Winchester Cathedral Wednesday Surf & Culture Report
Lost Boys & Co...
So this is how it goes... We get up and it's overcast. Not too thick, mind you, but gray and in concert with the haze makes for about a mile and a half visibility. Winds are calm and the sea surface for the first time in a while is glassy. The air is a bit nippy at 60.8° and the water is just wrong at 62.1°. In fact it feels like it's 62.1° in the surfline as well. Almost everyone is in long rubber. But the secret is that the tide is high at 7:19am +2.9' and then almost instantly low at 9:22am 2.8'. This means that we get the tidal push at 9:22 and it goes until almost 5pm! The swell is from the SSW 200° true at 2.6' and we got every bit of that 2.6' and maybe a little more on the push. So we went out and surfed those little butt kissers and it was pretty fun. The best part was that in the midst of all this, the sun (you'll remember the sun from picture books on things in the skyYou had to wait a bit, but if you were patient and your heart was in the right place, you could get a few little peelers.
Our photos today are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they are fond of taking ordinary objects and displaying them as functional art. Our first photo features an helicopter built by a Vietnamese guy who was inspired by all of the US choppers flying overhead during the war. We couldn't tell if the thing was really airworthy, but it looked good. He also had put together clips of helicopters in action over Vietnam. Interesting that it inspired him instead of making him totally paranoid.
The second photo is of a Vincent Black Shadow. These bikes were hand made by the Vincent HRD Co. of England. The reason for its name "Black" Shadow was that the entire bike (including the engine) was colored black including baked enamel on crank-case and covers. The reason for the black on the crankcases is still disputed to this day. Some claim that the black color was for looks, others claim that it had something to do with heat transfer and dissipation. Whatever the original reason behind the painting of the engine, it was very different from anything else at a time when everything was polished and chromed. For years these bikes were the benchmark for most motorcycles.
Finally, we thought we'd include this photo of a Vespa (also on display) so that Birdie can get some props. Pretty damned arty, we'd say...
"When the surf breaks, we'll fix it..."
The Professor!!
So this is how it goes... We get up and it's overcast. Not too thick, mind you, but gray and in concert with the haze makes for about a mile and a half visibility. Winds are calm and the sea surface for the first time in a while is glassy. The air is a bit nippy at 60.8° and the water is just wrong at 62.1°. In fact it feels like it's 62.1° in the surfline as well. Almost everyone is in long rubber. But the secret is that the tide is high at 7:19am +2.9' and then almost instantly low at 9:22am 2.8'. This means that we get the tidal push at 9:22 and it goes until almost 5pm! The swell is from the SSW 200° true at 2.6' and we got every bit of that 2.6' and maybe a little more on the push. So we went out and surfed those little butt kissers and it was pretty fun. The best part was that in the midst of all this, the sun (you'll remember the sun from picture books on things in the skyYou had to wait a bit, but if you were patient and your heart was in the right place, you could get a few little peelers.
Our photos today are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they are fond of taking ordinary objects and displaying them as functional art. Our first photo features an helicopter built by a Vietnamese guy who was inspired by all of the US choppers flying overhead during the war. We couldn't tell if the thing was really airworthy, but it looked good. He also had put together clips of helicopters in action over Vietnam. Interesting that it inspired him instead of making him totally paranoid.
The second photo is of a Vincent Black Shadow. These bikes were hand made by the Vincent HRD Co. of England. The reason for its name "Black" Shadow was that the entire bike (including the engine) was colored black including baked enamel on crank-case and covers. The reason for the black on the crankcases is still disputed to this day. Some claim that the black color was for looks, others claim that it had something to do with heat transfer and dissipation. Whatever the original reason behind the painting of the engine, it was very different from anything else at a time when everything was polished and chromed. For years these bikes were the benchmark for most motorcycles.
Finally, we thought we'd include this photo of a Vespa (also on display) so that Birdie can get some props. Pretty damned arty, we'd say...
"When the surf breaks, we'll fix it..."
The Professor!!
