palm sunday

...for christians celebrates the triumphal entry of jesus christ into jerusalem the week before his apparent death & resurrection. his passion [thanks to mel gibson for making this concept painfully but pleasurably accessible to non-catholic disciples like myself].

recorded in the canonical gospels mark 11:1-11, matthew 21:1-11, luke 19:28-44, and john 12:12-19 all accounts describe the crossing of the jesus path with palms branches as he entered the city.

as a non-christian but an avid student of world religion & philosophy, palm sunday means something altogether different to me.

unrestricted to the easter cusp, my religious experience comes in varietal twilight shades as the magic hour melts into high contrasting shadows of night soothed by ambient sounds of the soft seatide as it laps onto seagull silhouette'd sand. the sun hypnotically pulses bleeding light into the horizon. day in, day out. yet another version of the golden gate.

palm beach. sunday.

late night squid

meet bob & yumiko from north ryde, sydney. new proud grandparents of one, they headed here after a celebratory dinner with their daughter & son-in-law in avalon before packing up their fishing supplies & throwing in a late night squid sojourn up the coast a little.

bob explained to me that the prawnlike squid jig when exposed to the fluro light makes it glow underwater which thereby attracts the squid. bigger squids lie deeper beneath the surface where the smaller intevertebrates play closer to the surface.

squid are apparently quite shy by nature so a certain amount of foreplay is required in order to elicit contact. this is why casual fisher[wo]men favour jetty style habitats because the artificial light illumination actually increases the dark to light area ratio which mid traverse is likely to engage a squid attack.

this sort of behavior can incure much late night ink blotting en masse when the intrepid squid's ambush backfires. wearing white is not de rigeur on the pier tonight.

flying kites batman!

through harnessing the power of core elemental sea components: water & wind, emerges the latest extreme water sport craze --> kitesurfing. a hybrid union of kite flying & surfing this recreation is wildly tempting & insanely beautiful to watch. kites are magic, no?

once the speed gets up kitesurfers nail waves as they skim over them edging expertly like amphetamine-fuelled skimmers putting wouldbe jetskiers to shame for their wasteful pollution, inefficient utilisation of energy & complete lack of wake-style poise. speeds can reach up to 50 knots...

whilst out watching these guys boost up amongst the burgeoning spray on the weekend, i was treated to some serious air generating manouevres not unlike watching a burton rider pulling a hardcore jump on a board across the snow filled planes. KAPOW! except these water-bound guys are exactly not that. obviously with the right skillbase airtime can be totally maximised -- one can ostensibly fly... maybe indefinitely. the only thing their feet are attached to are a small kiteboard & the wind beneath their inflatable wings.