Guatemala

OH Guatamala... 

The culture is rich with love. You can see active volcanoes in the distance just past the long cobble stone roads with a foreground of colors painted through the City of Antiqua.. Every night, baby turtles are released to the ocean at sunset. River mouth jetties provide perfect uncrowded waves. This big/little strip of land just south of Mexico in Central America delivered to say the least! One of our favorites in Central so far.

Long story short we went to Guatemala from the idea to create content... We had one week and I would say we pulled it off.

Thank you to Cocori Lodge for the amazing hospitality, good food, and paradise living. Mat Mahany for bringing it all together.. Jacob Manning for the non stop filming and entertaining. Rachel Chesnes for the help and good vibes. Island Company for providing apperal and sun screenage. 

-Jack & Paige

The wave was formed by a river mouth and was a perfect right-hand reeling barrel with slow sections for carves.  Jack had this wave to himself while Rachel and myself were shooting him with a 300m 2.8 and Jake was filming his every move using a drone and was right on top of him the whole time.  We all will remember this moment for the rest of our lives, it was actually a dream.

A 'Hupil' is a very authentic female top that most every woman wore.  They were so colorful, so handmade and so cultured. Along with the hupil was worn a corte and a colorful belt.  The women were so beautiful, their souls were so pure, Guatemalans are the most respectful and caring people I have ever come in contact with especially considering the language barrier.

To get to Trash Island we drove to a spot where there was a little access to a river with two wooden canoes.  The operator of the canoe also known as Robert was a little old man who was the cutest guy I have ever seen in my life.  Robert would take us across the dirty river to the island where all the locals, when the trash washed up, would gather into small piles and just light it on fire.  That was their waste management. The piles of small fires and smoke were what we would be dropped off onto, hence the name of the island.