SUNDAY JOINT, 12-15-2024: FUNDRAISER FINALE AND ARCHIVE PEEP SHOW
Hey All,
We're eight days into the 2024 EOS Fundraiser, and I am always raccoon-eyed and fretful and espresso-drenched at this point, and this year is no exception. We've done okay so far. Middling-good. If I'd followed through on my first bad idea of the morning and downloaded a cartoon clip-art thermometer in order to show where the fundraiser is right now, the red line would be maybe two-thirds up but nowhere near bursting through the bulb at the top. You always want to burst through the bulb.
There are EOS enthusiasts among you who swing in late to the fundraiser, and I understand that style of big-giver energy, it brings some drama to the event—I'd do it myself if I had those 10-pound-hammer donation checks at my disposal.
But if you haven't done it yet, all you EOS-supporting drama kings and queens, big and small donors alike, now's the time. Let's push the red line up. Come on—burst the bulb!
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
BUY ONE OR TWO OR MANY GIFT SUBS
Last week I said I'd try and post a link to where this year's donation funds will be spent—salaries and general upkeep aside—which is the EOS Archive project. And here it is.
A few things. First and most important, this is the actual for-real EOS Archive site, yes, but only at the demo stage. At some future point, every thumbnail you see, plus hundreds more, will open to a fully-loaded magazine, or film, or book. But we are nowhere near that point. Two or three years at least, is my guess. For now, the object is to get the demo in front of potential partners—universities, colleges, other nonprofit orgs—one of whom will administer the project, all of whom will contribute to the massive workload involved with getting all the material scanned, keyworded, permissioned, and loaded. In other words, what you're seeing here is only the first step in a very long journey.
Second, for demo purposes I did in fact build out just a few pages:
Golden Breed (click WATCH GOLDEN BREED)
Surfing World, 1970 (click VIEW MAGAZINE)
Surfing Illustrated, 1962 (click VIEW MAGAZINE)
Last week I talked a bit about EOS Archive and the fundraiser on Surf Splendor, with David Lee Scales, who is to surf conversation what the single-origin Robusta bean is to espresso shots—smooth, dependable, invigorating—and mostly I fulfilled my duty as a surf pensioner and rambled without pause about myself and my past. Fortunately for listeners, that past was set in a remarkable place and time (Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu; 1960s and '70s), filled with a cast of young freebooting beachfront longhairs doing what all other surfers and skaters were doing at the time, except the people I hung out with got semi-famous, mostly thanks to the whole Zephyr thing.
I'll be off next week for Christmas, then back the week following with a bomber Joint on Kaena Point, the greatest and longest-running fail-to-launch surf break in history.
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated, subscribed or just dropped me an upbeat note last week. Your enthusiasm for EOS means everything. We need the money, yes. Very much so. But there is a stoke and a cheer that orbits through and around this project like electrons, and honestly that is what keeps it going. That is my cut, my Christmas bonus, right there.
Best,
Matt
[The unsinkable Gwyn Haslock is the EOS Fundraiser spokesmodel you see at the top of the page. The two spreads, above, are from the debut issue of Surfing Illustrated. The Zephyr team trophy photo is, left to right, me, Allen Sarlo, Nathan Pratt, and John Baum]