water is life

Josh and I became kooky surf dorks.

 

 

 

 

I don’t know how these ants were surviving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sfb diiv repeat

So a few years ago Bryan told me I might like DIIV, ’cause they have like a New Order / Cure kind of vibe, which may or may not be true, but I got pretty into them, and even more so after seeing them live.

 

DIIV played a show of only new material from their forthcoming 2nd album at Baby’s All Right. A band I hadn’t heard of, Sunflower Bean, pictured above, opened. It turns out they were shredding super hard, with a Black Sabbath kind of vibe. By the way these descriptions are not necessarily accurate to all listeners, just feelings I remember having.

 

Then DIIV played all new material to a packed, stuffy, hot room, and the album didn’t come out for almost a year after that!

 

A couple months later Sunflower Bean played at Rough Trade and it was sick.

 

 

 

 

 

Then the 2 bands toured together and played at Webster Hall.

 

It was around Halloween time so DIIV played their encore as the Wizard of Oz characters.

 

Sunflower Bean played my birthday at Bowery Ballroom. It was the homecoming show of their US tour for their 2nd album, Human Ceremony. Julia Cumming, the bassist, jumped into the crowd during a song, and it was epic, basically.

 

 

DIIV did a residency at Market Hotel when their 2nd album, Is The Is Are, finally came out.

 

The 2 bands played together again at the House of Vans, and since then I’ve missed all of their local shows :(.

 

 

Fall 2015, I was still obsessed and enthralled with the beauty of surfing and the sea, and everything that happens with them. Summer had ended, but I hadn’t noticed.

 

 

 

 

That’s Kevin, with Josh’s family heirloom board, also known as the kook pride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a memorable day for me. It was mid week in early October, and my first encounter with a Fall storm swell. Joaquin was it’s name. Arriving at B67 was like a scene from a 70s surf film shot in California, cars with boards hanging out pulled up to the boardwalk, parking wherever they want, nearly everyone coming and going was there to surf.

 

The waves were scary for me, the biggest I’d seen in person at the time, but Kevin had said to me something like, “you’ve been skateboarding all your life, you’ve taken some slams, you can hold your breath for 5 seconds.” So took some slams I did, and I found out holding your breath for 5 seconds can be kind of hard when you’re already out of breath.

 

Someone’s in there.

 

 

This looks like it could hurt.

 

But this looks fun.

 

 

 

This is Andreea Waters. She recently had a book published called Surf NYC.

 

 

I didn’t know New York waves could focus your board.