I thought I'd save Jeff the trouble of asking everyone for their impressions, recollections, highlights and suggestions about the festival this past weekend (7/28/2023). So don't be bashful, Jeff and his crew aren't doing this for the money, and I'm sure they'd really appreciate getting some positive feedback on all our experiences.

I'll start by saying this was the most amazing convention (though it's no longer called that) yet. I've been to every year save one (death in the family) and have performed at least at a half dozen of them.

There are many things I could single out about this event, but utmost to me is the camaradery and love shared by hundreds of people for this tiny uber-nerdy genre of music. Much of adult life is finding ways to connect with other people; to feel part of something bigger than oneself. For a lot of us here, crazily enough that became surf music.

I enjoyed many of the performances, no surprise that my favorite was Satan's Pilgrims - and that's not because I happened to play on 3 songs. We all (we other surf bands) do our best to piece together the various elements of surf music to find our own individual approach. But inevitably only a few get it so right that they transcend the bulk of us and rise to the top. For me it's Satan's Pilgrims. They hit all the marks for me. Great thanks to the festival, the Pilgrims and Thomas Lauderdale for making the trip down.

The venue was among my favorite of all the conventions. I liked having a room right there. And I liked that there was decent food options a short walk or an easy drive (had perhaps the best taco truck experience in my life, and I live in the Bay Area). The drinks were a tad pricey, but that's probably par for the course. I did appreciate that the bar was staffed well so it wasn't a long wait.

A huge highlight was spending time with the founder of this website Brian and his lovely wife Debra, who made the trip from Iowa. To some degree we are all indebted to Brian for all his generous hard work setting up and maintaining this website. And the best way to show your appreciation to him is to keep this forum active. And not just gear posts!

One other highlight I'd like to mention is seeing The Sound Of The Surf film in it's final state. I had seen a previous edit many years ago, but this is not the same film. The pacing was tightened up, the narrative flowed smoothly, the interviews were salient and absorbing and the footage is unbelievable. It may not cover everything we super surf nerds may have wanted, but it succeeds as an overview, introduction and testament to the genre that can be appreciated by a general audience and a diehard fan.

I enjoyed many other acts, but I'll leave it to others to sing their praises. Jeff, Ran, JonPaul, Marie, Duff, The Quilters and whoever else I'm forgetting or haven't met on the staff - my deepest gratitude for putting this together. I highly recommend you start planning to attend next year. Spending time in Southern California is an experience to remember, I look forward to it every year.

PS: to those of you who I neglected to say hello to, please feel free to come up to me, and remind me who I'm talking to. I get a bit overwhelmed seeing so many people at once while trying to remember their names (we're all getting up there in age and I'm sure you can relate). I'm always glad to chat with you.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Last edited: Jul 31, 2023 13:11:16

I am so envious of those that got to attend. I was at the first one but only for a short while. This postage stamp farm, back then, with horses, llamas, dogs, cats, and chickens, didn’t allow me much time away from it.

The years pass. And there’s always something to keep me away.
I was talking to my wife about it last week. For once in 40yrs we are animal free. She ask me if I had thought about attending the convention/ festival next year. Well I thought about it. But I’ll be 74 next year. I think I’ll let all you youngen’s go and enjoy yourselves. I’ll bask in the after glow of your reports here for those of us that don’t attend.
But you never know. Just don’t knock the old guy in the walker over.
Joel

Last edited: Jul 31, 2023 14:42:34

Joelman wrote:

But I’ll be 74 next year. I think I’ll let all you youngen’s go and enjoy yourselves. I’ll bask in the after glow of your reports here for those of us that don’t attend.
But you never know. Just don’t knock the old guy in the walker over.
Joel

I mean this to encourage, not to disparage the event: you'll fit right in. At 37 I feel like I'm one of the youngest regulars. Though I did notice a pretty good amount of people younger than me, which is great!

The lineup was truly fantastic -- I feel like I ticked off a bunch from my bucket list. The venue was great, similar to the last one which I enjoyed but upgrades where it mattered! However if it sold out maybe we gotta move onward?

Thanks so much to everybody that made it happen. With a toddler and a newborn I have to be pretty choosy about my surf festival opportunities and I have no doubt that I chose wisely.

Storm Surge of Reverb: Surf & Instro Radio

Padraig wrote:

... Now, let's see some videos!

You're welcome Patrick, I suggest you subscribe to Dave F's youtube, he'll be posting a bunch.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Tikiyaki was outstanding. It was a real treat to see them. We did get to see Ferenc play a little ukulele with The Tikiyaki Orchestra, playing happily next to JP. TO played a long set, roughly 1 hour 24 mins.

Satan's Pilgrims, also outstanding. They wore suit jackets, no capes.
Garrett was ripping on guitar. So cool to see Danny on keyboards with SP.
SP finished their set around 11:30.

The people were super into it & were immediately on the wooden floor next to the stage as soon as TO started. They stayed on the floor all Friday night.

The venue sound man was nice enough to give me a soundboard feed both Friday & Saturday. I did record all the PJ interview & plan to use the soundboard audio for it & all the bands where it fits. PJ said he intended to play, but was not up to it that day.

Right after the PJ interview, Marty Tippens & Matt Quilter did a reverb shootout for a few minutes.

It was great & exhausting for me, standing most of the time.
I did record Friday & most of Saturday when I reached my limit.
Had to chill for a while across the street. A record number of attendees meant the floor space was full of people & was too difficult at times to maneuver. I'm sure my cameras were a pita to some.

Attached are the set lists from TO & Satan's Pilgrims.
I started editing the TO set & sent the first video to them, pending approval.

I was toying with the idea of making the entire sets available for free download, warts & all. I'm assuming the bands may not give that a thumbs up & hesitate to ask them.

If nobody else starts a video thread then I will. I am typically slow at making videos. If there is no thread soon, then I will start one so we can all add to it.

Thanks everybody
Means a lot, keep ‘em coming

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I forgot to mention that I am already looking forward to next year's Fest!!!

Buy Speed of Dark @ Bandcamp
Buy Spin the Bottle @ Bandcamp
My Blog- Euro Tour Blog
Pool Boys on Spotify
INSTAGRAM
Frankie & The Pool Boys on FB
Pollo Del Mar on FB
DJ Frankie Pool Boy on North Sea Surf Radio

Ferenc, already planning,

member jam needs more people interested.
Gellert has some ideas.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

bigtikidude wrote:

Ferenc, already planning,

member jam needs more people interested.
Gellert has some ideas.

Yes,there will be changes for the member's jam. Communication is the #1 most important factor when saying "I'm in". Responding to private messages is also crucial, and not after the festival has ended.

Going forward, the four of us who were prepared and present, have decided a re-do to the signup procedures were in order.

More information will be posted later. Let's keep this thread focused on everything wonderful that went perfectly during the festival's three days.

_

Hi, I'm Gellert, guitarist for The Fintastics.

https://www.facebook.com/TheFintastics

Wow, what can we all say? This event was superb. My wife and I have been to Tiki Oasis many times but decided to fly down from Sacramento to attend SG101. I'm retired now but having put together large events over several days myself, I can only applaud Jeff and his team on the fact that things went smoothly. There are so many details that must be thought about and addressed beforehand for these types of functions to run smoothly....and a smooth event it was !!!!

My only thought that might warrant further review would be to consider other food vendors. I don't feel the vendor came prepared for this volume of people. The food was tasty but several at my table complained that they waited close to 45 minutes for a hotdog. The line was never that long so waiting like that was ridiculous. I waited almost as long for an item only to be told at the window that they ran out of it long ago. I suggested they put a sign on their menu board indicating what's no longer available!? They also ran out of napkins and their battery ran out on their ordering ipad (shockingly, no backup was available) so many folks could not pay with credit cards and some had no cash. Some hotel employees in line had enough and decided to go elsewhere too.

The food issue aside, the hotel, the level of talent at the event and the overall execution was outstanding! We've already decided to come back next year! Oh yea, Satan's Pilgrims rocked !

Mahalo and well done !!

Last edited: Aug 02, 2023 17:15:00