A Poetry Reading With Dave Rastovich

“Rasta’s a normal dude,” Creed McTaggart once said, “he drinks beer and says fuck and all that.”

Despite Rasta’s alleged normalcy, I can’t help but discern a certain element of enlightenment in his countenance.

He’s serene. He’s confident. He’s at peace. He’s married. He’s a father. He gets ludicrously kegged.

It seems, at least, that he’s cracked the code.

In this film, sent to us by Patagonia (a company with Rasta-esque values), Mary Oliver’s poem, entitled Wild Geese, is read over Dave’s surfing:

“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.”

This clip (which shares its title with the last line of the poem) feels good to watch. And I promise Patagonia isn’t paying us to say it. Dave mingles excitement and repose, ferocity and flow, speed and patience so well that it reminds us why the surf world fell in love with him in the first place.

Take a gander and see what a normal dude who drinks beer and says ‘fuck’ can teach you about rhythm and rhyme.