Look at these two photos. How could you not love this family. It’s plainly clear that there is some major love going on here. These photos are not manicured. These kids are just like any kids you know in your neighborhood. Theirs souls bursting out of their slightly self-conscious smiles. These parents could be friends of yours. I get all melty inside when I think this dad and mom could be / should be / will be1 the next President and First Lady of the United States.
It gives me warm feelings to know that when Obama is on the phone with Putin and whoever from Iran, trying to smooth over icey foreign relations, that his two daughters Malia and Sasha will be wrapped around his legs giving him much needed love and support. That’s what I’m talkin about, real change! If Obama brings half the love that is displayed in this family, to his new job we’re all gonna be alright.
These photos come from Time Magazine photojournalist Callie Shell, who has been travelling with Obama for 18 months. She has an extensive set of photos up at The Digital Journalist. The photos are full of candid, unposed in-between moments that really capture his true character. Go see the ice-cream parlor photo2 and accompanying bit of text, it’s so worth it.
This past weekend we were inundated with some great swell coming in from Hurricane Norbert. Coincidentally, the Jalisco division of one the national surfing and bodyboarding associations put together a surf contest on Saturday and Sunday, the two heaviest days of the swell. I agreed to shoot the contest in support. A few of the organizers tried to get me to enter as a competitor, my shortboard skills are good but not that good, I politely (and quite insistently declined). The contest was held at “El Holi”, one of the lessor known breaks in the Vallarta area and known for it’s walled-up tubes, sandy bottom and dredging inside shore dump. Norbert didn’t disappoint and we were treated to overhead waves with tubes in the four foot diameter range, some bigger some smaller, with the heaviest/largest sets rolling in on the early morning high tide.
Each morning I rolled into the spot at around 7:30 to catch a few waves before setting up for the contest. The waves were huge and fast. I’d paddle into a two to three foot wave, drop in and down the line, quickly the wave would jack up in size and throw over my left shoulder. I’d ride the tube, eyes mostly closed, for a few yards and somewhere along the line I’d be caught in the closed out barrel and find myself drifting through the whitewater. Not an unpleasant experience by any stretch.
Back on the beach, I made some kind of attempt to professionally capture the day’s heats, competitors, judges, crowd, environment etc… all the while under heavy, dark, foreboding thunder clouds that threatened to unleash at any moment; knocking my f-stop and shutter speed down to near impossible levels. The contest was a lot of fun and reminded me of the Ron Church - Surf Contest book by Tom Adler1. I tried to stay in a mindset of capturing the event in a well-rounded way, paying close attention to the details, seeing through my own complacency (being caught up in the norm), seeing everything with fresh eyes again. Based on that criteria, I can’t say it was a complete success but I had fun trying. And as Tzahui Poo2 says, “Man, those were some sick tubes“.
photos from yesterday’s session at Holi, after the tide and wind had both come up
Ok, this is version 2 of an entry I wrote last week and than mistakenly deleted1. Where in the world is Mundo Fladonski? After the ill-fated trip to Ticla which ended promptly with my board being stolen, I flew out to Quintana Roo to hang with my girl and her mom for a week or so. Pictures coming soonish for both Ticla and Q.Roo.
Back to the homestead and back to the grindstone, I’ve been knee deep in editing the final touches on the book, hence the lack of updates. Too much computer time makes not enough surf time. The storm clouds broke this past weekend with nice big swell coming through the area, putting an end to almost three dry weeks2. I’ve managed to get a session in every day since Friday, it must be some kind of record. The ocean has essentially been flat for three months, so I’m taking every opportunity.
I’ve gotten barreled three days in a row! The first two days on some walled up second peak inside break, with a mushy, crouched, eyes closed, foam ball. And yesterday, with a gorgeous, open-eye, overhead, throwing ledge with a closing iris. The last was straight out of a surf film, complete with slow motion wall creeping up my right side, heaving overhead and then down my left side, without touching me – a spiritual experience of the nth degree. Of the four tubes I got myself in to yesterday, I managed to ease out of one of them. I really dig barrels.
Two interesting sightings, both surfboard related. The first: a local kid, Roberto, who owns a surf shop in Bucerias with his girl Barbara had a super nice come-up. Somehow he ended up with an Andreini diamond-tail single fin, roughly 7′0″ to 7′2″ with a Greenough 8a-like fin. The board is a bit beat up but looks to be only a few years old. Super stoked for him. The second sighting was a Skip Frye triple-stringer twin feel fish. Looks to be about 6′8″ or so. Some visiting surfer was riding it out at Burros in overhead conditions this past weekend. The thing was a bolt of lightning and dude knew exactly where to put it and when. First I saw the outline of the board, then the contrast between the stringers and the white glossy coat and then the little wings logo. This is perhaps the most beautiful board I have ever seen, in action, with my own two eyes. I wanted to stop and talk with the guy, but he was lightning fast and never sat still enough for me to catch up. Was he a ghost?
Incidentally, did you know that Skip Frye’s wife, Donna, is on the San Diego City Council and ran as a write-in candidate for Mayor and won a majority of votes, but lost the election because people spelled her name “Fry” instead of “Frye”3. How can I help this lady get elected?! Here’s an interview with Skip Frye from Surfer Mag from 2004, about the possiblity of becoming the first husband. great read.
And lastly, the Japanese Motors album is out. I’m downloading it from iTunes as we speak. support the cause. Update: the album is sick! and worth every penny of the 10 bucks I payed for it. I’ve already listened to it 3 or 4 times today. The songs are well written, simple, raw and rocking. You can put the entire album on repeat and not get bored. It’s good. Q.Peeps approved.
can we get a version of TimeMachine for WordPress? thank you ↩
Attention my LA/SD peoples: there’s a killer surf art show this Saturday, Sept.13th from 7-11pm at Surfindian in Pacific Beach. The show is a combo one/two punch by two outstanding up-and-coming Southern California-based surf documentarians:
The work of photography and filmmaker Cyrus Sutton, whose new 16mm Australian surf culture documentary Under the Sun will be shown.
and
Ryan Tatar of Shakas & Singlefins fame. Ryan has his finger on the pulse of the Southern California alternative wave craft scene. He mixes cross-processed quiet-bliss surf photography with a fine eye for documenting scenes who don’t quite make it to the competition-based glossy surf mags1. Ryan’s laid-back/easy approach to his subjects is starting to yield some amazing results.
I wish I could make it to the show, please represent for me.
Why this guy hasn’t started his own magazine by now is beyond me. Someone write him a big, fat check already. ↩
I’ve been messing around with Thumber and some old surf videos I made a few years back. I like the mosaic-style. These would be super cool as printed posters. It seems that the longer the movie is, the smaller the frames get and the more abstract the mosaic becomes.
How many times have I pulled up to the rock bluff overlooking the miles of raw coastline that contain my most frequented surf breaks. I pull out the binoculars to scout for waves and for crowds (or lack thereof). Only to find small waves and large crowds. Crushed enthusiasm, I say ferck it and head back home. I’m definitely guilty of embracing the skunk.
Things are different when you travel 1000 miles on an airplane for a surf trip. You take stock of the local swell report and choose your spot for the day wisely, but once you’re there in those strange waters, you can’t turn back. There’s no going home. You must find the glide. Every spot at every size, has a glide, a sweet spot, waiting for you to find it. Sometimes it takes a longboard. Sometimes it’s the thigh-high walled up inner section with the slow crouching thirty-foot ride. Sometimes it’s a kooked-out drop into the closing tube going the wrong direction. Whatever the conditions may be, the glide is there, somewhere, maybe not in plain view, maybe hidden away, but it’s most certainly there. You just have to look for it.
The Oregon/Nayarit surf blog bro-down extravaganza ended today with a drive up the coast to “Rio Bonito”, a juicy, sand-bottomed river mouth break, right around the corner from freakin’ nowhere. As the roles reversed, it was this intrepid Oregon crew who showed me, the itinerant Mexico rustaboot, a new spot. I don’t know how the hell these guys found their way to this little jammy, but believe me I know how to get back here. We caught the joint on a pretty mellow day, mostly closeout waist high, with an occasional head-high thumper. I dropped in on a few, with seconds of glide, ledge overhead to punch out the back and a few pearls as the singlefin kicked out from the steep angled drop. Even at small, closeout sizes, the waves were walled up nicely from the water exiting the river.
Rio Bonito wasn’t exactly firing, an epic day it wasn’t, but we all tried to get a little something. You can tell, though, that this spot gets huge, breaking in long flowing lines from both sides of the river mouth. Luckily Rick, Gabe and Ean have two more days to soldier on and with hints of incoming swell, hopefully they’ll be running to the plane on Saturday with wet swim trunks.
Marcia and I are headed up to Guadalajara for the weekend. And as per usual, that means a nice big swell should be rolling through. Ah the irony.
Rick, the SissyfisherKing is currently down mexicoway with his homies Gabe and Ean. We connected up Monday night for some wicked Chilés Rellenos + chelas with the ladies and little ones (ours being still in seedling format). Dinner was civil and restrained. After grub, the boys retired to the livingroom for a full on bro-down nerd fest, as we talked blog-related schmata and plotted the next day’s surf activities while I heavy-petted and studiously-vetted the various surf vehicles the crew had slogged all the way down here from Oregon. Rick’s MCaro-shaped round-pin quad was pretty amazing in and out of the water. Drop in, set the rail and hum. dialed.
Tuesday morning we reconvened for a dawn patrol sliding session at my favoritest rocky left point break La Chuleta. Afuckingmazing, as usual. That place is blessed with serious surf/stoke/prana. We all got in some quality slide time. I took an hour or so out to snap some jammies from the boat. These are two of my favs, not intentionally out-of-focus, but what are commonly referred to as “happy accidents”.
Hi, my name is Ed. I’m a graphic designer who lived in L.A. I quit my job, sold my car, rented out my house and moved to Mexico. Along the way, I learned how to surf and fell in love. This is my story.
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.
