Ojos Del Mar - Bocas Del Toro 2009

Bocas holds so many memories for me it is hard to describe what an impact the place has had on my life. Good and bad I mean. I mean it was here that in 2005 I contracted Lehmaniasis (the flesh eating parasite). It was here that I got one of the best backside barrels of my life. It is also a place where I have seen fist fights on the downtown street broad daylight two days in a row (2003).
Welcome to the Caribbean of Panama my friend.
I started coming to Panama in 2003 at the urging of my now deceased friend Greg Gund. Greg was a pilot and loved to fly around the world in his single engine Cesna. Greg also had a home on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica near Playa Negra. We became friends as I was housesitting his neighbors house on the hill (Redman) in Negra. Anyways Greg knew of my need to renew my visa and explained that he had an apartment in Bocas Del Toro and I could rent his extra room for 10 bucks a night. I agreed and he dropped me off in Bocas showing me the ropes for a day and then took off back to Costa explaining that he would be back in 3 days and I could reenter Costa Rica legally. Over the next three days I scored insane surf with no crowds, met cool people, and basically fell in love with Bocas. I flew back to Costa with Greg, grabbed all my stuff and flew back to Bocas under the agreement that I would rent the apartment for the next couple months while Greg literally flew around the world. Crossing the Atlantic in his single engine plane.
Over the next three years I would come back annually and stay in the apartment, work at my buddy's restaurant, and surf.
I left Bocas in 2005 after an attempted move down didn't work out. A month later I received the bad news that Greg had crashed his plane off the Tamarindo area of Costa Rica passing away with 5 others.
Bocas chapter closed until 2009...
I was back last year and at the urging of good friend Harmodio "Moyo" Barrios I brought artwork along and did a show at the Hotel Las Brisas. It was a good show with little promotion. People were stoked on my stuff, people bought my stuff and I made good contacts with Fidel Ponce and Kyle Lantier (Fox's east coast rep who purchased two pieces).
This year I came down really focused on a show in the city with the back of mind notion of possibly having art leftover to do a show in Bocas when I got there. What turned out as a back of mind notion turned into a succesful reality. First night on the island my buddy John Griffo takes me to dinner at the Ultimo Refugio restaurant on the water. At dinner he introduces me to the owner and the show is on that quickly for Friday night. The next day in the water I tell my buddy Chris (Aqua Lounge) I am doing an art show on Friday and he tells me his girlfriend does art and that she also happens to be Mexican (I find that cool since I live in Mexico).
I meet Estrella the next day and she had actually been at my show last year so things are clicking for a succesful show. I make flyers and get them out wondering what the results would be like. It worked and we had a pretty good showing that Friday night. I sold one piece at the show and four more before I left the island so all in all it was a huge success.
Special thanks to friends Moyo, Gregory, Jose Bocas Surf, Chino Daniel, Chuleta, and Luis Bertone.
Hope you enjoy the pics

Ojos Del Mar - Panama City 2009

Back in January of 2009 I was in Bocas Del Toro to visit old friends, surf and put on an art show. It was during that trip that I first Fidel Ponce.
Fidel is a Panamanean who grew up in one of the roughest cities in all of Central America - Colon. Growing up surfing all over Panama Fidel knows this country like nobody I know except maybe Bolivar Andres.
Fidel broke his back surfing solid surf at Isla Caranero years back and during his recovery learned a lot about business, internet marketing, and water photography. When we met last year I asked him if he had ever shown his work and he said "no". So this year as I began to plan a trip down I contacted him and asked if he might be interested in doing a show in Panama City. He said sure and I started making flyers, doing online promotion for the show, making calls to Panama to my good friend Damian Pinzon who found us a sick location.
Moat Chillout Lounge is a two story restaurant/lounge with a pool inside and everything. Legitimate!!!
When I met up with Fidel in Panama City the first thing he said "theres waves in the Caribbean do you wanna go?" Humm? Let me think about that for a milisecond. Yeah!!! So we were off on the Corredor for a two hour drive in the rain to Colon. From there we pulled up to his buddy's house sitting across from Isla Grande and we quickly had a boatman picking us up from his buddy's dock. Fidel had his water camera with a fish eye lense and although the surf was small I was pumped to be where I was at that very moment.
Looking back I can say I had a great time thanks to Fidel. We took turns shooting shots of each other and surfing in a Caribbean paradise. I will post a couple of the shots Fidel got of me that day so you can see how beautiful it was.
The show went off without a hitch. There were maybe 65 people total all night but not bad for a Monday night. I sold three pieces to friends and took the rest over to Bocas Del Toro the following day for a 2nd showing the following Friday night at the Ultimo Refugio waterfront restaurant on Isla Colon.
Once again must say "Muchas Gracias" to my buddy Fidel Ponce for helping me out and for showing his work. Check out some of his stuff on http://www.panamasurfphotos.org/ or look for him on facebook.

Agua - Art Exhibition in Ensenada, Mexico

“Agua” went down in September of 09 at “La Alcoba” lounge on the beautiful bay front of Ensenada, Mexico.
Local surf artists Ricardo Garcia, Werner Meza, and I got together to display our individual techniques in surf art.
We also featured the Mexico premiere of the latest Glas Apparel and films production “The Ripple Effect” which finished to a round of applause by the crowd.
At the last minute a couple friends hit me up to see if they could display their work.No problem..
Naara Nunez is another local surfer chick who makes cool handmade jewelry made out of Baja seashells. The name of her brand is Baja Sunset. Her boyfriend is 2nd generation Ensenada local Nacho Felix. Nacho is experienced in bodyboarding and longboarding and has competed in Oaxaca representing the Baja team in the Nationals. Nacho’s dad was one of the first surfers in Mexico. Nacho Jr. is a talented paint pen artist.
In total around 100 people came by to check it out and I ended up selling a couple of paintings to friends Mike Adnoff (S.E.A.) and Michael Garcia (lifelong friend) who came down for the show.
Special thanks to: La Alcoba, Guara Bikinis and Surf, Ricardo Garcia Surfboards, and all the people who came out to be part of the event.