The Other Favorite View?

Looking back at land.

Good day for riding a bit of swell, for working a bit: Saturday, June 25.

Sea Garden: Mendocino

My favorite shots from one of Friday's dives.

By the way, I took these pictures in ten feet or less of water. An easy snorkel, if you were so inclined.

Pining for North

My idea of a great beach.

(And, why wool sweaters and wetsuits were invented.)

Head north on Highway 1, but stop just south of Mendocino.

Photo: Damme Rocks, November 21, 2009.

The Whelming Sea and Strand

This shot strands me in the midst of at least three literary moments: Cuchulain's defeat by the sea; Oedipus' self-mutilation; Jason's being struck down by the spar from the Argo's mast. I also hear echoes of poems by John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Robert Graves, W.B. Yeats, Homer, and Vergil. Not that my photograph compares with such verbal visions, but that's how the mind works, at least mine, paying heed to the scene at hand, yet allowing the echoes to sound and play in the mind's ear. (Sometimes, such echoing may be a cacaphony, so beware what you wish for.)

The shot also sets me there on the beach up north, just south of Mendocino, at Van Damme State Park. Look at how well that sand and shingle drains, appearing almost dry, grains fairly distinct, even as this next wave slides upward from the cove. I can feel the water and sand in my shoes as I look at this shot. The heavy, wet legs of my jeans. Think again how I didn't change into the wetsuit boots or the wetsuit up in the truck since I was just going to take a few pictures. And that's alright. Later, the faint squish and grit as I walked the streets of Mendocino, looking for used books and hot coffee, recalled the fun of this session, the salt air, the vigorous stench of rotting kelp, the bright light, and cooling breezes. It was late November, but lovely, lovely weather. Seas too rough for the class dive, but fine for kayaking and beachcombing.

And that foam.

Kayaking with Sofia

Sofia is my kayak: an Ocean Kayak Scrambler 11.

The day was quite rough and cold, though these photos don't quite show those aspects. The dive-master had even cancelled our two days of diving due to the high swells. Here I'd watched, waited, and made my move in what I hoped would be a lull. The sit-on-top works well across rough water, but she's beamy and offers a lot of surface area to breaking waves; I'm often pushed back ("punched" may be a better word) if I don't time the entry just so. But then that's part of the fun.

Here, the fun was getting right out through the waves. I had witnesses to impress (or not to falter or fail in front of). I cruised about for only 40 minutes or so, I think. The day was bright enough, but cold. Since I was solo, I held back from braving the surf breaking along the south edge and straight out from the beach past the third set of rocks. Later, I felt I should have pushed myself more. Still, good exercise, and I felt quite secure in the rough water in Sofia, though I will say I put on my fins once I was beyond the shore break just in case of capsizing. I wanted to be able to catch and remount my kayak quickly and easily.

Van Damme State Park, just south of Mendocino.

Late November, 2009.

Shipwreck: Oedipus? Jason Argonautica?

Oedipus (ship)wrecks: the obvious pun. Jason after the Argo's mast has crushed his skull and his men have dumped his body overboard to drift and sink and wash up anywhere but where they are. Tainted heroes, taboo-breakers, adventurers beyond the pale: after the fall, what use the fiery spark? Salt-sea renewal? Salt and sand refinement? Set aside my own mythologizing here. What story would you tell?

(Yes, my feet did get wet with this sequence. I love how the foam rushes through the eyehole here. I have another shot where the foam looks comical or diabolical; I can't quite decide.)

Watch the Eyes: Bird and Mask

November 22, 2009: Van Damme State Park, Mendocino, CA

This bird was immediately interested in the mask, and it followed me about the beach from shingle to drift pile to shingle again. If I moved away from the mask, this bird went--as you can see--right for the eyes. I can't say I'd want to have washed up unconscious on this beach, though an eye may be a small price for survival in such cold waters.

Mask: The Drowned Man.

The Drowned Man in Drift Wood

The Drowned Man: Sequence I (Revised)

November 22, 2009: Van Damme State Park, Mendocino, CA

Mask: Sculpture mix, cobalt carbonate oxide & satin white glaze.

Sand and shingle beach; sea foam.

(Yes, my feet got wet; should have put on the wetsuit boots, but when I walked away from the truck, camera and mask in hand, I hadn't realized I'd be standing in the surf.)