[MIXTAPE] Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

My 2012 in 18 tracks. From Ed Sheeran to M83, from Bauhaus to Norah Jones, from Arctic Monkeys to Alexi Murdoch. Doesn't really sound like a playlist but it definitely sounds like my year. ;)

Nothing but gratitude

For The Strokes. That they are still alive. That Is This It is still as tight, raw and gripping as it was first released more than a decade ago.

For feeling beautiful feelings, no matter how fleeting they were. For the much needed imaginary invincibility from time to time. For the ugly wake-up calls. For every single lesson we were forced to learn from every single piece of bullshit we had to take. For the courage to believe again working on that courage to believe again.

For Pundaquit sunsets. For barefoot Calicoan wandering. For glassy morning sets in Sabang. For our home that is Urbiztondo.

For Uno and all his out-of-focus glory. For Luna and her non-existent dings. For surf families. For party waves, party nose dives and everything else in between. For every single precious wave. Thank you.

For having friends others could only dream of. For conversations that are too insane they actually make sense. For f1.8. For life changing coin tosses. For the glow of the city at night. For mixtapes and coffee. For listening to good mixtapes while sipping good coffee. For meeting exceeding our quota of fuck it moments this year. For those times when "epic" and "awesome" would not suffice.

For places I have yet to visit and people I have yet to meet.  

Nothing but gratitude,
Miccah

Moodboard for 2013. *These photos are not mine and unfortunately, I forgot their original sources because when you visit Tumblr and you see something interesting, you just go click 'save image as' pronto. So if you happen to own them, let me know so I can attribute them to you properly. :)

That Wednesday Session

It was one of those days at Point when upon reaching the lineup, you immediately tell yourself it's a bad idea to get out. After one nasty wipeout, I decided to paddle in and not push my luck, which turned out to be a good call because:

1. I heard someone got out with a broken board that morning. It could have been Luna. What with my amazing whitewater surfing skills and all.

2. I was able to shoot! I haven't taken a single shot since I arrived. Sunday - Monday was flat AKA no waves to surf, no surfers to take photos of. Tuesday was so beautiful I wanted to marry it AKA no shoot, just surf. Small, fun waves, easy paddle out. I was out of the water just to eat lunch. It got a bit windy in the afternoon but we didn't mind. After all, we have to take whatever the ocean gives us, yes?

So here are some snaps of LU surfers taking advantage of what was said to be a one-day swell at the bowl. 

Kuya Textback Dalora from Samar

Never Look Back

I surf because it heals me.

[MIXTAPE] Jerk It Out

Sick beats and jangly guitars. Music from The Maccabees, MGMT, Foals and The Drums to get you pumped up for the day. :)

Asking where's my head at,

Miccah

Lessons Under The White Lights

AKA Five things I learned on my first skate lesson/on my first attempt at skate photography

1. Skate photography is an entirely different animal. I thought it would be like surfing's brother or best friend. But it turned out to be surfing's best friend's third cousin... from another mother. Shooting fast moving subjects under low light proved to be a headache. Nevertheless, it's a headache I'm willing to have everyday.

Dan Kaw

Ede Virata

White Lights

Perfection is overrated

Sometimes, you don't have to get everything right.

From top to bottom: Portraits of La Union surfers Fernando, Christian and Haniwell 
shot in unintentionally low shutter speed

Still surf-deprived,
Miccah

A Never-ending Dance. A Blooming and a Trance.

AKA The Siege of Baler in 10 photos

1. Sabang Beach - where all the action took place. Seven years after I first visited Baler, it still has the same effect on me. I could not think of the right words to properly encapsulate the feeling, but I guess to say that it feeds my soul would be a close approximation.

2. If it's illegal to have so much style in and out of the water, then somebody arrest Buji Libarnes please.

3. One hand grabbing the rail. One hand touching the wave. Long hair perfectly in place. Shortboarder Ron Manghinang sure knows how to ride with style even on a longboard. 

Love Like a Sunset

Here comes, a visible horizon.

Right where it starts and ends.

Oh, and then we start the end.

I must accept my eyes betray these half-dreams

If you'll ask me who my favorite subjects are, at point-blank I will tell you, surfers and musicians.

Nicole of General Luna

 Indio-i

Juliann of Save Me Hollywood

Photographs, they haunt me lately

I will forget everything that happened in Pundaquit.

  

Rest high above the clouds, no restrictions.

For the love of surf (and Kinna Kwan), Calicoan Island happened last October. It was five days of surfing lifestyling because charging on those double to triple overhead waves would be utter madness. But instead of me telling you how much Andok's chicken we consumed, or how we used up our lifetime's quota of hitchhiking, let me tell you...

...that for five days, the trees served as our walls, and the sky, our roof...