Nat Bob George

This is all that's left of the original Sea Surfboards factory in Byron Bay...a timeless and simple piece of meaningful grafitti. No need to say another word.

Noosa Loggin'

dawn loggin'


dusk loggin'

Lisa and I did a lil' roadie to Noosa last week. I'd been real keen to get my 9'3 single on a few tea tree walls for a looong time. There was swell about too, so the anticipation was pretty high. After dropping in to see Josh and the crew at Solace surf Lisa and I hightailed it to the points (even after Josh threw us some local knowledge of a perfect peak over at sunshine Beach). Now this was only the third time i'd ever been to Noosa, so I was like a naive traveller envisioning said surf location through rose-tinted sunnies and images of McTavish and his '48 Holden at Nationals. Anyway all the smiles and big eyes were turned to straight faces when we pulled up at Nasho's at dusk to be greeted by slop. Nice sunset though.

Ye olde Mackie Fish

My old Mackie 5'6" fish. Was a definite favourite. Fast, loose and slippery. The biggest surf I ever rode it in was in 2005 at Blueys beach in Foster NSW. 6ft wedges bouncing off the headland and tapering steep down the beach. It was the only time I ever had to grab its rail through a cutty. Michael handmade those enormous fibreglass fins. I remember showing this board to Greenough in 2003 on the Blue Yonder journey. He said, 'it needs timber fins'. The colour photos were taken in 2001 and the B & W about 2 months ago when it rose from the dead.

What you didn't see in Byron today

My nephew Luke, aka Lones, is up visiting from Sydney at the mo'. We been surfing, arting, eating and mulching my fruit trees. Luke's a street artist and enjoys nothing more than a big blank wall, 10 fresh cans of ironlak paint and his own homebrand music beating from his iphone. Looking for waves on the road today he was quick to spot these guys across the field rolling up and setting up for an afternoon of painting. Not just 'writers', but the best in Oz. I've done a small amount of street art, and nothing like this. It was in Brisbane after seeing Wolfmother play. We ended up sleeping on the street that night and in the early hours of the following morning we found a blank power box and made our mark with textas and crayons. I was a street artist for 2 hours (I'm a studio artist. See; garage artist). Next time your heading into the Bay look left and you'll see these finished pieces from 'Next' and 'Sofles'.

waterbird collection

This birdie is part of my new waterbird collection. Sold to a nice home, but still part of the waterbird family.

Birdies

At Lennox Head beach the other day these two birdies were hanging out in the sky just above where I was surfing. They were doin that thing animals do where they follow and mimick each other. It's a collective consciousness type deal where animals are naturally unconsciously reacting in unison. (breathe now). It's an unplanned dance of sorts. Schools of fish do it real well. I've seen humans do it too, without such graceful results. More photos of these two gulls before end of the week. (and the waves below).

'home'

I did this painting a short while ago onto some nice plywood I found at Main Beach in town. It hangs on a wall just inside the front door of my home. The print of it is now part of a set of 3 that hang in Andy's 'The Top Shop' on the corner of Massinger St in Byron. My mate Tim works there...he's a good cook and a good tuberider. And everyone knows that Andy makes a killer coffee.

Throwups

I drove past this truck in Byron on Sunday and it reminded me of one of my fave artists Barry McGee. He loves to throwup his tag on trucks and tip them over and fill them with televisions and smash them up and all sorts. I'm not to good at reading tag throwups but I'm pretty sure this one says Frank something...

Love You Mum

There was a new south swell on Mothers day. Not big, just new. After giving our Mum's their due attention me and my boys checked the waves. Out front was about 5ft. My groms couldn't get out so we went for a cruise into the Bay ending up at Wategoes. There was a longboard comp on the go and about 100 old fellas hanging round. I said hello to a few I knew and checked out some nice logs and resin tints. The waves were 2-3ft, real smooth and real inconsistent, most crew were surfing the point but I spotted a sneaky peak to the left with about 8 surfers on it. I told my boys, Colby and Blake, that it was the best were gonna find. They were all over it, with Blake having hesitations about the 'crowd'...He's an 11 year old soul surfer...likes nothing more than surfing alone, or at the most, with a few dolphins. After being in the water for about 15 minutes we found ourselves sitting on an improving peak with no one out. Yeeew! We'd timed it just right with the contest presentation. The groms ripped up a few lefts on their thrusters and I got a couple on my 9'3" log. Later that afternoon I was feeling all Deep&strange so I grabbed my camera and went for a ride to my local beach. There wasn't one surfer in sight and fisho's aplenty. As the sun set behind the mountains and the light faded I watched the last waves of the day roll through. Dusk and dawn are my favourite times to take photos. With low light it's challenging to capture what your eyes see. I like altering my camera settings and getting slightly tweaked images like these. Happy Mum's Day.

Yonder via Waterlogged

The Dear & Yonder film showing at the Byron Community Centre was a successful night thanks to the organisers from Waterlogged events, keen logger Vanessa Thompson and her biz partner, artist Tracy Brown. Everything you'd love was there including film, music and art. One thing that was missing was Kath from 'food by Kath'. At the last one of these nights she homemade the fresh Chai and organic juice, but this time we missed her cause she was a lil' sick. Dallas Chong from The Grains turned up and played some cool acoustic while the 80 or so gathered guests listened in and checked out the art I had on display.



First up on the big screen was The Blue Yonder short film, which Mick Waters and I made back in 2004. Tracy introduced the whole show and then called me down to say a few words to the crowd about my film, which was cool cause I got to explain how and why the Blue Yonder short film came about. The short and sweet of it is; I released the Blue Yonder Short Film in 2005 as a companion to my book, Blue Yonder, a journey into the heart of surf culture.



I met Mick Waters through Andrew Kidman along the Blue Yonder discovery trail back in 2001. He was keen to document what I was pursuing with my book. We got together and surfed and talked. The loose idea we worked off was the true story of mine; believing in something enough to turn your back on the seemingly futile, and instead, open up to adventure and discovery. Six months later we ended up with a cinematic journey of surfing sequences, lifestyle images, voiceovers and some soul-touching music from Andrew Kidman. Film locations were NSW Central Coast, Byron Shire and Indonesia. The film is a revealing glimpse at one alternative surfing journey, that hasn’t yet finished. Surfers included are: James McMillan, Derek Hynd, Ozzie Wright & Andrew Kidman. contact me on macjimmymac@yahoo.com if you'd like a copy for $15 incl postage. Thanks Waterlogged :-)




filmgrabs from Blue Yonder




grommets selling my soul for me




Dallas Chong of The Grains

Dear and Yonder

Easter Saturday

This session was straight out front of my place. I can't say where cause the locals will blow up my letterbox. The waves were 4-6ft and there was the added buzz of having huge boulders right in front of every wave I caught. Lisa took the photos and I rode my 6'4 Darcy thruster with the snapped nose - it happened three days prior at this same spot when the bottom dropped out of a wave that I thought was a sure tuberide...I remember being perched in the lip on my feet in a super low stance and looking left, about 20 metres down the line. The wave was about 5ft and in the motions of going vertical and tubular. In my mind i was about to get tubed, meanwhile in reality the wave doubled-up, sucked-out and heaved forward. I was under the lip so I didn't get pitched, but there was no back to the wave, and to my absolute surprise I dropped straight onto the flats. The last thing my left eye saw was that circular tube rifling off without me. Not often you get a view from that far back in the tube. Probably the best moment of my session. I'll never forget it.

An Easter Friday at The Wreck

Wind was up from the south so Lisa and I headed to The Wreck. Lisa took photos I enjoyed surfing a few small waves. One tube was so small it clipped me in the forehead. It's always really cool at Main Beach of an arvo...the sun setting over the coastal mountains. Some locals call it Golden Hour for obvious reasons. The Indonesian guy in the band photo is always up there leading the way for any drum slappers that wanna join in and celebrate Byron Bay.













.

Harvest Cafe Artist Nights

Harvest Cafe at Newrybar, which is just in the hills behind Byron, has been holding dinner/artsist nights in conjunction with retrospect galleries in Byron Bay. Sometime Early in March before the opening of the exhibition El Mar Mi Alma (the sea, my soul) they invited myself, Alberto Sanchez, and Stephen Jones with tatiana Velasco, to talk about our lives and our art. The place slowly packed out and after an awesome meal via their fine food chefs and an outdoor barbie we were on. I was first up cause i had to bolt north and pick up my kids. Bree introduced me to the 100 or so people gathered and I began talking, hesitantly at first. As the minutes passed I actually began enjoying it because Bree asked me how I first started with my art, and that was perfect opportune for me to talk about being a kid, freedom, growing up in Cronulla, surfing, travelling, starving, writing, photography and painting. A couple other people asked questions too, which was really cool. I'd totally recommend Harvest for a meal too.




'sundaze' 2009


Harvestelmaretro

BOOTLEG

Dan Hannaford has a new CD out. It's called Bootleg and the cover and disc photo is one that I took of him at the Rails Hotel in Byron a few months back. The back cover photo is one I took of him after some beach strumming near Burleigh Heads. The song 'Try Try Try' is a cracker and one that I associate with.

El Mar openingo!

The opening night for El Mar Mi Alma at Retrospect Galleries Byron Bay. Was cool. All the heads were there and it was nice seeing the mix of painting, photography and history on the walls. I was a happy artist because one of my bigger pieces 'hometree' sold as soon as the doors opened...so now I can buy more canvas and paint. All had fun and then afterwards I went over the road to the Byron Community centre and watched The Sea of Darkness. It's the dark story of the early days of the G-Land surf camp in Java Indonesia. I was interested because I first went there in 1988 when I was 17, just ten years after it was discovered by Mike Boyum. One night while in bed at G-Land I overheard some old guys talking about a surf spot called Desert Point. I snuck down my ladder and from a distance managed to get a photo of the mud map they were checking out. I went there the next year and camped in a fishermans hut for 2 weeks. 5 of us enjoyed the best barrels of our lives.



'hometree' 2009


Al Sanchez


Hewy looking, Al Knost kicking


Simmons inspired wood and waves
by Ryan Heywood


Ian Burrell