Concrete Surf - D'oh

My stomach churned at the mention of my name.
“Please welcome on, Mark Blackwell!!” The announcer left the stage as the crowd erupted in a swell of unenthused applause which ended quite abruptly. I fumbled with the mic, clumsily adjusting the height on the stand. I could feel a room full of blank stares on me as they watched me fuck around with such a simple task.

“H-hi there…how are you?” My voice came out broken, disjointed. It was the nerves. I paused for a moment for some kind of response from the audience, but got nothing. In my mind, I could hear the soundtrack of crickets playing back, loudly.

“My name is Mark Blackwell, this is one of my first gigs on the tour, so forgive me if I fuck-up epically… Oh shit. Can I say “fuck” on this tour?” I look over to the tour manager “Is that allowed? I think I just Fucked Up epically” The crowd chuckled, and it seemed to lighten the mood quite drastically.

“So I went surfing yesterday, yea, I got out there met some people, googled at some chicks in Bikinis…yea, you know what I’m talking about guys.” I coolly nodded “And then, all of a sudden, this window pops up telling me that I’m the 1 millionth visitor to bikinisandclevage.com… I was fucking stoked.” Laughter filled the room “Oh, sorry, did you actually think I left my house? Have you looked at me lately?” I drew up my sleeves, and pointed to my milky white complexion. “I’ve been working on this tan for a while now. I’m on a strict regime of basement fluorescents and computer UV. The reason why I’m so pale is that my skin’s very reactive to proper “real” sun. My body just freckles up like you wouldn’t believe. Actually, yesterday, I found this website for people like me, it has on it, and I swear to God this is true, this image of a sun. It’s great! I have it on during the day, pretend I’m outside” more laughter, I am a God.

“With skin like mine, you’d think I was a closeted ginger. I’m NOT by the way - a ginger…I’d rather be a closeted gay. I mean, NOT that there’s anything wrong with it. I know a lot of gingers who grow up and live very long productive lives in society.. Sure, most of the ones I know are scrapping gum out of our concrete pavements at night. They don’t work during the day…sunlight and all. They do try to avoid working during full moons, that’s when the moon is at it’s brightest you see and when they’re most susceptible to skin damage I suppose, but those people, those gingers are out there, risking it all so they can take part in our integral society…God bless’m” In the corner of my eye, the tour manager tapped on his watch, code for ‘wrap it up, times up’. It was a shame because it’d hardly felt like it had been 3 minutes. Sure, I probably wasted a whole minute adjusting the fucking microphone, but I had a lot more material to throw out there.

“Anyway, my name’s Mark Blackwell, and thanks for being such a great non-ginger audience, poice”.

Concrete Surf - Jow Bates

12:30 - The waves of business break for lunch

The noon tide began to swell at Starbucks, an unremitting sea of pastel shirts and vibrant, yet acceptable neckties flooded in. Jason sipped a small macchiato and blinked the Excel lines from his vision to survey the high-water mark of businessmen.  He listened to the off-shore winds of polite conversation and work-related banter, "I'm just like them." he thought. Working through lunch, treading water in the riptides of London's struggling economy, no amount of romanticising could keep him afloat for long in this climate. The waves of espresso and half-caf frappuccionos crashed over an undaunted coastline of lost souls. This was his life, his board now an ergonomics management keyboard, the smell of the sea lost between working lunches and dinner reservations.

Jason rubbed his eyes, how many more years? He was 40 in two months, what did he have to show for it? His BMW Camper traded in for a Hybrid, with 8 year warranty.
"Fucking 8 year warranty." He muttered to himself. The king tide was receding at Starbucks, the schools of businessmen swam back to their desks and the in-shore winds of 5 o'clock beckoned.
Jason opened his Hotmail;

We the wayward souls of sea,
Cast sail to wind and board to be,
As we catch Poseidon's breath,
Hold tight our boom on windward crest.

Send.

Concrete Surf - Fargo

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."
- I’m not sure I agree with this, paedophiles and serial killers are not, in my book a success, well the ones who get caught are not!


"You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows."
- It may be handy in a nightclub!

"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."
- Good news for people on the dole!

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
- Battle of Hastings ??

Concrete Surf
The End

Concrete Surf - Dogmatix

Rewind play eject
Black and white fish-eye lens shot
Old Bones Brigade tape

Concrete Surf - Guy Mortimer

John always hated early morning, he always thinks this hatred is due to the fact of having a sleeping pattern which requires him to drink until he falls over. This was a different morning though, yes last night he indeed had a few drinks, indeed he woke up with his legs in the bath tub and his face on the floor.
As John woke up and found himself in a very strange sleeping position. There was two reasons why the day was a perfect start for him, firstly because in his bathroom with him was a naked chick, witch means John must have done something right in his drunken state. Secondly he could hear a very strong wind coming in though the window. Indeed john was a windsurfer. As he walked towards the kitchen he stopped in the living room and turned on the T.V to find a man with a very fake tan and a very fake smile informing the people of very strong winds and big waves. This made John move a lot faster than he would normally.
After John was finished filling up his small car with red bull's and windsurfing kit his room mate came down the stairs shouting to John to clean up, but John laughed at this and replied "I'm off, tell that girl in the bathroom you don't know me" the reply from his flat mate bill was not what he wanted to hear "She knows who you are, that's Beth." At this point John drove away as fast as he could.
Driving as fast as he could John finally got to the beach after a 15 min journey and 4 red bull's, as he got out of the car so did lots of empty can and sandwich packets. Everybody knew John at the beach because he was a amazing windsurfer as well as the fact that he would often empty last nights beers out of his stomach before he did any thing.
John was finally ready to go on the water it took him 30 mins to set up his kit but he was very happy today was very windy with 3 meter waves, there wasn't much beach left, the tide was very high and with the waves the water was almost on the road. In a hurry John jumped on his board and off he went, a little warm up he thought as he was still a bit dizzy, he went out and turned around, surfing back to the beach now, John went for a small jump, straight away he was in the air thinking this was a bad idea. BANG a loud crash as John landed on the road some guy shouting "Haha, CONCRETE SURF!"

Concrete Surf - Philip Charles

Inconspicuous
Forceful interpretations

You’re misunderstood

Concrete Surf - Beau

The times are changing
As they always do
Economies are failing
Unemployment offices have long queues

Children are starving
Politicians are lying
About the state of the Earth
Saying "Our planet is frying!"

Global warming's a scam
But there's been a change in the Earth
It's obvious when in Australia
You can now concrete surf

Concrete Surf - Michelle Goodwin

Can we find peace on the sea?
Not if we are stuck in this concrete mindset.. a shift in attitude and outlook is a possible positive change huh? I don't want to tell you what to do .. just maybe think about it :)

My friend sent me a beautiful letter once saying that most wipeouts are invigorating energy baths that offer us opportunities to beat fear in a confrontational situation.
Love your wipeouts....with kindness... its not about being reckless but recognising you're safe.. and trusting in the situation. Enjoy the messy side of the wave ..

Freedom from doubt is connected with humour, joy and celebration... if you trust the situation you can afford to smile. Trust brings you gentleness, doubtlessness and relaxation.
Which then allows us to be open to let go and experience the whole ocean ..so we are not just banging against the concrete! We want to avoid this concrete surf.. stuck not going anywhere...


If you have any doubt that you are surfing right or wrong, it doesn't matter. the main point is to have honesty in yourself. doing what you feel is best... this is self trust.