Dear Fellow-Being-In-the-World, This week I have some “hard core” surfing philosophy for you and some fun surfing photos from the past. Martin Heidegger made an important distinction in his philosophy between what he called ontic and ontological phenomena. Understanding this distinction is very helpful for investigating whatever sort of phenomena — stuff that appears — you’re into. He picked this up from his mentor, Edmund Husserl, who had a similar distinction between the natural and the...
9 days ago • 21 min read
Dear Grom-at-Heart, This week we’re back to video content. I’ve been writing lots on play this week and waded into some thorny theoretical territory that will take me more time to parse and organize. I’ve pulled down Derrida and Freud, and about to return to Gadamer’s Truth and Method because in What We Think About When We Think About Soccer Critchley reminded me that Truth and Method begins with an analysis of play. As for the Derrida and Freud, that has to do with what Fink and Huizinga...
16 days ago • 8 min read
What Is Play Without Fun?! Peyton Lee and the supreme joy of a fly away kickout. 2023 or 4. Dear Fellow Froth Monster, Today I want to discuss the role of “fun” in play a bit more, and then I want to share some of Huizinga’s genealogical/etymological research of what he calls “the play-concept.” First, fun. Of fun Huizinga writes that it “resists all analysis, all logical interpretation. As a concept, it cannot be reduced to any other mental category. No other modern language known to me has...
23 days ago • 23 min read
New Study On Play With A Detour Through My Dissertation Pita is my philosophy daemon! Dear Surf Nerd, I’ve got some heavy surf-nerding for you this week. As promised, I put my philosophy hat on, grabbed the books off the shelves, got my little blue notebooks down too, and went to work on the topic of surfing and play. At first this was just going to be a mere exegesis of Eugen Fink’s Play As Symbol of the World (1960). It has since morphed into something more far reaching. But let’s start...
about 1 month ago • 23 min read
CONTROLLING YOUR EQUIPMENT WITH FIALKA Get the inside take on what it's like to have modest goals as a later in life learner unaccustomed to the ways of the sea. Dear Companion in Froth, I have got a short one for you this week. I've been working hard on philosophy and it's slow going. I've also been down all week with some sort of post travel malaise. I arrived Friday night, slept pretty well, rested Saturday, coached Sunday, coached Monday, and then got home from my session with Sana and...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Morocco, Marriage, Big Moves Paddling out at La Crique, a fun right point in Bouznika, northern Morocco just last week! Dear Surf Nerd, I hope this finds you well. I'm just back from the last trip of a marathon winter of surf trips. I went to Morocco for the first time in my life. I have formed a great business relationship with La Crique Surf House in Bouznika, which is just a 50 minute drive from Casablanca Airport or a 30 minute drive from Rabat. I did a full write up about Northern...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read
Everything I Now Know About Surfing and Staying In Northern Maghreb Watch for urchins! Dear Surf Nerd, My epic two week exploration of Northern Maghreb has come to a close. I have learned a lot, and I have some updates on last week’s info, plus some details you may want to know if you’re looking at doing your own trip here either with me or without me one day. If Maghreb has been on your bucket list for a surf trip, you have good reason. It’s sick here. The south is holding the more popular...
about 1 month ago • 23 min read
AMNIOTIC REGRESSION IN NORTHERN MOROCCO Yimin Peng inside at La Crique, a right hand point break in Bouznika, Maghreb. Dear Philo-surfer, As promised this week is all Morocco content. I'm going to stop calling it that now, and we'll go back to what they call it themselves: Maghreb. Honestly the name "Morocco" is not nice. It's from the Spanish 'Maruecos' which means "moor," and I don't mean the kind where you park your boat. I mean the racist word used for black/Arabic muslim people. Yes, the...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
Use Those Legs and Play Like You Mean It Right hander in Bouznika, Morocco where I'm staying for the next two weeks. Dear Fellow Thinker, When you receive this I will be in Morocco. First time ever. I flew into Casablanca, rented a car, and drove north to La Crique Surf House. First time on the African continent as well. I brought just two boards: my 5’3” Barahona “goldfish”and my 5’4” Tomo Hydroshort. I brought three sets of fins: Al Merrick keels and S-Wings keels for the fish, and a Lost 5...
about 2 months ago • 22 min read