Conatus Surf Club + RDA

Good morning people. First off, again, my heart goes out to all effected by Hurricane Sandy. Just found out my friend, Joe Falcone of Grey Ghost Surfboards, had his family home and shaping bay destroyed. Joe is working with others to clean up the Rockaways. I'm still in Brooklyn. Power is expected to be restored in Lower Manhattan by tomorrow night/Sunday morning at the earliest. This is a tragedy to say the least but life does go on. As soon as I regained internet I began solidifying plans with my brother, Andrew, for the Conatus Surf Club Retreat at our property in Costa Rica, Rancho DiAndrew. We've put together a comprehensive package that includes transportation while you're in CR, pickup and drop off at the San Jose Int'l Aeropuerto, meals and beverages, lodging, and lots of other radness. We aim to accommodate 4-6 guests per retreat. The first retreat is January 5-12 and the second is January 12-19. To inquire further please email conatussurfclub@gmail.com or andrew@ranchodiandrew.com. To be clear you can check out the whole package HERE. We will be taking 50% deposits via paypal.

A note on the name changing: as with any budding business I've been working hard to have my name fit my brand. As some may know from lessons and conversations with me, Conatus is Latin word that I take from the philosophy of Spinoza (especially from his major well-known work the Ethics). It denotes the force within a being that seeks to endeavor to persist in its own being. Another way of saying this for us humans is that we seek to increase our capacity to act. Our capacity to act is made greater when we share knowledge with one another. This is the underlying principle behind the name and thus the brand. I was working with some hand-drawn logos when the consultant/graphic designer suggested that 'academy' is perhaps to institutional for the vibe I am after. I immediately saw his point and decided that 'club' is much more up my alley, especially since I'm all about community and encompassing a greater sense of belonging. And so there you have it, at least now provisionally. I am not going to change the url of this blog because that is too much of a hassle at the present moment. I'm just going to wait until I have a new site. I also hope to have a few stickers, tees, and patches made sometime in the not too far off future, and will definitely have some speciality items made for those that participate in the Conatus Surf Club + RDA Retreat in January.

Last note on water quality in NY: the water is nasty. Sewage plants cannot process and it's running out into the harbor/ocean. The best bet right now, if you have enough gasoline and gumption, is to get to the nearest community in need and help out if you can. If you cannot the best thing to do is to conserve energy and to share time with loved ones.

Epic Week and Plans for a Surf Camp in CR

Saturday was perfect. 

Things are finally settling back down, but only slightly, just enough to speed up again. The whirlwind week of surfing with Derek Hynd ended with a trip back out to Long Island, another to New Jersey and the last was for a lesson in the Rockaways. The highly successful surf meetup happened in the in-between. And this reminds me that I still owe you all that write up on the importance of surf buddies. I can only promise it will come as soon as I've nailed about 60 other pages of writing. I mentioned at the meet up that I will be running a camp in Costa Rica in January. I am now working on the details of cost, accommodations, capacity, and dates. I can assure you it will be after January 4th. It's a plan I've hatched up with my brother who has also been teaching lessons using my method for the past six years. As some of you know, he and I own a nice piece of land in Uvita, Costa Rica called Rancho DiAndrew. We have cabins on the land and a main house. There is tons of wildlife and waterfalls in walking distance to the property. He cooks up some amazing grub, some of the produce for which is grown directly on the property. We're working on rounding up a bevvy of boards right now. This camp is not going to be one of those identical softtop and rashguard affairs. We are going to have a variety of boards so that people can figure out what suits them best. We might even be selling some back to students if they just happen to click with one (this is a plan I am also hatching here in New York—I want to start getting different lesson boards and selling to students). We will also continue developing ocean knowledge and lineup awareness. So yeah Conatus Surf Academy at Rancho DiAndrew is in the works! Warm water and an authentic surf trip vibe. Stay tuned.

International Surfing Day

Hey all. Happy International Surfing Day!!!!! A few updates: First of all, here is a great example of how to surf the white waters with style. You can see how relaxed and calm she looks cruising in on this little wave. Riding the white water with grace is about the third step in anyone's surfing path (the first being comfortable in the ocean generally, especially without a board; the second being able to paddle efficiently). All of these skills, moreover, are constant works in progress.

Second, I was mentioned in NY Magazine's Summer Issue: http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2012/water-attractions/ Go check it out or pick up a copy in news stands. Very stoked that the nice guys over at Pilgrim Surf recommended me for this. And for those that are directed here, yes, again, I will give bodysurfing lessons. It is a crucial skill. I've been doing it my whole life and feel that it really helps one understand wave mechanics and how waves and bodies interact with one another.

Third, I am working on rebranding the lesson business. I am going to offer comprehensive packages and also have some plans for some really cool tees, hats, and sweatshirts in the works. I have long had the desire to also have a fashion line, but I am going to start small and build the brand with my surf school. I do have a new name in mind, but I'm going to keep it under wraps until I develop the logo and get going on a new website. Definitely stay tuned. I am really excited about it and think it's going to be the perfect marriage of all of my passions: surfing, philosophy, and fashion.

Last, always thanks for reading and for inquiring. Surfing is such an immense gift and such a great way for one to increase one's joy by learning to see in new ways. I remain dedicated to helping others develop this vision and to learning how to make room in their lives for wave riding.

Summer Surfing Has Officially Begun

Surfers of all sorts, summer has a arrived on the East Coast and it's a bag of mixed treats.

First let's start off with personal news: I have my phone back, so calling and texting are firmly planted back into daily affairs. I am still writing papers from this past semester: one on the style of William James, another on Heidegger's Being and Time, and the third on narcissism in the early psycho-analytic works of Sandor Ferenczi and Karl Abraham. I hope to be finished before mid-June. One never quite knows, but yes, I'd like to get them out of the way. Any who have taken a surf lesson from me know that it is not without a few philosophical musings. I consider this a major upshot.

I have taught a nice handful of lessons in the last few weeks of May. All quite successful. All wonderful people per usual. Many return clients from last summer looking to get back into the swing. Lots of people still paddling with their legs apart. Minds in stomachs people and pull those legs together! The body should form a straight line down the middle of the surfboard and should be held taught by the amazing band of muscles near your solar plexus (often called your "core").

So summer. It's more crowded this year than ever, which means lessons are really going to focus on the social aspects of surfing—how to find waves to yourself, maneuver around crowds, communicate with other surfers in the water, read lineups, etc. This aspect cannot be underscored enough especially since the sport is growing and looks to continue to grow despite what grumpy old carps may have to say about it. Long Beach has added many more beaches to its surfing rotation. A full schedule can be found here: Long Beach Surfing Schedule. All beaches in New York can be surfed and are free for entry before 9am (except a few like Gilgo and Lido must be arrived at before 7am). For this reason I want to schedule all lessons as early in the day as possible. Parking also becomes an issue on the weekends. For daytime surfing, the only free beaches available summer-long are 67th-69th and 87th-92nd at Rockaway. As close to the train as they are, these are bound to get nutso on the reg. You better have your crowd surfing skills in check to stay calm, catch waves, and not get hurt (or hurt anyone else). Early mornings are still uncrowded (New Yorkers being the party animals that they are), so I highly recommend owning your own board and getting on the dawn patrol.

I have decided never again to use the word "pop up". It makes it sound as though getting to one's feet on a surfboard happens all of a sudden in a kind of jerky motion. We shall call it getting to one's feet. There are a variety of different ways to go about it, some more efficient and graceful than others. Most of all it is important to take it easy and breathe even in this most crazy of moments—you've just caught a wave, it's exciting, but you need to slow down and pull yourself together. Surfing is all about taking in the tiny moments and appreciating them.

I think I'll leave this post off here. The above picture of me was taken at Fire Island by my pal Thad's dad, Dennis, with my iPhone. I'm riding that Forstall mini Simmons doing a little float. Such a blast! Upcoming posts will concern surf techniques, links to vids and websites you should be watching, and other cool surf snippets.

Family Business

Surf lessons are in the Mattison blood. Check out my brother's operation in Costa Rica: http://ranchodiandrew.com/?p=744. Poetry and photos by our illustrious father, Richard.

Open Season for Surf Lessons!!!!

Here's a pic of the pick up of my first lesson for this summer. Davith's wife, Lexi, bought him two lessons for his birthday. Here they are getting ready to go to the beach in front of Saturdays on Crosby. The lesson went super well and we're all looking forward to #2.

I've also started receiving a lot of other calls and emails regarding lessons this summer. Start booking now to ensure you get your slot! Also, remember that my lessons are not so much focused on getting you to stand up on the board but are more about the overall experience and knowledge and style of surfing. Surfing is 95% paddling, seeing, judging, and navigating and 5% standing up on a wave. Summer and its crowds makes this even more true. I see so many beginners every time I surf wander into an area where they should not be. You can avoid this kind of catastrophe by learning the right way the first time. You will also get better faster because you'll learn how to find waves where others don't.

An Image of Success

Here's an image of a recent surf lesson. This is Oli. He stood up on his first wave, but this is probably his 7th or 10th wave of the session. This is in New Jersey, where I don't normally teach because, as you can see here, the waves break really close to the shore. Oli managed to deal with the sand pretty well, running off when he reached the shore. A total success! In other surf lesson news, I've heard from a number of you inquiring about lessons. Just wanted to say that I'm still here whenever you're ready to go. You won't receive one on one surf lesson expertise of the sort I provide anywhere in the NY area, so I just want to remind you all that lessons are well worth the price and the time and the energy. You will get back ten fold and be progressing much faster than those who simply try their hands at surfing on their own or in group lessons where there is little to no attention to detail. Really, it's just like any other sport, if you are serious about getting good it pays to get an expert instructor or coach. This is especially true with surfing where the environment is much more dangerous and dynamic than in any other sport. Plus it's a lifestyle and you'll want all the tips about the risks and rewards of adding surfing into your life. Take the plunge!

Summer Sands

Ah the dog days of summer are whizzing past like the speeding motorcycle in the Daniel Johnston song. I still do not have the car back, but the part has finally been sourced. I’ve been praying that it would be ready before the weekend of my 30^th birthday so that the girl and I could throw the longboard on the racks and head out to Montauk for a day or so. But unless he calls really soon, as in today sometime, it looks like we’re Brooklyn-bound for the 22^nd/23^rd. Overall this is fine with me. I have a tradition of surfing on my birthday, so maybe a day ride out on the LIRR to Long Beach or Montauk, fish under arm, will have to suffice. Other than these surf related musings, how about this summer? Has any other summer gone by quite as fast? I do not believe so. Between reading Proust, researching fashion history stuff for Hazel Clark over at Parsons, planning the new print version of Canon (the interdisciplinary student-run journal for the New School), waiting tables, teaching the occasional surf lesson, and/or just paddling around myself, the days have passed like sand through a sieve. Fortunately there seems to be an interminable yet finite amount of sand still to sift. I am looking forward to fall, to my last year in the MA program, to wearing a jacket more often, and to figuring out how to execute the multitude of crazy plans that I’ve stirred up in my brain over the past few weeks. These include a possible PhD in Comparative Literature, a top secret fashion line, and a perhaps a minor return to competitive surfing……..we’ll see.

Thomas, Josh (x2), Felix, and I.

Lovely day for a post. Finished my last paper for the semester on Tuesday and scored epic waves the following day. Yesterday was spent making flyers for Ceremony NY II, cavorting around Soho, and reading a bit of Wilde. While in Soho I stopped by Saturdays and had a chat with the dapper Josh. We talked surf lessons and Keala Kennelly's gaping barrel on surfline.com and how it's just generally a great time to be a surfer (when was it not?). In the course of our conversation I really put my finger on what makes my surf lessons special and unique and have consequently updated this blog as a result. To the right you see what I've come up with, and to the left you see Felix, our 1975 bmw 2002, with my current quiver strapped to the roof. This is just before we took off cross country last June. The big red board with the yellow tail is the authentic surf craft on which I plan to teach a majority of my lessons. It was shaped by Dane Peterson for Thomas Campbell (who did the paint/artwork). Thomas gave the board to my friend, Josh (not the owner of Saturdays - this Josh is aka the graffiti name Amaze), who in turn gifted it to me. Needless to say, you'll be learning on a piece of surfing history. It's about 9'6" and floats and paddles amazingly. And I think I'll leave off now. Until next time, mine the spice!