Curio #3 - Dave Rastovich, The Battle of New Orleans & iamalex
Hi everyone,
Welcome to another edition of Curio, a newsletter that aims to provide your curious minds with a reprieve from the noise of the news cycle.
If you’re finding Curio valuable, you can forward it to a friend and they can sign up here:
And if you’re not, you can unsubscribe at any time!
Have a great weekend :)
Oli
Dave Rastovich
Dave ‘Rasta’ Rastovich might have the best job in the world. He is a professional surfer but doesn’t compete. Instead, he is a ‘free surfer’ — his sponsors pay him to get photographed surfing in exotic locations.
Rasta grew up on the Gold Coast of Queensland and has been an aquatic creature his entire life. He was a surfing World Junior Champion, an elite junior swimmer (as well as a friend and contemporary of future Olympic gold medallist Grant Hackett) and won numerous national junior life saving titles in ironman and paddling events. After such a competitive adolescence he decided that the grind of the professional surfing tour didn’t appeal to him. Instead, he approached Billabong and asked whether he could become a free surfer.
Since then, Rasta has become famous in the surfing community for his effortless and graceful style, use of experimental boards and exploration of waves in far flung locations. He is now based in near Byron Bay in the north coast of New South Wales. The below video is shot nearby.
Part of what makes Rasta so compelling is how cerebral he is about the capacity for surfing to positively influence emotional well-being. He enjoys marvelling at surfing’s incredible restorative powers, where even after an exhausting session he feels “totally revived, totally sparked, full of energy.” For him, surfing is also an exercise in mindfulness:
“Surfing forces me into being present...When I’m present for anything there’s always something profound and joyful and expansive going on in that moment. Always. It’s just the nature of life. It’s the feeling of actually being alive. That’s probably the most significant thing surfing does for me in my life.”
If you’re interested in watching more videos of Rasta, you can check him out:
Surfing in India at a spot now called Rasta’s
At Cloudbreak in Fiji, in much bigger waves
Doing his yoga routine
Generally shredding it
The Battle of New Orleans
One of the reasons I started this newsletter is I believe that, ironically, it’s impossible to be truly informed if all you’re doing is following minute-by-minute news. Indeed, writer and literary critic Alan Jacobs argues that “it is impossible for anyone who is regularly on social media to have a balanced and accurate understanding of what is happening in the world. To follow a minute-by-minute cycle of news is to be constantly threatened by illusion”.
While the immediacy of the Twitter cycle is problematic, a news cycle that is too long can also cause issues. The Battle of New Orleans is one such example.
The UK and the US signed a formal peace treaty in the Belgian city of Ghent to end the War of 1812. The Battle of New Orleans was fought over two weeks afterwards, before the news of the treaty had reached either side.
The British Army marched against New Orleans, hoping that by capturing the city they could separate Louisiana from the rest of the United States. With the help of French pirate Jean Lafitte who warned the Americans of the oncoming attack, the US forces, led by future President Andrew Jackson (in the above painting brandishing his sword), successfully defended New Orleans and dealt the British a crushing defeat. However, this victory was bittersweet as the war had already ended.
iamalex - 1998
Danish producer iamalex (pronounced ‘I am Alex’) tends to straddle the line between mellow and funky. Although much of his recent music is downtempo chill hop, all of the tracks from his Everything EP, including 1998, have enough energy to get your hips moving. With echoes of disco and the early 2000s, this groovy summer banger is lo-fi house music at its feel good best.
If you enjoyed this, then send it to a friend and they can sign up below: