Nine Years and Counting

I can't believe it's been nine years since I started this blog.

But then again, I can't believe a lot of things that has happened to me throughout the last 9 years. Where do I begin? For the sake of time and space, I'll just cover the blog, and how it has transitioned from it's early days of virtually just one pic a week, to literally hundreds of photos a week.

I bet I have amassed close to a 100,000 photos over the last 9 years. I would not be surprised at all. And no, I will not go back and count each photo. Please.

You've heard about Google. Well, Google has an embedded code called Google analytics. The code enables you to track and count the number of visitors to your website. The last time I checked, I have around 56,000 weekly readers in approx 123 countries.

They measure by hits, visits, and absolute unique visitors.

Lots of sites get hits and visits. I have hundreds of thousands of both. But the key is the absolute unique visitor. That's the number I am interested in. That's you I'm counting. And I guess there are a bunch of you. I still scratch my head at the attraction to my weekly babbling. But I can certainly understand you (surfers) wanting to see our surf.

It's just so funny to see how far this thing has grown.

[Photo 2] I'm not kidding when I say that I started out with just one photo a week. Like this shot of Mike Stanek above (who is featured heavily in this week's blog). This was one of three from the very first blog. The blog eventually became one photo of today, and one photo of yesterday. People love the nostalgia of old surf photos from New England. Heck, I love them.

[Photo 3] Like this old photo from the first blog in 2004. Moira and Joe at 10th Street (The Wall) 1976 circa. Moira Daly and Joe Somogyi. Both local surfers from Hampton who passed away many many years ago.

In fact, I know there are many more old surf photos from New England that some of you are sitting on. Come on people. Give em up. Let's share those memories. Of course you can keep the original prints, or files. I just want to document them.

There is such a rich surf culture here in New England specifically Northern New England. And we are really just starting to scratch the surface . Let me just say, that you can trust me with your old photos. I have too much respect and love for old surf history.

And we have it here in Northern New England.

My weekly blog is a perfect forum to share these gems you might be sitting on. So get up, and dust off those old boxes, where your late parents might have them stored. Or, clean off those old photo albums that you have. You know there's just got to be a gem or two sitting and waiting to be discovered.

Think hard. You know you have old surf pics.

I honestly thought I would do this weekly column/blog for a year and see how it played out. Then I thought. Ok I'll try 5 years. And well, before you knew it, we were knocking on the door of our 10th year.

And look, I say "we" because it is we.

I know I write the blog and take the majority of the photos you see each week, but it's really the other photos from a platoon of photographers that keep this thing going. I could not keep this weekly blog going without their weekly contributions. Just think. Some of you were not even surfing when I started this thing.

And while I get tons of photos from "Readers" I have to throw out much deserved props to my main squad of lensmen. Starting with Ed O'Connell. Ed has been a huge help to me over the years. And I could not do this week after week, month after month, without his pics. So a salute to you Ed.

Others that need acknowledging are good friend and fellow photog John Carden *who I think posted his first ever photo. John has been there every step of the way as well. Even though he is nocturnal, and I believe, he may be hiding the fact that he's a vampire, has been huge.

Brian Nevins has sent over some of the most breathtaking photos on the planet and still sends them over. Thank you Brian.

But there are literally too many photogs to name and write about here. So, I'll just list them. Andrew Rebeiro, Lenny Nichols, Jamie Wade, Kevin Doherty, Bernie Baker, The Phantom, Ben Ginsberg, Steve Dillon...there are honestly too many to name. So let me stop here and say this. If you have ever sent me a photo over the last 9 years, I want to truly thank you from the bottom of my heart.

[Photo 4] Of course I have to say thanks to the surfers. This image above was video frame grab from one of my surf movies. It's Mackey V. And it's in PR. Which is ironic because Max spent the better part of Fall/Winter 2012 in PR. And his surfing has progressed ten fold. As has the surfing of all his peers. So thank you surfers.

I hope we are all still here next year. When this blog reaches it's 10th Year anniversary. And I personally will have been surfing for 50 years the summer of 2014. That will be a well founded excuse to have a gathering some where. 10 years of blogging and 50 years of surfing. Whoa. Am I really this old?

I guess I am. Good thing surfing is an ageless pastime.

Thank you again for reading every week. And thank you God for providing the surf each week. Truly has been an amazing run.

Now for Some Of My Weekly Global Observances:

Once again Lil Kim Young Un ramped up his wild and reckless rhetoric against South Korea and the United States. I swear this kid has a
serious death wish for himself and his entire country. Can you imagine being a citizen in North Korea and waking up each day knowing that this little freak is in charge of your LIFE??? WTF???