Monday, May 23, 2011

Road of the Solar Wind, 7: waves, with or without humans

The view of the Bay of Audierne from la Pointe de la Torche seems to me unbeatable, as magnificent a sea-and-landscape as anything I can remember seeing in Australia or New Zealand, though as Tom said, it's Atlantic blue, not Pacific, a colder, greyer, shade.  Even so. I started again, pointing the camera and blindly clicking in an attempt to record somethi8ng of its ever-changing majesty.






The trouble with all this grandeur and sweep of sand and surf is that it attracts sporty types, specifically surfers.  I'm afraid I'm about to indulge in a bit of indolent, introvert, grumpy old woman(nothing to do with age, I think I was born one), misanthropy here, so if you don't like that kind of thing look away now.


I'm sure surfing is an exhilarating, graceful, exciting and otherwise justifiable activity, when one is actually doing it.  A lot of people seem to come here to watch it and to take photos, and I can see that, properly done, it's a joy to behold and presumably even more of a joy to experience directly.  I even succumbed to trying to capture something of it with the camera myself.







However, most surfers seem to spend much of their time floundering about in the water and falling off their boards.  They spoil a perfectly good seascape, looking like squashed bugs on the camera lens.



And even more of them don't seem actually to surf at all, but simply to be into the surfing scene, and into being seen to be into the scene, and into hanging out and spending a lot of money on surf gear and clothing, most of which seems to bear scant relationship to the sport at all.  Can anyone explain to me about Fatface?  No, on second thoughts, don't bother, I am beyond any willingness to understand.

When we arrived at the headland, it was, unfortunately, at the beginning of some kind of surfers' conference or fair or similar get-together.  Large quantities of fluorescent plastic, fibreglass and lycra (or whatever substance they encase their bodies in) were in evidence,  racks of the aforesaid surf togs, barbecues and large speakers being set up, and hoards of rather less than couth specimens of manhood (mostly) set to consume these delights.

Setting off on our walk, I read a notice board which requested that visitors desist from naturism as taking one's clothes off might lead to the kind of behaviour which would be disrespectful the ecological tranquillity of the site.

In fact, believe it or not, I was inclined at first to plead the case for the surfers and their cohorts, live and let live, just because it isn't what we want to do, maybe if we were young and sporty and gregarious... That was until a large young Belgian shepherd-type dog, sans lead or any other means of control, evidently yet another snazzy must-have testosterone-boosting accessory to a group of Bermuda-wearing six-pack-flashing proto-hominids, darted growling and snarling up to Molly, who was bumbling along on her long lead in her usual helpless and hapless myopic and hard-of-hearing fashion.  We got between them and yelled at the dog and its owners, who slouched off grunting, nothing which sounded remotely like an apology or even an attempt to check the dog.

Bloody surfers, was the more polite version of my verdict on them at this point.

Anyway, I think you'll agree, it's a gorgeous bit of coast.  The shot below is a cropped detail with a glow filter and a strategic bit of retouching brush to get rid of any surfers or other extraneous matter in the scene.


~~~

(Nearly at the end of The Road now...)

18 comments:

Zhoen said...

Poor Moll, bullied by a surfer dog.

marja-leena said...

Aboslutely gorgeous! Reminds me of our favourite place on the west coast of Vancouver Island, ie. on the Pacific. It's a noted surfer's paradise but we've been lucky to not be there during any big events. The few we see are pretty reasonable guys and girls and dogs. In fact, we found many of the waiters in the restaurants are surfers, taking time out from university studies and supporting their 'habit' with this kind of work.

the polish chick said...

my big problem is with those large speakers you mentioned. i detest people spoiling the sounds of nature, whether it is seaside or forest, with music. don't get me wrong, i love music, but when i'm outdoors i want to hear the outdoors and not beyonce showing off her impressive vocal range.

christopher said...

Yes indeed, poor Moll...I have taken your retouch and made it my desktop so I can be with it for a while. I confess, before I read or saw your surfers I said of the waves, OMG, Surf Heaven!

Roderick Robinson said...

Some of these are very advanced surfers. How about the one carrying an ice-hockey stick? - now that's a particularly difficult game to play on water that hasn't yet frozen. And you're being a bit hard on the Belgian hound: grunting, a form of communication at the very bottom of the humility tree, is the tone assumed for a truly profound apology.

And there I am trying to write about solar panels and you're way, way ahead of me with your stuff about solar wind. Time to return to Armstrong Whitworth gauge screws.

earlybird said...

Lovley, lovely photos. Particularly the lat one where you have managed to obliterate the surfers!

rr said...

Heh. I love my Fat Face clothes. But poor Mol.

Dick said...

Spectacular pictures, Lucy. The fourth one is quite extraordinary: the waves look as solid as the rocks.

As for nudity on the beach, I would have thought that folks au naturels would have been very much in accord with ecological tranquility.

Rommel Fernandes said...

The sea looked so majestic in the pics.
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Fire Bird said...

stunning wave shots - makes me long for the sea... which in a few weeks I shall see...


WV - plugarce (well!!)

HKatz said...

You really capture the way those waves are gliding. Beautiful photos.

Bermuda-wearing six-pack-flashing proto-hominids
This made me laugh; excellent description.

Unknown said...

White horses which the French call moutons I believe. Does that say something about the French or the seas that break on French shores? These look more like horses than sheep to me, but perhaps the likeness is induced by the photographer. Those surfers sound too arrogant for words. I am glad that you filtered them out.

Catalyst said...

Your sea photos are spectacular. They make me wish for a return to the coast for myself. As for the surfers, I think it's not so much their preoccupation as it is their ages. I was just saying to SWMBO yesterday, as I closed the window to quiet the constant sound of screaming coming from a neighboring trampoline scene, "Remember when we used to say we would never want to live in one of those seniors only communities? Those days are long gone!"

marly youmans said...

Lucy, you make a charming grump. I like your grumpy posts as well as the cheerful ones. And how did you get word verification to say "SCUSNO," which definitely is some sort of response?

The surfers look like those little black magnet figures (coated wire, I think) that my kids had for a while--very buglike humanoids that stuck to a metal surface by their magnet feet...

zephyr said...

sorry, but i must respectfully disagree with Tom, i don't think there is such a thing as "Atlantic Blue" or "Pacific Blue". The colors change all the time...it can be dark, grey or sublimely turquoise, green, and cyan--on any given day at any given beach. Some of the most tropical "looking" seas i've seen were in the Atlantic, off of Polzeath and Nantucket...nearly matching what i experienced in Hawaii.

That last photo is beautiful.

Setu said...

Hello Lucy, Can you imagine that in the early 70's I went to La Torche to spend afternoons well installed in a hollow, protected of the wind between two rocks, to study my courses before an exam. And there were NO silly surfers and even almost nobody in that time, except a few retired fishermen staring at the waves or an old lady with a coiffe walking her dog or picking seeweed to fertilize her potato plot... And Breton was the language...

Bee said...

It is, indeed, a gorgeous bit of coast. I enjoyed your rant about the surfers, but am more than happy to have them photoshopped out of the pictures. I've often thought that there are many men who participate in sports chiefly by purchasing all of the specialist gear!

VanityofVanities said...

Wow! These are all amazing photos, eh. I personally love and adore the sea, its waves and its color. Love it!

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