Surfing and Psychedelics

General Discussion
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This is just a global observation

But I belive I’m speaking the truth here

Nothing is good about the recreational use of man made drugs like LSD

Nothing

period

There is a lot to be learned from lowering your inhibitions, and removing your ego/self from the equation.

People who have learned these lessons don’t say they believe they are speaking the truth, and don’t say “nothing period”. Our minds are not that absolute.

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"There is a lot to be learned from lowering your inhibitions, and removing your ego/self from the equation. "

Unfortunately how you get there is a criminal and in some areas a federal felony offense. So the cost of lowering your inhibitions can cost you your family, friends, reputation, job. But for you the good new is sometimes lowering your inhibition will mean having to lower your pants in the prison yard for the alpha dog. Will it hurt any less or will you not cringe while being violated with your ego and self on vacation??

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there’s nothing you do better under the influence than you do sober…

I dont do drugs…but they have done wonders for my music collection…

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I think the whole psychedelics deal gets/takes too much credit for anything that happened in the late 60’s. Honestly, I think rock-n-roll had more to do with expanding minds than the drugs. And the rock’n’roll musicians were dropping what? My perspective is from the SF Bay Area during my formative years; '64-'70.

The underlying current in those days wasn’t “Expand your mind”, it was “**** the Establishment”. It started in the 50’s with the Beats and Elvis. It built to a crescendo in ‘68 with the Democratic Convention. Yes, the drugs were part of it but no one I knew in Santa Cruz cut 2’ off their surfboard because of a trippy vision. They cut it off because it was ok to mess with the “establishment” 9’ nose rider. They cut if off because of what happened when the genius of Greenough was dropped into the Involvement school led by Mactavish who was taking lots of what? (well, that and Greenough). That was the key; it was ok to mess with anything (Far out maaaan).

Tripping was an intensely personal thing. It affected art (the fine arts, music, literature and film) for sure but that was pretty much the extent of it’s impact on Western culture. Excuse my impertinence but what else does culture consist of? What happened to all those expanded minds, anyway? Well just from the Aus perspective Mctavish is probably one of the most succesful boardbuilders in the world. Nat Young became world champion and then world champion again. He made enough from real estate that he doesn’t need to work again.There were casualties as well. I don’t see Leary as anything but footnote in History.

The rebellion though, that was the lasting effect. It is ok to question authority, in fact it is a requirement. And it worked until the day we threw Nixon out. Then we got all fat and happy and the the momentum died with Ford and Carter. The rebellion was in fact the least lasting effect. Baby boomers are now the most conservative force in society. As you say they all got fat and happy. And rich.

Thankfully the rebellion still lives in surfing. Not likely. Surfing is a multi-billion dollar industry run by multi-national corporations who are publicly listed on the stock exchange. Surfing styles and fashions are cannabilized from earlier eras and packaged and sold by these corporations to reflect an ever increasingly sophisticated market. These days, the establishment is a 6’2"x18"x1.5" thruster! It’s pretty darn far out that there is more diverseficaton in wave vehicles now than ever. I don’t think psychedelics has anything to do with it. Sways is our drug of choice.

“Got a Revolution, got to Revolution” Jefferson Airplane 1969

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hi steve

there is some evidence to suggest that human evolution was sped up in certain areas over others due to the proximity of certain Hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms

“the stoned ape” by Terrence McKenna presents a very good argument for this case

do a google and check it out

not only was it an influence, but speculative evidence suggests that could be a process of natural selection

ie. what made this tribe think of attaching a string to a bow et cetera

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what does winning a contest four times have anything to do with surfing?

I’m no angel I’ve done my share from sniffing glue, gasoline even acetone to get high to smoking empty charcoal bags when you run out of hash camping in front of Kammies or stealing cough syrup from the dispensary to get buzzed. Luckily I saw the light as I watched my peers and those that followed get sucked in. Fancy drugs were the rich boys world, the rest of us got high using anything we could get our hands on. It didn’t make us better surfers or board builders just a bunch of fools who thought we were at the time.

So where’s the line to be drawn?

Cause only a fool would dare to try and draw one.

I know I will pay in my later years just like everyone else who did those things are paying for it right now…

Why do guys like woody brown live as long as they did where as no one else who called themselves party boy surfers of the time did? Look around you what do your peers look like now who went through that time? Everyone’s in some kind of bad shape except the ones who led a clean and pure lifestyle.

And if you’re under 60 or 70 years old you don’t even count yet…

The only guy I know of who paddled out stoned out of their mind on drugs at waimea was my classmate Brian and he did it on a little 6’6" in the middle of a contest till they kicked him out of the water.

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What about the physical AND Mental capacity of what went down on board(s)?

Huge things happened in the water. Historical rides, wipeouts, survivals, and, that too.

So-did those guys push themselves FURTHER, in life threatening situations, because

they were loco on drugs, or because they could completely focus and be more in tune

(or something) with everything going on? Therefore overcoming boundaries in the blink

of an eye and doing the inconcievable ! (i know, i’m kidding) DRUGS 'ER BAD

Would this have gone down without mind altering substances? Probably, eventually.

But, for history’s sake, and the weirdness and radicalness that it was, it did happen.

I used to be really in tune with my board sometimes. Skating at night has some good

memories. Complete awareness mentally and physically, to the point of being

immaculate. Learned a lot with that.

Snowboarded a whole bunch too. Powder days with that? Fah-get about it. Put your

mind to it and do it, no questions asked.

Some of the best things I ever did on them snowsticks was due to L. Learned a lot

there too.

I can see how they were, how you say, compelled-(maybe?) to do what they did.

Made me do a lot I originally would’nt. And yes, I’m probably lucky nothing went

bad and I never got hurt. All I got was good from it. Learned a lot.

So haven’t done the surf with it yet.

But one thing is certain, I got into board building for one main reason,

Acid tints-

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timothy leary coined the word-Psychadelic

meaning… mind expanding.

It became an adjective…

dig this Horatio,

Swaylocks is a Psychadelic

turn it on…tune in

and drop out and or drop in.

rocky road as a drug of choice is tenable

pharaceuticals can be faulty

prescribed or illegal.

bad choices are part of the curriculum

good choices are rewarded.

congradulations to yall for good choices,

including pulling up to this here campfire.

…ambrose…

keep yer feet out o’ the coals

unless you are in the firewalking class.

swaylox made me use rr epoxy

another psychadelic adventure.

denial?

is a tool

use it at will.

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Wherever the inspiration came from for landmark design advances, using a planer while tripping would be really dumb…

“Like, wow man, check out the amazing red spurts on the wall, far out!”

Josh

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now thats the funniest thing i heard all week

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Quote:
Quote:

Tripping was an intensely personal thing. It affected art (the fine arts, music, literature and film) for sure but that was pretty much the extent of it’s impact on Western culture. Excuse my impertinence but what else does culture consist of? What happened to all those expanded minds, anyway? Well just from the Aus perspective Mctavish is probably one of the most succesful boardbuilders in the world. Nat Young became world champion and then world champion again. He made enough from real estate that he doesn’t need to work again.There were casualties as well. I don’t see Leary as anything but footnote in History.

I would say Leary is no less relevant historically than Nat Young or Mactavish. To surfers, Young and Mactavish stand out and are memorable folks. To the general (global) populace, who do you think is more well known, them or Leary?

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Oneula,

Only clean, pure lifestyles lead to long age? The inventor of LSD, Albert Hofmann, just died–102 years old. He used it throughout his life and authored, literally, hundreds of important chemistry papers–maybe some used by chemists who make surfboard-making materials …

What’s it had to do with surfing? Don’t know. Some people take it and commit murder; some just sit and think about the world in a whole new way. Some of those people surfed or shaped surfboards. And some have no interest in such things. Depends on the brain involved.

Whoever here said nothing’s affected shaping more than beer is right on.

C

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“Hofmann called LSD “medicine for the soul” and was frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that has pushed it underground. “It was used very successfully for 10 years in psychoanalysis,” he said, adding that the drug was hijacked by the youth movement of the 1960s and then unfairly demonized by the establishment that the movement opposed. He conceded that LSD can be dangerous in the wrong hands.”

Translation- arsehole surfers and wannabes from the 60’s ruined LSD for it’s potential therapeutic effects. Now it goes down in history like the tinker tail does in surfing. In the wrong hands it can be very dangerous.

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If you and Nat and Bob want to give LSD all the credit for their creativity, so be it. But it’s a disservice to both of them. Leary was a tool and a laughingstock, then and now. At least Kesey wrote some worthy stuff.

I still think the rebellion lives in surfing…it’s right here. Are you are a slave to the mags and the 6’2" potato chip thruster? I don’t buy surf mags, I make my own boards or buy them from guys that shape and glass their boards. Break free from your bonds my brother! Join us…Power to the People.

Right on!

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Leary was a rat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/380815.stm

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/leary/leary.html

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From Greg Noll The Art of the Surfboard page 88

The Stemwinder

Stemwinders. That was right when everybody was big on the LSD thing, and I would have a crew work all night long, and we were making that Stemwinder, and if you look at the label, it’s this horrific depiction of Dante’s Inferno, with all these guys sticking forks in each other’s asses and guys with horns-just the perfect deal, like something you see on a bum trip on LSD or something

And then to top this board off, we’d have these guys that would take LSD and work all night long, and I would come into the shop in the morning, and here’d be twenty goddam boards and every one of em would represent a trip that a guy’d been on that night. And if you look at those things, you’ll see exactly that- you’ll see these INCREDIBLE RESIN PATTERNS

Sounds like the thread SHOW US YOUR RESIN TINTS AND PATTERNS

Not condoning it just stating some facts

Would we have The Beatles SGT PEPPERS,PINK FLOYD DARK SIDE OF THE MOON AND JIMI HEDRIX without it ?

Like anything in this world IT’S HOW YOU USE IT NOT ABUSE IT

TOM

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yeah kesey had it sussed to some extent

i still think the planer joke is funny

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A bit black for a real belly laugh though would’nt you say Paul?

I thought of the story of shaper Reid Oliver, who lost fingers while perfectly straight.

Can you imagine the bristles a a big Ol’ Planer would grow if you were tripping?

Josh

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“hey man am i bleeding?”

" i dont know bro are you"

“i dont know , i think i am , what do you think”

“i dunno,whats that”

" it think thats blood"

"no whats that "

“fckdude i think its my finger”

“is it??its moving!”

“hey im bleeding to”

and so on and so on

nah seriously i rekon you could handle a planer

but why would you want to

i dont think yad even think of it

it takes 1/2 an hour just to decide to take a slash sometimes

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and then the planer would crawl under the table and hide