If you could string your moments of pure bliss in surfing through your entire life, like pearls on a string, then a great story would unfold and your time here would not have been wasted. It would be the story of a deep connection with the ocean forged form a lifelong commitment to an idea. As humans, everything that we are, everything that we have done and everything that we have yet to do must first exist as an idea.

The great works of art and science and healing that have everlasting benefits for the life of humankind, originate as ideas. As such, they materialise from somewhere beyond time and space. In the east, this place is known as Akasha, a universal dimensions from which all ideas, all like and all creation originate.

"According to the philosophers of India, the whole universe is composed of two materials, one of which they call Akasha. It is the omnipresent, all-penetrating existence. Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha. It is the Akasha that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids, that becomes the solids, it is the Akasha that becomes the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the comets, it is the Akasha that becomes the human body, the animal body, the plants, every form that we see, everything that can be sensed, everything that exists. It cannot be perceived; it is so subtle that is is beyond ordinary perception; it can only be seen when it becomes gross, has taken form. At the beginning of creation there is only the Akasha. At the end of the cycle the solid, the liquids, and the gases all melt into the Akasha again, and the next creation similarly proceeds out of Akasha…"

Albert Falzon

In the beginning of the Spirit of Akasha project I had this idea of some of the best modern surfers in the world riding boards inspired by the boards that were ridden in Morning of the Earth. These boards would be single fins, as that's what was predominately ridden back in 1972. I had this vision in my mind of re-creating the beauty and dance of the Michael Peterson sequence at Kirra - folly really, as Kirra today, is only a shadow of the wave it once was. And, in my opinion, the sequence is one of the most beautiful series of ridden waves ever captured on film. In essence: a boy discovering with each ride the possibilities of what he could be: agile and naive - but open to understanding the spark of what he felt. Still young enough to have that skeletal structure without muscle, a lightweight drifting at the highest of speeds across waves with very few humans around to interfere with his chosen track. Riding a board shaped by his own hands, engineered in his eighteen year old mind to ride the perfect sand bottom suckers - in boardies no less. Moments unable to be repeated because life moves on, change takes placed in the mind and body and, as we all know, waves are like snowflakes. For some reason these moments were recorded on film for others to watch and wonder about for eternity.

"By chance. I just turned up and Michael happened to be surfing," is Albert Falzon's recall of how the sequence came about.

And Michael's recall, "If they'd taken that movie on the first or second day they would have seen some better surfing, everybody was worn out, everybody was a lot slower because they were worn out. That cyclone lasted for weeks."

One can only imagine…

And so the Earth keeps turning - it's been forty revolutions around the sun since Albert burned celluloid of this kid in yellow and then red boardies. Call it a celebration, call it an inspired move - at the beginning of 2012 Albert and I began working on a new film - attempting to capture the values and spirit that was represented in Morning Of The Earth.

In the new film I wanted to feature women surfing. I wanted to show the unique relationship women have with the sea. I'd first seen this relationship in the early nineties, when I'd watched Rell Sunn drift across a wave at Makaha. Her ride was like nothing I'd ever seen before.

Andrew Kidman

Australian artist Andrew Kidman works in many mediums.  Each discipline, be it music, writing, painting, photography, surfboard shaping or films is born from his innate connection to the ocean.

Kidman’s documented and recorded works evolve over many years, allowing them to take on a life of their own.  His patience and dedication to subject is remarkably rare in the modern day commercial arena.

Often dealing directly with the documentation of his peers and his own personal experiences, the stories he chooses to tell don’t expire but grow more complex with time.

Among his works are the films Litmus, Glass Love and Last Hope.  Last Hope in particular being a film that merged the creative aspect of surf and art.

Andrew is also an accomplished musician, having released albums as Andrew Kidman, The Val Dusty Experiment and The Brown Birds of Windy Hills.

Andrew has also published a number of books, most notably Lost in the Ether, Way of the Bird and a film/book documentary detailing the finer points of surfboard designed, Ether.

The end result offers and un-namable and moving familiarity to those it reaches.  Yet it consistently embodies an unfamiliar meditative ‘otherness’ very particular to him.  This ethereal aspect is an invitation to take a deeper look.

http://www.andrewkidman.com/