In a recent interview with my comrade in blogging, posted on Dicko's most glorious of blogs, during a question referring to his beloved Dylan he made a passing comment about my tendency to start digging a dude and blatantly adopt and manipulate the kind of shit he is about, most prominently clothes, hair and use of phrase and subversive language. While it was indeed intended as a bit of a write off it is certainly something that i can not dispute as my whole life seems to be a revolving door of little male crushes where i get inspired by the shit they are doing.
A few times my little lady friend has rightly pointed out that i seem to get more crushes on dudes than girls and this got me wondering why it was so easy to become so fond of a dude when there is absolutely no sexual attraction. Because it is such an uncomplicated and innocent affection means that there is no chance of becoming disappointed or laden with regret and even if they start fanging around running some shit you ain't really backing then you can still easily hold onto what used to be, or move on without the quagmire of tears, guilt and despair that accompanies the ending of a normal human male female relationship. So while it may seem a little lame to become all infatuated with a dude and start blatantly trying to adopt their mannerisms and style into certain aspects of your life, I can scarcely believe their is a male out there in this media driven society of ours who has failed to get involved in this sort of activity at some stage in their existence.
Today while having a hugely cajsh sesh at the bean i remembered a little man crush that i had back around year ten in high school. To my unbridled delight i recalled how back in the later stages of high school when my love of bodyboarding was in full bloom, I was incredibly fond of the surfing of one former pro bodyboarder, Beanstalk local and wetsuit conglomerate Junior Vice President, Ryan Mattick. From the blue and black Billabong wetty, midnight blue custom boogs, short blond hair do and perfectly positioned blue and yellow Churchill fins Mattick seemed to me to capture the very essence of bodyboarding. Ryan based this look on his very own man crush on Mitch Rawlins and it is rumoured that in his endeavour to reach his own lofty expectations in the water that he put his fins in the fridge to ensure they remained on the perfect angle at all times and spent hours siting on this bed with these aforementioned pieces of rubber on his feet, practicing his twirling technique while constantly rewinding different Rawlins sections.
This kind of dedication left him shralping his tits off all over the place and he being a couple of years older than I, i found this type of dedication and skill something to be admired. The culmination of his skills were classically documented in Barnsey's first ever feature film, and now cult classic, Mission Impossible. Mattick's section, set to the inspirational sounds of Amanda Marshall's classic song "Ride", was easily the highlight. From the opening wave where he smashed down a glorious forward off the top out blackrock, complete with flair that was ahead of the times, this section encapsulated everything I wanted in bodyboarding, right down to the stiff Rawlinsesque front arm and glorious twirls all over the South Coast.
Here is a couple of clips that are little substitute for the real Mattick section which is unavailable on the net (why it aint all over the net is something i fail to comprehend). One is of the song from his section, the other is a Rawlins clip from 10-4: A Raod trip, which I am sure would have been one of the sections that Mattick lost his mind to.
No comments:
Post a Comment