Saturday, August 27, 2011

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Paddle out for Timmy O'neill

Yesterday the Blackies crew had a paddle out for Tim O'neill, one of the most progressive surfers at Blackies. Tim was an older guy, having grown up surfing during the late 1960s-early 70s. He roomed with the father of Al Knost in Hawaii for several seasons, until Mr. Knost up and joined the army and went to Vietnam. Tim was one of those hardcore longboarders who absolutely ripped on a longboard. Although his board was a single fin, he rode it as if it were a 2+1, not really a noserider but a power surfer. In the short time that I knew him, we traded waves almost everytime we were in the water together, and we complimented each other on our surfing ability. There was no bullshit that I could feel in any of our conversations, which is surprising given that Blackies is sort of a bullshit place where some people tend to be more full of bullshit than anything else. Thank god the bullshit people didn't show up at Timmy's paddle out. I was just talking to Trace on our way to Doheny this morning about who showed to pay respects to Timmy, and we both said, nearly in unison, that the mean people of Blackies didn't show up. That was fine and all. The tribute was fine without the nonsense.

At any rate, bye timmy, and catch some lefts for me in heaven.