https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A907akr5-5Y
(Link to Interview with ALBE)
During Covid I hosted an online series from my bedroom that I called the "paradise awareness outreach". It started from the concept of watching surf movies alone in my garage and finding a way to live stream them for others to watch. It felt like it grew from that point.
Really rapidly actually. Over the course of 3 weeks I did 15 "interviews" of the movie directors or surfers in the films. It was so wild the way things were connecting at that point. I interviewed Troy Eckert about Magnaplasm and Damien Hobgood saw it, so then I called Damo and the chain kept going and going. It was coconut or covid wireless. Justin Misch is a film maker widely known for his work in the surf documentary "spoons" and he was watching the shows. At that time, Albe and Himself were remastering "Morning of the Earth" and he thought it could be fun to get Albe on the show and then live stream the movie.
catching up with Justin after the episode release, showing him the board.
Looking back, the phone call the day before the live episode with Albe changed my perspective of creation. There is a quote on the movie cover that is from Jonas Mekas saying "we are the measure of all things. And the Beaty of our creation, or our art is proportional to the Beaty of ourselves of our souls." I asked Albe about that quote thinking it was a friend and it turned out to be a Lithuanian film videographer who was influential in stop motion film. He said that Jonas had influenced his own film making and I was floored. Since then I have continued my studies and learnings of Jonas Mekas. I am Lithuanian as well, and never found a connection to my heritage other than my direct family. I took it as an omen and realized that the quote itself speaks volume for his timeless work. We FaceTimed for an hour walking through his house and him showing me all his statues and artwork. Albe created and shared a movie from the most genuine places because he himself was the living article of the ethos of "Morning of the Earth".
https://morningoftheearth.com/ (go ahead treat yourself)
In our live conversation is where I first started to realize about the impact of MP.
After the show I followed a lead of his about a great book Nick Carrol wrote on the life of MP cataloging not just his incredible ventures at sea but also on land. So worth a read.
(link for the MP book if you like reading this is unreal)
So as I do, I started to craigslist, and low and behold not only do I find an MP surfboard but it's 15 minutes from my house in San Juan Capistrano. It was listed at 1,500.00 so I tried to offer a trade for it. A Campbell brothers x Channel Islands surfboard that I hadn't ridden yet. I thought that because it was mainly the only board that I had which was still new. Looking back I still laugh that I was trying to push that.
A receipt that came with the purchase of the board from Tom, Who bought it in a surf shop on the Gold Coast.
The email responds and on the other side of it is Tom Servais. Really small world. Thats the funny thing in the inner circles of the surf community. You can quite easily find a way to know someone or connect with someone without troubles. Tom Laughed but also loved that I had interest in the board and wanted it to go to a good home. We ended at 1,000.00 and that began the first episode.
To this day I still look for other MP surfboards and haven't found any. At least not in the US. I ride it still on the occasion where the surf is good enough but really do want to take it down to Australia and ride the super bank on it one day.
Im really inspired about Finders Keepers. It feels like it is on the natural Fall line of curiosity. I followed the breadcrumbs of Omens in conversations and it led me to an Heirloom surfboard and a great story to go with it. When I ride the board I get to interpret the approaches of a legendary Surfer/shaper of the past and that is RAD and continues my inspiration to surf everyday.
This was a cool DM off instagram from Daryl who lives on the Gold Coast and had involvement with the MP shapes. Note Micheal did not actually shape this board I have. It was manufactured under his eye but was later in his life when his health was not in shaping form.
Thanks for reading
-TG