Today marks four years since I’ve been living here in Mexico. If it weren’t my own life, I wouldn’t believe it. Has it been so long? Where has the time gone? Why isn’t my spanish better than it is?
A curious thing has happened along my four-year journey. I am no longer the person I was, when I packed up my stuff at the advice of my parents, put my life on hold and moved to Mexico. What started out as a “surfing sabbatical” of sorts became so much more – and more permanent. Mexico has changed me, probably in more ways than I am consciously aware of. If for some reason I where to move back to the United States, I’m sure I could fit back in to that existence with relative ease. But without noticing, the US has changed just as much as I have. It is no longer the place I left it.
I love Mexico – but in many ways I’m living in a country that is still not my own. I spend each day trying to immerse myself more fully into its magical culture but to say that I am fully immersed or somehow ‘mexicoified’ is not being truthful. I am still very foreign, which is not to say that I’ve failed at ‘becoming Mexican’ on any level – that was never my goal. It’s to say that I’m not quite American and not quite Mexican. The borders between countries are now slightly more arbitrary things, except in the hassle it takes when crossing them, the pleasant differences in language and culture, and the changes in infrastructure upkeep. I’m a citizen of both and neither, simultaneously.
Marcia and I are coming up on our two-year anniversary in December. In January we will welcome our son into the world. These are not indications of a temporary journey; these are milestones of the adventure of a lifetime. And so in some ways, the four-year mark is a fitting time to acknowledge that the “sabbatical”, as a temporary time and place, is over and the adventure is just beginning.
–
On another note, this is my 2096th post on ‘Quality Peoples’. I crossed the 2000 mark some time in June, I think. I arrived in Mexico, in late August 2004 and started the blog proper in October. So, anniversary and celebrations all ’round.
Clockwise:
- Al Merrick CSI Flyer 2 6′2″
- ATL 6′0″
- San Miguel 9′0″
- Roberts 7′6″ Funboard
- Zippi Fish Twin Keel 5′7″
- Michel Junod 6′0″ Singlefin Egg ↩
VBS.TV has turned its sights towards Mexico in a month long programming tribute, accompany the Mexican language version of Vice:
Having spread our seed across the whole of the English Commonwealth and the continent of Europe (the good parts at least), this month Vice and VBS turn our sites southward for the launch of Vice Mexico. This is just the first baby-step in our planned conquest of Latin America in its entirety, but it is still a doozy of a start.
For the next four weeks, all the programming on VBS is if not Made In Mexico, at least Made By Mexicans. Or in some cases With Mexicans. There will be new Mexican episodes of Practice Space with the likes of Los Dynamite, Maria Daniela, Silverio, Jessy Bulbo, and Hong Kong Blood Opera; fresh editions of Art Talk! with Miguel Calderon, Yoshua Okon, and other luminaries of Mexico City’s incredible punk-art scene; and features on our favorite facets of Mexico’s insane-ass culture like the murder-tabloid industry (la Nota Roja) and their retirement home for aging sex workers (yes, they really have one of those).
And as a final treat in the pinata, we followed Richard Kern down to the capital for a special Mexico City installment of Shot By Kern. Be on the lookout for that, and be sure to check out the inaugural Mexican Issue of the magazine over on Viceland.com.
Most of the series seems to focus on the mex/us border towns and Mexico City, no rural coast stuff going on, I guess it doesn’t mesh with Vice’s urban hipster aesthetic. But lots of good content, so go check it out.
Hot on the tail of this past week’s Tropical Storm Douglas (pics/story coming soonish), which saw double overhead swell hit on Thursday, we have another storm coming up the coast. Scheduled to hit sometime this coming Thursday, Tropical Depression FIVE-E must be NOAA’s inside joke / hat tip to the awesomeness that is WALL-E (if you haven’t seen it already, drop your Skil saw 100 and rush to the nearest movie theater). It’s still a bit early in the week to know exactly what kind of swell we’re going to get. Wet Sand is calling it at 24 feet (which will most certainly come down as the week progresses), Wave Watch calls it at 16 secs. and Surfline doesn’t even show anything, which is funky cuz they didn’t show Douglas either (um, em, *tink *tink, is this thing on?).
In México, the “sweet 16″ birthday celebration is actually the “sweet 15″, it’s called the “quinceañera”. My wife’s sister (mi cuñada) recently turned 15 and rather than throw an insanely lavish and expensive party, as is the norm, she opted for a nice simple dinner at the local sushi joint and a little backyard lip-sync and foosball action with close friends. add a large camera and everyone’s a star.
Stevey, the boys and cold cervezas. What was once dense semi-arid jungle is now the glorious mass of condominiums of poonta mita in the background.
I’m ink free, but I’ve been seriously considering a mexi ’stache tattoo as demo’d by the Tiger Distro Crew (examples: 1 + 2). Thanks for the linkage boys, keep the spirit alive.
We’re headed to LA on Wednesday. On the agenda is picking up a new tabla. I’m currently waffling on bunch of different shapes and sizes. but definitely looking for something to fill out the space in the quiver between the 6′0″ ATL shorty and 9′0″ San Miguel noserider. Something that works nice in 2-3 foot mush but can also perform at 6′ and higher. Anyone got any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to drop a comment or email. I’m digitally oogling the Junod pumpkin seeds and single fins, Mandala’s wingless quad and 2+1 stubbie, that Klaus Jones Hull and Andreini’s Vaquero. I’m 6′2″ at 180lbs and I usually like ‘em shorter. I’m also all about used boards so if anyone has any really nice ones in stock, I’m all ears, i’m casing Craigslist for anything good. I spy a 9′1″ Junod noserider, good price.
I’ve been doubling down, in the qp lab, trying to push through the photo editing process. working on mystery project. anyone have any experience with professional photo book printing? like say china or italy? (not one-off services like blurb, etc…)
Surfline/stormsurf/wavewatch/wetsand et all, say that there is no surf. but i’ve been hearing whispers of head-high groundswell in both San Pancho and Quimixto. why am i still glued to this chair, however nice and bent plywoody it may be?
Ok, back to the lab….
Oh and anyone have any good info on Los Angeles area art galleries, shows, museums etc… happening over the next week or so? hit me up!
Marcia + Edmundo are preggers. We found out 2 days ago, just finished notifying the fam. We’re one month in and d-day will be sometime around Jan22nd. Aquarius, I can feel that. We’re so super happy and nervous and happy and nervous and happy. The abuelitas* are both in constant states of transcendental ecstasy.
Classic mexican custom dictates that you tie a piece of string to a needle and dangle it over the belly, to determine the sex. This can be done at any point in the term and it’s always right. If the needle moves in a line from head to toe, it’s a boy. If the needle moves in a circle, it’s a girl. We did this the other night, twice. One reading said boy, the other said girl. I’m thinking, despite the near statistical improbability, that it’s twins. Or it could just be that my elbow was positioned wrong, very technical procedure you see.
Los(t) Angeles peoples: we’re currently planning a triumphant return to the city of broken dreams, most likely in the first weeks of June. If there’s gonna be any swell, maybe some of you might wanna hook up for some wave sliding action. Despite having lived in the belly of the beast for 10 odd years (Valencia - 4 years / W.Hollywood - 3 years / Highland + Franklin - 3 years) I have never been surfing in Los(t) Angeles, ‘cept that one time uber-homie Supa Dave took me down to Manhattan Beach for some one foot closeouts.
I come equipped with a shorty but thinking on hooking myself up with a Junod or Mandala, or similar alternative stylee wave riding vehicle, while i’m there (Mollusk ahoy). Anyone wanna show a brother their favorite spots or maybe just hook up for some cerveza and chips?
If you’ve been to Sayulita, chances are you know what delicious goodness lies in wait, in the big haphazardly-built, blazing yellow building, fortified with wrought-iron signs, just off the square. Chairs, tables and old surf mags crammed into every single nook possible. In a town whose restaurants and businesses ebb and flow with the tides of the high and low tourist seasons, Sayulita Fish Taco is an integral part of Sayulita’s gilded prana. That is to say, Sayulita would not be the same without it.
Albert is the proprietor behind the famous yellow building and the delicious, distinctly traditional mexican fare. Always a smile and a good word, I’ve encountered him enumerable times out in the line-up, at ‘Rubber Dingies’ and ‘Enchiladas’, trimming his brains out with the ‘alma’ of an overgrown kid.
With a nice, twisted, sun-burnt sense of humor, Albert is the kinda guy with the ingenuity to rig up a user-controllable webcam so you can check out the front of his restaurant, never mind the ‘Mexican Waikiki’ otherwise known as Sayulita beach, just three blocks away, who’d want a webcam to check that out? He winks and says (and I’m paraphrasing, here) “Aw Yeah, it’s great. You can control the webcam and sometimes I move it to the other side of the pole, so you can see the big fiestas they throw in the town square”. The irony isn’t lost on Albert, that’s just the kinda guy he is.
Long after the snowbirds have all flown home, during the heart of the humidity riddled rainy season, you can still see Albert slogging in today’s catch as he sets his shop up for another day of fish tacos and cerveza. Albert has gone native.
A few weeks back, I was out scavenging the northern Bahia de Banderas coast for anything that looked like ridable waves. My tour of the local breaks brought me to Punta Mita, where I caught a few good ankle biters and then managed to snap off a few good shots.
As I was shooting the bevy of longboarders from the tip of a breakwater jetty, I caught the attention of a group of visiting “old dude” surfers throwing shakas my way (through my 100-400mm lens) as they were hanging out in the shade, on the beach. As I finished up and made my way over to the group, I was greeted by a guy by the name of Joe Doggett. It turns out Joe and his buddies return year after year, to Punta Mita, the ‘Mexican Malibu’ as he called it. We exchanged local surf break information and traded horror stories of how the area is rapidly changing due to spiralling out-of-control development. Joe mentioned that he had been a writer for the Houston Chronicle.
We eventually came around to the history of surfing in the area and how Punta Mita was discovered. Joe related parts of a September 1965 Surfer Magazine article, written by Bill Cleary, about his feral surf expedition on the hunt for “Mexico’s Malibu” as discovered by a screenwriter named Peter Viertel who found the fabled break while daytripping through the bay’s several breaks while his wife, actress Deborah Kerr, filmed her scenes in Night of the Iguana (the movie that literally put Vallarta on the map).
Joe Doggett’s stories and impressive knowledge of surf history, had me kicking my own teeth in, after I said goodbye to Joe and the crew without asking for his contact info or email address. A few days after I posted the photos from that day, flickr user Rex Enigma commented on Joe’s photo above, asking if it was indeed thee “Joe Doggett” and today Rex hipped me to a recent article in The Houston Chronicle, where Joe goes briefly in to Cleary’s 1965 Surfer Mag article and than continues on with his own long and varied history of visiting Mazatlan and Vallarta in search of surf breaks and the “Mexican Malibu”:
Other spots were excellent, but the Mexican Malibu was a no-show not enough swell, wrong angle, wrong tide, wrong week, wrong season, on and on over dispirited bottles of Pacifico beer at the cantina overlooking the beach.
Nirvana, at last
Then, as if in a dream, it was there. Last year, we pulled the board-racked vehicle to a stop and watched in disbelief as ruler-edged powder-green walls brushed by straight offshore wind peeled into the cove. We caught the Mexican Malibu for six consecutive days, with the swell peaking at 2 to 3 feet overhead. This spring, our trip was highlighted by three days of Mexican Malibu, with shoulder- to head-high sets each session. This literal groundswell of riches only can support the virtues of patience and confidence.
It’s an amazing story and a great read. I flipped out, as I read it and thought back to my conversation with Joe. Understanding the history behind this place I live in and how it fits in to the larger surf cannon never really even occurred to me, until my talk with Joe and his boys. I’d like to send a big, cosmic, shaka bra thank you, out there to Joe for unfolding a lesson and sparking a light in a new corner of my consciousness. I’m in his debt.
Incidentally, if there are any surf-memorabilia pack rats out there, that might just have the Sept ‘65 Surfer Mag squirreled away somewhere, I’d give my first born for a scanned pdf of the Cleary ‘Mexican Malibu’ article. My first born or some newly minted gold bullion. your choice.
I tried to stop in at Pools/Albercas, one of my favorite breaks - that only works with the summer storm systems, to check the access situation (there’s been rumors) and much to my dismay, there is a new security gate that denied me access to the road that passes near the break. I was under the impression that A. The road is built on top of a river bed, what would be designated as “Federal Zone” (hence illegal to put in a gate or deny access without laborious and costly, federal permits - which I highly doubt they have) and B. The road itself was not deeded property of the condominium association that owns the Punta Del Burro property, so it would be illegal for the association to deny access to the road. We’ll have to do some due diligence.
This gets to the heart of a serious problem happening all up and down the coast between La Cruz and Punta Mita and one that I’ve been reticent to write about. Access to our handful of surf breaks is slowly being choked off one by one, as is the access to each of the local swimming beaches. People point fingers and say that it’s the Gringos, but I don’t think it’s that simple.
The past four years has seen an explosion of land development along this coast. Land exchanged hands, plans drawn up, permits filed and now building is starting to happen everywhere. Relatively rapidly, access to sacred surf breaks are being choked off by developers and homeowners associations, who don’t want people accessing the beaches from what usually amounts to lot boundary lines and semi-dry riverbeds.
This is a heavy and laborious subject and requires more than a simple post, so I guess I’m committing myself to a series of posts that will in all likeliness just graze the surface of the unintended problems real estate development is creating, in the bay.
For now, I’ll point you to Vida Cadu Cada, the blog of a recently enacted local civil association whose raison d’etre is to work with local, state and national authorities to secure access for surfers to these sites. I’ve kinda signed on, to help with the english speaking contingent.
Roberto + Barbara - two kids that own a local Bucerias surf shop
Call me a noob, but I had no idea you could still custom order boards from Gerry Lopez. I was in the water yesterday, talking to Lobo and that’s exactly what he did. He’s riding a sweet 7′6″ Cheetah with a serene light blue-green tint. super tight.
We spent last weekend in Quintana Roo and came back to stories of people seeing sharks at La Lancha on Saturday. Whoa.
We’re jumping straight from winter in to summer. The water has warmed at least 3 degrees (c) in the past 2 weeks. No need for full wetsuit anymore and all of the accumulated seaweed is dying in vast groves and washing up on the beaches. gonna start smelling real nice in a week or so.
Rode the 9′0″ San Miguel, yesterday, and I can’t seem to get up to the nose. but did grab a head high peeler. very fast and about 2 feet back from the nose, both feet pointed forward. Still got the ropey hands over the head steez though. can’t keep the hands from going up.
I get tons of great ideas, floating out there looking at the horizon, the problem is that I forget all those good ideas, the minute I sit back in front of this computer. It’s a problem.
I hit a small deer last night on the way home. She jumped out ran along with the car for a split second and then collided with my fog light. she bounced off and tumbled. I went back to see if she was hurt but she had gotten away. I feel terrible. but I guess it comes with the (rural) territory.
Last Sunday we got a wild hair to get out of the house. What better way to spend Sunday morning than a trip to the local Bucerias tianguis (flea market). It’s been a year or so since our last visit and the flea market has been growing odd tentacles in to each of the neighboring side streets. Dusty as ever and full of typical bucerian characters. The Tuba was off the hook.
Large construction site at “used to be a virgin beach, now it’s a large condo project that feigns being into conservation and protecting the sea turtles”. you can notice the corduroy lined up in the background. yum yum.
I went sleep last night to the sound of some nice crashers, hoping I’d wake to the same sound. But no luck. I knew today would be a good longboard day so I slogged the 9′6″er out to “used to be Alejandro Fernandez’s house, now it’s gonna be a big giant condominium and they’re gonna cut off access to the beach” break. You see, you can’t just put up a barbed wire fence and expect the locals to not cut a large hole in it, especially if you have no permits or legally binding documents to show that you have the right to put up said fence. [ed- get to the point]
I made it out to the relatively light lineup just in time for the mid-day winds, but still managed to greet some beautiful water hills. I’ve been studiously studying T.Adler’s Ron Church Surf Contest book and today I practiced my foot work. Trying to let go of my unconscious need to inch up the board like a lead-foot hopscotcher. The modus operandi was to try a fluid foot over foot maneuver towards the nose and back. up and back. up and back. A few larger sets rolled through, somewhere in the shoulder to head size, giving up some really nice rides, fin firmly planted in the hill and feet together pointing forward a foot behind the nose, sitting position, hands in the air, bow of the wave breaking over the feet. heaven.
Pops is now an official switcher. After 30 odd years attached to a PC, he is now using a Mac, with Aperture no less: “I feel like I just got rid of my old clunker dodge with the AM radio and got a Prius.”
We’re now officially an all-Mac family. Each person with their own rig. When we’re together, we don’t sit in front of the TV, we sit around the living room with laptops, each in his/her own world. Marcia and Mom on their 12″ PBs, Mom playing Bridge games, Marcia tweaking speadsheets (and checking Perez Hilton). Dad, Beth and I on our 15″ MBPs in Aperture tweaking photos. And all of us emailing political/economic articles back and forth.
Yesterday I dragged the girls up to Sayulita to give them surfing lessons in the shallow break to the side of the beach towards Villa Amor. Each of the girls braved the cold water and got up on the board enough to claim bragging writes for when they get back home. Bella did particularly well and had good sense of balance.
Sayulita was bananas. Semana Santa in full effect. The most crowded I have ever seen it. Maybe 100 boards in the water. And not a single local in site. There wasn’t much swell to speak of but the ocean was broiling with wind generated white-cappers.
Today is the official start of Semana Santa, but the coast has been clogged with inland mexican vacationers since Friday. Semana Santa is Mexico’s Spring Break, Fourth of July and Labor Day all rolled into one. The entire country takes off, packs up and goes to the beach. Anything even remotely inflatable can be used as a floatation device and beaches look like hodge-pod terry cloth patchworks. The highway that runs through Bucerias is a virtual parking lot and every restaurant and corner store is jammed with gente. Going anywhere is a problem. But it’s also one of the best times of the year to be here. Our sleepy little beach town is alive and well.
Lilah is the resident myspace fiend of the family. The kid spends all day writing messages on the social networking teet. Hooked I tell ya. The above pose is her typical rebellious anti-camera pose and as soon as the camera comes out, the hands come up to the face and the hair becomes a flowing dirty blonde shield. Lilah is 13 going on 21, I’ve never met a smarter, more mature 13 year old in my life.
Bella is the aspiring actor/model of the family. Her personality has the perfect mix of Miranda July’s frank observation of human minutiae and Michel Gondry’s inventive curiosity. This child is eleven and studies Mandarin Chinese. The classes at her school were not so good, so she opted for her own tutor. Bella will probably grow up to be a world-class mathematician with a fierce dedication to fashion. She’s got brains, creativity and style.
This is Claire’s favorite animal pose, an elephant. It also happens to be her signature “don’t take my picture” face sans elephant ear hair braids. You might remember Claire from this photo from awhile back. Claire no longer goes by Claire. You must now call her Coolio. This child is strange. She knows who Coolio is but she doesn’t know what Star Wars is. What is the world coming to?
My little cousins are here visiting us from New Hope, PA. and we’ve been hanging out this past weekend. They are beyond photogenic and my camera seems to love taking their picture.
I was rummaging around a friend’s site and I stumbled on to the photography of flickr user Kelco. His photos are slammin. pin-point focus. definitely heavy pshop. but really strong vision. I was clicking through his photostream when I landed on the above photo and nearly ate my tongue.
This is Lex. He’s from Santa Cruz. A killer surfer. He’s in a rock band (who’s name I can’t remember). And while he worked for Adobe, he hired me for a project or two and hung out in our home office and cracked the whip for a few days. Lex is probably one of the nicest, most intelligent, most tatted up persons I know. It gave me a big smile to run across his portrait, in this vast sea of ones and zeros. One of these days, I hope to see his big ol’ smile out in the line-up.
Vice has a pretty cool internet-based video site thingy called VBS.tv and it has tons of content. I’d love to be watching this stuff from the comfy confines of my couch, apple remote, front row and my flat-screen. Hook it up Vice Peoples.
One of the VBS channels is a surf culture oriented, documentary-style series called Hi Shredability* and if you’re a surfer connected to the internet, chances are you’ve already seen it. If not, it’s a pretty good source of non-commercial surf-docu content and interviews. Episodes almost always feature underdog surf culture luminaries like Alex Knost, Mike Cunningham, Robin Kegal, Kassia Meador, Dan Malloy etc…
VBS just posted the final 3rd installment of the Thomas Cambell series and I’ve been waiting for it to go up to post this (as i’m not much of the cliffhanger kinda guy). What I really took away from his series was how surfing, art making and filmmaking are essentially the same thing, there are no distinctions for him. It’s all really just about: doin’ your own thing. and just trusting that it’s all gonna come together in the end. For Thomas it always seems to.
Hi Shredability host Tyler Manson on Thomas Campbell’s working process:
The state of Thomas Campbell’s desk says a lot about his work habits. It is covered in scrapes of paper, paint, photos, leaves, pieces of thread, books, doodles, and cups full of brushes, pens, and pencils. The pile is six inches deep and covers the entire desk, spilling onto the walls and floor and growing by a factor of 12.5 percent every day (we guestimate). He is working on so many different projects all at once we’re not sure how he keeps it all straight. Some end up getting finished, framed, and hung on a white wall, while others are dropped to the floor and maybe picked up days or years later and turned into something totally new.
Thomas Campbell episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | his website
– *with a name like “Hi Shredability” the series creators must have a well-placed sense of irony
Here, presented to you, the viewer, 40+ photos from last week’s trip to the mexican coastal state of Quintana Roo, nestled on the Caribbean side. Photos taken in Puerto Aventuras, Akumal, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel above and below water.
I got the chance to put the new Canon G9 through it’s paces with the underwater housing. Overall, it’s just really nice to be able to bring a camera into that underwater environment. Getting in to the water at Akumal, for a snorkel, wondering to myself why I had brought the camera and being presently surprised at the site of 10-12 sea turtles, huge schools of fish and 3-4 different kinds of manta rays. In Cozumel, we dove two amazing spots off of chankanab reef in the columbia area. Huge coral formations with spacious swim-throughs and rolling underwater sand dunes.
I have a few ideas floating around my head on the theme of tourists. you can see the beginnings of this project in the photos above. enjoy!
Marcia and I have been on a circus vibe lately, that’s kinda how our minds work. Get on a theme and learn/discover/investigate. A few weeks ago, we got into the circus thing starting with Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen which marks a perfect jumping off point for historically accurate circus mythology dripping with Great Depression era magic and tragedy. If this book were ever made in to a movie, I’m sure the Coen Brothers would be directing.
Next, at the urging of everyone in my family, we read Geek Love. This book has been floating around my parents’ extensive book collection since it was published in ‘89. Geek Love’s emergency orange cover is burned into my memory. Never knowing quite what it was about, I was delighted to find a heart-breaking story about a traveling family of circus freaks and their eventual demise. I’d love to see Geek Love as a movie, although to be honest I spent most of the book wanted to choke the shit of the narrator, an albino hunchback dwarf with an obsessive, psychotically misplaced loyalty. In short, I loved it. A quick check at Wikipedia tells me that Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and Johnny Depp have all expressed interest in making Geek Love into a film. good crowd.
Making it a triumvirate of circus/freak culture, I introduced Marcia to Tod Browning’s Freaks. This movie is practically in my family canon, first showed to me when I was a kid by my uncle Tim, who managed to get a pirate copy on VHS. It was never officially released on VHS and didn’t make it to DVD until 2005 so for years Freaks enjoyed a cult-classic mythology surrounding it’s bombed release and subsequent burial by MGM. If you saw Freaks, you were privileged or at the very least, had a family member obsessed enough to seek out an elicit copy, long before the holy trinity of ebay, youtube and bit torrent. Unfortunately the versions floating around bt don’t have spanish subtitles and there are some spoken parts, not even I can understand. So my advice is get the DVD. It’s worth it. The signature line from the family of circus freaks shown in the film is “gooble gobble, one of us, one of us”, usually done in chanting style. This is sort of like an unconscious running line in our family that silently unifies us and always gets a smile from all, around the dinner table. I could be wrong, but I think that my entire family were circus freaks, in our last lives.
We’ve been in Puerto Aventuras, Quintana Roo (an hour south of Cancun) for the past few days, visiting Marcia’s mom. Vacation for Marcia, and for me, a half-hearted working trip. who can work with the caribbean just out your window. Today I’m hoping to get in some scuba diving, we went to Akumal the day before yesterday and saw about ten to twelve sea turtles and three manta rays just while snorkeling in about ten feet of water.
The quality of light here is amazing. It must be the white sands and the ultra blue-green water, but something makes the ‘light’ so freakin yummy. my camera eats this stuff up, like waffles with butter n surp.
My parents were here as well, meeting with up the their consuegrita. We went out to dinner last night in Playa del Carmen and I was knocked back by Playa’s strange mix of mexican tchotchke stores, high-end retail and eurodisco cafes. We ate at a lebanese joint and I gotta say, the food was wickedly good. tabouli, hummus, falafel, greek salad, lebna. all super good. I was pretty impressed.
Yesterday. Burros. I’m finally getting my ‘form’ back and riding the blue fish gave me just enough extra push to grab a few excellent rides. 2 hours and I’m fried. Back to the beach and back to black. I wake up from a long sun-burnt siesta. waiting too long for my friend to get out of the water so we can go home. you know that friend, the one who stays in the water, surfing, after you got out 2 hours ago and you have a million things to do. yeah him. I wake from my fiery nap and look out at the waves and the line-up and the sun directly behind. i’m sour, grinchy, complaining to myself and ready to go home. and then it hits me…
I’m the luckiest idiot on this planet.
80 degrees with a killer golden hour approaching. waves rolling up. slightly too many people in the line-up (but even that I can handle). the sun is on full blast with waves and surfers in silhouette. little fluffy clouds. the scene is better then perfect. and for 10 minutes I just jump out of my thick skin and enjoy every second of that moment.
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.
Powered by WordPress and my own home-rolled flavor of the Qwilm! theme. I call it the QPwilm! theme and you can download it if you'd like. This is my 4th iteration past the publicly available QPwilm! theme.
