Going Ape Shit For Surfing

You've heard the expression 'I don't know what I'm doing half of the time'? Well, that's how I feel, except twice as often. I don't feel that way about my life, but I do about my new camera's HD video function. I'm pretty sure that the techies at Nikon didn't understand it either because they really glossed over it in the owner's manual.

Lack of knowledge has never stopped me from trying anything. I've proven that 294 days in a row, thanks to this blessed blog. Last Monday I was at the Lawrencetown point filming the waves and the surfers. I could watch the ocean forever...there's just something primal about waves. It makes me think that maybe my ancestors dragged themselves out of the primordial soup and onto the beach, but when you look at the length of my arms, you know there was a monkey hanging from my family tree.

Ian, was your great great grandmother called Lucy by any chance?

Yes, as a matter of fact, and she lived in Africa. She was only three feet, eight inches tall. I got my height from my great great grandfather's side of the family.

Was your grandfather called Charlton? As in Heston.

Well, it's true that Charlton Heston lived during a time of the great simian uprisings. He starred in the original Planet Of The Apes movie. If you want to see the final three minutes of that movie, then click here. There are two things worth noting in this clip:

1) Charlton and the chimps were hanging around what looked like a decent surf break, thus strengthening my argument that surfing has been with us for a long been.

2) Charlton (the now deceased former champion of the NRA) didn't have a gun with him at the time, but the chimps did. It could be argued that guns are safe with monkeys, but not humans.

Jeez, Ian, I thought you were going to show me a surfing video? Now I half expect you to squat down and groom me for ticks!

Sorry. My mind tends to wander barefoot along the beach way too often. Here's a twenty-two second clip from Lawrencetown (N.S.) taken on Monday morning. It's not what you'd called epic cinematography, but I'm still learning to make the video function of my camera work properly. Sometimes I'm delighted with the results, but most of the time my lack of technical knowledge drives me bananas. If nothing else, my short film will leave the salty taste of winter surfing in your mouth, and make you ponder evolution.