Nick Gabaldon: history, race, and surfing at Malibu

I just watched this over at The Surfer's Path. You should watch it too...



More than a lovely story of an interesting person and life, it's thoughtful in the ways it touches on a lot of interesting stuff that is only just emerging in discussion of surfing and surfing culture, including risk, place, race, myth and human rights. These are great conversations and I am enjoying learning from them as they emerge and develop and grow.

What is also interesting, is that Nike made this, which does lead to it being a slightly odd hybrid between documentary and promotional clip. I'm not quite sure what to say about that though other than, Yeah, I noticed the product placement and the use of your sponsored "family", Nike. Oh, and the inspiration talk is particularly irritating. Anyway, I'm not sure if I should be, but I'm confused that Nike is able to take a person from the past, someone who had nothing to do with the industry as it exists today in any tangible sense, and brand them. I mean honestly... how?

Nonetheless, take a look.

Comments

  1. Mar Hirtzel6:03 PM

    Really interesting. Amazing how reproductions of history are still haunting us today, but great to see this film. Love the old pictures too. P.S. My grandpa was one of those guys shown at 2:10.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rebecca Olive8:36 PM

    Oh wow. Nice one grandpa!

    x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laura Crane has skin in the game: a surf story in five parts*

Image
*The title of this essay is inspired by  Kylie Maslen's recent article about women's sport, 'Skin in the Game '. The essay itself is dedicated to my friends in the Institute of Women's Surfing (Europe), with my thanks for sharing your stories and friendship and resources. I. Oh hey, surf media! Surf media is such an interesting world. I used to consume it voraciously, reading everything I could find - every book, magazine, website, and blog. I was trying to understand it, to understand the world it was describing, to see the patterns and themes as well as the points of difference and resistance. I wasn't out to create a typology or anything like that, but to get my head around what it is that we say to ourselves as writers, editors, photographers and readers. I wanted to know who was talking and who might be reading and to know what was missing from these stories; to find the gaps. It didn't take long for me to turn away from mainstream print magazin...
Read more

I hate Noosa Heads and Surfing*

Image
Today, this image came up on my facebook news feed, and it made me smile. Of course, images on facebook news feeds rarely come with any real contextual information, so I trawled around the net a bit and found some more information... This is an album cover for the ' Warumpi Band ', from the settlement of Papunya in Australia's Northern Territory**. It seems that this image was the cover for an EP of their song 'Jailanguru Pakarnu (Out of Jail)', which was the first ever rock song recorded in an indigenous language. It's a pretty jumping song. It's worth noting that on the Warumpi Band's wikipedia entry , the list of their musical genres includes 'anachro-rock'. *On a personal level, this is absolutely not true. I love Noosa Heads. And surfing! **Update: I had read that the man wearing the t-shirt is singer of the Warumpi Bane, George Burarrawanga. As Dave commented below however, it isn't George. Thanks for your comment, Dave!
Read more

Einstein was a surfer

Image
Um, WHY have I never heard of this song before? Did it do the blog rounds last year when it was released and I wasn't paying attention? Having missed this song, I feel... inadequate. Not that the song is great, but conceptually... AMAZING! And the photo Jimmy Buffet is talking about is real and here it is! And here is a bonus Einstein sporting shorts and a devil may care attitude! Now, LYRICS!! With the obviously winning lines being 'Cause the universe was his home break/And we’re still all paddlin’ out'. **** There’s a photo of a genius Standing by the ocean In a pea coat and cool hat In 1943 On a beach in Santa Barbara He’s looking quite contented His world is only matter And energy Past the Channel Islands Out into the cosmos There are worlds in motion That only he can see He’s smiling as he’s thinking The harbor lights are blinking He’s the smartest cookie Ever was, ever will be Einstein was a surfer ...
Read more