How I spent my summer vacation

Uploaded by Bring Limes on 2017-10-19.

Keep me out of the bow if there's paddling to be done. I think that's the lesson here.

Yay barracuda!

This happened while we were fishing in the Florida Keys last week.

Exactly as foretold by my secret crushes, the Wilson sisters (aka Heart), in 1977:
You lying so low in the weeds
I bet you gonna ambush me
You'd have me down, down, down on my knees
Now wouldn't you, Barracuda?

Fishing 'cuda in the Florida Keys. We finally did get this one in the boat (again). www.bringlimes.com

Fossil Diving! Venice, Florida! Right on!

So you probably know Venice, Italy – with its wonderful canals and gondolas. And you probably know Venice, California – with its wonderful canals and roller skate dancers with their comically ambitious boob jobs. But whatcha know about Venice, Florida?

Venice is a smallish town/series of interstate exits between Fort Meyers and Tampa. Like much of Florida, there doesn't seem to be much happening away from the water. But the beaches of Venice, and the waters offshore, give it the absolute finest tagline for a city that I've ever heard: "Shark Tooth Capital of the World."  And as if shark teeth aren't cool enough, these Venice shark teeth are fossils. 

I know! My 12-year-old-boy brain reels! 

So why are there fossils in Venice, Florida? It's time for a quick lesson in paleontology. If you're turned on by big words, darling, make yourself comfortable. This is gonna get kinky.

During the Cretaceous period (50 million years ago), Florida was under water. During the Oligocene (30 million years ago), sea levels began to drop and north central Florida became an island. Then during the Miocene (20 million years ago), that land mass...

Geez louise. tl;dr. Prehistoric geology evidently isn't my kind of kink. Here's a link if you wanna learn more. But in a nutshell: the dry parts of Florida used to be wet, and the wet parts of Florida used to be dry. Go back and forth like this for tens of millions of years and, I don't know, evidently you get fossils. 

So back to Venice. Five years ago we visited Casperson Beach (which is a real beauty) to look for shark teeth. They're laying and/or buried along the water's edge – pointy little black or grey buggers that you find by sifting through the sand. Looking for them was a perfect activity for my kids who were 8 and 11 at the time. It's a perfect activity for you too if you like to pair your OCD with a little sand and sun. Over the course of an afternoon we found 50 or so fossilized teeth: a mix of mako, lemon, and bull shark mostly.

If you want the big stuff (megalodon teeth, mammoth fossils, etc.), I was told at the time, you need to do a dive boat off shore. This year, that's finally what I did. Because, you know, I want the big stuff.

So two weeks ago I boarded the Hammerhead, a 31 foot dive boat run by Megaladon/Florida West Charters (who I'd definitely recommend). We left the harbor around 7:45 am with 10 divers total, for a 20 minute boat ride to an area called "the boneyard." On the way out, Captain Dan did a nice session on what we were looking for, why it was all there, and so on. Then we anchored and in we went. It's an easy two-tank dive, relatively shallow (30 feet) with no current. Visibility was only 4 feet or so (due to storms), but no big deal since you're looking right in front of you the whole time anyway.

So yeah! You creep along the bottom carefully peeping at every damn thing you can find. Every now and again, one of the things turns out to be a shark tooth or a dugong rib from a 14 million year old manatee. New fossils reveal themselves in the shifting sand over time (the sea is a bit OCD herself), so there's always plenty down there if you're patient/lucky.

Over the course of 90 minutes or so, I found more than a dozen dugong rib pieces (heavy and black as night) and other fossils including jaw bones from whales and grind plates from rays. I found a bunch of fossilized shark teeth too, including one big megalodon tooth.

The best discovery, though, was this: I also found a dive partner. Because when I got back, I barely got done laying out the fossils when my 13-year-old son Tobias asked... "How old do I have to be to go scuba diving?"

VICTORY AT SEA!!!

So this past weekend he did a Try Scuba class at a local pool and loved it. (35 bucks all gear included!) He's starting online classes now and should be certified in time for our trip to St. John in July. 

That right there is about as good as it gets.

If you have any questions about diving for shark teeth in Venice, or Try Scuba classes, hit me up in the comments! I'd be happy to share what I know.

Morgan Maassen made a fine to-do list for you

Morgan Maassen direct • film • edit www.morganmaassen.com motion clients: Audi, Corona, Samsung, Volvo, Delta Airlines, Peugeot, NBC Universal, Monster Energy, Quiksilver, Patagonia, Billabong, prAna, Nixon, Roxy, Hurley, Teen Vogue, National Geographic, United Nations shot on Red Dragon & Epic music: "After Gold" by Kelpe

Don't have your summer plans ironed out yet? Nothing nailed down for this weekend?

Fear not my indecisive one, photographer and filmmaker Morgan Maassen has about 4,000 ideas for you and he's compiled them all into one absolutely gorgeous video called "Motion."

I suppose "Things You Can Do If You're Bored" wasn't his intention when he put this together. But if watching it doesn't make you want to get out and do something (like right now!) I don't even know what to say to you.

Anyway, check it. The footage and the edit are fire and the music track by Kelpe drives it all perfectly. This kid is really really good. At 25, he's already shot for some of the biggest companies in the world. His work doesn't feel that way though which is about the highest compliment I can give.  

He's a good follow on Instagram too: here.

A thousand hands ago

This is a very quiet look at the making of beautiful things.

Specifically the making of a wooden kayak, by Danish builder Anders Thygesen, using ancient methods. 

If you love wood, or water, or the right way of doing things, you should enjoy this.

A short film about of recalling the knowledge of long dead craftsmen. Over the course of three days, Danish kayak builder Anders Thygesen builds an Aleutian iqyax by the shore of his local lake. He reflects on the process of learning these skills from masters whom he has never met. Shot and edited by Silje Ensby. www.siljeensby.com Music by Pernille Meidell. https://soundcloud.com/meidell To read more about Anders work, visit kajakkspesialisten.no/e_index.php. En kortdokumentar om å studere under læremestere som for lengst er borte.  Med kroppen som måleredskap bygger Anders Thygesen en tradisjonell iqyax ved Eikeren i Buskerud, mens han reflekterer rundt prosessen ved å studere under læremestere han aldri har møtt.

From timber to tide

The weather outside is frightful. Seems like a perfect day to build something.

Ben Harris built this beautiful boat entirely by hand. This four-minute portrait is a beautiful look at the work and the reward of doing so.

As for me, I'm planning to build a Dark 'N' Stormy later this afternoon. I intend to apply the same love and care to the project.

A new film in our maker series. Ben Harris is a traditional wooden boat builder based in Cornwall, UK. This film documents Ben Harris’ love of wood work and boat building, how he acquired his skills, and how incredible it is to be able to take something that you’ve built with your own hands out onto the water and sail it across the sea. Who is Ben Harris? Ben has always loved wood. His mother said that his first word was ‘log’. He has been working with wood throughout the UK since the age of 15. First as an assistant to a cabinet maker, where he started by sharpening the tools and clearing up. He then developed his skills in furniture making and his passion for wood and forestry by working in broadleaf woodlands. Later he tuned his skills in bespoke oak-framed carpentry and went on to establish a sawmill and oak framing business in Scotland, sourcing timber from the local estates. In 2005 Ben moved to Cornwall to study boatbuilding. He has been building boats and sailing them ever since. http://www.benharrisboats.co.uk/ Shooting from timber to tide We spent three days with Ben, staying with him in the idyllic handbuilt wooden cabin he lives in, in Constantine, Cornwall. When we arrived Wednesday, late afternoon, the plan was to make pumpkin soup and couldn’t believe our luck when we discovered the open fire cooking area in the garden. Within an hour after arriving we were already shooting some lovely material. The next day we covered the area around the house, the two workshops, the woods and recorded the voice-over. The real treat came on Friday morning when we took his self-built sailing yacht Alva out on Falmouth’s waters. First we covered the beautiful yacht from a motor boat with skipper Matthew Dale and dog Ruben, before we stepped on board ourselves and got close to the action. What a great experience. Stills and behind-the-scenes pictures are available on our website: http://www.pixillion.com/our-work/film/from-timber-to-tide Credits and technical information Directed by Remco Merbis and Fern Scott. Cinematography, grade and edit by Remco Merbis. Sound recorded by Fern Scott. Music by Jonny Pryor. https://vimeo.com/pseudohaiku Thanks to Ben Harris, Jack Adair Bevan, Jacob Dodd and Matthew Dale. Sony PXW-FS7 Metabones Speedbooster Ultra Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 II USM Lens Manfrotto 546GBK with 504HD head tripod DJI Ronin Chinese Lantern Shot at 25 and 50 fps at 1080p and 4K. Graded in DaVinci Resolve, using Osiris cinematic film emulation 3D LUTs at 1080p HD with added 35mm film grain.

Back in a bit yo!

I'm going to be on an island in a tent in the rain for a while.

I'm putting things on hold here until my triumphant return (aka mid-November). In the meantime, check Bring Limes on insta if you're so inclined! I'll be posting there while I'm away.

The boats of Carriacou

Carriacou is the largest island in the Grenadines, which are part of the Windward Islands chain. It's a beautiful, slow, real place where 4,500 people go about their business on their 13-square-mile piece of land.

A big part of their business is boat building. You see these wonderful wooden boats all over the island in various stages of construction. And of course, they're on the water too, painted exactly how all boats should be painted. 

Twenty-Eight Feet: life on a little wooden boat

Every single thing about this short documentary is perfect. David Welsford traded his previous reality for one on the sea, living aboard a 50-year old sailboat he restored himself. The simplicity of small spaces and the sea, all together in one life. Damn. 

You can learn more about David here.