Papa's thought of the day.

'Punk is the domain of corporate shortboarding gimickery'.

Papa Nui commissions monster artist Ben Strawn.

The Papa loves monster art! So in researching the genre he discovered American artist, Ben Strawn. Ben and the Papa discussed a colloboration of ideas and ergo the Monster Papa was created.
You can view Ben's work at www.myspace.com/strawnillustrations and see the Papa's other good monster friends including Capt'n Kreep. Enjoy.

Papa Nui's ultimate surf truck.

If you've ever wondered what Papa Nui's surf vehical of choice would be this looks like its right up his alley!! Prepare for the invasion folks, the Papa is storming the beaches!!

Surfing, Hot Rods and the aesthetics of Foam and Glass

On the coasts of Southern California, surfing and cars has always been synonymous. In the earliest photographic history of the region there is always the inevitable image of the jalopy loaded with planks parked by the beach side.


During the late 50's early 1960's this was more prolific than ever. Hot rodding and surfing went hand in hand as can be referenced in the beautiful portfolio of photographer Leroy Grannis.( see Rodders Journal #9 )


Pioneer surfer and shaper, Dale Velzy was a classic example of the cross fertilisation of these two genres. Velzy up till the time of his recent death always pursued his interest in cars when the swell was flat. This fabulous legacy is continued today with the likes of logger and shaper Tyler Hatzikian. Tyler is an avid advocate of this tradition and many of the aesthetic elements of Hot rodding permeate his artistic approach to the finishing of his boards. His store at El Segundo California is a testament to this fact. His front window features the most decoratively beautiful sign writing. Here we see his name executed with flourish in what appears to be gold leaf outlines filled with the most gorgeously flamboyant psychedelic 60's paisley fill that pays direct homage to Hot rod decorating of the same period. Tyler is drawing direct parallels for us that are imbued with a legacy and soul that draws inspiration from our rich ocean side history.


As an entity who is also much inspired by all things visual, The Papa draws much pleasure from Tyler's unique take and outlook and encourages his readers to explore options off the beaten path from the generic single layered glass jobs and homogeneous surf craft.
Michelangelo was credited with saying, 'Where there is no hand, there is no heart", and applied to the craft of surfboard manufacturing this resonates louder than ever.


In the tradition carried on by these two influential and significant surfers we should try to approach our outlook with a renewed and rekindled interest in the art of design, shaping and glassing. By viewing our next purchase with a sense of history and appreciation we ensure that there will always be an avenue open for those unique artists who continue the evolution of our sport. Drawing parallels from the past to the present encourages us all to arrive at a place of deeper understanding, belonging and appreciation of where we are and how we got there.

C. R. Stecyk, Dogtown and a Rebels stance.

For any of you out there familiar with the birth of skateboarding in the mid 1970's, the name C.R Stecyk, would be significant.
Stecyk is the ultimate author and social/ pop culture commentator of the Southern California surf/skate/art scene. He is also internationally known as a respected collector of fine artist working in sculpture, painting, surfboards and hot-rod cars. He is one of the founders of Juxtapoz art magazine, and has contributed to many different books, including the authorised Miki Dora story and Don James' Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume.



His stories published in the original Skateboard Magazine are the stuff of legend. His involvement in the Zephyr skateboard team and the Dogtown street scene of Venice California was pivotal. His social commentary is beautifully articulated and precise. He is an individual with a deep sense of history and has the unique ability to link the past to the future.
His works of the mid to late 1970's are the most poignant. Collectively known as the 'Dogtown Chronicals', he introduced delinquent skateboarders like Jay Adams and Tony Alva to a generation of disaffected youth.



What the Papa enjoyed most about his work was the way in which he wove his stories into the fabric of Southern California culture. We get to see the emergence of skateboarding set against the gritty graffiti streets of Venice and Santa Monica. We glimpse a world of surfers sharing neighbourhoods with Latin Chicano street gangs, lowriders and hotrods and we see the amazing cross pollination of ideas and culture. We see skateboarders as dispossessed youth carving out a brave new world amongst the crumbling concrete of a former beachside paradise.
He captured this intense moment and revealed it all to a world of pre-punk teens around the globe.
To me as a 14 year old living in Sydney Australia it came as an incredible outlet for my teen angst and went on to play a major role in how I would forever view my world. There was finally a focal point for my idealism and creativity and skateboarding would provide me with a sense of belonging that set me apart from my peers in their safe ignorance of being Australian.



It has been a long time since someone like Stecyk has spoken to me in the same vibrant terms, in a way that could create such revered passion .
In today's world its a scary thing to view how accepting our children have become to all things pertaining to being teenagers. On a daily basis I see manipulation and the dumbing down of our young ones by corporate identities: The Surf Conglomerates, the Skateboard giants, the Clothing labels with public stock interests. I live however in hope and idealism when I see young individuals giving the 'Man' the finger and choosing alternative paths.



On the beaches where I live and up and down the coast, its refreshing to see young surfers adopting Fishes or Single fins as their equipment of choice or those individuals choosing to ride Longboards or Logs. To me this is ground roots defiance that gives the 'finger' to the Thruster mentality long shoved down our throats by the Corporate Surfing Kremlin. To all those who choose the rocky path of individualism, the Papa salutes you!

The Real Wild One and a lament of Biker Style

In my last post I revealed the essence of Hot Rodding style via the book, 'The Day The Hot Rods ran'. In this blog I wanted to give a summary on the Papa's thoughts about Biker style and the movie the 'Wild One'.
Chino is the Wild One!! No doubt, no argument!
Lee Marvin's portrayal of Chino smolders deeper than Brando's Johnny by a long shot. Chino is one dirty looking biker bum to Johnny's squeaky clean.
Based on the actual event in 1947 when Hollister California was taken over by roaming pre-Angles bikers, the Wild One stands as an incredible style beacon to anyone interested in iconic biker style.



If we accept the premise that the original outlaw biker outfits were returned serviceman too hooked on the Adrenalin of battle to ever conform back into the post war military efficiency of the new United States, then who ever ward robed the WILD ONE, got it right in spades. Forget Brando's Black Rebels for a moment and focus instead on Chino's Beatles, what we see is an incredibly accurate portrayal of true biker style. In the crowd/gang scenes of the movie, the Beatles are attired in an amazing array of ex-military surplus. True they are all wearing selvaged Levis, but from that point on individuality kicks in, there's engineers boots, loggers boots, Linesman's boots, sweatshirts, striped t-shirts, tasselled cowboy jackets, Navy deck jackets, every conceivable type of aviation and civilian leather jackets, flight deck caps, skunk skin hats, Woods mans' wool mackinaw coats, so in total the works, its all going on here. Every single biker has his own style!



From this visual fest, Papa poses the question, how did it all go wrong?
Fast forward 60 or so years. The other day I'm waiting in the traffic and lo and behold the familiar rumble of a Harley motor zooms up along side me to stop at the traffic lights. Sitting astride this beast is some over sized steroided buffoon, wearing a cutoff Gold's Gym sweat shirt with club colours on a vest over the top, he's wearing the cheapest nastiest pair of jeans Ive ever seen, probably purchased at k-mart and woe unto any reference of style , this geek is wearing hi-tech, Asics white sports shoes!! Lament, lament, I almost weeped beneath my snickering. What the hell happenned and where did it all go wrong?



I'm thinking to myself now that there's no essence of the biker-outlaw anymore, not in the true sense of the word or the original concept. Today's bikers appear to be just criminals on two wheels. Their focus based on thuggery, drug trafficking and the like, hence the need to be muscled and intimidating. Perhaps this is all the result of organising by gangs to control 'interests'. While not casting dispersions, I can't help but lament about a time when it was more about the freedom of the open road and a life apart from the conforms of normal society.
As a style reference however the Wild One still remains the defining movie, especially so if we look beyond the fore ground shots in the movie and focus instead on the crowd scenes. In there lies a wealth of reference essential to anyone who still yearns to wear a sneer on their lips and lean on a bar tapping out be-bop rhythms with their hands.

MUROC DRY LAKES 1938

Long before Muroc Army Airforce Base there was the dry lakes.
During the 1930's this perfect flat desert landscape was the testing ground for man and machine, a legacy that would continue for years afterwards when this arid geological oddity would become a United States Army Airforce Testing facility ( see the movie "The Right Stuff".



On the 15th May 1938, Life magazine sent its photographer, William Carroll, out to the dry lakes to capture the birth of the Hot Rod Phenomena. The photographs were never published.
On June the 20th 1938, during another impromptu rod meet, a military unit showed up claiming the Dry Lakes for the Army Airforce and evicting the Hot rodders.
Weeks later the Army Airforce painted the outlines of two battleships on Muroc's flat mud surface and then began bombing practice in pre-WWII aircraft.



The book "The Day the Hotrods Ran", was complied from the Life Magazine photos taken on that May day in 1938. This visual relic is one one the most defining examples of the moment when Hotrodding captured the imagination of so many. The book covers the entire day from pre-dawn preparations to the actual meet.



What drew me to this book was the fact that it shows a rare glimpse of the style of the era. Being a vintage clothing collector and an avid fan of period style, especially the 1930's and 1940's, I found this reference an amazing insight into the actuals of the day. In our age it is so easy to get caught up in the fashion dictates of the moment, especially when many profess to encompass themselves in identifying labels such as Rockabilly, Kustom Kulture and the like. These labels in truth are just an excuse to find exceptance with others of a similar ilk. The truth I believe is that its all just about fashion and adopting a style that, well is generic. Any Rod meet or Kustom Car show these days is awash with the obvious and the homogenised. Rarely do we see people who have a genuine depth of appreciation to explore the genre beyond what is commercial available.



There are truthfully some exceptions. What I find interesting is this, with so much original reference available, such as this magnificent book, how come individuals find it so difficult to get 'it' right?
The photos in this book are an incredible resource. The photos show every type of iconic vintage fashion idea around, we have a visual style world bedecked in coveralls, selvedged denim, engineers boots, loggers boots, club jackets, flight jackets, Naval deck jacket, Half belted cycle jackets, pilots caps, sailor caps, white t-shirts, pendleton, cayuse and trade blankets, aviation goggles, chinos, work pants and much much more. For someone with an eye for detail its a surplus world that would provide a lifetime of style reference. There's all this and we haven't even begun to talk about the Rods themselves and what reference that would provide for any motor enthusiast. With so much going on and what's more so accessible to people it never ceases to amaze me how you can get it all so wrong. This is the Papa's opinion of course, but I do know somethings for fact and that is the only ones that seem to be truely on the right track are the Japanese. They appear to be the ones who are able to pick and choose those points of reference that are on the money. Sure there's a hand full of us others, I know some of them amd Im sure there's plenty more out there but we are after all talking generalities here. So the message really is just about opening your eyes to the endless opportunity to explore really cool stuff, regardless of genre and the comfort of creating your own being without following the dictates of the moment.

Bill Bridgeman Surfer, Aviator, Test Pilot

Bill Bridgeman was a surfer. He was a part of a pioneering group of early Southern Californian surfers that included Don James, Frank Donahue, George 'peanuts', Larsen, Jack Quigg, Pete Petersen and others who called the breaks of San Onofre to Point Dume home.

William ' Bill' Bridgeman was one of the most famous test pilots during the late
1940's and early 1950's. His test flights for the Douglas Aircraft Company in California pushed the boundaries of known aeronautics and led him to become the fastest and highest man ever known in that era.
Like many other surfers from Southern California, Bridgeman left the beaches and began his wartime career in the military, serving as a US Navy pilot in the Pacific Campaign in early 1942.
He was part of the famous bomb squadron 109, "The Reluctant Raiders", which had a wartime record of 180,000 tons of enemy shipping sunk in the Pacific.
Assigned to fly PBY 'Catalinas', he served in Darwin Australia and then went on to the Pacific chains which include Apamama, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, Kwajalien, Entiwetok, Carolinas and Truk Island.
Returning to the States late in the war, he served with the ferry squadron of the Naval Air Transport Service and then went on to be an instructor in PB-Y4's on the west coast at Santa Ana Air Corp Base.
When the war was over, Bridgeman was desperate for a change in career and was approached by the Douglas Aircraft company of Santa Monica to become a test pilot for several government projects the company was then working on out at the Muroc Dry Lakes in California.
His first project was to fly the Douglas Skyraider AD-1 and AD-2, which pushed the propeller driven engines into the sub-sonic zone.

At this time the government was obsessed with experiments in supersonic flight.They had contracted several companies to build aircraft that could fly at the speed of sound.
Bell Aircraft Corporation was the first to succeed with the X-l rocket plane, flown by Chuck Yeager. In 1947, Yeager flew the X-l at Mach 1 and smashed the invisible sound barrier, forever changing the concepts of aviation. After these speed tests the plane had been handed over to the NACA (National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics) the predecessor of NASA.

The goal of Mach 2 was the next big obstacle, and the Douglas company responded by developing the Sky Rocket D-558-2, a US Navy experimental plane designed for high speed flight through the sound barrier and beyond. The pilot chosen to fly the Sky Rocket was surfer, Bill Bridgeman.
Bridgeman tested the plane over several months working up to a run of Mach 2, finally they attached the Sky Rocket to the belly of a B-29 and performed an aerial drop. The Sky Rocket started its engines and then proceeded to break every previous record for speed and height. Bill Bridgeman become the fastest man on earth, flying at 1300 miles an hour or Mach 2 and also attained the altitude of 14.1 miles or 80,000 feet.
During these test flights they was always a chase plane. These were usually P-80's or F-86's and were flown by Muroc's flight community including Chuck Yeager himself.
Bill Bridgeman and Chuck Yeager toured the United States, where they were able to talk to the media. When Bridgeman was asked how he felt on being the highest and fastest pilot, he replied, " It was easy, I'd look for one of those holes That Chuck punched in the sky and then just fly right on through it".
In 1952, Bridgeman went on to test the new Douglas Stiletto X3, a fantastically designed aircraft using the latest in research technology. He flew 25 of 51 Test flights.
Ironically, Bridgman's' career came to an abrupt end in 1958. While travelling as a domestic passenger on a commercial flight from Long Beach to Santa Catalina Island, The Grumman Goose in which he flew crashed and all aboard were killed.
Papa Nui remembers Bill Bridgeman.

Bill Bridgeman can been seen in his glorious pre-wars days idling his time at the beach in Don James fabulous book, Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume. James was a pioneer surfer and photographer and captured these early years of surfing's exuberance on the Southern California coast from 1936 to 1942.

R.I.P Bill Bridgeman. Surfer, Warrior, Hero.

Saigon. Shit. I'm still only in Saigon.

Who can forget the amazing characters conjured up in Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius's Apocalypse Now? Fantastic stuff and a true work of art. Some have said that this is the ultimate surf movie with Colonel Kilgore and his boys searching out grinding peaks under Charlie's nose.

Lets not forget Lance Johnson on the forward .50's and his reputation as a nose rider back in the beaches south of L.A

Id like therefore to draw your attention to a new film from John Milius, called, 'between the Lines'

This new film/doco follows the experiences of several surfers at the time of the Vietnam War. Some chose to go the jungles of South East Asia while others made the choice to flee to Canada to escape the Draft.

Milius as many are aware also did the film classic Big Wednesday, which originally flopped at the box office but eventually found its way to be the defining surf movie of an entire generation. Milius also wrote the script for Apocalypse Now and so in this new film/doco we have yet another take on that incredible sixties period as seen through the eyes of Millius and those Surfers who were caught up in the drama of uncertain times.

It is also interesting to note that although the Vietnam war was lost on the campuses and streets of the United States through the various anti-war protest organisations and left wing fifth columnists, on the battlefield American and Australians never lost a major action.

To all those boys swept up in an unpopular war and vilified or forgotten by governments that sanctioned their action, Papa Nui says, you are all heroes who deserve our gratitude and thanks, the Papa remembers you and your comrades POW and MIA who are no longer with us.

"WE SURF IN FREEDOM FOR THOSE THAT CAN'T"

Tropical interior design for beachniks

Ive always found inspiration in the South Pacific when it came to thinking about the design of my home interior. While none of what I do adheres strictly to any particular formula I believe that it truly reflects who I am and the things that I enjoy. A home environment after all should be a place that says something about you and it should cocoon you in an atmosphere that embraces your lifestyle.

My ideas span many elements and points of reference. Firstly I was drawn to lodgings of servicemen in the South Pacific in WWII, basically Quonset huts or local crafted grass shacks that were adorned with trappings gleaned from the natives. This is especially true of colour where I searched out a particular shade of olive drab suggestive of the military but also a hue that lends a contemporary tropical air. Then as Ive always shared a passion for the decor of the Hawaiian islands I searched for years to locate many original vintage items from the 1930's and 1940's to decorate my environs.

Many of these items are vintage hula costumes, original grass skirts dyed with Attabrine, paper leis and the such. To me it was like creating a scene from James A Michener's 'Hawaii' or Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'.

Surrounding myself with elements of the natural world was also key in achieving the feel that I wanted and so I tracked down interesting pieces of coral, shells and rocks strewn on the local beaches where I live. One of my favourite items is a carved coral mask from Timor.

The concept of the tropical home is often bantered around the publications of home renovation magazines but as always the style research is mundane, shallow and homogenised. This is why you can ride the trend by planting a few palms and installing a Buddha statue. I guess this serves the multitudes sufficiently. Alas but thank god that I do not aspire to these things but draw inspiration from a deeper personal interest.

For visual reference try to think out of the square and do not be afraid to spend many many hours acquiring the feel you want. I drew on 30 years worth of National Geographic magazines as well as numerous books and publications. One particularly worthy of note was 'Under the Hula Moon', by Jocelyn Fujii and published by Crown publishers 1992. The other is the classic reference Taschen book, 'The Book of Tiki'. This is a great source but one that has also been plagiarised to death by kustom kulture Tiki Geeks the world over.

For an original look you must source this concept yourself and be prepared to do the hard groundwork of research.

If I'm really fortunate I may find some more elements to add to my decor and am presently seeking out some Puffer fish and perhaps a Saw fish bill.