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I will launch the tour for my new book, Surfing the Border, on Saturday January 24th in Coronado and Imperial Beach. I will be speaking and signing books at the Coronado Library Winn Room from 2-3pm and then from 5-6:30 pm I’ll be at the Pier South Resort in Imperial Beach. Should be a blast!!
One of the great pleasures of being the Executive Director of WILDCOAST is being able to evaluate our impact each year. And this year was a tremendous year of success. Here are some of our results.
It is not everyday that your charity event appears in a super cool music video. But on June 2nd, WiLDCOAST held the 1st Annual Baja Bash to benefit our efforts to conserve the coast and ocean of Baja California. Nortec Collective: Hiperboreal played an amazing set and the video above is from the concert. We were also lucky to have the participation of Javier Plascencia of Mision 19, Solange Muris and Benito Molina of Manzanilla and Diego Hernandez of Corazon de Tierra. Thanks to a great team and all of our sponsors!!
It was also an honor for me to give our first ever Ocean Defender awards to Maria Celeste of Telemundo’s Al Rojo Vivo and Dr. Octavio Aburto of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Maria Celeste after receiving her Ocean Defender Award during the Baja Bash with me in the background.
The Baja Boys have been exploring the back roads and surfing the point breaks of Baja California since they were micro-groms. In this video, they break down in the middle of the desert. Stranded and surrounded by scorpions, they find perfect point waves and make friends with the locals.
The Baja Boys-Israel, Daniel and Josh take a break from the water.
Field camp in Baja. Good equipment is the key to having fun in Baja. The wind shelter didn't survive a later winter trip.
Daniel gets a good one. We almost never encounter crowds where we surf in Baja. We never saw anyone else surfing this spot at all.
Israel got a little tired of going right all the time. Unfortunately our trip to Conejo was marred by big winds.
On this day the groms surfed literally until they dropped. All we do in Baja is surf all day, get up early and go to bed early. A grom paradise.
The groms amuse themselves between sessions.
The funnest times I’ve had as a surfer and a father have involved taking my sons on surf trips to Baja. Generally the waves are great for kids. Everything is an adventure and we have the best time possible.
This is one of the first surf trips we did at an easy spot (the boys had both lived and traveled in Baja since they were babies). The boys were just learning how to ride waves. In fact Daniel, my youngest, literally learned how to ride whitewater and catch waves here.
The following year, Daniel had improved a bit and Israel my oldest was able to paddle out to the point and catch some set waves. He also learned the limits of how many fish tacos he could eat. After greedily inhaling nine, he woke me up in the middle of the night and proceeded to vomit all over the Suburban we slept in.
The shame about the drug-realted violence and crime wave that has hit Mexico (that is very real and should not be dismissed as “media-hype”) is that it turned many surfing families away from trips to Baja.
I think things in Baja have calmed down, but it will never be the safe haven without a worry that it once was. But you should take your kids south of the border and have them experience the wonders of a remote and beautiful place.
I still take the boys down there, but I am a lot more careful than I used to be.
One of the best things about writing Wild Sea, was having the opportunity to get some great feedback from writers who I really respect. And luckily not only did Dick Russell, Homero Aridjis, Kem Nunn and especilaly Drew Kampion and Ben Marcus provide some good suggestions and support, but they were kind enough to provide some blurbs for my book:
“Serge Dedina writes with both passion and clarity about a subject he knows like the back of his hand. For anyone with an interest in the
issues that define life on the U.S./Mexican border, Serge’s book is indispensable. For anyone with an interest in Southern California
Surf lore, with its attendant iron men and holy goofs, Serge’s book is a pleasure to read.” -Kem Nunn, author of Tijuana Straits
“In Wild Sea, Serge Dedina tells the true story of a wondrous world that’s become his life’s work. Dedina’s eloquent narrative leads us on a harrowing journey through the complex and evolving realities of a threatened and forgotten land.” —Drew Kampion, author of The Way of the Surfer: Living It 1935 to Tomorrow
“From San Juanico Bight to the HBO series John from Cincinnati, Serge Dedina details the trials and tribulations of a desert coast under assault by man and nature, from land and sea.” —Benjamin Marcus, former editor for Surfer magazine and author of Surfing USA! An Illustrated History of the Coolest Sport of All Time
“Serge Dedina has dedicated his life to preserving the coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife of the Californias, researching, writing, fighting battles, and working with local residents to conserve their precious natural heritage. . . . You must read this inspiring book by one of the country’s most articulate and courageous defenders of the environment to find out what’s happening now in Baja California and on the southern California coast, and what we can do about it.” —Homero Aridjis, Founder and President, The Group of 100; Former Mexican Ambassador to UNESCO
“In an era when our last pristine places are being threatened by rampant development, Serge Dedina’s account of his ongoing battle to preserve the Baja Peninsula should inspire environmentalists everywhere. With a surfer’s passion and ingenuity, he takes on the corporate powers – and, along the way, gives us a fascinating history of others who ride the waves.” —Dick Russell, author of Eye of the Whale
There is something about the remote parts of the Baja California peninsula that remind us of what a wild coast is supposed to be. These images are by Zach Plopper from a recent trip we did to survey a national park in Baja California. Luckily we had a good tent to survive the harsh Santa Ana winds that hit.
Serge Dedina dawn patrols remote Baja/Photo: Zach Plopper
WilLDCOAST Base camp in remote Baja/Photo: Zach Plopper
Baja campfire/Credit: Zach Plopper
We are on the road in Baja with Chris del Moro of Surfers for Cetaceans.
And shocked to hear the news about the death of Andy Irons. Baja is as always a welcome respite from civilization.
sergededina 