surf rig

 

ginga and surfing

this video courtesy of goiabada, with shots of jeronimo vargas of brazil surfing in mexico i believe. this video brought forth a bunch of thoughts about the brazilian style of surfing versus the one in peru. let's just say that it projects ginga and creativity versus something else that is more restrained and, perhaps, less expressive. plenty has been written about ginga as a concept in brazilian culture, and it's presence in soccer, but fewer people recognize that it comes from capoeira, which in my mind is the best starting point to appreciate vast swaths of brazilian culture and get an idea as to why brazil is so different than the rest of latin america. jeronimo tem dende! i surfed with a cearense on wednesday who had the relaxed demeanor of a malandro even on big eight foot faces -- out for a cruise and pulling off elegant, effortless turns... great stuff to watch. i also think ginga is what is going to push brazilian surfers further up the ranks of the global surf tour, a trend that has judges and other pros on their heels.

Jeronimo Vargas ...Nachos y Cerveza 2008 from Jeronimo Vargas on Vimeo.

oh man...

saw this clip on the facebook page of an old friend from my hometown who turned an airstream into a hair salon...
dreamy video. i've seen this band play in seattle, nyc, sf, and cambridge.
they rock. one time they sent me a postcard saying thanks after i sent
them a gushy piece of fan mail. rest assured there aren't any good waves
in hoboken...

bermejo

made my first pilgrimmage to bermejo yesterday, and the 222 km drive north of lima wasn't so bad. i managed to get two sessions in. bermejo is quite possibly the best wave in peru. i'd been dreaming of surfing it for months. locals say that it always has a stiff offshore wind, which hits squarely and makes the face of the waves wall up and stay up for what seems like an eternity. there are two sections, one out the back, which is pictured below but rarely works, and the inside section, which is more consistent. i'm told that with big westerly swells, of 9 to 10 feet, soft barrels form that roll across both sections, which together are maybe a kilometer long or more. the takeoff on the inside section can be either too fat or too fast, depending on the sands that get deposited near the rocks, and wave height and direction. yesterday it was a bit shifty, with 7.5 foot waves. i got worked at least twice taking off too late, but also had lots of waves of pure joy. big walls to carve on, and the quad held lines high up on the wave and accelerated like a rocket the moment you pumped your legs hard to gain speed down the line. i even pulled off my first floater, but didn't risk a reentry. i don't think i've ever ridden a faster board. still, i probably should have taken my thruster. a little less buoyancy on the takeoff would have given me more control with some of the white water splashing down during the drop, as it was a little too fat sometimes on the clean stuff and impatience means that you will risk a wipeout if the squeezed takeoff looks possible. it all depends of course on what you want to do.

fill it to the brim

i woke up today at 2:30 a.m., unable to control my excitement over the swell charts, which all showed 9 foot waves in lima. that means that el triangulo, a finicky break that rarely goes off, would be working. and when it works, it is bliss. it's the glassiest break i've ever seen, and looks like a reflection pond with a perfect wave running through it. i spent three hours making a big breakfast and reading before i went out in the dark. trouble is, when i got there, the waves were horseshit and even places that normally work were weak and gutless. so i turned around and went home, hoping to save my energy for when the swell finally hits, if it does.
thank god for fine organic arabica from oxapampa. this is the most chocolatey bag of coffee i've ever had...

a volvo p1800

this is probably my favorite coupe ever. a guy around the corner from my apartment owns this one, which is red with a white racing stripe. when i was a kid, a guy at the end of my street had a mustard yellow one. i'd say the red one wins.

small feet

this is a shot my friend jeffersonstevens took of me and my son, lucas. nice stuff. i only realized this week that q peep's son has almost the same name. lucky i put an s on the end, otherwise i'd be a straight up copy cat.

teaching an alpaca new tricks...

if you are so inclined, you can read about a surfing alpaca in peru here
check the video too.

hi denise

oops, i'd also like to say hi to denise, who has an elegant pop up and is polite in the water. she beat us out there this morning!

heart

here is a video i saw over at goiabada, whose author is a fine writer who drops slang from rio de janeiro artfully into his prose. he also has impeccable taste in music. he saw this video here.

BIRTHRIGHT from Sean Mullens on Vimeo.

welcome back!

woke up at 4:30 a.m. today to surf south of lima. it was my first session since returning from aching chile. sure was nice to wash away all the stress from the quake and just focus on waves. we surfed for three hours. good waves, nice drops, a fair amount of punch on some waves. not as wally as i'd like, but excellent water temperature. i tried a friend's tiny thruster for the last 45 minutes or so, and enjoyed taking off late on it and changing direction on a dime. fun stuff.