agnoli

it's your life too, I'm just taking credit for it. 
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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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October 1, 2008

buy aapl - short gps manufacurers - Guethary recap (warning: temporal incongruity)

               

Click here to download:
buy_aapl_-_short_gps_manufacur.zip (968 KB)


The iphone google maps and pinpoint locator works in spain and france! awesome. no need for dedicated GPS no need for maps, now if I can only get data coverage in Chile...

Anyway, buy aapl, short all gps manufacturers, they are done.

Here are the photos from our caffeine fueled expedition into france. We met up with Gretchen and her friend Mara and delivered Gretchen's board; mission accomplished. 

We were hoping for some surf, but the flatness prevailed, hightailed it back to Mundaka for the contest at Sopelana, which never happened.

That last pic is of Lewis putting his fins in on the evening of day 2. I don't think I've ever been on "surf trip" where it took so long to get wet.

now back to the present...

 

 

Filed under  //   giovanni   gretchen   hossegor   lewis  

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September 29, 2008

oh mundaka

           
Click here to download:
oh_mundaka.zip (624 KB)
Here's lewis pointing out the flatness that is Mundaka. There's an ongoing debate as to whether mundaka should be removed from the ASP schedule altogether, or simply re-scheduled to some time more conducive to swell. I'm for the latter.
The town itself is beautifully situated at the mouth of a large bay/inlet, with sweeping views of the opposing point. tre romantic! The local architecture is almost germanic, strong with lovely overhangs. The hillsides are farmed. Reminded us both a lot of Chile, except no waves.
You can see the post-travel glow in our eyes as we drink Sangria at the local taverna (or maybe its the knowledge that there is spotty wifi at our cabina). And finally the walk home to our cabina and sleep, oh precious sleep.
We made it!
Tomorrow we go visit Gretchen and Mara in France. 

 

Filed under  //   giovanni   lewis   Mundaka   Surf  

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September 28, 2008

getting there is half the fun...

                     

Click here to download:
getting_there_is_half_the_fun..zip (1194 KB)

We are getting better at traveling. Some of us still stress about getting our boards on the plane, and seat assignments, and connections, but by and large its now all routine.
Pack the night before, Wake up, Put the boards on the car, Go to the airport, Pray that the checker doesn't  count the boards, Smile and pay the board bag fee, Get on the plane, Goto sleep, Wake up in a foreign land and time zone (groggy but functional), Someone rents the car while the other waits for the bags, Load the boards in the car, Navigate to the surf spot, eat, sleep, its all automatic.

of note:
The French are civilized, they don't make you take off your shoes for the security checkpoints and their security girls are friendly.
CDG is a mess, Terminal 2G is a little airport unto itself.
The rest of the world loves Obama, I hope they send in their absentee ballots.
A coke in france is five dollars.
You aren't allowed to take pictures of european air travel infrastructure.
The Bilbao airport reminds me of something my dad would have designed if he was into pre-stressed concrete. A marvel of glass and huge over hangs.

 

Filed under  //   giovanni   hossegor   iggy pop   lewis   Mundaka   Surf  

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