agnoli

it's your life too, I'm just taking credit for it. 
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October 4, 2008

Mundaka branch office of Surfline.com

Just so you don't think its all champagne and caviar here on tour I thought I'd include an image of the Mundaka branch office of Surfline. 
Here we are hard at work processing images and writing copy for the Surfline coverage of the Mundaka final. Lewis is bitter about the image picks the home office has made, and just all around grouchy by 11:30 at night.
After surfing two sessions and covering the contest all day its kind of brutal to come back to the cabina and process/write for 5 more hours. Lewis has to write the main story, while I process images. Then we get the image picks from San Clemente, and Lewis has to caption them. Meanwhile I'm blogging the days events and answering mail. Generally we are wasted by the end of it all and rarely go out to drink. 
Usually the night ends with Lewis calling his girlfriend, and then vowing to me that he won't be surfing in the morning. I set the alarm for an hour before sunrise, read my book, and pass out.
cheers.

 


Filed under  //   asp   lewis   Mundaka  

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October 4, 2008

Billabong Pro Mundaka 08 - Final day of competition - CJ wins

                                           

Click here to download:
Billabong_Pro_Mundaka_08_-_Fin.zip (3303 KB)

Another day on the cliff, read my earlier post for pre-heat action, the story is that CJ won in smaller Mundaka. 

I mostly shot lifestyles on the cliff, the whole of the province was in town for the contest, or at least any one under 25 who was cool. Quite a bunch of friendly faces. All dressed in their Saturday best.
We paddled out at the closing horn as usual and surfed with the groms while CJ was trophied and then thrown from the dock as is the custom here.
Surfed OK, but not that great. Its good that they finished the contest today, because tomorrow will be flat, and the next swell isn't for a couple days. The press, the athletes, their wives and kids are all dreaming of home and that's where they are now headed.
The real story started when CJ invited Lewis to have a beer with the boys, some of who are not happy with his writings. After a few beers and slaps on the back one of the group cornered Lewis and started in on a heated discussion about the writes and wrongs of the power rankings and how it hurts careers and feelings. The moment we had all been waiting for and fully expecting. It was a bit like Kelly winning the title. Totally expected and somewhat of a let down in the end.
The ASP chaplain and I stood by mortified about what was going on to our right, having our own conversation, but monitoring just in case. But both individuals handled it with aplomb and there was nary a spilled beer in the end. Lucky because I had left my camera in the car and would have missed the money shot.

http://www.surfline.com/wct-contest-zone/back-on-top--cj-hobgood-wins-billabong-pro-mundaka-billabong-pro-mundaka-final-day_19086/1/

Filed under  //   asp   lewis   Mundaka   Surf  

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October 4, 2008

Note to self; don't be self conscious about your surfing

We woke up early to surf the inner peak, it was good and almost hollow at times, as the tide sucked out we transitioned to the main peak where Lewis got a few bombs, i got a couple big ones, but not as good. Eventually the pros came out, the crowd formed on the cliff, and the judges delayed the call another hour.

So, I'm posting up between Occy on my outside, and Damien Hobgood on my inside. What's the protocol when you are clearly the worst surfer at the peak? I surfed a couple before bobbling a nice one, causing Damo to quip to Lewis. Occy wasn't having any luck either, failing to paddle into a bomb that Damien eventually got a barrel on. I caught another good one and decide to call it a day.
The throng on the cliff had grown to Saturday proportions, and the media clearly didn't have anything else to point their cameras at so I thought it would be good to not be part of the spectacle. Luckily I was paddling at 5 knots against a 5 knot current, and while the pros were getting free rides from the jet skis, I wasn't. So I spent a couple minutes floundering in front of the crowd before deciding to paddle for the harbor instead of the stairs. Eventually the kinder of the jet ski riders pulled up, I pulled myself onto the sled, and off we went. A much nicer way to ride.
As I walked up from the harbor Sherm was packing his car for France. He's going up to photograph Kelley, and then home. We will probably head up there tomorrow.
The surf here is getting smaller by the minute. Lewis' claim that he got the best waves of the day is probably on the money.

 

Filed under  //   asp   lewis   Mundaka   Surf  

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October 3, 2008

shameless self promotion

check out lewis, and me in the background. around 1:53, and 2:10
respectively.

Filed under  //   asp   kelly slater   lewis   Mundaka   Surf  

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October 3, 2008

Billabong Pro Mundaka 08 - Third day of competition - Kelly Slater wins the world title

                                                 

Click here to download:
Billabong_Pro_Mundaka_08_-_Thi.zip (3166 KB)


I thinks that lead in "Kelly Slater wins the world title" sums up the day. This long expected event came and went with his 3rd round win over Eneko Acero. Its a points thing, so Kelly didn't need to win the event, just his round 3 heat, to clinch the title, and in fact he lost his round 4 heat to Tom Whitaker, whose 10 point ride was loudly cheered by the rest of the contestants. Kelly was more bummed about his loss than happy about the world title. The event was kind of boring actually, and Kelly knew it. The media thronged him, carrying the story even if Kelly didn't seem to care.  He's very disconnected from the whole thing, I guess even winning world titles gets mundane at some point (9 and counting).  I think most will go home tomorrow, and watch the remainder of the event via webcast from the warmth and comfort of their high speed internet connections.
It rained hard last night, and the morning continued in the same vein. It hailed dramatically as we drove to the contest, we slept through our dawn patrol and thus missed out on our favorite parking spot down by the harbor. We were drenched by the time we got to the event, and it didn't get any dryer as the day wore on. There were glimpses of sun throug h the clouds and some nice rainbows. Resorted to the old plastic bag over the camera trick again and tuffed it out.
We paddled out at the closing horn and got some fun mundaka. I actually like the wave a lot, even on the high tide its pretty awesome, although it will probably get a little crowded once the contest finishes up. The air is suddenly cold, and its been raining, but the water is still around 67 or so. I'm wearing a 2/2 short sleeve suit with booties.
After the contest we will probably stick around and surf Mundaka for a couple days, there's supposed to be a swell coming in on monday and Tuesday, so hopefully that will spice up our lives.
Been shopping in town, found a good tabac, panaderia, and butcher. Everyone is very personable. People here are open and happy to see us.
Right now I'm hanging out in the Portuondo restaurant sucking down as much wifi as I can while Lewis finishes off his Surfline coverage of the day. I'm sipping my San Miguel and answering mail, paying bills, and blogging my life. If you are reading this write me and tell me what's going on in your life. I've been hanging out with Lewis and the rest of the surf crew too much. I need a little variety.

http://www.surfline.com/wct-contest-zone/reign-again-kelly-clinches-title-nine-billabong-pro-mundaka-day-three_19070/1/

Filed under  //   asp   cj   giovanni   kelly slater   lewis   Mundaka  

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October 2, 2008

Billabong Pro Mundaka 08 - Second day of competition - Mundaka

                                                 

Click here to download:
Billabong_Pro_Mundaka_08_-_Sec.zip (2856 KB)


We woke up before light, drove down to the contest site, and jumped in the water to surf the high tide bar on the outgoing while the pros got the rundown on the overlapping heat system. The bar quickly went from; too dark to drop in, to perfect, to fucked up backwash. I paddled in, Lewis went to the outside bar and surfed with the pros until the contest started, and then got a ride in on the jet ski.

The contest started at 9:30 and it quickly turned on. Mundaka put on a show for all the naysayers with fast hollow 200 yard lefts. The sun even came out at one point.

But for the majority of the day it rained, so I wrapped my camera in a plastic bag, pulled on my hood, and tried to keep dry.

Lots of Lens Envy going on. Everyone had their 400 or 600mm out and was clicking away at the surfers in the distance. I gave up and shot "lifestyle" images with my 50mm. You'll have to check surfline for the surf shots, the one looking into the barrell were shot from the back of a jet ski with a 400mm.

The highlight of my Day was speaking broken spanish with these loc als who jumped the fence to join the press area, drink the free beer, smoke cigarettes, and generally have a lot of fun. They were still going strong when Lewis and I got out of the water at sunset. By that time Evon (the one on the left) had updated his outfit with a mardi gras wig and sparkles. If it hadn't rained, I'm convinced the Spanish would have put on a party to remember. Maybe tomorrow.

The portapotties had the best instructions on how to poo and pee. Also, solid all wood construction. They are obviously leveraging the region's tree farming industry.

We suited up during the last heat of the day and jumped off the rocks at the closing horn to paddle out to the main peak where we were quickly joined by Taj, Heitor, a couple other pros and media persons. We surfed till the tide got too high, and returned to the cabina to process photos, write the surfline article, and drink red wine. I sprayed our environs with wine while attempting the "open the bottle without a corkscrew" trick. 

Its raining really hard now. The cabina we are staying in is more like a little mobile home. Everything is mini, kind of like a boat. The rain is pounding on the tin roof, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

http://www.surfline.com/wct-contest-zone/exceeding-expectations-mundaka-actually-turns-on-billabong-pro-mundaka-day-two_19038/


Filed under  //   asp   giovanni   kelly slater   lewis   Mundaka   Surf  

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October 1, 2008

Billabong Pro Mundaka 08 - First day of competition - Sopelana

                                                 
Click here to download:
Billabong_Pro_Mundaka_08_-_Fir.zip (4689 KB)

Woke up late (just before sunrise), drove to Sopelana (the alternate site), arrived in time to catch the last bit of the second heat. Hung out with the surf media capturing the moment for the next 8 hours. At one point the media outnumbered the surfers and fans, that quickly changed after the sun began to show its face and school let out.

This was the first day of the contest, round1. the organizers wanted to cancel it due to poor conditions, and go straight to round 2, but the surfers weren't willing the face single elimination, so they opted to surf sloppy conditions. This made for a rather uninteresting contest where the surfing was all happening on some outside mush ball that only the judges could see. Everyone else just hung out.

Right after we arrived Lewis went to work making amends with all the surfers he had written about. About the only person he didn't have to apologize to was Slater.

I shot photos and roamed around, meeting the rest of the media, while Lewis interviewed the pros for upcoming articles. Really he spent the afternoon hanging in the contestant's tent with Kelly talking politics and such, while I made the "I'm bored lets go surfing sign" every 5 or 10 minutes. 

Finally the contest wrapped for the day and Lewis turns to me and tells me that we are going surfing with Kelly and Dane. Kelly says something along these lines, affirming the invitation. Kind of intimidating. We go and suit up and jump in the water. I surf the mushy/dumpy lefts away from the crowd to great effect while Lewis free surfs the just dumpy middle with the best of the top 45 (translation: he gets hammered in the roiling shore break). Best session yet for me. Worst session yet for Lewis.

warning, these pics are very surf centric, but its a pretty good representation of how I spent my day. I think I'll be burnt on the scene, but it was a very nice look into the life of a professional surfer. 

of note: Canon DSLRs outnumbered Nikon almost 9 to 1. Most of the media used  higher end bodies, There were a lot of gigantic lenses.

for more contest coverage read the article Lewis wrote for Surfline

Filed under  //   asp   giovanni   kelly slater   lewis   Mundaka   Surf  

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September 30, 2008

Billabong Pro Mundaka 08 - lay day - Sopelana

                             

Click here to download:
Sopelana_-_lay_day.zip (1869 KB)

We woke up at 6 (pitch black, two hours before sunrise) and joined the wagon train to Sopelana, with the idea of surfing before the contest. Followed the billabong car all the way there, god knows we'd have gotten lost otherwise. 45 mins of twisty turns and small towns later we arrive at the contest site, surf was small, too small to run the contest. The pros went out anyway, Lewis paddled out with Occy, Otton, and Neve. Adriano joined them, and then some others. I waited till they dispersed before displaying my excellent surfing abilities. By that time the tide had dropped to far and the waves were little dribblers, but it was better than nothing. Of course Lewis erased the picture of me landing that backside 370 air.

Next we drove up to Bakio to check it, an inferior break; which is a word I'm beginning to attribute to all spanish surf spots. It was equally small and I opted to go grocery shopping while Lewis surfed with Otton and Neve.

Drove the coast back to Mundaka, its pretty, a lot like big sur, steep cliffs, beautiful little islands, geographically limited towns.

On the positive we've seen all the surrounding bre aks, and on the negative, they aren't that special. I guess the real wave here is Mundaka, so in our cabin we will wait.

 

Filed under  //   asp   kelly slater   lewis   Mundaka   occy   Surf  

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