Hi, I was looking at your site and I saw a picture of me.I was the girl on the horse.I was wondering if you could email me a copy,I think thats a great photo.Thanks Juhelle
It turns out that a friend of Juhelle’s found the photo either on my site or flickr and tipped her off. Juhelle is canadian and lives in Sayulita during the winters. If you bump into her, say hi for me. this world really is such a small little wonderful magical place.
Featuring: - Ryan “former Iowa Hawkeye” McLaughlin - Chad “no one fucks with The Chad™” Wilson - Taymour “I’ll kick your ass” Ghazi - Dave “Brazilian Jujitsu” Swift - Tony Nazem and Jocelyn Lee - Mr. and Mrs. Fancy Pants - Zeke “business in the front, party in the back” Johnson - Joe “can’t sleep, clowns are coming to eat me” Spencer - Tegan “Hey Tony, give me back my jeans” Frakes - James “like Jon Bonham only better” Tabb
and last but not least: - Marcia “Do I really sound like Salma Hayek” Vara
So there hasn’t been a decent swell in weeks. I literally can’t remember the last decent 5 to 6 foot wave I surfed. today i woke up at 8 to go to Sayulita for a morning session, thinking that even if there is no swell, surely there will be a little something happening in Sayulita, since it’s outside the main bay and in open ocean. But sure enough, when I got there, there were tiny little 1 foot waves with 30+ people dropping in on each other trying to catch what little waves there were. I grabbed a coffee and a banana chocolate chip muffin and headed home. Later Marcia, mom and I headed to Destiladeras for a little sun tan action and i brought the short board just in case my favorite summer spot, Dinosaurs, had anything at all surfable. When we got there, there seemed to be some good little wave action going on, so i grabbed my board and headed up the beach, Dinosaurs is just a short walk from Destiladeras. When I got to the spot, I saw a couple of venturous souls out there trying to catch what little waves were coming in, but for the most part, nothing even slightly resembling a surfable wave was coming in. it’s a shame I tell ya.
On my walk back to Destiladeras, I started to ask myself if it had been this way all summer but that since I was just starting to surf, i hadn’t noticed. and then i fell out of my deep fog. the waves have been getting smaller and smaller and the length between major swell systems has been getting longer and longer. traditional local wisdom says that during the summer the swell is from the south so spots inside the bay, like Dinosaurs and Burros, since they face south, get the summer swell and that spots like Sayulita get a better winter swell since it switches to the north, and Sayulita faces due north. but i don’t believe it. i haven’t seen anything nearly as good as the stuff i surfed in september and october. where oh where has all the good surf gone?
Oh well, I guess I just have to make my surf pilgrimage to Tikla and Puerto Escondido. I hear they both rage this time of year. In the mean time, I’m checking stormsurf.com and bouyweather.com on the hour, waiting for the perfect swell. Mother Nature truly does wait for no man.
This is the life of a surfer.
may the surf gods smile on me soon. in the mean time, here’s a picture of Burros, my favorite secret surf spot. how do you get there? don’t ask.
The Great (lack of) Internet Experiment is almost over.
For the past month Marcia and I have been living in our new apartment we haven’t had internet access. It’s been an experiment of sorts. to see if i can live without 24/7 access to the internet. Although it’s been kinda nice not having internet here in the apartment, I miss the silent radiation of 802.11g waves flying around my head. During my trip to Los Angeles, I was looking into a long range wifi antenna system so that I could glom off of my parents’ connection, but my dreams fell in tatters when the local Frys Electronics couldn’t get it together enough to sell what i need. and so I am forced to bite the bullet and pay the man for my internet juice. It’s definitely a lifestyle issue though, since i can connect at the “office” I often find myself only using the internet briefly, since I’m always out and about running errands and stuff. so tomorrow I will go down to Telmex and sign up for my 60 dollar service. the horror i tell you. 60 dollars. that is highway robbery.
Oh BitTorrent my little friend, oh how i’ve missed you.
Today is a beautiful day. One or two clouds in the sky, but for the most part totally clear. not too hot but hot enough to enjoy a good day at the beach.
I can’t wait to go to the beach and freshen up my tan, maybe do a little reading. what are you doing today?
Meeting up with my good friends Joe Spencer and James Tabb, guitarist and drummer respectively, of the world famous Bernhauser, at the Cat and Fiddle on sunset in LA. A normally wonderful place with a nice patio area, but that day was rainy and wet, so we packed into a booth inside the dingy slightly modly english bar to share drinks and stories.
As I was coming back from the bathroom, I brush shoulders with a recognizable older fellow with famously bushy eyebrows, a slight pompadour with greyish edges and a long english tweed coat. I turn my head slightly as Morrissey heads out the door and into the rain, followed loosely by a middle aged, slim, attractive blonde.
I tell my friends, who can’t really believe me, since not 10 minutes earlier we were playing several songs from The Smiths on the juke box. Sure enough, Tamar asks the waitress who says in hush tones that Mr. “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before…” comes in all the time and that he is a very modest and gentlemanly fellow.
LA. too freakin’ much.
Joe at the Cat and Fiddle in Los Angeles, picking out only the most awesomest of The Smiths songs. with Morrissey lurking in the background, unawares to us.
Interesting LA moment #4567: Marcia tries thai food for the very first time.
The consensus: Pad Thai is good. Lemon grass soup - she doesn’t like. She liked this other vegetable soup that Tony and Jocelyn were eating when we crashed their lunch and ate all their spring rolls (Marcia likes spring rolls). She doesn’t like thai iced teas or anything with coconut (including curries) but she absolutely loved the famed cashew vegetable stir-fry at California Vegan.
All in all, Thai food was a hit. too bad they don’t have a large thai population here in Vallarta. They do have a thai-ish restaurant called Archie’s Wok, but for authentic thai (or at least authentic LA thai) it does not hold water, although it does have an insanely good banana leaf wrapped fish dish.
It’s a (slightly) cold day here in Bucerias and perfect for nurturing a wicked hangover. I got completely hammered last night, for the first time in a long time, and now i’m recovering slowly. ouch. rum. does it to me every time.
Yesterday was Pinky’s birthday, so we went to De Santos to have a fancy-schmantzy dinner and drinks afterward to celebrate. De Santos is perhaps the most toney restaurant and club in Puerto Vallarta. All-white decor with complimenting down tempo lounge-y trip-hop and house music, De Santos is sort of like Vallarta’s answer to LA’s Sky Bar, complete with roof-top open air lounge with low white leather seating, old school surf videos splashed against the far wall and a who’s who of Vallarta and Guadalajara fresas (the bling-bling crowd). Always a good place to get a small sliver of that more upscale night life after a few months of quite nights filled with street tacos and beer, sure beats the yahoos down at Carlos O’Brians.
For dinner we all shared a couple of thin crust, actually quite good, pizzas. And then headed next door to the all-white club room for some drinks and casual dancing. Indalacio, Pinky’s husband ordered up a bottle of Rum. In a club such as De Santos, this is called “Bottle Service” and for our bottle it probably costed 800 to 900 pesos, or about 70 bucks. This is usually far too decadent for my tastes but since he insisted, I was game and I had been drinking Rum Campechano (rum with half cola and half soda water) during dinner, i’m usually a strict Pacifico kinda guy. The bottle service was actually quite good, with a pretty much full-time server making us drinks with as much complimentary cola, soda water and ice as we could use. All-in-all the bottle service was actually a pretty good deal, I think. It costed probably around 1100 pesos with tips to the extremely attentive waiter guy and it got 6 of us incredibly loaded (actually 5 of us, since Marcia had offered to drive and rum isn’t her cup of tea). For 5 people drinking at an upscale club, that’s pretty good. The only downsides were that everyone had to drink rum and Indalacio was content to get to the bottom of the bottle before we left the club and since the only other guy was a dad who had to leave a little early, I was stuck playing close second to Indalacio’s hell-bent mission.
A highly memorable night, for sure, that I am choosing to not have repeated any time soon. Rum bottle service at De Santos is a great idea in theory, but I’ll stick to my quite nights of street tacos and Pacifico out here in Bucerias, the almost last stop at the edge of civilization.
Being the self-respecting surfer that I am, I made my homage to Val Surf to check in on the surfboards they have in stock. I browsed the long boards and the fish, the Al Merrick thrusters and fun boards. It was a small town surfer’s dream to see so many good surfboards in one room. Unfortunately this trip wasn’t to buy a new board, so I grabbed a pair of swim trunks, a surf board day bag (to stop banging up my short board) and three - yes 3! - surfing videos (more on those later). On our way home, we took a very wet Laurel Canyon. Coming up towards the top, we rounded a curve to see what looked like a house that had been remixed, like the house had fallen in on itself. no identifying structural outline, no windows, no front door, no right angles. This was a house that had slid down the hill, in a mudslide, and the resulting mess had landed squarely on Laurel Canyon boulevard. From what I hear, Cal Trans had spent two days clearing the road and luckily no one had been living there at the time. It was horrible and fascinating all at the same time, a true once-in-a-lifetime scene.
We’re back from a very very wet and rainy Los Angeles. It was a whirlwind trip with lots to do and little time to do it in. but we had a ton of fun. lots of pictures on the way. Rather than writing a long we did A, B and C routine, I’ll post little snippets of things i remember as they come to mind.
It was great seeing all the friends that I did see and a shame that I missed so many other friends. I don’t think I can wait another 4 months. Next time I come through LA, hopefully it won’t be raining so much. that’d be great.
And just my luck the swell is up today. I’ll be taking off a little early to go catch some waves. i missed Vallarta’s sweet embrace.
Live from Los Angeles. and it’s raining cats and dogs. literally. well not literally but you get the idea. It’s suppose to rain the entire five days we’re here and so far it’s rained friday, saturday and today. Like mountains of rain. torrential downpours that only let up once I’ve gotten into the restaurant.
But all through it, Marcia and I are having a wonderful wonderful time. It’s truly been magic showing her my city and having her meet my friends. she understands what a really special group of friends I have. every one them individual in their own right and just as much a part of the group. Quality Peoples, all of them.
We’ve only been here a few days now and already done so much. From spending hours and hours in a fruitless search for wifi crap at Fry’s Electronics to the swanky all-city view of the rotating Bonaventure Hotel Bar to the insane italian goodness that is Farfalle, the Gnochi being totally freaking bananas. It’s turning out to be my best trip to LA yet despite the biblical proportions of rain.
On a sour note I’ve been freaking out about my house, here in LA. and all the crap I need to do, to fix it up. I have this house that is a wonderful, magical place that is truly my dream house. but it’s slowly falling apart before my eyes. The rains are making things worse and i’ve been losing sleep over how many things need to be fixed. I don’t think I will be truly comfortable in LA, until the house is fixed, sold or both. It’s truly a shame because it certainly is - the most beautiful house in the world.
Tons of pics to come. lots of goofing-off, hilarious friend pics that only i will find hilarious. more overly verbose descriptions of fun to come. descriptions without capital letters. and with too many commas.
Yesterday I was at Burros, enjoying the last few dying flutters of a decent but mushy swell. The waves were actually pretty good and there were only four of us in the water so i didn’t have to jockey for position too much. Burros has been insane lately, filled with boogie boarders, groms and locals with potty mouths. This is not the usual M.O. with Burros: Boogie boarders are usually found at Veneros (a much steeper and faster wave but a shorter ride and more dangerous) and potty mouthed locals who like to fight with the gringo tourist long boarders can usually be found in Sayulita (don’t get me wrong, I love the locals, just not the ones that like to fight you for being a gringo).
As the evening progressed, the line up started to fill with people. At one point I turned my head and saw four women long boarders paddling out to the line up. I thought I recognized one of the girls and sure enough I had just seen her in STEP INTO LIQUID, about a week or so ago. Her name is Kassia Meador and her awkward smile stayed in my memory. I did a little internet snooping to find her full name and along the way recognized the other 3 surfers: Lisa Andersen, Meleana White and Veronica Kay.
The girls tore it up and stole all the local groms’ breaks and looked like they were having a helluva fun time while doing it. The girls were so laid back, they made it look effortless with style for miles. No technical wizadry or anything just good solid skills, when and where to catch the wave and then what to do with it once they caught it. The girls were nice and respectful and talked with the locals, every kid out there was in awe, for sure. I noticed some people on the beach filming. I asked Kassia what they were shooting and she nonchalantly replied that they were just shooting for some video and some magazines and that they were driving down the coast hitting all the good surf spots. I assume the shoot was for Roxy, since all four girls are on the Roxy team, so look out for me in the background of Roxy’s latest surfing video and ads when they come out.
The girls were accompanied by a guy who I intimated was a production assistant. He paddled by me once and so I said “hey” and he said “Que Onda, Guey” which is like “What’s up, Dude” but the semi-harsh tone he used caught me the wrong way. I overheard him talking to one of the ladies saying how much he liked the spot but that it’s so much better when all the local kids aren’t there, so I wanted to smack him for being an insensitive prick. You gotta have respect for the locals, even if they just get in the way, it is their spot after all, right?!
Well, besides the jerk-off P.A. guy, it was a great sunset session with the pros. After I confirmed that it was Kassia, I had a bit of famous person nervousness and couldn’t quite get used to being in her presence. I wanted to tell her that I just seen her in STEP INTO LIQUID, but I just didn’t have the balls. After the sunset I caught a couple of nice waves and headed to the beach, put on my crocs and tshirt and headed back up the path.
What is up with those plastic cups I see all the really pink gringos walking with on the beach with? The eponymous plastic cup, along with the complementary wristband, are dead giveaways that you are staying at an all-inclusive hotel.
It’s like crack: just don’t do it. Please put the plastic cup down.
Is it that much of a pain in the ass to not have your half cup of warm bud light with you as you walk on the beach? Didn’t anyone ever tell you that drinking and swimming don’t mix?
Let’s just get rid of the plastic cup all together and while we’re at it, let’s axe the wristbands too and if that’s ok, then lets go a step further and get rid of the all-inclusive hotel too. Trust me, you’ll be better off and you’ll make better friends.
In LA there is this really amazing radio station, it’s called KCRW and has literally the best and most diverse music programming in America (maybe the world) mixed with NPR news. Every morning I would listen to Nic Harcourt’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic”. He turned me on to literally hundreds of awesome bands, listening to his music selections in the morning was like peaking into your older brother’s music collection (except that I never had an older brother and when I was listening to The Cure and The Violent Femmes, my younger sister was listening to Lita Ford).
Down here in Vallarta, radio stations are few and far in between with most playing ranchero or banda. don’t get me wrong, i love me some banda, just as much as the next guy, but being the wanna-be bleeding edge hipster that i am, it’s nice to hear some current American music, the iTunes Music Store is cool and all but hardly a place to listen to music. Enter 104.3. This station is Puerto Vallarta based and run by the local chapter of The University of Guadalajara. They play new stuff, old stuff and everything in between. The Arcade Fire, Joy Division, The Postal Service, The Mars Volta, Annie, Control Machete, Elliott Smith, The Shins etc.. and most songs are accompanied by interesting artist tidbits in spanish. The DJs are all pretty cool and “not-your-average-crappy-DJ” sounding. The station isn’t always playing hot stuff but when I’m in the car and I forget my iPod and I turn on the radio and Franz Ferdinand is playing, it gives me a warm feeling.
Today I was on my way back from my favorite surf spot, Burros, and the DJ played Funkadelic, jamiroquai and Bill Laswell in a row with a lengthy introduction connecting all three in the history of funk! Can your local radio station say that?
Jack Johnson’s new song: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
video directed by the incredibly talented Malloy Brothers. featured briefly in a hilarious and touching Ireland surf trip in the beautiful STEP INTO LIQUID.
Marcia and I are going to LA on friday and I can’t freaking wait! It’s gonna be so much fun. She’s been there before but not with a local of this man’s caliber. There are so many things I wanna do and things I want to show her. plus a million things I need to do while we’re there, like getting the house fixing stuff straightened out and picking up all the necessary supplies to bring back to Vallarta like coffee beans and wifi gear (I’m still convinced I can siphon a wifi signal up to my apartment from my parents’ house. we’ll see how that goes).
We’ll go out for sushi everyday (even though she’s a vegetarian) and of course we’ll hit up Real Food Daily because it’s got the best veggie food in town. oh and thai food and italian food and breakfast at “Home” and “The Griddle” and chinese food and the list goes on. That reminds me, I need to rent a car.
Marcia will, no doubt, get to meet all my LA Homiez. They’ll all love her for sure. It’s gonna be a wonderful trip, especially after the two mediocre ones. We’re only staying four days, but I’m betting we’ll have to extend our dates.
“The Client from Hell” came into town this weekend and and so I worked furiously last week to finish up on the remodel in La Cruz. All went well and the house is looking so fresh and so clean. It’s amazing what 100k can do to a place. Trust me, this place was such a dump, albeit a dump with some awesome bones and one of the best views of the bay imaginable.
As usual the client had 200+ details that she wants changed and only managed to insult me or my team a handful of times during my hour long house tour with her. but all is well and this job will be over in no time. It’s such a shame that a beautiful place like this is owned by someone with so little gratitude. So now, we rest for a week while she is here and then back to work fixing all the little details. I can’t wait to see what the place is like after the interior decoration is done and I can take some good press shots.
This is the world famous and famously well traveled photographer extraordinare Mark Callanan. Mark most definitely does not authorize the use of this picture as a representation of him, it is most certainly a bad picture. Bad - meaning of inferior quality. But seriously, it’s the only one I had that didn’t involve Mark lighting off illegal fireworks in my front yard, precariously close to people, plants and palm trees. And he probably doesn’t find this entry humorous either. But that’s just Mark’s personality. I’d say he’s most like an australian Ernest Hemmingway with a large camera set-up and an eye for gold (Mark would not authorize this comment either).
Ok I’m digressing, back to the point. Mark is a pro-photographer in every sense of the word. His images are insanely beautiful, lush and luxurious. yes, i just said luxurious. and completely photoshop-free (now can you say that?! i can’t). Mark’s book Luz y Color is a collection of images taken in Puerto Vallarta. the images are top-notch and I just discovered his website, a fully searchable, tagged collection of his photos taken from around the world. visit CallananPhoto.com
This is Pablo. Pablo lives in Guadalajara and is the brother of my good friend Pinky. Pablo has visited Bucerias twice and Marcia & I have been to GDL once, so we’ve hung out several times. Pablo does not understand why I take so many pictures. He does not know it is so that I can put my friends’ photos up on the internet so that internet lurkers everywhere can mock and shame them. at least i’m not putting his email address up here, if he has one.
This is a photo of Pablo giving me “The Bird”. Pablo uses the “half extended hand and fingers” technique, as do I. This technique is clearly the better and more refined technique as compared to the “tightly crunched up fingers into a ball” technique.
Pablo and I share similar fashion tendencies. He wants my brown cowboy surfer shirt with the pink shoulder insets and he showed me an insane belt buckle that has an inlaid scorpion in transparent plastic (yes, i know, how un-pc of me). I promptly went out and got my own.
This is the first in a series of portraits of people that I find interesting, people who I come into contact with on a daily basis. weird, interesting people. people just like you (and me). This is Jorge. Jorge of “Jorge & Nancy”. Jorge owns and runs “Tapas del Mundo”, a nice, funny little restaurant in Bucerias, where adults can draw on the walls and ceilings. How quaint!
Jorge is from Berkeley (i’m pretty sure - which automatically puts him way up there on the cool-o-meter as far as I’m concerned) and he’s crazy. Example: look at his shirt. I think it’s made out of taphita, or however you spell it, and look it even changes colors from purple to black. You gotta be a little crazy to wear a shirt like that and be able to pull it off! too much tequila to the head eh Jorge?!
Visit Tapas del Mundo. The girls behind the counter are worth the price of admission alone, very cute. and the entry fee? my favorite: Free ninety-nine.
I was looking at my nightstand the other night and it seemed too crowded to fit my little 15 inch powerbook on it when I noticed that there was a pretty interesting collection of stuff that I had amassed. I love making lists, so in the spirit of a good list, here are the contents of my nightstand:
silver specs from LA Eyeworks - “Stich” model. a great looking pair of glasses
Nixon watch “The Key” model - good looking, dependable watch except when you have to change the time and you have to use the little key thingy they give you with the watch, god forbid you lose it or forget to bring it when you travel.
Bathing Ape issue of Refill Magazine - probably the only person for a thousand miles with this magazine
Step Into Liquid DVD, in-freakin-sane cinematography
Jack Johnson’s The September Sessions DVD - great surfing trip video diary
data DVD with 5 really good movies on it including my personal fav: The Big Lebowski, always a classic
data DVD with every january episode of The Daily Show (i ain’t got tv, man!) and the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks
bunch of legal documents sent to me by my attorney in LA - yeah, at night sometimes under the covers with the lights off, i pretend to be a grown-up
and last but not least: right-hand upper corner, a bottle of Ciel water, from the makers of coke, good water though.
last item, not pictured: Bob Dylan’s book: Chronicles
Since last week’s swell-a-thon, there hasn’t been much good wave action. I’ve been checking Bouyweather.com and thursday it said that a decent swell was coming in this morning (sunday). So today I woke up at 8 and headed up to Sayulita which is a great spot, because even when the swell is low, during the mornings there is usually always at least a little motion going on. But alas I made the trek over the mountain separating Bucerias and Sayulita and pulled up to the beach and no waves at all. Actually there was a tiny little break, maybe 1 to 2 feet, very mushy, with some vacationers out there flopping around, but nothing even remotely interesting. So I jumped back in the car, rode up to Choco-Banana and got myself mexico’s version of a Starbucks Latte. At $2.50 it was a pretty good coffee. I was wearing my “Hug Life” sweatshirt and some guy commented on it that had a neck tattoo and a serious case of “too much time in front of the computer” eyes (I was once a member of this rare club). We talked for a bit, not many people get the Tupac Shakur reference when I wear it. So we had a little chuckle together. I grabbed my coffee and headed home.
and baby and I made Mollettes…
*old picture from my LA dayz. love the double chin, Larry
Today we cooked one of Mexico’s finest breakfast dishes. They are called Molletes and are basically a roll (or bolillo en español) with frijoles and shaved cheese on top, preferably manchego, heated up in the oven. served with fresh salsa mexicana and Jalapeño rajas (sliced).
It has rained since early October and today we have been blessed with 24 hours of rain. We awoke to a dreary sun-less day, cold and rainy. But to me the day was perfect. I love the rain. especially when it’s not too cold. and Vallarta has been so dry lately that the dust has been insane. The rain brought much needed relief, albeit temporary.
I worked for most of the day and at 5 o’clock, jumped in the truck and headed up to Burros to see if there were any waves. I parked down the slippery mud slope at the bottom at the start of the path in to Burros. As I was starting my trek, I thought to myself that it will be fun trying to get up the hill, back on to the road and that maybe I should have opted to park up on the entry road, inside of going commando and driving down the mud driveway. oh well.
Clad in my camo pants and “Hug Life” sweatshirt, I trekked through the jungle and in to burros. Sadly there was not a wave to be had. There was a small break, breaking into the rock flats that normally start poking up during low tide. No waves today, my friend. So I shrugged, turned around and headed home. As I got to the truck, I was slightly giddy with anticipation of getting to use my Pathfinder’s 4×4 action. I slammed the stick into 4-Lo, backed the truck up and gunned it up the hill. no problem at all. I was almost disappointed at how easy the truck took the slope.
But God, do I love 4 wheel drive.
update: it’s the next day and it’s still raining! yay, two full days of rain. i actually get to wear a sweatshirt two days in a row. this is coming from a guy who has been wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops for the past 5 months. oh, life’s little pleasures.
My baby just made me “Rajas con Queso”: chile poblanos sliced length wise and oaxacan cheese with tons of hot sauce, done up quesadilla style. I’m literally licking my chops. the perfect food.
Hi, my name is Ed Fladung, I'm a recovering web-designer who moved to Mexico about 4 years ago. Learned to surf, got married and bought a nice camera. This is my weblog/photoblog. It covers broad subjects like becoming an ex-pat, surfing, photography, graphic design, music, art, architecture, living in mexico, all things Apple and WordPress related, etc... You can find more about me here. I hope you enjoy.
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