Mexi Log Fest: A Cooperative Competition
Words by John Angiulo. Photos by Jonathan Nimerfroh.
Loggin is a subculture within surfing. Like all subcultures it has its own style, sensibilities, power players, fans, haters and legends. In case you don’t know, loggin is riding a heavily glassed single fin longboard. Good loggin is done with style, personal flair, technical mastery and undeniable flow. The subculture is built upon the pillars of creative expression, music, art, writing, connection with nature and a free-flowing perspective on life and living.
There are a few meccas for the art form across the world, usually celebrated through a contest/festival. One such event is the MexiLogFest, held in La Saladita in Mexico. The wave is a flawless left point that peels over a perfectly tapered coral and stone reef. The town is quaint and provincial, offering a real slice of Mexican culture on the site of world class wave.
The contest invites one hundred of the best male and female long boarders from around the world to compete on the extensive walls of La Saladita. Last year it was co-oped by the Duct Tape Invitational, the preeminent long boarding contest series in the world. Some even consider the Duct Tape more prestigious than winning the WSL world longboard tour. Many of the invitees are returning again this year, perpetuating an extremely high level of talent that can be considered nothing short of world class.
The festival portion of the event is made up of music and art wrapped in a communal feel of celebration no matter the results of the days events. Surf art, music and culture waft up in the warm breeze and are mixed with the culture of each creative soul that wanders the dusty streets. This creates a potent potion, a cocktail of creative conductivity.
This is part of the bone marrow of the longboard surfing referred to as loggin. It departs from the sport like nature of WSL competition and invokes the grassroots feels of surfers uniting with common cultures in order for each to display their best.
Is it a seven day party on the beach? You better believe it. Is it the height of modern longboard surfing? No doubt. Is it a cultural melting pot? Si. And is it a site of high consciousness? I believe it is.
Infused into the festival is the idea of being a conscious traveler, respecting the places and people’s we encounter along our way. Sustainability is ubiquitous value at this event, conscious conversations paving the roads to cleaner energy and scalable solutions.
And amidst all the different aspects and attributes of the MexiLogFest, one stands out amidst them all. Joy. The desire to feel, create and see joy all around those of us in and around the event. That pure uncut joy is at the heart of loggin, at the heart of creating and at the center of the communities that converge for this cooperative competition.
So tune in to the MexiLogFest. Check out the surfing. Look into the music. Catch a vibe. Then bring that vibe, that joy and that fun, back to wherever you’re at, whenever you’re there.
MexiLogFest 2017:
