Kassia Meadow: An American Original

When you have a 15 year old daughter…you are always scouting for girls and women who set a great example for what a girl (or any person) should be…and though not everyone is, or should be, the same…..they should all be the same in this one area: They should be authentic…they should be independent…and, the conductors of their own symphony….they shouldn’t be an “attachment” to a man…or to someone else’s parade…

It is not that easy to find them, let alone to get my daughter to pay any attention to those whom I have exalted (whatever that means). Pop culture is fighting back hard….”it” wants them to “keep up” with the K family….or to surrender to being an object…a toy with lipstick, and follow the female track of being “hot”, desired, submissive, and to contribute nothing significant or meaningful to anything…..Oye!

So, I look for those in the female world who want no part of that circus….I look for the diamonds in the sand….and I look admiringly….hoping that my daughter, and her bffs (who I adore) and the rest of the damn planet, take some memory from that hard drive…

Here is just such a “fish”…a rare, tropical, fish. She is in her early 30’s, (I think). She is free….”she’s too busy being free” as Joni Mitchell chorused in “Cactus Tree”. She always has a smile on her face when I see her in print, or in person, wherever. Her smile comes in the room before anything else…and that is a good thing….she can’t help herself….did I say she is free….?

From reading more about her….Kassia is an artist…a photographer, and creator of other whimsical expressions…and she doesn’t fit into any box, don’t be ridiculous.….what she is known (most) for …..is her presence on a surfboard….another surfer, right?, Yawn.... not even close…….she is not just another surfer….there are a lot of amazing surfers….bold, brash, athletic….you name ‘em…one of them has won 11 World Championships (good grief)….and I respect that wholly…but, no one I have ever seen…..is quite like Kassia Meador …not in my book….you can’t copy what she does…I suppose you can be more athletic, or more physical…etc., but you can’t duplicate that which is proprietary….no more than you could duplicate the brushstrokes of Van Gogh….Kassia Meador is a one of a kind….

There are great longboarders out there...hell yes……and let’s all take a moment of silence to recognize them…..but Kassia is that different tropical fish, remember?…everything I see her do is stylistic…the way Jimmy Page uniquely played the guitar…or Jerry Garcia….it was their own creation….….Kassia is no different…from the rhythm with which she paddles her board….to her friendly spirit in the water…and most especially, to what she does once she gets on a moving piece of polyurethane….she is as a bullfighter….or someone who is tiptoeing into your home to steal your jewels……she walks on water, well, kind of…. her hands, her head, the way she sways….…everything moves differently than anyone else…..even when she loses her balance it looks good… …if Peter Pan were a longboard surfer then he might look like Kassia Meador, maybe….hers is graceful, delicate, and something to behold…..she definitely looks like she is having more fun than anyone else…..and (refreshingly) with no discernible attitude….she is just another girl in the water as far as she is concerned…even though she gets paid to surf.

She can’t do all the tricks that Joe Aaron can do and maybe she doesn’t have all the technique of a Joel Tudor or Justin Quintal….but she is not trying to paint that picture…..she paints her own picture….and it’s my favorite.

It’s like the way I feel about John McEnroe....he isn’t the greatest tennis player of all time...but he is easily the most authentic, stylistic, and delicate. Like Kassia, Johnny Mac is an American Original.

So, she lives her dream, with style…….what I want my daughter to do…not to be a surfer or an artist, etc, like Kassia..…I just want my daughter to live in that larger wave….the wave of freeness and autonomy…..aligning herself with things that are big….bigger than herself…..the way Kassia aligns herself with the rhythm of the ocean…..and becomes something transcendent….

Kassia appears ”Live” at First Point on any given good swell…or she might just be somewhere else……

“when I see a beautiful place to put my wire I cannot resist” – Philippe Petit

neither can Kassia…

Food for Thought….

for a sublime example of this ”rare, tropical, fish”...go to youtube and type in: Kassia Meador ”Heart and Sea”...(nuff said).