Preparing For Paradise

Not sure if you all know it or not, but my wife and I have been running trips out to Indo since 2004. For the past week or so, I've been fine tuning the trips set for this summer. And every time I go through the photos, they all take me back to some very awesome times. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's true, I'm sitting on close to a 1,245,654,002 words. Maybe more ; )

A couple years back, I took a couple friends on the Indo Experience. They were so pumped that they asked me to put together a bachelor party slash surf trip for one of them. I gladly excepted the job and put together Kevin Smithey's bachelor party to Indo. We leave in a few days and needless to say, we are all amping. They're all stoked because it's Indo! I'm stoked because I get to see what it's like on the side of the bukit on Bali this time of year. New waves, good friends and more good times. Amping.

Below are some photos that I randomly picked out of the thousands that I have. As much as I don't want this to sound like a spam blog, I can't help to say, let my wife and I show you paradise. Indo has it all. I still have spots available on both trips. The first is geared more towards adventure and culture with some surfing but it's the second trip that I have planned that all you surfers, bodyboarders, waveriders want to check out. My trips are pretty much all-inclusive. All you have to really worry about is getting shacked. Peep www.theIndoExperience.com. Yes... photos and videos included! Oright, enough of that. Enjoy some of my photos...

Brett Billings lines up Shipwrecks.

The Padang Padang Fire Dance crew. A must.

Jay Fajardo navigates Race Tracks.

Sumbawa reef walker.

Aussie groms owning Shipwrecks.

Overlooking Uluwatu from Wayan's Warung.

I'm Not Going To Lie...

I'm not going to lie... it's a pretty cool feeling. Not sure if you read that from my previous post but... I'm a happy camper. So stoked that I dropped cash money and bought a magazine. I haven't spent money on a surf or bodyboard magazine in a long time. I'm one of those cheap asses that goes to Borders or Barnes & Noble and takes an hour or two to skim through his my favorite magazines to see all the sick photos and only read those topics that catch the eye.

But this was different. Now, I get to skim through Standup Journal and stop and say to myself... that's your photo right there sucka. I have a ton of great photographer friends and I see there names in the magazines all the time. But because I hang and am friends with them, it's seems like no big deal. They're good and that's what they do. You expect it from them. On that note... I really hope my pro photographer friends don't forget what it was like to get that first photo in the mag.

It's a pretty cool feeling.

Cover of the new ish. I got some old guy to take the photo. I think he was 93 years old.



Top photo. I like shooting with Sean Poynter. He's not afraid to get close. Whoa, that sounds gay.  That's Sean on the bottom right posing in a, shoud I say it, _______ position. Hahahaha... I love it.



Paying Off...

Finally! I've been shooting SUP ripper Sean Poynter and other SUP riders for the past six months or so and... we've finally made it into the mag! A sick layback cutback photo of Sean is my first published SUP photo ever. I don't have the actual shot from the magazine but as soon as I get my hands on the  most recent Standup Journal, I'll take a snapshot and get here asap. I have the original on file but it just looks better in print. For now, here's a pic of me with the goods... a check to be cashed! Stoked.

Straight to the bank! Thanks Clay and crew at Standup Journal. Great photog support over there!

What's Really Going On?

Something's happening in the wave riding world. Modern day surfing has surfers that are pushing 80. And for the first time in history, bodyboarding has a baby boomer type of community that are pushing their 40's. Mike Stewart is a great example of a bodyboarder that is over the hill (age, definitely not his skills) and still rides his three foot something piece of foam. But those bodyboarders that looked up to the likes of bodyboarding pioneers Mike Stewart, Keith Sasaki, Ben Severson and many others are still riding their bodyboards and have not opted to go the route of stand up surfing. The simple answer of 'it's more fun' is reason enough for them, and me, to stick to riding a bodyboard.

It didn't hit me until the other day when I went out to this one surf spot where I was the only bodyboarder out in the line up. My friend and I were joking about the surfers that may talk smack on me cuz I'm on a 'sponge'. But then we realized that I'm a grown man. I'll be forty in December. So who in their right mind, would talk smack to a grown man just because of his/her wave riding vehicle? If I haven't dropped in on you or gotten in our way, then the board that I'm riding shouldn't matter. Simple math, right?

This past weekend, an underground 'contest' went down at Salt Creek up in the OC and there were just as many men as groms out riding bodyboards. Side note: That's the most bodyboarders I've seen in California in one spot in a long time. It was actually kinda cool to witness.

So what's really going on is this... grown men who know how to ride waves properly, respect where it's due and love to ride waves as much as his/her fellow ocean lover can very well be a bodyboarder.

Holy shit... I'm going to be 40 in December!

Thanks to Don Nguyen for the photos.

Over 30 and still boogie-ing.

Stan Moniz, Hawaiian ripper, was owning the event this weekend. And yes, he's pushing 40 as well.