Phew… what a crazy month! Last time I had

It’s old news to most of you by now, but in case you wonder Sea of Darkness took home the 6.000€ for the best feature film of the year while Birthright took home the 1500€ for best short film of the year. You’ve got all the winners for the different prizes here. Looking back over the Festibal the things that definitely stand out are:

The 180º South European premiere (see here).

The Skeleton Sea Project exhibition at the Aquarium (where it will remain until September) that was a big hit among the non-surfing media.

The Castles in the Sky (euro premiere) and Idiosyncrasies (world premiere), both sold out and with both Taylor Steele and Patrick Trefz presenting them.

The visit of one very bald and tanned Kelli Styler in a white limo and his board conveniently glued to his side so he could greet his fans with both hands.

The two crazy nights of the Amstel Surfilm FestiBaila that pretty much emptied the line-up first thing the next day.

The beautiful boards on display -and ready to be tried out by anyone- on the beach during the weekend: a Skip Frye fish, a Josh Hall fish (with Josh in person explaining the intricacies of the board), an original Terry Fitzgerald shaped Hot Buttered Drifta, etc…

All the photos HERE.

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This year the FestiBaila is taking us to the world of smoky Jamaican beats, ragga and dancehall with promises of all sorts of mischief until the wee hours of the morning. Do not fear as what happens at the FestiBaila stays at the FestiBaila. Here’s the lineup:

Friday 11 June Boom Shaka Laka Gaua

21:00 Boom Shaka Laka Live: RAPSUSKLEI

23:00 LONE ARK

1:00 NOVATO

2:15 BOOM SHAKA LAKA MAKALA GAZTEA FESTA

Saturday 12 June
10:30 NUDO ZURDO

12:00 SAN LEON

1:30 WE ARE STANDARD

3:00 DJ GRAHAM

Where: Gasteszena, Calle Baztan, 21, Donostia.

How much:
Friday 11 Rapsus Clay live: 12€. Until 22h30. From 22h30 onwards 6€.
Saturday 12: 15€ for the whole night.

Tickets will be sold at the usual places: Servikutxa, Donosti Kultura, etc…

Niegà

First of all, and thanks to Patagonia, we will be screening the European première of the much-acclaimed documentary 180º South directed by Chris Malloy. It tells the journey of Californian surfer, climber, photographer and writer Jeff Johnson from California to the Chilean Patagonia in his quest to climb Pico Corcovado. The yacht that takes him from México to Chile runs into some problems in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and has to stay put on Easter Island before resuming the trip South. Although it is not strictly a surf film the quality of the images, the editing and the strong environmental message makes it a sure choice to watch while chilling down right outside the Kursaal, and a stone’s throw of the waves of la Zurriola. Make sure to attend: Friday 4 June at 21.30.

The movie will be preceded by the cool tunes of Buffalo, a local band from nearby Zarautz. Make sure to check them out!

Niegà

From February 15 until March 28 at the Bar Lepanto (C/ Pedro Eguillor Emparantza 2, Bilbao). Check Ion’s website HERE to get a glimpse of his art.

Niegà

The longest running of all the surf film festivals has announced its 8th edition today, launching new categories, lots of media partners and more prizes than ever. This year the Amstel Surfilm Festibal brings in The Surf Film Contest: for the first time ever the competition will not only include short films, but also feature films with a first prize of 6,000€. Whether you are a well-established pro filmmaker or a resourceful amateur with lots of talent and creativity, check the rules and find out how to enter HERE, as there’s something for everyone.

Web – Blog (English) – Facebook – Twitter

Niegà

My first visit was a 24hr mission by train from Barcelona to buy a board, as back then surfboards where totally unavailable on Mediterranean shores. After buying a second hand beat up at a local surf shop (the world famous Pukas) I spent the remaining hours – until I had to board the train back to BCN – at Gros beach, sitting on its west wall and admiring the surfers  who were facing the huge waves of that day. Since then, unbeknown to me, fate has worked its way so that one day I ended up living in Donostia: my best Spanish friends during my two years in South Africa were (are) from Donostia; same as one of my best friends -and colleague- from the winter I worked as ski patrol in Candanchú (up in the Pyrenees). The few Basque surfers I met in Barcelona back then –some of them more than 15 years ago- were from Donostia or nearby, and one of them is my business partner as I write these lines. And as far as I can remember, I’ve always recommended Donostia to foreigners as one of the three cities to visit in Spain (the other two being Barcelona and Granada), because of its scenic beauty, its character and its gastronomy.

Street scene from the early 80s. Courtesy of www.carabgros.com

On top of that, I’ve always thought of Donostia as the perfect city to live in. Don’t get me wrong: as I grow older I’m becoming more of a hermit and my ideal lifestyle is more and more focused on the outdoors, the lack of crowds, contact with nature and the countryside. But until I can reach the economic independence required to move to a little house on top of a cliff somewhere with waves and not many crowds -at least 9 months per year (we all know crowds and summer go together no matter where you live in Europe), Donostia is my favourite city to live. And it’s been now over 2 and half years since I moved here permanently and I haven’t changed my mind even a little bit.

Gastronomers from around the world know about Donostia due – largely – to the many 1, 2 and 3 Michelin star restaurants that are found in and around the city. Art aficionados – especially to sculpture – have surely heard of the late Chillida and his magnificent oeuvres d’art on one of the most scenic walks of the city (El Peine de los vientos) and his open sky museum just outside Donostia. Cinema fans keep an eye, come September, on the Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián running for its 57th year consecutively.

But …surfers? Do they know about Donostia?
Mundaka (1 hour west)? Sure!!
Zarautz (20 minutes west and host of a large pro competition since the 80s)? You bet!!
Hossegor (1 hour north)? Mais bien sur!!
Biarritz (30 minutes north)? Oh la la!!!

But Donostia? Waves? The surfing world seems to ignore that Donostia has waves too. A couple of years ago I called the ASP Europe Headquarters (in Hossegor) on behalf of the local surf club to enquire about the requisites to hold an ASP sanctioned event. The first question the French voice at the other end of the line asked me was: “But… are there waves in Donostia?” Ah those frenchies and their sense of humour… you’ve got to love them, don’t you!

Not that the local surfers complain much about the rest of the surfing world ignoring them, mind you! There are already enough surfers in the water on any given day at La Zurriola (Donostia’s only proper surfing beach; there are couple of other spots but they only work during the fiercest and largest swells of winter). When you add the Erasmus students, the backpackers and all the other tourists to the very large local contingent of surfers, the one –sometimes two- peaks at la Zurriola quickly display a “fully booked” sign. And to make things worse, although there’s no localism to speak of, the competition in the water is strong and the waves are fast and dumping. The waves have changed a lot since the early to mid 90s, when La Zurriola was built. Until then the beach was named after the neighbourhood where it is found (Gros) and there was very little sand left at high tide, which caused the massive pier/wall rearrangement and the dumping of several hundreds of tons of sand of the mid 90s (along with the name change). But the now defunct west wall is what produced the high tide left wedge, one of the best waves of the coast in its day. It was a fast, powerful, hollow left that ran sideways to the shore, and where scores of local surfers learnt to ride the tube. The wall is now gone -and so is the wedge- and although there’s more beach at high tide than there ever was, the wave quality has suffered lots. Unfortunately these days, except when all the planets and stars align all we’ve got to play with are extremely fast dumpers that offer short, but intense, rides only.

In 2006 a local surfer by the name of Alain Gonfaus published a book where he interviews dozens of local surfers: “Surfers – una visión antropológica de la cultura del surf” (Surfers – an anthropologic vision on surf culture). It is only when you see some of the names that you realize that Donostia, through its local surfers, has played –and still plays- an important part in Europe’s surf culture and history at the same level as other more frequently named places. These days Alain has a new project under the form of a website, Cara B Gros, in which he tries to spread Donostia’s surfing history. Check the website out for some local vintage photos and video clips. This project will be officially presented next Friday September 18, at the Centro Cultural Okendo.

If you are around come and meet some of the local surfers and learn the history of their beach. It might not win you a wave the next day out the back, but at least you’ll get to put some names to some faces and, who knows, it could be the first step towards moving to Donostia one day.

Niegà

*Bella Easo (Pretty Easo) is the unofficial name of Donostia. The name comes from the Roman settlement of Oiasso whose description seems to match Donostia’s features and that, according to the Romans themselves, was of “unsurpassed beauty”. There is a healthy debate, though, on whether Oiasso is in fact Donostia or Irun (15 kms away).

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