Safetosea

I feel like the old blog has been suffering a bit lately...

It's been pretty head down bum up since getting back from my devil son rattled break, and too, it's been turning into a bit of a surf report.

One can't help but feel that the wave catching antics of a soon to be 56 year old hold less than magnetic appeal. Maybe I'm just in a funk.

My dear old dad is crook, but as he says a cancer diagnosis is just an excuse to eat more oysters, and God love him if that's the attitude I'm gonna have some too.

Over the past weeks I've been designing and doing the production of a cookbook that is donating all its profits to the Kinglake Ranges Country Fire Authority. These are the brave souls who put their lives on the line in the monster fires of this time last year. It might seem a bad joke to do a cookbook about the fires, but this one a bit different, as it is the recipes that served the victims well in the weeks after the fires, wholesome family cooking with a few exotics thrown in, all cheap and easy to prepare, all a testimony, as the book says, to the healing power of community and eating together.

Family food that's good for the soul.

So if you are into it visit the site and order a book. Wouldn't they love it to know people from far away are buying a Kinglake Cookbook?

In between times as I said in an earlier post, I went over to Western Australia a couple of weeks back for the Yallingup Surfilm Festival.

For me the highlights were seeing the other films, catching the odd wave and hanging out with some incredibly inspiring people. Surf Aid's founder Dr Dave Jenkins was there, Tommy Wegener, the skipper of Indies Trader Martin Daly flew his pirate flag and won with Sea of Darkness, while the young but remarkable Seth Hunt and his 'brother', Moacir Zeladon told a story that will make a big impression on all who get to see "Somewhere Near Tapachula"

Huge applause goes to Jesca Maas, who conceived and organised the festival. It was a marvel, as is she.

From a surfing point of view, though I was crap, spending an afternoon chasing waves with Tom Wegener was a hoot, as the insights I got, as a surfer and one time alaia shaper, from a captive Tom while we drove about that magnificent coast were pretty special.

He is a boundlessly enthusiastic guy, but boy does he love a drink.

The shots of Tom on the Yallingup site receiving his award are of a very sauced up Tom, champagne bottle just out of sight, and I'm stuffed if I know how he got up at 5am to get the plane.

So shots today... the book, me at the film makers forum with chair, WA film maker Richard Todd, and Tommy, on fire, plus another shot of some old fart pretending he knows what he's about to do with an alaia..