Beginnings are hard.
But Beginnings beat Endings
1. Why this, why now
This first paragraph is entirely for my benefit. I don’t even care if you or anyone else reads it. This is where I get going. Where I can tell myself why I’m here, on this page. I was never a writer. I failed English Language and English Literature at O Level. But I do love stories. And I like telling them because from the story builds engagement on a theme or an interest, and from that, community is built. I’ve known that for 35 years. But starting this substack and starting this first post has taken me 18months. I’ve dabbled on Tumblr, I have a Medium account which I liked the concept of but never really did anything on it. Which is very odd as between 1991 and 2004 I probably wrote upwards of 40,000 words a month in the action sports magazines I published. I love writing. I love telling the story. I love creating the scenes. So why can’t I start my first Substack post? Well this is it. And I have to say it’s like pulling teeth.
My name is Eddie Spearing. Edward to some. I have started many things, some of them ‘big’ but my main internal problem is finishing things. I do make things. I really like to make things. Products. skateboards, motorbikes, cars, events, organisations. I like the spark of creation and then, possibly more importantly, the spreading flame that emanates around these products or movements. As a skateboarder since way back in ‘74 I’m fiercely independent. I don’t mind pain. It trains the mind to accept. Skateboarding provided that. I will not be told what to think. I have to find out for my self. Many won’t understand that. It’s a skaters mentality.
I think that’s enough of that.
The Ruby Fresh OWS is my attempt at ‘writing as marketing’ for my own brand of swimming wetsuits - Ruby Fresh. It’s a blog by another name now that ‘substack’ has become a verb. It will be an on-line magazine of open water swimming (at least, thats the goal)
Here I will detail and tell the story of what Ruby Fresh means to me. Because it’s more than simply a wetsuit brand. When content has been written The OWS will look like the front page of a newspaper (until the design changes), with the articles and imagery of a magazine. Like this one. I miss magazines. I don’t ever buy them any more. I pretend to buy and read them but I never even open their pages at times. I just like holding them. And smelling them. I suppose I buy them to support the cause because it is a noble cause indeed, each issue filled with the blood, sweat and often tears of the contributors and staff. I remember that well.
2. Be specific
I’m not going to just talk about my own brand RubyFresh. It’s not about that at all. It’s more than that. Its about the community of people who swim in open water. Specifically fresh water, but equally too, salt water. Did you know fresh water in Spanish is know as ‘agua dulce’? Literally ‘sweet water’. It always makes me smile when I hear a Spaniard say it. I have visions of swimming through molten candyfloss. I will of course talk about the trials and tribulations of what it takes to make my wetsuits, of beginning a swim wet suit brand from scratch. I will talk about actually going swimming. The feelings it brings. Places I go. Places other people go. Other people’s feelings. Other people will contribute. What the Universe provides at just the right time in the correct context. Because that’s what the universe does…
Twice a month. That’s my current commitment. We’ll see how that can improve. It’s possible to have this substack as ‘paid’ readership. Obviously I will need to get some content in here first(!), but I’d rather this was a free platform and if you felt inclined, donations will be accepted to be spent on who knows what? Probably to help carry on the work of Touchstone. I won’t be turning that ‘paid’ thing on for a while. ‘All in the fullness of time’.
‘All in the fullness of time’.
D.Garland. R.I.P.
3. I am a 60 year old man
I find this the hardest part of all. I am 60. 60!! Even writing it is extremely hard to look at after the text has materialised on the screen/page. I can not believe it. I will try to, at some point, talk about what this means to me. About losing youth, about holding onto ‘youth’. What the whole thing means. What a 60 year old man should or shouldn’t do. It will go deep.
