Not So Clean
Pato and the not-so-clean line
Archive for August, 2007
De ‘Chaper
Marco and Amy, of ATL Surfboards fame. The boys call Marco “The Shaper” or just “Shaper”, but with a mexican accent, it sorta sounds like “De ‘Chaper” as in: “De ‘Chaper wen to ghet ta’cos”.
Support Your Local Shaper
My friends Pato, George, Fer and Pete all ride boards shaped by a friend of theirs from Guadalajara. His name is Marco and along with his wife Amy, he shapes surfboards under the name “ATL”, which means “water” in Nahuatl. Marco also shapes boards for Squalo. In addition to my friends, I’ve seen his boards all over the bay.
On these past two trips to La Ticla (1+2), I’ve gotten to know Marco and then Amy. They’re a really down to earth couple, really good peoples, avid soul surfers, not flashy at all and it’s been wonderful getting to know them. During our first trip, it was Marco that saved the day, after our surfboards got all dinged up. He let me ride one of his extras. After two days of riding it, I asked Marco to shape a board for me. It was time to add a new board to the quiver. Something smaller and lighter then the CI Flyer 2 (6′2″ x 18 1/2 x 2 1/4) I have now. He had another board with him that was almost perfect, albeit too small for a person of my frame. We combed over the board and agreed on proper specs, something like 6′0″ x 18″ x 2 1/4 with lots of rocker, a rounded tail and thin rails. I really wanted something that could carve well, fast and light. I’ve always felt that the rails on the Flyer 2 are too thick and for some reason, I’ve never really gelled with the board. After we agreed on the specs, a price and time-frame we shook hands and talked about graphics. I wanted to design some super-suave limited edition ‘Quality Peoples’ graphics for the board and so I when I got back from Ticla I went to work figuring that out. I got hung up on the process of how to apply the graphics (rice paper, spray paint, fabric), changing my mind every few days. The possibilities were endless and somehow I got lost in it all. The designs went from simple, to complex, to simple and back again.
When we went back down to Ticla, Marco had brought with him a shortboard with pretty much the exact dimensions I wanted, so rather then mess with the whole graphics thing, i just took the one he had brought with him. I knew I wanted to customize it in some way, so I set about to figure out a spray paint graphic and chose some simple stripes ala my twitter page. A tape off the stripes using painter’s tape, layed on the spray and clear coat and then when dry, a sanded the whole thing down to get rid of some of the build-up from the spray and the glossiness. Close up, the stripes have a nice matte, aged appearance. Simple. I’m happy. To top it off, I had picked up some stickers in India, so on the top, I put Ganesh, cuz he would bring me nice waves (being the remover of obstacles). and on the bottom, I put Hanuman, cuz he’s mischievous (sometimes in the line-up, you gotta have tricks).
And so, today, I took her out to Veneros for her first ride. Apparently, there are rumors of incoming waves from a hurricane, out in the pacific, but you wouldn’t know it, as there wasn’t much more then 2 footers. I tried my best and actually had a pretty nice carve. And then a boogieboarder managed to run me over as a graced the rock bottom of Veneros at low-tide (danger, will robinson) and packed it in. The Ganesh and Hanuman stickers were paper backed and came almost completely off in the hour that I spent in the water. I was so looking forward to rocking Ganesh and Hanuman stickers on my board, when everyone else rocks the same 10 interchangeable surf brands. Someone has to make a line of waterproof vinyl ‘Hindu deities’ stickers.
Thanks goes to Marco and Amy for the hook up. Support your local shaper.
Party Wave
Your narrator getting dropped in by two other people. I successfully and safely scored the wave and then it closed out
hydrodynamica
hydrodynamica - an independent surf project looks like it’s going to be an amazingly wonderful, subtle surf culture documentary film. The film clip on the site is perfect and the soundtrack is spot-on.
Uluwatu 1984
mesmerizing old school, grainy footage surf video: Uluwatu 1984. got me all emotional, missing Bali really hard right now.
glide lines
lots of interesting surfing / architecture stuff going on, over at glide lines blog. [via SwellSearch]
Adam Werbach Sells Out
Former Sierra Club head now works for Wal-Mart. I’m obviously not a fan of big box places like Wal-Mart but down here it’s a necessary evil. The other day we found organic, ultra-firm tofu there. This stuff holds up to the heaviest grilling and sautéing. it’s the little things…
Lightstalkers
I just stumbled upon Lightstalkers.org. a pretty cool online pro photography community. lots of great threads.
Sarah Meadows
Owl is a photoblog over at Urban Honking, Sarah Meadows is the author/photog and she has some really gorgeous and subtle photography. I’m really feeling her shooting style.
The Machine is Us/ing Us
The Machine is Us/ing Us. Engaging, easy-to-understand 5 minute video explaining just how cool/revolutionary Web 2.0 can really be. It’s really a shame that the name “Web 2.0″ has been subjugated so badly. [via Kassper]
Google Ranking Factors
wanna change your ranking in Google? Top 5 Google Ranking Factors good/bad. learn it, own it. [via SwissMiss]
Flooding the Farnsworth
The Farnsworth House is flooding. very sad. Mies’ classic, raised platform, steel and glass house is being tested. Water from the nearby Fox River is flooding to within inches of it’s platform. it’s tragic but also slightly curious to see if the house performs as designed. [via Monoscope]
Surf Trip to La Ticla
This past weekend, as noted, at the urging of Sr. Pato Patiño we headed back down to La Ticla, Michoacan for another quick weekend surf jaunt. Thankfully, the trip down was uneventful and all surfboards made it to La Ticla unscathed (as opposed to last time). We met George and Gris and Amy and Marco, late on Friday afternoon and got there early enough for a Friday sunset session. sweet.
Unfortunately, the river was in full-flow mode from all the summer rain and debris of natural and man-made devices were everywhere. The water was a chocolate milk consistency, I couldn’t see my board a foot under the water and I don’t even wanna think about what the upstream run-off had brought with it. It was pretty gnarly, but never the ones to let things like bad water quality get in the way, we hopped in at the first chance and made the long swim out to the break. Since the river was flowing pretty heavily to both sides of the river mouth, getting out to the break was more then tough. Incoming waves hit the outgoing river, creating walls of frothy, white water, hard to penetrate. On my first attempt it took me at least 20 minutes of furious paddling and fruitless duck diving. On Saturday morning, I spent 20 minutes swimming out, only to catch a small wave in and then spend another 20 minutes paddling back out, that time I didn’t make it back to the line-up. I drifted into shore and redoubled my efforts after taking a sweet, long break.
Friday, we had steady shoulder to head high waves. Saturday, shoulder high. and Sunday, head high with occasional overhead sets. It was still a pain to catch any of them, the competition was horrible as over a hundred heads clogged the break on Saturday. You had to be at the crest of the wave with the 5 other dudes who got there before you. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the open ocean, shifting peak nature of La Ticla, but each time I’ve been there, I’ve psyched myself out. This time, I had several potentially really good waves that I just couldn’t commit to. I blamed it on this or that but truth be told I just couldn’t catch a groove. Ticla still remains elusive. I did manage to catch some sweet rides, but nothing mind-blowing. I’m just a green-eared sheltered-bay surfer, i love my beach and point breaks, spots that can’t hold more then twenty people. Ticla is a great challenge to overcome this slight complacency.
Overall, it was a great weekend, camping at La Ticla is always fun and we got ourselves a nice new hammock. I surfed some good waves and collected a bunch of really interesting rocks. the perfect weekend.
Drains of Canada
BLDGBLOG interviews Michael Cook about urban forays into Toronto’s underground waterways. The interview is great but the photos are gorgeous. Cook’s website, the flickr slideshow.
Nokia bites the iPhone
Nokia’s iPhone. that deafening silence is the sound of Apple’s lawyers’ tin-can hearts whirring into action.
The Jena Six
I’m just now getting up to speed on The Jena Six, absolutely heartbreaking story: 6 black high school students are facing a lifetime in prison for a school yard fight, serious institutional racism surrounds the events. Petition here, Democracy Now follow up here.
Manda Bala
Manda Bala, new documentary on Brazilian kidnapping, violence, and political corruption: “One of the best and most powerful films I’ve seen in Years” - Errol Morris [via CP]
Mike Mills
Mike Mills has a new website, filled with all his work. and it looks like he has a new documentary coming out called Does Your Soul Have A Cold?, looks beautiful and raw. [via K]
Grant Hamilton
Grand Hamilton’s polaroid photos are bananasly good. so pretty, you wanna eat them. [via AisleOne]
Delightful Coincidence
Two shots, taken the same day, of the same kid, making the same gesture. one by me, and one by HC Jones. the world is truly a smaller place then you think.
Joserra Atxutegi
I’m really enjoying Joserra Atxutegi’s photography, excellent stuff. the colors are gorgeous.
Almost out the door…
woo-hoo! we’re packing up the camping gear now and in about an hour, we’ll be headed south to La Ticla, Michoacan. The swell report says things are looking up. and my shortboard is fixed and ready to go. It’s days like this that remind me how lucky I am to be living in Mejico.
Ándale güero, ya vamanos…
Joachim Lapotre
I really dig the “Chupa Chups” super-closeup photos from Joachim Lapotre [via JMColberg]
The Blow: Babay
currently diggin’ on: the song “Babay” by The Blow. A song about digestion as metaphore for a failed relationship, complete with steamy bowl movements. right on! (lyrics)
Biblical Rains
For the past 24 hours we’ve been getting torrential downpours with brief half-hour respites every now and then. The rains just stopped about an hour or so ago. The run-off has caused major beach erosion at the street entrances, here in Bucerias and we saw some pretty heavy flooding in Vallarta today. At one intersection, we saw a bunch of guys standing near a pile of sediment and a pool of muddy water which we assumed was inches deep). Out of the pool, pops a head, then a body and then a bucket of water. The guys grab the bucket, empty the water and the collected debris. The mysterious man splashes water on his face and head and then the bucket goes back down into the hole and then so does the man. We assumed it was a clogged storm drain and I wondered aloud, what would happen once he unstuck the drain. At another intersection, we saw a large pile of collected sediment and construction debris, about 3 feet deep, that had made it’s way down from the hills above Vallarta. Workers were clearing the intersection with shovels. Most of the downhill streets were the same scene, covered in construction debris deposited by cascades of fast moving water.
Hurricane Dean is to blame for these massive rains, the storm finally made its way across Mexico. No real winds and no waves to speak of, just a heavy, muddy tint to the water, I don’t even wanna think about how much run-off water ran into the bay over the past 24 hours (i.e. not a good time to be in the water). I’d say it’s probably the most rain I’ve seen at one time, in the 3 years since I’ve been here. On the flip-side, the temperature and humidity have dropped, making it quite pleasant, I actually wore sneakers today, with socks!
Tomorrow, we are heading out to La Ticla, for some southern swells….
