Big Pipe, Critical Ghost Tree, Devereaux ...

Names that echo through surfing: Big Bonzai Pipeline, Critical Ghost Tree, Scary Puerto. And, of course, Knee-Slappin' Devereaux.

Spat out in Glory has had about three false starts getting more footage since the return from Nicaragua's golden surf spots. Finally it came together this week. Time, waves (of a sort), functioning camera equipment. At Devereaux. Where it all started back in '81. (Video after the jump.)

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Super 8 Surf Cinematography: Last Rincon Reel

Spat Out in Glory burned three reels of Super 8 at Rincon in mid-April: Here's the final installment.

The faults in the footage have been made clear in the first two reels. Ektachrome 64T casting its weirdly bluish tint from lack of proper filtering, mostly. Video after the jump...

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Super 8 Surf Cinematography, From A to B

Is Spat Out in Glory's quest to create a Super 8 surf film an exercise in audacity, doomed to failure by excessive hubris? Certainly. But Spat's willingness to humble itself equals its delusions of grandeur.

Thus the following video, running Kodak Ektachrome 64T film through every setting the Beaulieu 4008ZM4 has on its heavily knobbed, knurled and buttoned chassis. Shot mid-April, at Rincon. ...

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Devereaux Devolution: Surfing's Inner Simian

Evolution doubters suffered a terrible setback today at Devereaux Point in Santa Barbara. Exhibit No. 1: The embedded video from Spat Out in Glory conclusively demonstrating that ape DNA runs strong in humankind's veins.

This is the kind of thing that could end up in Geico commercial. Note the dull gaze. The tiny, low forehead. The haunchy, straight-backed crouch. The knuckles dragging on the surfboard deck. A dead stick hanging from the evolutionary tree. This specimen, like many recent iterations of the hominid family, lacked body hair. It also seems to lack the instincts and athleticism of its arboreal cousins. Darwin is rolling in his grave. ...

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Surf on Super 8: Air Mats and Body Whomps

The most durable lesson of shooting surf footage during Spat Out in Glory's stay in Nicaragua: It isn't as easy as it looks...

Which is to say two things. One: A 42-year-old body with athletic handicaps takes longer to learn hollow beach breaks than one might think. Two: Film and video are both fickle bitch goddesses who make you pay your dues before they yield perfectly fruited imagery.

Witness the Super 8 footage after the jump. ...

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Surf Carnage: Devereaux Destruxion, Part Deux

There was bound to be blood.

Spat Out in Glory's inglorious return to Devereaux Point in Santa Barbara left an indelible impression ... above the left eye. Surfboard, meet supra-orbital ridge.

After three months of Nicaragua's steep, speedy beach breaks, the slow right-hand rollers off California's points promised a cake walk. And sure enough, Devereaux delivered the usual goods: Knee high crumblers with some waist-high stuff. Perfect conditions, if the goal is surfing solitude. An hour and a half in the water, accompanied only by a couple on a tandem 'yak (*killing it*), a softboarder in my usual slot at the kook break, and three UCSB kids comparing notes on who had hooked up with who last weekend. Perfect. ...

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Nica Post: Video...Spat's Last Nicaragua Gasp

Spat Out in Glory walks off the beaches of Nicaragua unsuccessful in getting barreled. Anyone who has seen the video from the last three months can't claim surprise. Measuring with reference to the goal tends to discourage. Measuring from where we started tends to inspire. Video after the jump. ...

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Nica Post: Video...Spindrift at T-Minus 1 Day

Spat Out in Glory's Nicaragua leg is on its last leg: One full day left of surfing. Today the wind and the swell didn't cooperate. Spindrift video after the jump.

Barring the seemingly out-of-reach barrel ride in the next 24 hours, the project moves to the California phase, chasing vertical drops and offshore winds into perpetuity. The Camera Monkey will pilot the Unimog camper and roll Super 8 until we go broke. Full disclosure: This plan hasn't been vetted by all interested parties and I've been drinking. ...

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Nica Post: Video...Surf Returns at Santana

Playa Santana in Nicaragua lit up this morning after three days of onshore mush. Spat was there with the GoPro, whose propensity to fog leaves the curious viewer wondering...was that a giant barrel he just pulled into? Video after the jump...

The morning session: Exploratory paddle out in dead calm, just to shake off three days of shorebound rust. Is that a breeze I detect coming off the hills to the east? Indeed it is... Three guys out. The chest-high sets start standing up. The breeze picks up and those puppies are being groomed like they're in the final at Westminster. Bathwater warm. Bath tub clear. ...

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Nica Post: Video…As the Swell Dies, So Do Fish

The swell has died, putting the barrel far out of reach in the four days of surfing we have left in Nicaragua. Undaunted, we went fishing. Video after the jump.

The ocean is trifling with us. The 300-day-a-year offshore wind has reverted on onshore blah, making Playa Santana look more like Goleta Beach in Santa Barbara: Small and mushy.

Philip, one of our hosts at Buena Onda, suggests a diversion: A fishing trip on the panga he keeps at El Astillero. Spat, the Camera Monkey, Philip, and Mitch and his daughter Mary Helen bite. Half a day on the water beats sweltering and lure of 10 a.m. drinking in a hammock. This is natural of course. Who wouldn't choose 7 a.m. drinking in a boat over the alternative? ...

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