{"id":6685,"date":"2015-09-22T17:38:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T00:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/?p=6685"},"modified":"2015-09-29T09:16:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T16:16:56","slug":"surf-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/22\/surf-world\/","title":{"rendered":"“Surf World”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a partial draft of a chapter named \u201cSurf World,\u201d\u009d from my novel in progress, Million Mile Road Trip<\/em>, which will appear in late 2016 or in 2017. It’s in some ways inspired by the surfin’ SF stories I’ve written with Marc Laidlaw. See, for instance, our recent “Water Girl<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMount Shasta seen on a road trip in 2014…a moment that inspired this novel.<\/em><\/p>\n

The cast of characters in “Surf World”: Villy and Zoe are on the point of graduating from high-school in Los Perros, Califorina. But they\u2019ve left town for a road trip. A road trip across the worlds of a parallel universe. Their companions are a pair of “Szep” aliens named Pinchley and Yampa. Villy\u2019s tenth-grade kid brother Scud has come along.<\/p>\n

And now they\u2019re entering a zone called Surf World.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cEndless Road Trip\u201d\u009d oil on canvas, Sept, 2014, 30\u201d\u009d x 24\u201d\u009d. Includes images of my alien characters Pinchley and Yampa. Click for a larger version of the painting.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Surf World light is a honeyed gold, like the light you get in Santa Cruz an hour before sunset. But as for the surf\u2014maybe the waves are bigger than Villy realized before. Hard to judge, with their shapes so strange. And there\u2019s no consistent flow. The waves go every which way, surging through each other, with no apparent regard for physical law. Staring at them does something unpleasant to Villy\u2019s head and, in the weirdness of the moment, everything seems small and overly animated. Like he\u2019s looking through binoculars the wrong way.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo gnarly?\u201d\u009d asks Pinchley, waggling his lower jaw in an open-mouthed Szep grin. \u201cYou know what\u2019s with them waves? They alive.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean \u201d\u02dcalive\u2019 in the broad, stoner sense that everything <\/em>is alive?\u201d\u009d says Villy, trying to sound all ironic and calm.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlive in the sense that the Surf World ocean is ten percent smeel,\u201d\u009d says Pinchley. \u201cA brimming cocktail of consciousness, bro. Pure trippiness unmodified.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not remotely like anything he\u2019s ever seen. The waves really are alive. Quirky, willful, and no two of them the same. Shape, shade, speed, size\u2014everything\u2019s up for alteration. The waves do what they want.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re driving a highly modified station wagon which they call the purple whale<\/em>. They\u2019ve equipped it with enormous paddle-wheel tires, and with a waterproof dark-energy engine. Pinchley issues his considered advice about how to launch the purple whale into massively chaotic wrong-way surf. <\/p>\n

\u201cBomb on in there like you\u2019re crazy and high.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n


\nFour Mile Beach<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYeek<\/em>!\u201d\u009d <\/a>says Zoe, getting into it. She revs the dark energy engine to the max and rockets into the sea. Almost immediately, a massive pup-tent wave blindsides the car. Like it\u2019s a rival skater in a roller derby. Zoe stays cool. She keeps the wheels churning, turns the steering wheel, and maneuvers them through a stretch of puffballs and onto the backside of a monstrous comber that\u2019s rolling away from the shore. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get to the top, drop and ride,\u201d\u009d counsels Villy.<\/p>\n

And, yes, Zoe makes it up the back of the hundred-foot wave, teeters on the lip, and then drops onto the tube\u2019s clean, smooth face. She idles the engine and the purple whale begins endlessly to skim along the self-renewing hill of water. It\u2019s like riding a titan at Mavericks. Sweet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s calm for awhile\u2014the big wave is swallowing everything it hits, sweeping a path through the living sea. The greens and blues of the sea are beautiful in Surf World\u2019s golden light. The whale rides the wave for nearly an hour. According to the car\u2019s altered speedometer, they\u2019re moving at four hundred miles an hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlub, blub, bloo<\/em>!\u201d\u009d yells Scud. He\u2019s got his window wide open, and he\u2019s hanging out like a tongue-lolling dog on a car trip. \u201cHere comes a pyramid covered with rice paddies?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s an Incan ziggurat made of smeely seawater, a water-pyramid with stairstep escalators for its sides. Three times as high as the enormous comber and moving twice as fast. As it angles into their big wave, vicious eddies swirl towards the purple whale. The water\u2019s surface is, like, pocked<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Skillful Zoe adjust their car\u2019s rudder and uses the gas, speeding up and slowing down, and then\u2014behold. She\u2019s maneuvered them off their disintegrating pipeline and onto the rising terraces of the epic ziggurat.<\/p>\n

\u201cRide the terraces to the peak,\u201d\u009d Villy advises Zoe,. \u201cThen gun it down the other side.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nGravedigger monster truck, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a way to die, huh?\u201d\u009d says Zoe, shooting him the briefest of glances over he shoulder. A pert smile. Okay, fine, Zoe\u2019s not suicidal, but she does have a reckless side. Why else would she hang with Villy?<\/p>\n

\u201cReady to surf?\u201d\u009d Yampa asks Villy. \u201cWe\u2019ll climb on the roof and mount our boards.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot yet,\u201d\u009d says Villy. \u201cToo blown-out. Let\u2019s wait for those giant walls we saw. Archetypal surf.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

The ziggurat is picking up speed, swallowing up a platoon of mammoth comber waves. Cathedral-sized pup-tent waves spawn off of these collisions and come pinballing up the pyramid\u2019s terraced steps. <\/p>\n

\u201cRock it, Zoe,\u201d\u009d says Pinchley, \u201cBy the way, y\u2019all, we\u2019re flat-out unsinkable with these fatso tires. But a wave could <\/em>wash a dumb-ass out one of these windows. If they was greenhorn enough to have it open and to be leanin out in a situation like this. Talkin to you, Scud.\u201d\u009d Pinchley says the name like, \u201cScuuuuud.\u201d\u009d He\u2019s steadily amusing himself with his Southern accent routine. <\/p>\n

Scud closes his window just in time. When they get to the top of the ziggurat, it turns out the very highest level\u2014the square on the tippy-top\u2014well, it\u2019s a hole, an insane horror-movie elevator shaft running down into the dim, churning core the vast ziggurat\u2019s metabolism.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeek<\/em>!\u201d\u009d yells Zoe once again. She floors the gas and the responsive dark-energy engine screams. Tires spinning like buzz saws, they rocket into the air and\u2014arcing across the fearsome hole. And nosedive into one of the blocky pyramid\u2019s square terraces, where they spend a full two minutes underwater, tumbling in the complex currents. When they bob back up, they\u2019re on that same ziggurat terrace\u2014or maybe it\u2019s another one\u2014bur for sure they\u2019re descending towards sea level at a steady pace.<\/p>\n

Various waves are moving into the smeel-rich waters around the drifting purple whale. Combers, pup-tents, puffballs, ziggurats and\u2014<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cA giant corkscrew?\u201d\u009d says Zoe. \u201cLike a big drill spinning through the water. Only the drill itself is made of water, too?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cCatch it!\u201d\u009d says Pinchley. \u201cThose twisty suckers can carry you a thousand miles express. Get up to speed, Zoe, and edge onto it while its passing.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cYah, mon,\u201d\u009d goes Zoe. \u201cI have the whim-whams.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

The corkscrew wave is a helix of of curved, sloping faces, one behind the other, with each face rising out of the sea on the left, and arcing down on the right. A wave-train many miles long. The successive faces are linked by powerful underwater currents. A low bulge runs down the axis of the corkscrew, like the shaft of a ship\u2019s propeller. Zoe has a little trouble getting the whale into a stable position on one of the blades. More than a little. At one point the car is totally submerged\u2014tumbling ass over teakettle like a surfer in a wipe-out, and everyone screaming at once.<\/p>\n

Villy and Scud are itching to take over, but Zoe persists. Eventually she finds a sweet spot where the car is endlessly sliding down a glassy face whose vortical motion is lifting then as fast as they descend. Like running on a treadmill. For the moment they don\u2019t need the paddlewheels at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cReady to surf?\u201d\u009d says Yampa, leaning right into Villy\u2019s face. She smells like curry and gasoline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cBuk buk squawk<\/em>,\u201d\u009d goes Yampa. Her notion of imitating a chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook out there way ahead,\u201d\u009d says Villy. \u201cThose giant moving walls. They\u2019re <\/em>the waves we\u2019ll ride. Zoe will tow us in.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cYaar,\u201d\u009d says Yampa, parroting Villy. \u201cMake tow ropes for us, Pinchley!\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n


\nSurf Pilgrim<\/em><\/p>\n

Pinchley produces his green spider, and the indefatigable tool critter spins out a pair of lines that Pinchley rolls into two coils, each with a spider-woven tow-handle on one end.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeed foot straps, too,\u201d\u009d says Villy.<\/p>\n

Pinchley\u2019s tire-making marker bird pops his head out of the tool-belt and coughs out four fine, padded foot straps with sticky, fractalized ends. Easily on par with the finest tow-board straps that Da Kine makes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTree of Life\u201d\u009d oil on canvas, February, 2015, 40\u201d\u009d x 30\u201d\u009d. Click for a larger version of the painting.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

They\u2019re coming up on the big waves very fast. The first one seems to fill the entire horizon. It\u2019s moving away from them. But the long line of the corkscrew wave is faster. Up ahead of them, the corkscrew wave has already drilled through the great sheet. Like a tunnel in a cliff. The surfers will jump into the water before the wall-wave, and the car will ride the corkscrew through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wall leans backwards a little,\u201d\u009d observes Villy. \u201cTowards us. And the top leans forward. Like a long S.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cOr like an integral sign,\u201d\u009d says Scud.<\/p>\n

\u201cOooo, math!\u201d\u009d <\/em>says Zoe in mock merriment that\u2019s close to a scream.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat integral wave is gonna to have a tube on the front,\u201d\u009d says Villy. \u201cUp at the top, where it curves over. We\u2019ll shoot that tube, right Yampa? Mucho Goob-goob in there.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n \u201cTree of Life\u201d\u009d oil on canvas, February, 2015, 40\u201d\u009d x 30\u201d\u009d. Click for a larger version of the painting.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYah, mon.\u201d\u009d Yampa tosses the two loops of spider rope over her shoulder and grabs the four foot straps with one of her complex hands. She gives Pinchley a hug and opens her window. With surprising nimbleness, she crawls onto the roof of the car. Meanwhile Zoe\u2019s holding a steady course on the slope of the corkscrew wave. Only minutes till they pass through the wall wave\u2019s base.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, uh, goodbye for now,\u201d\u009d Villy tells Zoe. \u201cRight before you punch through the wave, be sure to veer. So you, like, slingshot us?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll fall right back off that big wave. It tilts the wrong way. You just said so.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll have a flow to it,\u201d\u009d says Villy, hoping this is true. \u201cAnd a stickiness to it. It\u2019ll lift us up. We\u2019ll be like water-striders.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t go.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll work, Zoe. The waves are alive, Like Scud said. They want to play.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow will we find each other afterwards?\u201d\u009d says Zoe, flicking her eyes back and forth between Villy and the wall-wave.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo sweat,\u201d\u009d says Pinchley. \u201cYampa and Villy ride the gigundo wobbler as far as they can. Zoe and the rest of us ride the corkscrew to shore. And we meet at the Flatsies\u2019 village. Beach party.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be able to locate everyone with my teep,\u201d\u009d says Scud.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if there\u2019s a prob, the gingerbread men surf out and round us up,\u201d\u009d says Pinchley. \u201cThe Flatsies are really slick on these smeely waves.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Villy begins levering himself out his window. He takes one last look at Zoe. And he sees stark sorrow on her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey,\u201d\u009d says Villy softly. \u201cI\u2019m gonna shred. And then we\u2019ll camp together again.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf only,\u201d\u009d says Zoe. Her hair flutters in the wind. She fastens her eyes on his. \u201cMy dear Villy.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

Before he can properly answer, Yampa grabs his hand and yanks him onto the roof. She\u2019s stronger than she looks. And more organized. She\u2019s already attached the straps to the boards and she\u2019s tied the two tow lines to the whale\u2019s roof rack. The big wall is coming up fast.<\/p>\n

Scud leans out the window for a last look at his brother. \u201cGood luck,\u201d\u009d he says.<\/p>\n

Villy snugs his feet into his foot straps, grabs one of the spider-woven tow handles and\u2014yeek<\/em>\u2014he hops off the tilting roof of the car.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s going so fast that the water hisses when he lands. He hunches and sways, finding his balance. And then he\u2019s tobogganing down the steep, helical pitch of the corkscrew wave. He hears a shrill, exultant cry behind him. Yampa\u2019s with him.<\/p>\n

Even in this tense moment, the Surf World light makes everything look mellow. Nostalgic almost. Like the scene is something he\u2019s remembering. Glancing down at his feet, Villy notices that a sizable teep slug has affixed itself to his ankle. An orange little nudibranch with a cluster of lavender feelers at one end. Fine. It\u2019ll heighten his awareness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The plan is to angle out to the side and hope Zoe can sling them onto the big wall. The supernal wave is making a creepy sound\u2014 a deep, endless roar, like the soundtrack in a horror film just before a hideous ghoul appears. Villy is definitely sensing teep from the waves. The corkscrew is purposeful, gleeful, happy about drilling through the immense wall. As for the wall itself\u2014it\u2019s chanting a single cosmic Om<\/em>\u2014or something like that\u2014a sacred syllable with no beginning and no end. And under that is\u2014not exactly contempt, no, it\u2019s more like the wall-wave is mildly amused. Like a woman noticing two tiny ants on her nail-polished toe. Ants with nearly invisible antennae.<\/p>\n

Focus, Villy! Hold the handle tight!<\/p>\n

<\/em>And just as he thinks that, zonng<\/em>, the slack plays out and the tow rope is like a steel cable, with drops of water flying off it. Villy clings to the tow-bar for all he\u2019s worth. It feels like it\u2019s pulling his arms from his sockets<\/p>\n

He catches a glimpse of Zoe\u2019s pale, determined face glancing back at them from the car up ahead. He can\u2019t wave, but he nods. Zoe puts the hammer down, she accelerates down the corkscrew\u2019s slope, veering away from the corkscrew\u2019s axis. In her wake, Villy and Yampa sluice up great fountains of water.<\/p>\n

And now he surfers are at the edge of the helical wave\u2014a sharp cusp, woven from a thousand flow lines. Villy bends his knees and jumps. Sails through the air for maybe a hundred yards, then slaps <\/em>down and goes skimming across the eerily calm patch before the sky-high water wall. It\u2019s not quite level, no, it\u2019s sloping a little. Meanwhile, Zoe arcs further out from the corkscrew, then speeds back. Villy\u2019s going faster than he thought possible. When to release the tow bar? All his thinking is in his arms and legs.<\/p>\n

The moment comes and goes. Villy\u2019s on his own. It\u2019s hard to see, with the spray in his eyes, but the teep is helping. Come to me<\/em>, says the mighty wave. Villy crouches low, cutting his wind resistance. He feels a rapid chatter of pulses from his board skimming across the washboard surface, and he hears the sound echoed from Yampa\u2019s board. And then\u2014thank you<\/em>\u2014they\u2019re on the all but vertical face of the horror-movie Om wave and, yes, it has a flow to it, and they\u2019re sticking to it, and it\u2019s raising Villy up and up and up. Like a woman lifting a child.<\/p>\n

Far below, Zoe and the purple whale disappear through the rumbling cliff of water.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a partial draft of a chapter named \u201cSurf World,\u201d\u009d from my novel in progress, Million Mile Road Trip, which will appear in late 2016 or in 2017. It’s in some ways inspired by the surfin’ SF stories I’ve written with Marc Laidlaw. See, for instance, our recent “Water Girl.” Mount Shasta seen on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-million-mile-road-trip","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6685"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6695,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions\/6695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}