hi there! i'm michelle, southern california based photographer and curator of the coco gallery.

welcome to my blog where i share my life, my latest adventures, photo projects, random nuggets and the occasional stray thoughts.

for clients: to view my portfolio just click on this link - theCOCOgallery.com. to book sessions please send me a message through theCOCOgallery.com or contact me via michelle@thecocogallery.com | 949.734.0604



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

la union surf break 2008

la union hosted it's surf competition right down the beach from us this last weekend. it was a party EVERY night from friday till sunday. on saturday some bands from manila came down to do the battle of the bands. the stage was setup on the beach and the sandy dance floor heated up with bodies as the music pumped from giant speakers.

we were out till almost 3 am that night. i honestly didn't think we would make it home in one piece. i probably had about 2 1/2 bottles of redhorse in my system that had me buzzing for hours! before you cough out lightweight... consider that this brand of beer is actually a beer n gin mix and i was on an empty stomach. so there!

anyways... curtis had waaaaay more than me. we were like drunk drivers trying to walk home on the coast. it was a perilous walk home i might add as i had to use ALL my weight and the laws of gravity to keep curtis from falling into the dark rocky abyss. he actually did a full on face plant not once but twice! the first one more embarassing than the second since he did it right next to a quiet couple who were trying to make out in the dark. i tugged on the sandy boy, pulling him to his feet for a good 2 mins (tho it felt like 15), profusely apologizing to the couple for intruding on their privacy the whole time. all this between laughs and sand in my teeth. we have a new rule now. only one drunk person at a time. ALWAYS need a designated driver even if there is no car to speak of. yeesh! we woke up w hangovers the next day. there was a party on sunday night but both he and i were good little kids and walked around w bottles of water sans alcohol.

the very first "surfing bodies" competition was held on sunday night. it was a beauty pageant of sorts. guys and girls, 10 contestants on each side. it was an interesting thing. i've seen my share of runway shows when i worked at pacsun oh so long ago. boys just don't know how to work the catwalk. it turns out that when they are dressed down to their skivvies it gets worse. the really sad part is that someone (who should be fired) decided to dress these poor boys in some scantily clad speedos (2 out of 3 outfits) that didn't have enough lining!!!! i was scandalized. to make matters worse... one outfit was white and the other a nude color! the girls' bikinis were well done... but those poor boys. trust me when i say that even i felt squeamish for them. well known designer or not... men's swimwear should be tasteful, revealing without being see thru and flattering. these were neither and i'm no prude.



partying up with our lovable companions from garden plage. shown below are joanne, ate lisa and lorraine. btw... lorraine swears her feet are a size 5 but curtis and i are thinking that the philippines has its own sizing scale and a 5 around here is like a 3 1/5. this has to be true since my american size 3 body seems to fit in in the philippine large or xLarge.


GSM is the local vodka. P72 per bottle ... that's like a buck n a half in dollars my american peeps.


curtis with the surf and bball boys of surfmaid.


someone calls out volunteers for free beer and curtis bolts faster than superman. they had a drinking contest. curtis didn't even understand the rules since they were given in tagalog but who cares? he got free beer!


at some point all this drinking means gotta go pee. we made our way over to one of the surf resorts to avail of the restroom. i was gone just long enough for our favorite social butterfly (curtis) to make a whole table of new friends! and thank god for frances, irish and rico whose names came to me the next day despite the hangover due to their international link. they adopted us for the rest of the night. introduced us to a new concoction --> beer + vodka + lime juice = yum! seriously folks.. give this one a try. after a few rounds of the yum, more beer and a bag of chips later we were ready to hit the sand and join the throng of pulsating bodies dancing the night away on the beach.

it wasn't until the next day when i uploaded the pictures that i realized just how drunk i was. these were the ONLY pictures that semi-came-out. the rest were too blurry or too dark or too shakey. yeesh! it's a miracle that my camera survived the ordeal. alcohol was shooting thru the sky as dancers were creating beer fountains on the floor, sand was flying everywhere and me just hopping along w everyone exposing my poor cam to the beach party elements.


nobody yell at me but this is the only picture i took of the surf body competition. and don't ask about the actual surf competition which occurred sunday morning. we were so exhausted from the night before we couldn't even get up to watch the actual competition!

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