A Pure Source

  The lack of quality surf in my home state however has done little to dilute my interest in surfing. In fact, I still consider myself to this day to be a "closet surfer". I absolutely love watching surf footage, especially footage from the '70s and '80s that were shot on grainy 8mm film. For me, vintage surf footage, much like many of the early fly fishing productions just drips with a nostalgic sense of primitive adventure and period correct high drama that I find extremely entertaining and downright addictive. And much like fly fishing, the premise of traveling to exotic and remote destinations and enculturating one's self the indigenous locals has always been an integral part of surfing experience

Back then, the name Gerry Lopez was synonymous with all things surfing. Not only is Gerry known for his mastery of the world class wave at Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore of Hawaii, but also for his pioneering pursuits at remote destinations like Uluwatu and Grajagan Bay aka G Land in Indonesia. And, for those of you who don't know anything about surfing, or Gerry Lopez, he also had a short career as an actor in Hollywood, with significant roles in films such as Conan The Barbarian, The North Shore, Big Wednesday, and several others.

  Even though this is fly fishing website, I shine this week's spotlight on Gerry, because just a few days ago I stumbled upon an OUTSTANDING new documentary on YouTube titled "The Yin And Yang of Gerry Lopez." It details Gerry's lifelong pursuit of spiritual fulfillment through surfing, board shaping, yoga, and more recently, snowboarding. And the beauty of this feature is that you don't have to be a surfer to enjoy or appreciate this man and what he has devoted his life to. To give the uninitiated a frame of reference, Gerry Lopez is to surfing what Flip Pallot is to fly fishing. That is to say, the wise, all knowing, master of his craft, who has reached a calm, zen like higher level of understanding of himself and the world he lives in, through his association with water. Like Flip, Gerry is a Waterman in the truest sense of the word.

  I have believed for almost three decades now that surfing and fly fishing have much more in common than just being a pursuit that happens to take place on the water. Unlike other forms of angling, and much like surfing, fly fishing provides a platform that one can dedicate their life to, and never quite master. And, if approached correctly, both surfing and fly fishing seem to have this unexplainable, unquantifiable, cosmic ability to reveal deep meaningful things about ourselves, that may not otherwise be so easily uncovered or understood. My personal opinion is that this has something to do with both a conscious, and subconscious need for a deeper than normal personal and individual kinship to the water and the powerful and rhythmic life force that it possesses. 

  Fly Fishing like surfing also requires that one have an intimate and intuitive relationship with the equipment they choose to interact with the forces of nature. The Anthropologist in me can't help but believe that there is most likely a latent evolutionary component to this as well. For both surfer and angler, it is as if there is a primitive need hidden deep in our DNA that demands that we be involved in designing and crafting of the tools we use to interact with the natural world . For many, the draw of fly fishing is the adjacent craft of having the ability to create, match and adapt one's "bait" to any angling scenario. Tying flies adds a level of personal involvement with their quarry that can't be achieved any other way, and offers a deeply personal creative and artistic outlet for the angler to express his or her interpretation of what they observe in the natural predator/prey relationship. And for some of us, myself included, building rods is just one more step in having our fingerprint deeply imprinted in every facet of the craft, for a total angling experience.

  Gerry's original surfboard company, Lightning Bolt, used the marketing slogan "A Pure Source" to describe what it is that I am probably doing only a mediocre job of quantifying in this short essay. But the term "A Pure Source" is about as good of a description as I have found for the rush of spiritual and emotional energy that I receive from the act of unrolling a loop and dropping a carefully crafted blend of dead animal parts lashed to a hook, into a school of viciously feeding Redfish that have no idea that I am about to impose my will on them. And in many cases, they in turn impose their will on me, which is of course, as it should be. I can only imagine that the surfer experiences a similiar sensation upon getting barreled at a remote, uncrowded break where it's just you against the ever changing forces of nature. It is after all the unpredictability of these relationships that keep both surfer and angler coming back for more.

  And in a true stroke of marketing genius, Gerry's use of the lightning bolt insignia, may have been the perfect visual metaphor for the invisible yet powerful electric connection that plugs both the surfer and the angler into their ability to harness the power of the hard sciences, and then extract from them an emotional and psychological experience that can only be described as... A PURE SOURCE. 

Below you will find a youtube link to the documentary about Gerry Lopez. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeTMPJ2B5VE&t=4450s

Hope you all are having a great week,

Andy