Good Friends in Trying Times

Tsunami relief group in coastal Chile.

Good friends became even stronger and closer after the Chile earthquake and tsunami in February 2010. I love these guys. We traveled, worked, bled and cried together - and now the good times continue. Photo above and below by Rodrigo de la 'O Guerrero. 

Unloading water filters for the health clinic at the earthquake epicenter.

 
-- More photos here from Geoffrey Ragatz.

Save The Waves Film Festival: Friday! Nov 12

Together with my good friend, Chilean actor/filmmaker Angel Marin, we will be "on the mic" as MCs of our 2nd annual Save The Waves Film Festival:

Join us on Friday, November 12: www.savethewaves.org/filmfestival

This 1-night-only film festival features Chris Malloy's 180 SOUTH, Dave "Rasta" Rastovich's TRANSPARENT SEA and Mickey Smith's DARKSIDE OF THE LENS, as well as several other short films to be announced soon.

>> Get your tickets here to Save The Waves Film Festival

Tickets are for sale: $20 general admission or $60 VIP admission (VIP includes a limited edition hand-printed 13"x21" original letterpress print by acclaimed Brooklyn-based artist Mike Houston and his Cannonball Press, two free drink tickets, a VIP gift bag from Patagonia and CLIF Bar, and reserved seating.)

At the historic Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. All proceeds benefit the non-profit environmental programs of Save The Waves Coalition.


* Save The Waves Film Festival features very special filmmaker guests, as well as live music by San Francisco legends MY PEOPLES (formerly Kapakahi).

-- www.savethewaves.org/filmfestival --

October - Chile Update

We're in coastal Chile working on our final round of post-tsunami earthquake relief. The locals are inspired, working hard, and getting great things done! Full update coming soon.

Team Save The Waves Chile with locals from Salto del Agua. Geoffrey Ragatz photo.

We built this greenhouse a few months ago for a family who lost their roof in the earthquake. They're now harvesting and eating fresh, organic vegetables.

Thank Youse

Today I am honored to feature this guest post by surf writer extraordinaire, Ben Marcus. He writes this after an epic day in Malibu for the new Malibu World Surfing Reserve dedication ceremonies: 

Thank you for the Clif Bars, man. White chocolate macadamia nut!

       Oh yeah and thanks for letting my rascal friends slip into your party and drink all the tequila and eat all the poke/poki.

       Thanks for the poke/poki. Almost as good as Foodland kine.

       Oh yeah and thanks for making Malibu a World Surfing Reserve.

        It's a good place and it deserves that honor - and protection.

         Sometimes it even needs protection from the protectors, but enough said about that.

         I wish Malibu was six foot two days a week with five uncrowded days as the swell climbed and dropped on either side of those two days, but oh well.

        That is not in your power.

        Attached is the story about Malibu Creek steelhead I wrote for Fly Fish Journal.

  

        Big healthy fish = big healthy creek back in the day and it seems hard to believe when you look at how sad and dead and polluted and dammed and damned the creek is now.

         There is a tie-in between this story and those moving images of First Point Malibu in 1947.

          All that sand trapped behind Rindge Dam used to be strung along the point, and that is why the wave was better back then, I think.

          Thanks again for a good weekend.

           - Ben