Saw Johnny today. Downloaded my memory of driving with the 2000 on. He was pretty stoked about it:"Rat, you're crazy to do shit like that, but it'll make a great vid!"I don't know how much he'll get for it, but he did front me a few speedball patches and a bunch of green which was pretty cool.Went back to Ano and it was flat again. Blazing hot day though, so I figured I'd prepare for the hunt like my ancestors did. I'm Ohlone you see, or so my ol' man told me. Anyway, I shut all the windows but for a tiny crack, and started some fat buds burning in the ashtray. Sort of a modern age sweat house. When I couldn't stand the heat no more I jumped out, grabbed my stick and ran straight into the freezing water. Felt like a billion icy needles were poked into my numb skin. No matter, I just started paddling like a crazy man. Paddled all the way to the island. Oh yea, forgot to tell ya, I did this fully naked, just like my ancestors. Right! Amschelist I'm not.
The island is way off limits. I'd never been but you always heard stories of surfers going and scoring massive quantities of gull and cormorants and all sorts of shit. It was true! There were tons of birds, but best of all there were tons of baby seals. I found a big rock and killed three (about as many as I figured I could paddle back). But of course as I was paddling back I lose one and I'm thinking "Idiot me, should'a brought a net" when I remember what else I'd forgot. The repeller! I'd pulled out my repeller last night cuz I wanted Johnny to test it, and I forgot to put it back in! So I'm "fuck this" and just hit it back to land. I'd just paddled across the most shark infested California waters without a repeller!
Looked like some junky windswell had picked up towards the end of the day. We'll see tomorrow.
Writing and all photographs by Leonardo Dagum,
dagum@sgi.com.
Copyright (C) November 5th, 1993. All rights reserved.