The Life I could'a/ should'a/ would'a had!

We went to see ‘Riding Giants’ at the weekend – a documentary on the history of surfing, from Greg Noll to Laird Hamilton, made by the same genius that brought us ‘Dogtown and Z Boys’ (fabulous documentary on the history of skateboarding!). It was fantastic – the cinematography and skilful shots were breathtaking (hardly an effort when your palate includes Hawaii and the Californian coastline), but my entire imagination was taken up with the footage of the fifties group of surfers who hiked sticks and moved to Hawaii to live beside the greatest swell they had ever known. Living on pineapples and whatever fish they could catch (plus a few stolen chickens) they spent hours in the water every day, living a life of complete freedom. To them, surfing became an actual way of life – they were the original hippies, before flower power and free love were even thought of! There, in the ‘repressed’ fifties were these young men living the dream, and living my dream (if you take away the obsession with surfing, obviously!!). My dream being, of course, to live off the land/sea/air and not have to pay taxes, drive to work, sit in traffic, partake in office politics (damn those office politics!!), attend meetings, take notes, shake people’s hand whilst simultaneously smiling, say things like ‘sorry Garda but the tax is in the post’, pay rent, make constant conversation with people I don’t like, etc. etc.

So, instead, I want to live by the ocean. Preferably in a shack. Eating pineapples.

Ok – so that’s probably not going to happen (well, it might – I will be taking a couple of years off and spend it travelling around, so a few months could be spent in that proverbial ‘shack’).

Anyway, back on track – I would highly recommend ‘Riding Giants’. It is a superb and sublime piece of celluloid that has heightened my ambitions to ‘spread these broken wings and learn to fly again’ (and, yes, I DID just quote 80’s legend Mr. Mister!!). What are you gonna do about it?!

Also saw ‘The Incredibles’ at the weekend. It was incroyable, to say the least!

Nothing more to report…license still hasn’t arrived! I wait patiently…(well – not quite patiently. I wait. Let’s leave it at that!).