An Open Letter to Australian Politicians.

Dear Australian Politicians,

I’m Jonny, a third year media student studying in Sydney. I should begin this by saying I am a Kiwi-born Australian citizen who has been living in Australia since early 2011.

I find the political climate here somewhat disappointing, and I very much doubt I am alone in this feeling. There are a range of reasons for my personal disillusion, and with the federal election on the horizon, I am seeking answers. More than answers, I am seeking change.

Allow me to begin with a question: Who are you?
This may seem rudimentary, but the question is asking more than the three words would superficially suggest: I’m not asking for a biography, I’m asking for ideology. Instead of this, all I seem to get is the ramblings of two individuals desperate to shoot each other down. The shadow of political debate will no longer be sufficient. Where are your policies and the driving vision behind them? I don’t wish to see you highlight the faults in each other, I can see plenty and I don’t need your help. What I do need is vision, direction and representation.

“I am involved in the world and must try to see that it does not blow itself to pieces.” Allan Watts
I wanted to be a politician growing up. I dreamed of people compelled by vision, compelled by a desire for the greater good, a desire to do what’s best for the country. I guess I grew up with a romanticized view of politics, as the reality of it has been rather sobering. With this in mind my second question is, where are you going? I don’t want to know what town Tony Abbott will visit next,  I am seeking know what road you are taking. I need you to display and hold true to your line of beliefs and not change them. Mostly, I want you to keep your promises. It all seems so trivial when I spell it out but these are the fundamentals – its disappointing to see them skipped in favor of personal agendas and mud-slinging.
Define your role. Not the long words in your job description, not the acronyms of your portfolio, nor your number on the party list, but your role. While again it may seem obvious, and at the risk of patronizing the very few of you who may read this far, I will take the time to define it for you.
You are representatives, voted by a majority, as they believe you best represent their views. That is trust, we have displayed trust in you, faith in your promises. Sadly, it seems many of you view representation via an a-symmetrical model that has tilted in the wrong direction. First and foremost your role exists to represent us. This doesn’t mean you should aim to please everyone – not only is that impossible, its not what democracy is all about and its certainly not what this country needs. Democracy is about holding your view up and letting us decide which is better. So hold them up, not passively but actively, speak them to us on the street, convince us over coffee, be open to debate and ready to defend; always with an open mind. Maybe you can bring us around to a better solution, or maybe we can bring you to see our side of things. Maybe all we need is a little communication?

Leaders with vision, MP’s with ears, shouldn’t be so hard to find.

I began this by stating I wanted change, real change. That change is unlikely to come this election as i am not seeking a change in power, I am seeking a change in ethos, I am seeking real politicians. As such my vote this election is still undecided. The current government has disappointed me time and time again, but the opposition has failed in just as many ways.

No more mud-slinging, no more empty promises.

Politics shouldn’t be about you. Its about us.

Interaction

Listen to Quiet by This Will Destroy You available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XROVlvrrV9U
and read the following.

I’ve spent the whole year dwelling on the existence of non-place.

The idea that we could co-exist as humans in a place without actually communicating, without acknowledging the passing of time, of people, of movement; I just don’t believe it.
Yet here I am,
In an Airport, I followed signs to get here, headphones in, and now I wait, laptop in hand, in this void, this absence of interaction. The people around me are all engaged in personal electronics, or simply staring into this place, waiting, watching movement without acknowledgement of its passing.

I was asked before I left to visit my family in New Zealand, which country I felt was my home.
I currently reside in Australia and in a pragmatic sense this is my home. Yet on any given occasion I recount stories from my ‘not so’ past. Adventure and escapades in the land of the long white cloud, Home.

It’s with great confusion I ponder this question, sitting in this so called non place -
Am I going home?

Marc Auge argues that I am indeed in a non-place, that I am not engaging in any kind of meaningful interaction, I disagree – contradictory to my opening paragraph as this is, I feel a resounding sense of likeness. Under normal circumstances I would consider myself vastly different from the majority of people in the room, but here in this so called non-place we are all co-existing, we all interact.

This isn’t a non-place. The interactions I had on the way to the seat I am in were as meaningful as any, from a Taxi to a check-in desk, to the oddly dressed woman sitting across from me who’s furious typing inspired me to start this in the first place. Interaction is everywhere there is no non-place unless you chose to feel that way.

My father was big on that, choosing how you feel and sticking to it. Choose to be happy, choose to move past fear, past pain. Sounds kinda silly, but hey, its served my well so far. Nowhere is it more true than in this moment, in this place. New Zealand is my home, Australia is my place of residence, it was just a formality a country with a better university. Now its home to my beautiful girlfriend, and a group of friends I wouldn’t trade for the world – but as yet it is not my home.

As I scan the room around me I feel a strong sense of familiarity, maybe its because airports are all designed in a similar vein, or maybe its because I haven’t slept and have a romanticised view of everything, or maybe, maybe its because the strange mix of people brought here by need, held here by procedure and bound by unwritten, unspoken laws of social interaction, offer up a realisation I’ve been brewing internally for some time:

We are all here together in these ‘places’. The addition of all our small to large, insignificant to significant interactions build a picture in our lives that is like nothing else. Sometimes we dream of a chance to erase, to replace. But its all part of who we are, who we become, I feel I’ve somewhat deviated from my original point so I’ll clarify,
There is no such thing as a non-place,
interactions happen weather you want them to or not, avoiding eye contact or conversation, sitting alone in a room of strangers silently waiting, they are all interactions, use them wisely.

Jonny

Melbourne By Board

Its was way too early to be awake, but here we are at 5am in a cab on the way to Sydney Airport.
I haven’t been up this early in years.
Nick and I stashed our boards in a box, praying they didn’t get lost in a maze of multi-directional conveyor belts, and tucked to the gate. Excitement was building.

A flight, cab and train later we arrived in the heart of Melbourne to be greeted by Vault team rider and generally off-the-rails girl- Jenna Russo.

After a short introduction to the parents we dumped our gear at the Russo mansion and headed down to a local hill to begin the fun.
The road was a casual left turn into a straight away with a nearly untouched surface. It was perched at the top of a new development with a little man-made lake at the base of what was an old quarry.

The sun was setting and a full day of travel had left our stomachs empty so we piled into Jenna’s OG Merc “Bubbles” and headed to her place.

Dinner, Dinner was epic, hell I could write an entirely new blog about how good that food was. Both Nick and I were stoked – great skate, full bellies; it was definitely time for a nap.

10am rolled around and nick blasted into my room barking about wasting daylight – I was struggling for energy until we were introduced to the worlds greatest juice.
Pumped on a good breakfast we geared up and headed to a spot Jenna could see, but took us forever to find. After a few u-bolts we found the hill. A crazy steep drop into a sweeping right then left. The gradient and surface combination meant traction was a thing of the past. Nick threw down hard but the gradient got the best of him and after a few stacks and some long, long walks up we took a break for lunch.

A cheeky feed and quick review of the footage amped us up and we headed back to the quarry for some chill times and to catch a few more clips for the edit. Another day down, we loaded up on some ground breaking ratatouille and crumbed veal, smashed out the first of two sick edits and headed to the Russo band room for a jam – Jenna laid out some sweet tunes on the guitar until we were all ready to call it a night.

The day had arrived. RMIT longboardings end of year jam was only an hour away, Jenna’s wonderful mother Ida packed us a sweet lunch and we jumped into Bubbles.
The slide jam was sick, a heap of shredders threw down for one of Melbourne’s biggest events – Shout out to the RMIT boys who made it happen.

After a long day of shredding Jenna took out the girls prize and I managed 3^rd in longest stand up – not massively stoked with my performance but hey good times were had. At the end of a long day we rolled back home and relaxed with the Russo clan.

On our last full day we woke up to rain, but thanks to spastic Victorian weather, it was sunny as all hell by the time we headed into Melbourne City. Jenna had taken the day off skating to study for her last ever school exam so Nick and I cruised the CBD relaxing, throwing down some flat land and generally having a swell time.

In the late arvo we would rolled back to Jenna’s for an afternoon shred that ended up becoming one of the greatest sessions I’ve ever had – the video of said shred session can be found here –

Going on trips is always rad and this one was no different. Big thanks to The Russo’s for putting Nick and I up for the week and feeding us.

See ya next time kids, Skate Safe!

Land of No Responsibility or Consequence

We live in a world i am disillusioned with, if you have taken time to read any of my previous rant’s this is a fact by now you are well aware of.

Let me begin by saying this. My dad would always lecture me about taking personal responsibility for my actions. If I made a mistake it was my job to take ownership, apologize and repair if possible.
  When people of today’s world make a mistake, it it’s still their fault…but… the police response time was to slow, there were no preventative measures in place, more adequate signage needs to be implemented, the education system failed, more money needs to be set aside for councilors in schools to deal with issues earlier. And look I know in many cases much of the above is needed but how about a sign that says “Hey, Stop being a dick” how about a councilor that says “stop believing the world is full of Disney feel good romance” How about students shut up and listen to their teachers and parent’s actually learn to discipline before complaining about the education system. Are these systems broken absolutely, wouldn’t it be nice if police responded instantly, signs were always clear, love was always fair, people were always nice… Well its not going to happen.
The self entitled dribble pouring form high priced technology and onto social media platforms is driving me insane.
Take responsibility people, that is the fundamental difference between a boy and a man or a girl and a woman, its the cornerstone to maturity. Your actions, your problems they are your fault the only person who can fix them is you.

Now I am one to bitch and moan -this course is  a joke, this tutor is a moron. At times I’ve even felt disadvantaged by my tutor, by the silly technical restrictions of a project, by money. But ultimately the only thing I’m restricted by is me.
The only thing restricting you, pulling you up and causing issues is yourself.
So take responsibility.
But more than that, be aware of consequence.

I have made and broken friendships over this, Not only do you need to take personal responsibility but you need to take responsibility for the repercussions of your actions.

Consequence is always right behind the door your about to push open, and like any survival horror game will tell you, there is something behind it waiting to claw you a new face. A – Pay attention, B- Take responsibility C- React appropriately, please remember opening the door and emptying your shotgun magazine into anything that moves is not reacting appropriately.

Left for dead analogies behind; people who read this, chances are you are a well rounded, mature individual already as your in my circle of friends (see what i did there) but for those of you who aren’t, please get your shit together. 

I’m sick of living in a world where individuals aren’t responsible, a world where there is always a system that failed them or a policy that wasn’t in place or a fence that wasn’t up that should have been. Every INDIVIDUAL mistake made in this country spurs a committee of red tap waving fun police who piss safety protocols down people’s throats until every drop of potential enjoyment has been drowned in a sea of red tap and paper work.

So please do me a favor the next time you make a mistake, pause and think, Am I at fault?
YES, now go fix your mistake before the local homeowners association can meet and discuss mandatory warning sings be placed on any hard or mildly firm or potentially not soft, dust free, choke prof, water resistant surface.
Like usual I wrote this late a night in a hurry, so feel free to list my many spelling, syntax and grammatical errors below. Please also feel free to notice me not caring.

P.S
If your one of those people that feel the need to call the police because people look like they might be having fun outside and that’s potentially dangerous avoid reading my next blog post…

 

 

I Need Your Help

Hello Longboarding world,

I need your help

I am startling on a video project that has been brewing in my mind for quite so time so stick with me and I’ll explain.
This all started when I was trying to describe longboarding to my parents, i want to define it, to accurately represent it, and I figure the best way to do that is a video.

So here is where you come in,

I want the video to feature as many people of all ages as possible answering one simple questions.

First introduce yourself
Hi, my name is… and I love longboarding
then answer this question in only a few words
I think Longboarding is…

If you want you can also include a single shot of you skating your favorite spot

And If you have one please include a clip of a bail (i want to have a bail montage in it)

Try to keep it under 20 seconds and don’t add any music please.

Either Upload it to YouTube and send me a link or email the video file to me
jonnyhurn@gmail.com – don’t forget to include your full name, age and location for the credits

The video is going to take me a while to shoot, keep an eye on here and or my YouTube or FB to see progress/trailer when I get closer to release.

A Tone of Hate

Watch this first
Racist at Station.

Now I’ve never been one to mix my words to make people less offended by my opinion – If you find yourself offended I have two things to say -
A – Lets discuss it, best way to solve conflict is to understand the motivations and opinions of all parties involved.
Still offended at not willing to offer rational critique?
B – Grow up, don’t read it if your not willing to be mature.
Now onto our racist friend in the video above.
While his ignorance is clearly his biggest issue, my largest concern is the attitude he represents. I’ve seen it on both sides of the racism sword and in both situations it has been the catalyst of damaging behavior.
“This is my land, you stole it” represents the views of many extremist Maori and Aboriginals.
“This is my land, go home” or “your not Australian”  the view of many extremist white Australians.

Frankly the over the top national “pride” of some people in this country is sickening and I’m not just talking about white Australians.

What I find funny is until I’ve started talking, these people think I’m Australian, in actual fact I’m a Kiwi born and raised kid with a Lebanese mother from a family that migrated to Australia and a NZ European father. This guy and sadly others are convinced being an Australian is dependent on white skin alone.
If you live here, if you call this place home, you are Australian. If someone disagrees, they need to re-think what it means to be Australian – Like our friend in the video above.
People in our society should be free to do what they want in their own homes, Provided they don’t negatively impact people around them. But with the mix of culture we have in this country its bound to happen and in those situations its important we remember the knife has two sides and they are equally sharp.

This guys racism is built from media stereotypes, ignorance and a good diet of bigotry.
I fear more of these people are springing up in response to the riot in Sydney. When people wave signs saying Sharia law will dominate Australia its hard not to bite back, just as when people say “go back to your own country” its hard not to bite back. But if we keep biting each other we’ll all end up in a multi-generational bitch fight.

How do you think countries in the middle east became the way they did? Constant civil wars, military regimes, invasions, mass killings. Its peoples immature and irrational inability to live with people of different views. There is a militant arc of extremists within every sub-group of humanity, how in the hell do the majority, supposedly rational people, allow a few loud idiots to continue to lead us to self destruction. Humanity is its own worst enemy and if mother nature doesn’t bitch slap us into extinction we’ll do it ourselves.

Under the surface of every word I write is a tone of hate, sounds quite bad when i say it like that but I am well and truly fed up.
People are either to PC to actually combat the issue or they are so apathetic they take no notice and continue on their ignorant way.
I’m beginning to think I’m one of the few rational people left on this rock. How did this happen?

How did the middle class become so quiet, so uninterested?
How did we allow our news media to get to the state its in?
How did we sit by as our country’s government dissolved into a preschool sand-pit where insults and personal attacks are more important than policy.
How do we allow people to voice their opinions unchallenged?

Where is the debate? the public forum?
Where are the real issues, when can whats best for the country become more important than what will I get voted in for.

Now don’t you dare turn around and blame the media, the media is a mirror built from money and designed by advertisers to show you what you want to see.
This country cares more about Master Chef than political debate.
Big brother is more controversial than SOPA ACTA and PIPA most people in my second year Media degree didn’t know a single thing about them yet could all talk about Kristen Stewart big break up.

To put it frankly – everyday I wake up with less faith in humanity. Less and less faith each day.

STOP BEING SO APATHETIC, learn about your world, learn about its issues and start making changes to try and fix them,
I’m not always in the know about every issue but I try, and that’s all I’m calling for,

If we don’t stand up to this extremism  it will consume the masses like a poison.
If we could all just accept the three following points the world might just have a future.

1 – Acceptance. People will always be different to each other, different views and opinions, its fine to disagree and even better to debate, just don’t force people to agree with you and accept it when they don’t, Don’t go out to deliberately hurt people with conflicting views to yours and take it with grace and maturity when people do.

2 – Care. Start giving a shit. Seriously,  If you don’t take personal responsibility you will never get anywhere and only drag other down.

3-  Be reasonable. give the benefit of the doubt and balance your needs with the needs of others. Stand up for an old lady on the bus, wave a thank-you when someone lets you in at an intersection and even more importantly remember your actions effect others.

If we could all just follow these points the individuals in our society who hold opinions like our friend in the video would slowly disappear.

Informative not spiteful,
Rational not reactive,
Calm not aggressive.

Now believe me I’m not one of those we can all be friends theirs no need for violence people and while everyone deserves a shot at redemption those who continue to behave badly deserve a firm slap to the face by a wall of sharpened lead. I shall leave you with this final example -

Lets say our friend from the video goes on air or write a blog about how all the immigrants should go home – should this guy be shot…No, should he be bombarded with logical and rational critique of his uninformed opinion…yes.

If he was to make a movie insulting the religious beliefs of others should we riot? No, take it on the chin, responding calmly to people’s insults makes your argument stronger and shows you are secure in your beliefs.

If he was to go out and actively hurt people based on race – we should lock him up, if he continues to do so we throw him in a hole and leave him their while i don’t believe in the death penalty I think their should be harsh prisons and no bail or parole for repeat violent offenders.

And that about sums up my energy for today.

Psycho Samurai Review

Here is the Video portion of my review:

Initial feelings -

When I first got on the board I was in love.
The gas pedals or Gas Knobs as I call them are brilliant, perfect place to maximize leverage without taking back from the platform.
The concave is deep and comfortable; it’s a sweet dish style progressive concave, locking you in without a restrictive feel.

Set up – Initially I was shredding the stock complete set up Vault RKPs and CueBalls but recently I’ve been running it with Anvil trucks and Vault moon boots. Even ran it with 82a Vault boosters for a DH race.

After 2 months -

So as of now I’ve been skating this for two months, I am notoriously rough with gear and this ninja warrior has held together through rain skates, big early grabs and many curb hits.

The extra meat around the noses gives you enough leverage to do some freestyle and also acts as a first line of defence against curb hits.

I’ve experimented with Wheel base options a bit, for a time I was running the longer option on the back and the inner most option on the front – This is great for really fast runs but I still prefer to have both ends in the inner most holes (27″) as your feet and literally right there on top of the inner bolts.

Set up on the Inner bolts you can get away with a 70mm wheel on most set ups without wheel bits issues.
I had no issues at all on the Vault RKP but lower cast or precision trucks will require a little riser if you want to run 70mm wheels. Personally I’m in love with 65mm wheels (specifically the vault CueBalls), great acceleration out of slides, supper buttery feel and no wheel bite issues make for a great combo.

All in all the Samurai is a great set up, very versatile and incredibly fun to ride.

Happy Skating.

Jonny Hurn