Monday quote and how to simplify your life in 5 minutes

Good morning everyone,  this weekend we had great weather here in the Basque Country. Some of us we were out exploring nature, and it really reminded me how important is to be "observer" and aware of your life and what you do everyday.

I thought this picture and quote by Thoreau would be wonderful for starting our weeks.

Also while writing this post I was reading an article by Greg McKeown "How to simplify your life in 5 minutes". He gives some great little tips about priority, awareness and planning.
Give it a read if you can!
One phrase it caught my attention was "Live by design rather than by default". Simply awesome.

Would you recommend some other great readings to help simplify our lives? If so, why don't you give me a shout about it?

Thanks and have a great week!

Daniel in grateful peace. Sopelana, Basque Country

About the pic:
I took this pic in Sopelana in 2012. Me and my surfer friends living in Barcelona we attend every year a surf camp in Barrika named "Barrika Surfcamp".
We go there around easter, so it is really difficult to have nice weather. That year from a week of stay we had 2 days of great weather. One of those days we had a lay day, and waiting for the swell finally to come; so we decided to just go for a walk and relax in the meanwhile.

Surfing pic of the day, Sagües goes left

Such a wonderful afternoon at Sagües 2 weeks ago with this young surfer! Here he's maneuver. Little wave, but smoothly ridden.

Lots of surf for everyone and happy thursday!

Throwback thursday, Olena in Graz, Austria

I've been friends with Olena for more than 10 years now. I met her when we both lived in Marseille, and somehow we still manage to see each other sometimes, travel together and give each other news. 

It doesn't happen with much of the people you meet along the way, but I have a few friends just like her from my different adventures around the world.

During these 10 years we know we changed a lot. Now we have very diverse interests, but anyway what I think it bring us together is that at the end, we still have something in ourselves from that time we spent together in France.

Lena is such an inspiration, creative, very interested in art and new currents. She's also a great model with lots of ideas for pictures and super natural too. 

In these pics we were in Graz visiting some friends of mine, when suddenly found this place with great light for a B&W mini-shoot.

Lena, picture drama in Graz

Ghost

Living and Surfing the Basque Country// Mushburger California

A couple of days ago, the guys of Mushburguer in California asked me to write a post for their blog. They were curious about how is living and surfing here in San Sebastian as a Mexican, so I was more than stoked to write this piece for them.

Hope you like it too, here it is:

"It’s been three years since I moved to San Sebastian. I originally came here to work for Surfrider Foundation Europe. I had been living in Barcelona for six years, but I was ready to embark on a new stage in my life, I wanted to surf every day. And that desire lead me to a new career in Donostia (San Sebastian), where I live now. 
Donostia is one of the few surf cities in Europe and the main surf spot here is Zurriola, where I surf almost every day I can. Zurriola is a small beach break which means it can get incredibly crowded, I have only been able to surf it once by myself, for 30 minutes on a very cold day.
The Summers can be a living hell at Zurriola because the crowd swells with more surfers, SUPers, boogie boarders, surf schools, swimmers, kayakers and tourists, but since it’s all we have, it’s better than nothing.

Basque surfers won’t say hello in the water if they don’t know you. I‘ve surfed a lot of other spots around the world, and I’ve found that compared to other places, it’s really hard to make conversations here in San Sebastian. But I always say hello by courtesy, both in and out of the water, so there are a few of us.

Of course, we can’t generalize. I’ve met a lot of nice people surfing here too, but it’s taken me a lot more time to break the ice with surfers here than at other beaches.
In fact it’s taken me three years to make friends with the surfers here, and I’m still always the one who has to start the conversation.

But with that said, surfers here don’t like to share waves, but they really have no choice because it’s always crowded. Some of them are okay but a lot of them aren’t. During a good swell some of the attitudes get ridiculous. You have the typical old dude surfing his longboard, getting every possible wave, and when you dare to jump in, he yells at you like there’s no tomorrow.

If you have the time and a car, you can drive to beaches like Zarautz, only 15 minutes from San Sebastian, and usually triple the size. The vibe in the water changes a hell of a lot, too. Much more friendly.
What I really love about living in San Sebastian is how strategically located is. If you have the means, you actually have lots of alternatives besides Zurriola."

Read the rest of the article here and if you have a surfing blog submit to Musburguer, they're just awesome! 

Going solo in a sweet afternoon in Zurriola

Morning glory

One for all and all for one!

Sharing is caring

Let's go to this battle

Monday quote: A Sea bound and Write it Forward project

How to explain the intense relationship one has with the ocean? I was born and raised in the desert in Mexico, and when I was a kid I only get to see the ocean once per year.

I began surfing 8 years ago, and I can say I'm totally addicted to the ocean now. It is really difficult to explain the feeling interacting with the ocean, the energy flowing between you and the mother nature; and how easy is to forget about the banalities of the world thanks to the ocean.

Admiring big waves is one of my favorite things on earth. Is like putting your finger direct in a light socket. You feel all it's energy going all over your body as a perfect transmitter. At the end we're all made of water as the ocean itself, aren't we?

Power of Mother Nature, Zaratuz-Basque Country 2013

About the pic:
I took this pic last winter in Zarautz, Basque Country during a big swell. I called it "Power of Mother Nature", and I participated with it in a great project called "Write it Forward". This project pretends to support literacy and highlight the importance of the written word in this "electronic times" through printed postcards and other actions.

Check out the project and the creative collective participating! Thanks Rachel for inviting me in! Such a blessing to participate in so inspirational projects.

Week Suggest: Surfboard Masterpieces by Kind Surf & Aritz Aranburu

This past Wednesday I assisted to the inauguration of the Surfboard Masterpieces expo at the Aquarium in San Sebastián.

This expo, organized by Kind Surf and Aritz Aranburu features 13 different boards donated by pro surfer, such as: Lisa Andersen, Kelly Slater, Jeremy Flores, Craig Anderson, etc.; and converted in art objects by renowned artists.

At the end of itinerant expo, the pieces will be put in auction to raise funds for different actions organized by the NGO Kind Surf.

If you have the chance, go and check out the expo, and if you can't assist you can know more about Kind Surf actions here: www.kindsurf.org and donate if you like what they do.

Some pics of the expo here:

Aritz Aranburu

Aritz Aranburu and girlfriend Almudena Fernández of Kind Surf

Artzai (Aritz's manager), tired but happy for the results

The boards

Jeremy Flores's board

Lisa Andersen's board

Aritz's board by Chillida

Craig Anderson's board

Aritz's friends from Zarautz

Christian and Katrin

Throwback thursday, morning surf with Artzai back in 2011

TBT pic today is a pic I took of Artzai in 2011, one morning he was heading to a surf session in Zurriola. It looks a little bit more old than it is, but is cause I used my old analogue Minolta. Good cameras never get old!

Great profile pic at Zurriola