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Suddenly I am Free Again After 30 hours of travel I arrived in Bali to the welcome of fellow kneelo and part time Bali resident, Paul Duquet. 4 hours later I was sipping beers at Paul’s favorite Uluwatu warang after surfing, no responsibilities or cares. It was the same freedom I felt 35 years ago when I first escaped to the North Shore. Add to this new-found sense of freedom a seemingly endless supply of epic waves. Five days of solid surf sessions in Bali followed by a rendezvous with my bros in Sumatra. We boarded the Samundra Biru and proceeded to score several days of Mentawai perfection. So many times we sat exhausted on deck saying over and over, “This is exactly my dream of perfection- perfect shape, good size, perfect colors, surrounded by incredible beauty, no one out!! Cya in the H2O, Edited: Rob Harwood Lines drawnJethro Cooney’s just back from a boat charter through the Mentawais. It was a full kneelo jaunt with Albert Munoz, James “Pommie” Anderson, Paul Mannix, Jim Brown, Neil Owen and Travis Sutton. Somewhere in that blissful zone between surfed out and comatose, young Jethro managed to keep a journal. We’re glad he did. Here’s a sneaky peek at what went down. Post by Jethro Cooney Words by Jethro Cooney and Rob Harwood Images by Josh Symon www.sevenliquidfour.com 
Bruce Hart from flashpoint chats some finer details with Justin Crawford (Peter Crawfords son) Pic: steeno Our legend Spanish contributor Jesus Fiochi Alonso gives us some more insight into his kneeriding world Thanks Chus 
70s Kneerider, Mat Surfer, Photographer, Snowboarder…….Richard “Nat” Palmer Pic: Steeno When you Indo, there will be days that will stay with you for a long, long time Albert and Pommy having one of those days Pics: Josh Symon
Talk
Been talking about a new board for a while. Something old school: a no- rocker fish with a flat deck, blocky rails and glassed in keel fins. Jamie’s going to build it for me. He’s a friend who makes a few in his spare time. He surfs a lot, much more than I do at the moment, which is kind of ironic because when I first met Jamie I was the one getting waves every day. Things changed though, as they do, and sometimes we laugh about how that can happen. Now he lives across the road from the sea, surfs a lot and builds boards in his garage. Jamie builds boards because he likes to, not because he makes any money out of it. If he covers costs he’s happy, but he’d still build boards if he didn’t cover costs. He loves the process of starting with an idea, translating it into a shape and then riding the finished board, feeling how it goes. He reckons he learns a lot with every board he makes. He hasn’t ridden anything bought from a shop for a couple of years now and can’t see that changing. Jamie’s a quiet kind of guy, purposeful. Talks slow, means what he says and mostly smiles when he says it. We talk about my new board a few times a week. Dimensions, contours, fins and their placement: it’s been going on for months but it’s finally about ready to emerge from inside the blank. Seems like it’s taken ages, and sometimes we laugh about how that can happen. It’s going to be worth the wait. Someday soon I’ll share a session with Jamie. I’ll paddle out on the board he’s built me. I’ll be riding it for the first time and he’ll be riding one of the quiver he’s created for himself. We’ll share a few waves and talk about how the new board goes. I already know the memory of that session will last and last and last. After all, you only get out what you put in. Rob Harwood Surf trips with mates are worth their weight in gold, when the surf co-operates and gets better and better, well……..gold aint worth enough. images: Josh Symon More to come……. Some up close and personal moments with a legless crew on a recent trip to the Mentawai. Thanks to Josh Symon, from www.sevenliquidfour.com More to come on this trip, stayed tuned.
Progression
Surfing good waves with good friends - arguably the ultimate surfing experience - can sometimes open up aspects of our surfing never before explored. When this happens, the lessons learned make us better waveriders. Recently, at an idyllic Indo pointbreak, a rare set of circumstances aligned: three friends shared the line-up, taking turns riding waves, pushing the progressive side of their surfing. This was a unique session in which each individual’s performance provided instant inspiration for the others’ progression. For those three friends in that place and time, surfing, rather than being a series of individualistic expressions, became much more: a spontaneous product of their interactions. During this session no photos were taken, nor video shot. All that will ever remain for those lucky three are the memories and the realisation that their maximum waveriding performance lies just that little bit further than they ever imagined.
No logo We get a fair few photos flung our way here at Legless.tv but we were blown away when these shots spiralled down out of cyberspace from California. They don’t show any state of the art aerial surfing or bikini girls under swaying palms on white sand beaches, yet there’s something about these images that speaks directly to the heart of all surfers. Rich is from Northern California. He’s been surfing almost all his life and most of that time he’s surfed with his friend Tim on boards created by local shapers: John Mel, Glen McPhee and Paul Dixon. Rich and Tim still surf together today. Through the years they’ve made plenty of trips both at home and abroad. Sometimes there have been photographer friends around. The shots here, taken at various times between about 1970 and 1990, are from Rich’s photo album. This is a random record of a few sessions, just a few waves shared among friends. Californian surfers are notoriously sensitive about publicising their breaks, so we’re not about to divulge anything we shouldn’t. Some people will recognise some of these places, some won’t. Where they were taken matters far less than the moments they capture: sunshine, blue skies and silken-smooth water, good waves in empty line-ups shared between friends. This is the very heart of surfing: no hype, no fanfare, no logos, just friends and waves and … that feeling. Take a couple of minutes to share with us a little bit of Rich and Tim’s forty odd years of fun. Rob Harwood legless.tv |
