I stumbled across the website of Nick Tansley's Razor Surfboards earlier today. I used to surf his boards years ago back when they were named Ocean Curves, and went through probably half a dozen before I started working for Hot Buttered surfboards (and hence surfed HB after that). Nick has moved up around Takatu Point way aka Tawharanui (near Warkworth/Omaha Beach), one of my old regular surfing regions. Anyway I dropped him an email just to comment on the website and say hi and he emailed back which was great, so I thought I'd put a plug in for him here - love getting mail from back home (subtle hint to my friends who are reading this and haven't emailed me for farking eons..). Nick is obviously still shaping, and speaking from experience, he's a damn good shaper too, so to any of my surfing mates in NZ, if you're up that way, stop in and check out his skills. He's full of good advice too. Turn right at the Omaha turn-off (if you're heading from Warkworth towards Leigh) and it's about 500m up the road to Tawharanui on the left (actual address is 113 Takatu Rd). I believe he still has the shop in Browns Bay as well, but from the sound of it Nick only goes there once a week to pick up/drop off boards & orders etc.

Here's a pic of Daniels Reef that I took years ago. Daniels is nearby where Razor is, so this is your motivation to head up there. If that's not enough for ya, then check out the surfing photo essay on this site of Goat Island Bay going orff, because that's just up the road from Daniels Reef. Woot!

We spent a groovy day in Manhattan on Sunday. After going out to Indian Passage (restaurant) with the Weaslings parents on Saturday night, Altie the fish met up with Weasling and I early Sunday afternoon in The Village. We had lunch at Pane e Cioccolato which has become a bit of a regular spot for us recently, and then decided to walk across Manhattan to Battery Park.

The hour or so walk was pretty groovy since it was such a nice day (shorts & t-shirt stuff) and helped walk off the food too. Along the way we went through Soho and there were heaps of artists with their canvases on display on the sidewalks, including the following sculpture (sorry for cutting you out on this one Altie, just trying to fit it in right)

We chilled out at Battery Park for a bit and then went and saw 'Mean Girls' (the movie). Not a bad movie, not terribly deep but pretty amusing regardless. We all enjoyed it. A quick bite to eat at Lilli's Noodle House (same area, near WTC) and then it was time to head home. Here's a couple of pics of buildings I took along the way.

Yes, the building above has no windows whatsoever - those big square openings are vents. It's AT&T's Long Lines Building which apparently is full of telephone switching equipment. The building stands just over 550ft (170m) tall.

This second building is (I believe) an apartment building. Pretty impressive huh.

We had an impressive lightning storm the other night and I captured some of it on the digital camera. Actually, as I write this, thunder is once again rumbling in the distance. The weather has turned hot and humid the last few days - yesterday climbed to just over 30°C (86°F) and today is pretty close to it already, which at this time of year equates to lots of lightning storms which is great because I love watching nature letting rip. Here's a couple of images from the other night (Monday night):

In other news, we have had policemen hanging out watching people on the corner of our block for the last week or two during the day and evening. We live in what would be considered a quiet and relatively safe part of New York, so it's been a little disturbing seeing them there, although at the same time reassuring. The reason I say disturbing is because we live in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, and the only time there has been police patrolling around here in the past (at least to this extent) has been when the terror alert status was at extreme, so it kind of makes one a little nervous as to why they are around all of the sudden. They stand out on the corner and make themselves as visible as possible, so they are obviously there as a deterant ...but why now? hmm.

I wrote quite a long and angry post about this horrifying act after seeing the unedited version of the video (or at least as much as I could stomach before having to turn it off, which wasn't much). No doubt you are aware of what happened. I have removed my original post as it was just angry ranting. All I will say is this:

The degradation of prisoners by US soldiers was a reprehensible and deplorable act and those responsible will be dealt with severely, but what I have seen regarding the mistreatment of those prisoners does not hold a candle against what was done to Nicholas Berg. Nothing can justify what was done to Nicholas Berg. NOTHING.

The slaughter captured on that video goes way beyond the realms of being in any way possibly considered an act of sane men fighting for what they believe is justice or freedom or belief or retribution or whatever other reason they might come up with. What is captured on that video is the act of a pack of psychopathic uncivilized animals.

In some ways it would be a good idea to air the full video on the international media to give some perspective to all the publicity about the prisoner abuse that is being aired currently. I can almost guarantee you that after seeing the video, it would change the negative feelings many people hold about the US being in Iraq. Hearing about it is one thing, seeing it is a whole different story. The inhumanity of it would turn a lamb into an angry lion, it is that bad.

At this moment, and as a direct result of that video, I am in full support of troops being in Iraq and hope they start kicking ass big time. I know that is not a very reasoned statement, but I don't give a shit. No mercy.