Connected

Connectedness |kəˈnɛktədnəs| noun
ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [be united physically] ; rare before the 18th cent.): from Latin connectere, from con- ‘together’ + nectere ‘bind.’

Drew Kampion, co editor of The Surfers Path, to which I am a long time contributor, had dropped a simple note via the inet clothesline: “Hey I cannot believe you have not met Mark Gray, you two have so much in common. Mark meet Dave, Dave, Mark. He is coming down to Sacred Craft.”

Scott Bass, my friend and colleague from Surfer Magazine has formulated a unique cultural event based around the Surfboard as a cultural anchor in society. I was invited to attend. The event is the antithesis of the industry standard: Action Sports Retailer trade show. For when you walk in the door of one of his shows, you experience surfing itself, not some marketing generated facade of what surfing became after it was prostituted to social death. He calls it Sacred Craft. Brilliant concept.

My son Josh, a neophyte music producer, had told me that he and his younger brother Jon, would be performing at the Good Bar on Main St downtown. He calls his current project, Loves Secret Domain.

Jeanette Ortiz (one of my regular models) is soon leaving to study in Spain. Her Mom has a company called Reigns of Hope which I am going to be shooting this week and needed to do locations work for. Time for a family portrait.

A pal had caught up with me earlier this week and asked, “Hey are you coming to the bike race Saturday?” Bike Race?

I grew up as a surfer in Goleta. Graduating over the years from ruining the floor of my parents garage as I built surfboards for family and friends from the age of 12, to my final exodus out of board building at 40 having built close to 40,000 of the things. I competed and surfed the world as a Santa Barbara based professional surfer and board builder.  Roots run deep there. My friends and surf family have literally built the sport and industry.

My other life and world, and where I was allowed and yes, encouraged to be an aggressive type A personality, was in racing, both cars and bikes. I had morphed from competitive swimmer to cyclist at the age of 17 and went into the Olympics Development program. I  actually had two fruitful cycling careers where, largely due to my team, the Santa Barbara Bike Club, I won a fair amount. Though I would no more consider racing a bike today than I would paddling out at third reef anywhere in Hawaii, I have a strong affinity for the people and cachet of both worlds.

Mark Gray arrived and due to a depth of life experience and commonality of interests and manner of approach, we had time tripped the weekend away. He recounted exploits in Japan and beyond and I had  side barred all over the darned map. Our time together caused a flow back and forth that literally felt as if we had been softly thumbing through the pages of the book of our lives. Two live wires  united, for a time.

Connectedness. We could all use a dose. In a time when markets fail,  as things may grow increasingly uncertain, being connected is vitality.

A VERY well produced video that espouses and utilizes connectedness is here. It is from FORD. Yes, that’s right!

An excellent blog by Seth Godin on marketing intolerance and connection is here.

Between The Lines, Scott Bass’ and Ty Ponders amazing film on surfers, war and generational connectedness is here.

There are many things which may keep someone from connecting. Life’s trials and tempo, hardship, insecurity, feelings of inadequacy.  But the primary element and ultimately a conductant, is to love em all, both those that do, and those that cannot: connect.

Any image in this blog is a tale unto itself. But as a collage it is a stream of consciousness that today flashes like cards being shuffled at the hand of an experienced dealer.

The gallery below is a sampling from the 16 gigs of camera RAW I collected in about 32 hours. Click on any of the images for a full view as well, at what may be a fascinating back story.

Bon Voyage Jeanette. Enjoy Bracelona!