Explosions in the water.

Another kinda blog where I post reblog some rad and inspirational images and content.  http://callaho.tumblr.com/

Archival Footage from the surf film “Idiosyncrasies”. Guest Appearance by Joni Sternbach, Korduroy 2011 ©

Thirteen-year-old surfer girl Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb) survived something most do not – a shark attack. That’s good fortune enough, but the teen’s drive and determination to succeed beyond all expectations in the sport she loved became a worldwide media phenomenon.

A tiger shark chomped off her left arm and she nearly bled to death. The quick action of friends and surgery saved her. Bethany, according to this film’s account, appears to have taken the whole incident with the grace and serenity of a saint.

A very rare occurrence, its accompanying shock and new life challenges are taken as unquestionably religious signs. Soul Surfer is interested in hagiography and not honesty. This doesn’t just set out to seemingly fawn over Bethany Hamilton – it brings the full unreality of Hollywood with it piling cliché upon cliché.

Director Sean McNamara makes a complete hash of things from the get-go. It opens, after the obligatory surfing intro, with a happy-clappy Christian sing-song at a church by the beach. Then there’s lots of talk about spirituality and harmony with the waves. It’s like, totally deep, dude.

It’s abundantly clear the Hamilton’s religious. Yet the constant bleating about the Lord becomes as annoying (and welcome) as a Sunday morning knock at the door from the God Squad.

AnnaSophia Robb is far more glamorous and presentable on screen than the gawky, shy teen with braces we see during the end credits in video footage. The surf scenes are poor with nearly ever shot enhanced by CGI. The filmmakers couldn’t even be bothered to communicate the joy and thrill of surfing properly with incredible scenes for an incredible sport. The second act sojourn to Thailand, too, in the wake of the tsunami of 2004, is crass beyond belief.

Soul Surfer is a jumped up TV movie filled with fortune cookie wisdom and cheesy dialogue. Learning to surf using one arm – and becoming a champion too – could be full of drama: a Rocky on the waves. Any true sense of trial and tribulation is glossed over. Bethany was born to win, but this film born to lose.

I found this today surfing on the net. Too late to come but London Surf / Film Festival,  13-15 October 2011, Riverside Studios. A three day celebration of the cream of contemporary surf culture showcasing international surfing’s hottest releases, award winning documentaries, independent features and UK Premieres alongside the best short film productions from Britain and Ireland’s leading surf filmmakers. The next year I´ll be there for sure. Amazing ambient and marvelous films. 

Winners:

The London Surf Film Festival drew to a close last week, but not before its standard fanfare of gongs were handed out to a wealth of budding filmmakers.

After sifting through a diverse range of entries, 2011 saw Keith Malloy and Woodshed Films’ ode to body surfing, Come Hell or High Water, crowned as Best Film following its European Premiere at the festival before going on to receive awards for Best Cinematography.

Following success at this year’s Warsaw International Film Festival, Adam Pesce was awarded Best Documentary for Splinters, his compelling film, which explores the indigenous surfing culture in Papua New Guinea and its impact on a community.

Other categories included the Oakley Viewers Choice Award, presented by Oakley Freesurfer and former English Champion Oli Adams which went to Cyrus Sutton for his film Stoked and Broke, an amusing tale of minimalist surfing, while The Spirit of the Festival Award closed proceedings, going to Aleksi Raij for Finnsurf, the world’s first Finnish surf film.

For more information about The London Surf Film Festival head over to londonsurffilmfestival.com

A documentary film by Isabel Coixet

The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the greatest environmental disasters in history. Between 1954 and 1960, the government of the former Soviet Union ordered the construction of a 500 km-long canal that would take a third of the water from the Amu Darya River for an immense area of irrigated land in order to grow cotton in the region. The increasing need for water, due to bad transport management and a lack of foresight and efficiency in land irrigation, meant that more water had to be diverted from rivers flowing into the Aral Sea. As a result, in the eighties, the water reaching the port was as little as 10% of the amount in 1960, and the Aral Sea began to dry up.Consequently, the Aral Sea currently occupies half of its original surface area and its volume has decreased by a quarter, 95% of the nearby reservoirs and wetlands have become deserts and more than 50 lakes from deltas with a surface area of 60,000 hectares have dried up.
In terms of climate, this process has eliminated the area’s environmental shock absorbing capacity, making winters and summers harsher, with a subsequent increase in severe droughts. The wind has displaced tons of the saline sand that was originally at the bottom of the dried-up area to a distance of up to 200 km, which has drastically exacerbated the situation. Added to this, fertilisers and pesticides were used indiscriminately, polluting the air and groundwater.

The Soviet goal to have saline water at four times the limit recommended by the WHO reduced the groundwater level from 53 to 36 metres, which in turn caused serious problems with the supply of drinking water. The consequences for the health of the population have also been extremely serious. The region has the highest infant mortality rates in all of the former Soviet Union. Chronic bronchitis has increased by 3000% and arthritis by 6000%. In the Uzbek region of Karakalpakstan, anaemia is epidemic among women and 97% of them have haemoglobin levels lower than the 110 grams per litre of blood established by the WHO. Experts point out that this is caused by the consumption of stagnant water containing zinc and magnesium. In the same zone of Uzbekistan, liver cancer increased by 200% from 1981 to 1987, throat cancer by 25% and infant mortality by 20%. Also, cases of hepatitis, respiratory disease, eye-related illness and intestinal infection in the region are seven times higher than in 1960.
All of this occurred in a relatively short period of time and the most shocking thing is that it happened with an almost total lack of international awareness. In 2003, satellite pictures from NASA demonstrated the full scale of the disaster and what many scientists had already announced. World opinion is now mobilising and we are beginning to find out the full extent of the current human disaster. In January 1994, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan signed an agreement pledging 1% of their budgets to contribute to the recovery of the sea; however, cooperation among these countries has been minimal. Currently, the northern zone of the Aral Sea is recovering slightly as a result of the construction of the Kokaral dam by the Kazak Government to retain water that would normally flow into Uzbek territorial waters.
A number of projects are currently under development, although their cost and efficiency have yet to be determined. For the time being, the actions being carried out seek to help the affected population, as there are many NGOs that have initiated respectfully coordinated campaigns in the area. One of the most interesting aspects of the possible recovery processes is that it is necessary for the former Soviet countries to admit their mistakes and disclose the profound psychosocial impact of a disaster that occurred in less than a generation.

Aral. El mar perdido

Un documental de Isabel Coixet

El proceso de desecación del Mar de Aral es uno de los mayores desastres ecológicos de la historia. Entre 1954 y 1960, el gobierno de la antigua URSS, con la intención de cultivar algodón en la región, ordenó la construcción de un canal de 500 km de longitud que tomaría un tercio del agua del río Amu Daria para una enorme extensión de tierra irrigada. La necesidad cada vez mayor de agua, debida a la mala gestión de su transporte y a la falta de previsión y eficiencia del riego, supuso tomar agua de más ríos que desembocaban en el Mar de Aral.

Por ello, en los años ochenta, el agua que llegaba a puerto era tan sólo un 10% del caudal de 1960 y el Mar de Aral empezó un proceso de desecación. En consecuencia, el Mar de Aral ocupa actualmente la mitad de su superficie original y su volumen se ha visto reducido a una cuarta parte, el 95% de los embalses y humedales cercanos se han convertido en desiertos y más de 50 lagos de los deltas, con una superficie de 60.000 hectáreas, se han secado.

En lo que respecta al clima, esta desecación ha eliminado el efecto de amortiguador que ejercía la zona en su entorno, por lo que los inviernos y los veranos se han hecho más duros, con el consiguiente aumento de sequías graves. La acción del viento ha desplazado toneladas de arena salinizada, que procede del fondo de la zona desecada, a una distancia de hasta 200 km, lo que ha agravado drásticamente la situación. Para colmo, el uso indiscriminado de fertilizantes y pesticidas contaminó el aire y las aguas freáticas.

El objetivo soviético de que el agua tuviera una salinidad cuatro veces superior al límite establecido por la OMS redujo el nivel de las aguas freáticas de 53 a 36 metros, lo que a su vez causó graves problemas con el suministro de agua potable. Las consecuencias para la salud de la población también han sido muy graves. La región registra la tasa de mortalidad infantil más alta de toda la antigua URSS. La bronquitis crónica ha aumentado un 3000% y la artritis un 6000%. En la región uzbeka de Karakalpakstán las mujeres padecen una pandemia de anemia y el 97% presentan niveles de hemoglobina inferiores a los 110 gramos por litro de sangre que fija la OMS. Los expertos señalan que ello se debe al consumo de agua estancada que contiene zinc y magnesio. En la misma zona de Uzbekistán, de 1981 a 1987, el cáncer de hígado ha aumentado un 200%, el de garganta un 25% y la mortalidad infantil un 20%. Asimismo, los casos de hepatitis, enfermedades respiratorias, de los ojos e infecciones intestinales en la región son siete veces superiores que en 1960.

Todo esto se desencadenó en un periodo de tiempo relativamente breve y lo más dramático de todo es que ocurrió con un desconocimiento internacional casi absoluto. En 2003, unas imágenes por satélite de la NASA mostraron la verdadera envergadura del desastre y lo que muchos científicos ya habían anunciado. Ahora la opinión mundial se está movilizando y estamos empezando a conocer la verdadera dimensión actual de este desastre humano.
En enero de 1994, Kazajstán, Uzbekistán, Turkmenistán, Tayikistán y Kirguistán firmaron un acuerdo de compromiso asignando el 1% de sus presupuestos a contribuir a la recuperación del mar. Sin embargo, la cooperación entre estos países ha sido mínima. Hoy en día, la zona norte del Mar de Aral se está recuperando ligeramente, gracias al dique Kokaral que construyó el gobierno kazajo para retener el agua que normalmente fluiría hacia el mar en territorio uzbeko.

Actualmente hay varios proyectos previstos, de costes y eficiencia inciertos, y por el momento las acciones que realmente se están llevando a cabo se dedican a ayudar a la población afectada, ya que muchas ONG han iniciado en la zona campañas coordinadas respetuosamente. Uno de los aspectos más interesantes de los posibles procesos de recuperación es que es necesario que los antiguos países soviéticos denuncien los errores que cometieron y revelen el profundo impacto psicosocial de un desastre que se produjo en apenas el tiempo de un relevo generacional.

Today’s post takes us to Australia! To Byron Bay to be exact, the location of thisgorgeous family home.

The backyard skate ramp provides entertainment for the adults as well as the children. How cool for boys to have their own ramp in their garden!

White surfaces are warmed with stone and timber, such as furniture and shelving in the playroom above. The chairs are the famous Tripp Trapp chairs from Stokke.

photographer: Prue Ruscoe / Stylist: Shannon Fricke)