Nightglow Window

Stolen Moments

I've been transferring my archives from seven backup DVDs onto my home computer, and it's just taking forever. There's a ton to transfer -- 28 gigabits from just the surfbiz days; 45,648 files contained in 6,562 folders. Whew!

But another thing that's making it take so long is when I get stuck on memory lane.

What's weird is that it isn't the really "good" or iconic photos that are holding my attention. Instead, it's the random stolen moments.

Digital photography is generous. It lets you stick the camera out the window of the car and shoot away. It thinks nothing of all those photos taken from your hotel room window. I lets you shoot the mundane without guilt that you're wasting film.

And then, three or four or six years later, you stumble over these hasty shots and remember. It all comes back. And try as you might to rush past, you can't. The tide of memory is just too strong.


July, 1999 -- After three days spent touring loud and hot and smelly boot factories in Montebelluna, Italy, the side trip to Colico on Lake Como was a God send -- especially since I was fighting the stomach flu. This was taken from my hotel window as the rest of the Northwave sales team got ready to go to dinner. It was my first experience with that most beautiful corner of the globe, but I knew it wouldn't be my last -- not by a long shot.



2/15/2001 -- John Maynard and I are driving to Santa Cruz to attend the Cold Water Classic. It's early morning when we descend the Conejo Grade into Camarillo. There are workers in the fields and the mountains are covered in snow.



12/16/2001 -- It's the last day of the Pipe Masters contest and 5,000 eyes are watching the surfers out in the lineup. But another, more subtle, drama is playing out over our heads as the latest Hawai'ian rainstorm starts to clear. Meanwhile, and a world away, the battle for Tora Bora rages on. I remember coming back from the contest each day sure that Bin Laden would be caught. Alas, no dice.



2/9/2002 -- The road near Shoreham, southeast of Melbourne in Southern Australia. It was Sunday and our first day in Oz and I was barely recovered from a horrible flu. Maynard was driving and was sketched to be on the "wrong" side of the road.



7/1/2003 -- Morning in Zuoz, Switzerland. The night before it was raining and cold. The blackout curtains in our hotel worked almost too well and we overslept. But this was the view when we finally looked outside.



9/15/2003 -- With Hurricane Isabel just offshore and expected to make landfall in less than 48 hours, this old timer still found time to enjoy the early morning sun in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. In the background was the sounds of hammering and rotary saws as residents boarded up their houses.



3/22/2004 -- Sunset In Salinas, Ecuador. The World Surfing Games were being held in town and more than 20 countries were represented. Just below the window here at my hotel were a half dozen soldiers with automatic rifles, hired to keep the athletes safe. They talked really loud, but I certainly didn't have enough courage to tell them to pipe down.



7/10/2004 -- On a jetty in Anglet, France. Casey, Adam, and I had finished up covering the ASR Europe show for the day and walked down to the beach. I shot this from my hip, and never really looked at it until yesterday. This just might be the worst photo of Casey ever captured.



9/20/2004 -- The Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, NYC. Another from-the-hip shot after a long, long day of walking.