The Soul Of York, Maine
If you didn’t know, in addition to being very good at skating, Nora is very good at surfing.
Seems like Nora is universally applicable to any board sport. With help from YETI (YETI, you’re the best - the only real choice for keeping my bottle full of ‘water’ at the ideal temperature on those days when I need to get a little loose to deal with this office job), we were able to bring Nora back to her surfing roots, the beautiful coast of Maine. I know what you’re thinking, ‘wait, Nora is from Massachusetts, not Maine.’ First of all, you’re a creep and you know too much about this person whom you’ve likely never met. Get a life. Second of all, it’s all New England, innit? Don’t get snippy with me.
Anyway, we (Nora, Chad Huff, Andrew Peters, and Ollie Clapin) headed up to Maine to meet up with our boy, artist, surfer, and Maine local, Ty Williams, and take a chance on what we understood to be very temperamental waves. Our gamble paid off with surprisingly good weather, some solid sessions, and a whole bunch more. How much more? I asked Ty to list off some things that might have slipped our minds.
Here’s what he came up with:
‘Alright, here are some things I can remember: 500mg gummies, matching tortoise cats, crullers, tough nuggets, lazy woman lobster with big cups of butter, ice cream because we may as well have diabetes with our gout, whoopie pie, and Chad not bringing gloves because apparently he’s one of those dudes who takes ice baths and claimed to be fine.’
What else happened? How was the surf?
‘Surf was good this weekend. They lucked out. I don’t want to blow up my home spot, but it’s deceptively good. You just have to be willing to do the research and find out where waves are, cozy up to a prickly local and be willing to put on a lot of rubber. It’s rare that it’s that good, though. It was all anyone talked about. People in the bakery like, ‘oh man, how great is this weather?’ It’s deceiving. Ollie thought this place was great but it’s not.
How was hanging with Nora and the gang?
‘I hate to sound really bland, but it was awesome. I have hosted a fair amount of people, but I really had a time this weekend. Nora and I have similar sarcasm and senses of humor. Living in California for those years, I felt like people didn’t get that humor as well as the New Englanders. It’s a defense mechanism/coping mechanism. It’s how we pass the time when things are shitty out. People in California think you're being mean, but you’re not. Ollie and Andrew, too. I think that Australians and New Englanders have a similar style and that’s rooted in comedy, cynicism, and drinking.
How do you think surfing continues to affect or influence your art?
‘I feel like I should have a standard answer for this question by now. Its changed over the years. As a kid in class, I was always doodling, which I’m sure is the case for a lot of people with restless hands and minds. As I got older and went to college, fellow art students were pursuing it really hard to get jobs that were in the industry, and I never even considered that until I got into college. I did a year of journalism school and was like, ‘this isn’t for me’. Throughout that time, I was surfing constantly, and you draw what you know, so I drew surfing. It was an opportunity to draw environments that I wish I was in, and it still is.
All in, how’d the weekend pan out for you?
‘Awesome. They were only able to be in Maine for 48 hours, which would be sketchy, but they were able to roll with the punches. It ended up being so seamless, super low pressure. They were like, ‘we wanna eat lobster, go to a lighthouse, check those boxes,’ but we really just laughed and spent some time. It went by really fast. I was sad when they left.
This story originally appeared in Issue #72, the Nora Vasconcellos Guest Editor Edition. Get your hands on it, here.
