 1 global
Revo-air / J.Hubbard shoot: Lequéré
SLAB issue 1 global
“Only few surfers that day, bodyboarders were ruling the spot. One in particular: the guy with the yellow board. He aligned with such an incredible ease monster cover-ups at Pipeline. I knew later on that he was Jeff Hubbard; a daily routine for him.�
“44h of plane, 8 flights, 4 airlines, 12 days on site, 3 sessions, 4 aqua sessions, 7 000 pictures, 4 Hawaiian shirts bought, 14 burgers wolfed down, a beach closed to let “Mr Obama swim with his family”… and a 12 days smile !”
Invert vertebral / Plc shoot: Tungsten
SLAB issue 1 global
CONVERSATION N°5
BODYBOARD-ART Texts & Adaptation : Laurent Bory Traduction: Laurent Bory
In search of “Bodyboard Art” Few sports stimulate the same graphic fervour as sliding and gliding disciplines, and particularly water sports. Even the most popular sports only seldom give rise to an artistic transcription of their movements, their atmosphere or their environment. By graphic transcription we mean the reinterpretation of reality, and not photographic work. It is the scene as collected behind the retina, what it evokes, and not the scene as it exists in front of the retina, its “photographic reality”. There are of course talented photographers of Surfing, but also of F1 racing, Tennis, Football, etc. In a way, through photography our sport loses its artistic specificity even if it is “well covered” by photographers who are lucky enough to combine movement (as in any sport) with a stunning natural environment (there are other sports that also offer this opportunity, for example Skiing and Snowboarding). So, there many artists among all sorts of riders. And this graphic culture, Surf Art, goes almost back to the origins of the sport. It is as if those riders always wanted to remember and transcribe the ride of the day or to fantasize about the one they will never live for any reason. Capture the perfect wave or dream it… Bodyboarding has existed for around 40 years now, but did it influence Surf Art? Can we speak today about a Boogie Art?
Surf Art, the guide. Some “promontories” offer a clear view on Surf Art. These headlands are websites or galleries which index a large number of artists. One can find for instance on the Net www. clubofthewaves.com, www.waveridersgallery.net which both are worth a visit for a large overview of the international scene or the www.spacejunk.tv site and the Spacejunk galleries in France or finally the Surfing Art Festival of Biarritz. Those last two sites present graphic works but also sculptures (look at Zako in the Basque Country or Gesa Ronge in Germany). What is striking at first glance, it is the variety of artists: men, women, kids, old watermen, living on the coasts, living in cities, surfers of any type of boards, snowboarders, or only observers with no real practice. All inspired by the environment, the aesthetics or the gesture of a swell-connected life, and they are dozens… From these “promontories”, one notices that Surf Art is organized around themes which are the Surf Art’s “spots”, each spot hosting a number of artists, the spot’s “riders”. First spot, Vintage: inspired by the 50s or 60s golden age, VW combos, longboard, bikinis and “da Bull-like” riders. A decorative and cool movement, but very far from the boogie culture which did not even exist at the time. Some artists should be checked out however just for the pleasure of looking at their work: Glenn Martin, Tony Ogle or Garry Birdsall (very, very found of VW combos).
77
En haut: « Getting a grip » Milieu: « Solitude » Daggi Wallace
Second spot, Psychedelic: improbable forms and colours, sparkling waves, riders in more or less realistic attitudes, etc. There also, the imagery is almost 100% based on shortboard and longboard but some artists are worth the detour, such as Jay Alders, Ea Eckerman or Céline Chat. Lastly, quickly walking ahead of the “Realist Action” movement, one reaches the fourth spot, “Waves & Shores”. Here, the bodyboarder, in love with water elements and fine tube rider, starts to really enjoy: as long as the wave is virgin, he can always ride it in thoughts. “Shores”, is the place gathering artists reproducing real or idyllic spots. Our favourites are Steven Power, Rick Tontz, the Japanese prints inspired paintings of Tom Killion, tropical spots of Wade Koniakowsky or Michael Lorenzini. “Waves and Barrels”, is the movement with the highest concentration of artists fascinated by this natural phenomenon. People like Mayumi Tsubokura, Wayne French, Fernanda O’ Connell, Clark Takashima are among artists who manage to transcribe the beauty of water without giving in to kitsch… And to finish this trip, “Abstract”, as the name indicates, is crowded with artists working at a high level of abstraction,
79
such as Wolfgang Bloch, Mathias Fennetaux, or our friend Scott Carter whose fascination for the liquid element ends-up being almost abstract (ok it is photography, but it’s an exception). Boogie Art, a new glance. At the very end of the road, there is a still embryonic, furtive, occasional spot, known to a few artists, the “bodyboard-artists” (who in general are boogie riders). At this stage, we have to admit that there exists little evidence of pictorial works massively based on bodyboarding representation. The reasons could be because it is less anchored in people’s mind, therefore less universal than stand-up surfing, and perhaps is a more difficult gesture to reproduce, especially prone riding, whose dynamic perception is not very easy to transmit. That being said John O’ Brien takes up the challenge when he paints bodysurfing… Among the nuggets, we would like to mention our favourites Fernanda O’Connell, Richard Dobson, Damien Clavé from Réunion Island or Daggi Wallace whose artworks take a more distant but kind look at bodyboarding. The headlands are there, you just need to find your preferred spots and take a good mental ride looking at the paintings. Take to your keyboards, or even better, to your brushes, modelling clay, collage, whatever medium you prefer and go for it!
« Anticipation » Mike Lorenzini.
« Barrel of lights » Fernanda O’Connell
ÂŤ Devotion Âť Mike Lorenzini
SLAB issue 1 global
« Oxenfold Reef » Richard Dobson
SLAB issue 1 global
« South Coast color » Fernanda O’Connell
CONVERSATION N°6
ONE DAY/ONE PLACE “Don’t be too curious”. This is one of the usual and most stupid “advices” given by too well established adults to kids willing to explore the possibilities of life. This expression should be taken out of our vocabulary, especially in our sport. If some of us still discover virgin waves, crazy spots or incredible sessions without the crowd during an afternoon of August, well these lucky guys can only “blame” their curiosity…
NEXT ISSUE!
South Oz / shoot: S. Powyer
' slab
Contact: contact@slabmagazine.net Site: www.slabmagazine.net Advertising: contact@slabmagazine.net
Publication Director: Jérémie Barlog Redactor Chief: sérgio da silva Words: Alain Pereira, xavier du Tertre, Laurent Bory,
sérgio dasilva, Jérémie Barlog.
Traduction: Laurent Bory & Patrice carlean Jones Photographers: sébastien Léquéré, Julien Le prévost,
Tungsten, www.alastairsopp.co.uk, Mickey smith, Jack Johns, Mat hemon, sam Powyer, Benoit Flechet, Mick Merrien, Anthony caldo, Alexis Allano, Lenaic gouirriec, Nicolas Breluzeau, Maxime Annonier, Basile hemidy et Jérémie Barlog
SLAB issue 1 global