The Ben From Brazil

Latest Update: October 9, 2006

By Ben Marcus

10:01 MONDAY THE 10TH OF OCTOBER, DIEDRICHS

Sheeit I am busier than a bricklayer in Baghad. I just sent a rough version of the penultimate chapter of the History of the Surfboard to the following people with the following request:

Bob McTavish
Simon Anderson
Gerry Lopez
Bing Copeland
Fred Hemmings
Duke Boyd
Randy Rarick
David Puu

Gentlemen

Bob
   Please find attached a too-rough first version of Chapter Eight of The History of the Surfboard. This starts just after the 1966 World Contest and ends with the invention of the Thruster.

   Some of it is nicely detailed and there are also huge holes.

    The publisher is screaming for this and so there probably won't be time to really groom it.

     But this publisher only wants a 25,000-word book. This chapter alone is 13,000 words and the whole thing, by now, is probably about 125,000 words.

     I have no idea how I am going to shrink it all down to 25,000 words.

     Down the line I want to rough the entire book out as much as possible from available material - books, the Journal, other articles - and send it to everyone from Joe Quigg to Stretch and fill in all the blanks and really get it right.

     For now, any additions, corrections or deletions to this chapter will be appreciated.

     I am going to Brazil on Wednesday and am stressing to get everything finished.

      Chapter Nine goes from Thrusters to now.

    Thanks.

     Ben Marcus

Chapter Eight is almost done and now all I have to do is sum up the last 25 years, from The Thruster to Now, before I leave on Wednesday. Hopefully I will have the whole first draft ready and I can spend my airplane travel time hacking it down to 25,000 words from what it is now, which must be at least 125,000 words. Shit.

The book is five times too long and five times too short at the same time.

I think today is a holiday which means the Post Office is closed so I can’t send the magazines I packaged on Saturday and I have another 25 + 25 + 50 + 10 + 500 to send tomorrow.

I have to put price stickers on all of them and box them up and send them and man I just ain’t going to make it.

What else do I have to do?

I have to take that CD of photos and find the one of Vanessa and send it to Joni who is going to lay out a one-page press release with copy I wrote.

I have to go to Santa Monica Video and pick up the bootleg movies, which are done and are going to cost $170.

I have to worry about money, because a big deposit I made last week still hasn’t come through.

I would like to go surfing because yesterday Third Point was pretty fun. Surfline said “flat” which kept people away and now I want to figure out how to hack that system to reroute people to County Line or Bay Street, permanently.

On Saturday night I went to a dinner party that was pretty interesting – but that is all I can say about that. See below.

Brewer is interested in shooting Casa Windansea and we have made a tentative arrangement for the first week or so of November. Now I have to raise the dough.

One of the photographers who sent in photos for the first issue of WET is getting edgy about getting paid and I don’t blame him, so I have to deal with that.

I still need to look at my itinerary and figure out when I am leaving, because I don’t want to screw that up. I believe it is early Wednesday morning and I should probably take the shuttle. Need to set that up.

I need to go to Consulate tomorrow and get my passport and Visa and I also need to go by Robert’s to pick up all the DVD I will be taking to Brazil as gifts, which hopefully people will appreciate.

Bob McTavish wants a complete set of the collection, so maybe I should order more from Robert.

What else? Lots more. Now I am going to Malibu Computer to retrieve that photo of Vanessa, and then into town to Santa Monica Video.

I sent a bunch of photos to www.lat34.com this morning, for all of those 20 profiles. Looks like they are going to pay me after all.

I need a new battery for my cell phone and I need to start packing and I need to buy or borrow a vaccum cleaner for the house, because the Oreck Excel I bought for $10 at the Goodwill started smoking almost instantly.

Ooops my Internet time ran out which means I have been here two hours so it is time to go.

Sheeit I am busy and stressed. Hope I get this all done.

I also need to send a bunch of photos to Brazil so I can make a Powerpoint there to do a talk on How the World Changed Surfing, and How Surfing Changed the World.

And and and and and.

12:01 MONDAY THE 9TH OF OCTOBER, 2006 THE HOVEL

Listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox, listening to him talking about Kidney Stones, hoping I don’t get one in Brazil and maybe I should have some pills just in case. A funny thing to worry about, but Jeff Divine got one on Tavarua once and it wasn’t fun.

Speaking of Tavarua, Allen Sarlo is there now and I need to organize all the notes I took from him before he left and make a better structure for his doco. Dave Ogle is back and I will give it to him and he can run with it as best he can.

I just filled out a Request for Proposals as a PDF and sent it to Spy. I told them WET is very new and that advertising in WET is a faith-based bet that we can continue to produce a quality magazine and that we will find an audience for it that will justify the advertising.

We shall see.

Dealt with the artists press release and all that and am going to meet her later in Santa Monica to sort out her photos when I go there to get a battery for the cell phone and pick up the bootlegs at Santa Monica Video.

Looks like I am leaving from LAX at 00:56 on Wednesday morning then flying through Panama City and Sao Paulo. This is going to suck but maybe I can get some work done. Is it possible to charge a laptop on an airplane? Hope so.

Right now I need to go to Calabasas and get 600 issues that need to be packaged up before tomorrow.

Sheesh.

12:52 MONDAY THE 9TH OF OCTOBER THE OFFICE

I just put together all of the chapters of the history of the surfboard book and it’s not as bad as I thought.

Here is how it breaks down:

Chapter 1: The Most Supreme Pleasure 4507, Noll side: 1503, Cook side: 1107,

Chapter 2: Days of the Duke                 3872

Chapter 3: Coast Haole                          8957

Chapter 4: Sliding Ass                           2410

Chapter 5: Life During Wartime            4916

Chapter 6 1947:                                       9936

Chapter 7 Foam:                                   11245

Chapter 8 Toes on the Nose…              12691

Chapter 9 This is the Modern World

It’s about 75,000 words and will probably be 10,000 by the time I am done with the final chapter which goes from 1981 to now.

Now I have to go back and hack it way down.

If they will accept 50,000 words, that is doable.

The friend who threw that dinner party asked me to edit out any mention and my snide remarks because it would be a gross invasion of her guests’ privacy. She is right.

I shouldn’t have done it but I’m glad I checked.

That Spy PDF thing I sent went to them blank, so I don’t know what I did wrong there.

Waiting for The Artist to call before I go to Santa Monica, pick up the bootlegs, and a battery and go through her photos. I still have to go to the storage locker.

Sheesh.

20:15 MONDAY THE 9TH OF OCTOBER

Printing out a Request for Proposals advertising form from Spy Optic. Wasn’t sure about some of the terms on there, like “psychographic” and “CPM” but I am figuring it out.

This is what I put under Other Comments:

here have been three women's surf magazines that have gone under in the past few years: Wahine, Surfer Girl became SG and Surf Life For Women.

They all failed and what we are going to discover is did these magazines fail because there wasn't a market to support them, or because they weren't very good magazines.

WET is by far the highest-quality women's surf magazine ever produced: classic like The Surfer's Journal but contemporary and, dare I say it, sexy as Surfer and Surfing. I am doing it with Joni Casimiro, and we have almost 30 years of surf magazine experience between us. It's just she and I, with photo help from David Puu and a long list of girls on the Advisory Committee, including Kassia Meador, Carla Rowland and Holly Beck.

There is an exploding population of women surfers we are trying to reach, and so far response to the magazine has been overwhelmingly positive.

Women love it, but are there enough women who love it?

The main problem we are having is persuading surf shops to sell it, but Steve Pezman at the Surfer's Journal said that is how it works at first. It takes time for a magazine to be accepted, and the hard part is surviving that initial climb.

Advertising in WET is a faith-based investment that we can maintain a quality quarterly magazine, and that there is a big enough market of women surfers and other interested readers to support it.

We have a ton of great material and there is a lot going on in women's surf magazine to justify a women's magazine, and we are working hard to make WET a success.

Heading up to sleep in the guest room of a friend who needs a ride to work tomorrow. Her Porsche keeps breaking down and/or getting smashed so it’s in the shop again.

Today. Let’s see. The editor at Voyageur sent chapters one, two and three of the history of the surfboard book and he did an excellent job hacking it all down and making it flow.

I approved all his Track Changes and then made some edits and sent it back. He is going to make it all fit into 25,000 words. He is a genius.

I swore after Surfing USA that I wouldn’t put him through this again, and I am doing it.

I sent Chapter Eight out to a bunch of interested parties and that inspired a good email back and forth conversation with Fred Hemmings about his place in surfing history relating to the 1968 World Contest. I would reprint some of the emails here because they are funny, but they were private. I did accuse him of being a square, but he brushed it off.

Here is an excerpt:

I'm on your side. After watching those Duke events there is no question in my mind that you charged as hard as any of those guys.

And you had style. Good Hawaiian style.

You looked more like Keith Jackson than most people's idea of a surfer and you were a bit of a square - come on, admit it - but I like anyone who goes against the grain and does what he thinks is right.

And you had style and that is numero uno.

Right now I am editing the edited down versions of the chapters as they come from the publisher.

I'll get it right about you, and when we do the big version, we can really get it right.

Thanks for your interest. I hope everyone gets into it like this.

When you write a book like this you get swarmed by an asteroid belt of details and that is why I send it around to people who care the most.

 Ben

I doubt there will be much mention of Fred or anyone else once it’s all edited down, but if we do the long version I am hoping everyone will chime in. Surfers love to talk about surfing, and themselves.

Didn’t surf today and then drove into Samo to pick up the bootlegs. I only got one copy of each but that might be dumb because they are almost guaranteed to disappear in Brazil and I should have backups so I don’t have to pay another $170 for more copies.

The Betas are staying here. I’m not that dumb.

I got the bootlegs and a new battery for my Razr and now it closes properly. The other battery was expanding like a body on CSI.

I met The Artist at Kinkos and pulled some photos of her from a disc and helped her do a press release she is going to use to get into a big design and agent show at the end of October. Joni is doing a more formal one, but she needed something right away.

She is talented and her jewelry is very classic, kind of Egyptian.We both are equally stressed. I told her we both have asteroid belts of little details and worry circling our heads. I know I do.

My Bank of the West account is overdrawn because someone kiped my ATM card two Sundays ago and went on a spending spree. I have to fill out a claims form and mail it before I go or I will be out $1000.

I am probably going to close it so I am changing all the things that automatically bill to that account.

I updated the outline for the Allen Sarlo documentary and sent it to Allen and his wife and Dave Ogle, and we can work on that when I get back. Allen is in Fiji right now with his son.

So now I am driving up Corral Canyon and will get there around 9:00 and will hack on Chapter 9 until I fall asleep. Chapter 9 covers 1981 to 2006 but I think I have a way of writing it short and including everything.

Tomorrow I have to go to the storage locker and get about 8 boxes x 65 of WET and mail them out in batches of 25 and 25 and 50 and 500 before I go. I also have to put a price sticker on each one. Hope I can get it all done tomorrow, because I also have to go to the Brazilian consulate and get my passport and Visa. I am getting a ride to the airport tomorrow night around 9:00.

I really shouldn’t be going, but whatever.

I wonder if they put me in Business? It would be nice to be able to plug in and work, because I have work to do, boy howdy.

Can’t get excited about this yet.

My AOL email has been screwing up for weeks. Now it just erased all my new emails and I hope that isn’t permanent. AOL is like a Third World service now, and that’s a shame.