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Beach Notes: Not Your Average Surfboard

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

surfboard



In the 5 or so years of walking up and down the beach at Rainbow Bay we have never seen such a unique surfboard as we did yesterday morning.

Creativity Rocks!

Do you put your creativity into what you’re living?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Priceless Beach Art

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Installation: “Flotsam, upright, after the storm”, Duranbah Beach, February 2010

Materials: Sand, found objects (timber)

Artist: Some Anonymous Surfer Dude

doodart


Duranbah (accent on the second syllable, as in Duran Duran) Beach is only used by board riders and boogie boarders. Walking there one morning this week after big storms, we saw trees, branches, seaweed and various other bits of flotsam and jetsam strewn along the beachfront. Then this, with the upright pole definitely not even a freak effect from the storm.

Tantalizing.

We were reminded of many contemporary art exhibitions in trendy galleries we have visited. Only here there was no cheap wine and crackers, no little card explaining in artspeak what the work “means”. Nor any red sticker, or price tag

Literally, priceless.

Look around. Find some priceless creation today in your neighbourhood.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: What Goes into Effortless?

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

A couple of times recently we have seen this man at our local beach, Rainbow Bay, with a didgeridoo ( or yidaki), the traditional Australian Aboriginal musical intrument.

This day we saw and heard him playing with the end of the “didge” submerged at the water’s edge.

didgplayer


My thought was that there might be some spiritual explanation, connecting with the spirits of the sea, etc. A bit of a web search suggests something more mundane. Evidently the exercise of playing the instrument in this way trains the diaphragm and builds the player’s ability to maintain the constant pressure to produce the long drawn out sounds that are such a feature of didgeridoo playing.

So we think he was not just blowing bubbles or even communing with the spirits of the sea, so much as practising, training his body to support his playing.

Of course, we could have asked. But when we came back, he was gone and we have not seen him on subsequent days.

Inspirational thought from this? When you watch and listen to an indigenous or even a skilled non-indigenous Australian play the didgeridoo for an extended period, it seems so effortless. And maybe it is. But as with many apparently effortless displays of high level skills, such as those of a champion sports person, there is usually many hours of practice, training and self-discipline that have gone into that “effortless” performance.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Sandimal 4 - Tina Turtle

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

This is the fourth of our “Sandimal” pictures of sand-sculpted animals and probably the last, unless our mystery sculptor returns one day. We have called this one Tina Turtle.

tinaturtle

We couldn’t think of anything particular to say about Tina, so we did some research on the well known fact of turtles’ longevity.

Did you know that the longest living turtle on record was kept by the royal family of the island nation Tonga, from 1777 to 1965? That’s 188 years and to put it in perspective, it’s from the year after the US Declaration of Independence to the 100th anniversary of the American Civil War. In relation to the history of music, that turtle was born in the year Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turned 21 and died in the year in which Bob Dylan performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with audience members including the Beatles and Donovan.

Make of all that what you will, but a lot sure happened while that old turtle was around.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Sandimal 3 - Cedric The Crocodile

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

This is our third “Sandimal” post, this time with the sand sculpture of a crocodile we have dubbed Cedric.

cedric


The challenge we had with coming up with a few thoughts prompted by Cedric was that some of them were frankly scary. Although for Cedric it’s just about getting dinner on time.

Then we thought that a couple of things that have enabled Cedric’s kind to survive through 200 million years is that somewhere along the line they became very observant and very fast to take action at the right time, from apparent total inertia to explosive movement.

So here’s the thought. Secrets of survival – be highly observant and move very fast when opportunity knocks. In business it’s called “speed to market”.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

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