It's hard to beat surf music in Southern California. Surfguitar101 was ostensibly a meetup for online forum members with a nice lineup of 10 bands, Today it stands as the premiere surf event of the US and possibly the world, with a globe-spanning lineup of over twenty bands, and I believe Saturday night was the biggest I'd ever seen it. Organizer Jeff "BigTikiDude" Hanson, modest pool cleaner by day, has been slowly tweaking the event and his support team to grow the event organically into something uncompromisingly accessible and genuine.

10am is generally a pretty agreeable time to do anything. Plenty of time to wake up, have breakfast etc. I mean that's noon back in New Orleans time. Yet when doors opened on Sunday it was a bit like a trickle. I get it too -- I still felt a little worn out from The Bomboras the previous night (check out my writeup of that), and my ears certainly weren't back into shape.

In 2019 I had sort of a last-hurrah-before-fatherhood surf-con-mega-tour, attending Surfer Joe Summer Festival, Hi-Tide Summer Holiday and Surfguitar 101 convention. The idea was I might not find the time to do many more of these for a little while, so now was the time. What I didn't know at the time was that I wouldn't be missing out on much! Three years later I wind up back in Los Angeles for SG101 once more, and I didn't miss a single one in the meantime.

It's time to take that yearly trip over to the west coast for the premiere Surf festival in the US: The Surfguitar101 Convention. After a nice day on the El Segundo Beach, a nice meet & greet, and a warm-up at The Purple Orchid on Friday, I woke up Saturday ready for a day immersed in surf music.

I learned from past experience that I should have cash in-hand and show up at least an hour early. I took a half-second to behold the strange and wonderful sight of the Alpine Lodge, and proceeded inside where I paid my admission to familiar friendly faces.

For those that got into surf somewhere after the 80’s and before bandcamp, compilations were key for exposure to more surf groups. That’s slowed down significantly, with only a handful of notable ones in the past few years (off the top of my head Brave New Surf and Monsters of Surf). Reverb Nation serves a dual purpose of commemorating a great lineup at the Surfguitar 101 convention (the tracks are mostly in the same sequence of the performances) and as a surf compilation.

First time it’s a new thing, second time it’s getting official, third time it’s a ritual.

This was my second year at SG101 and tell ya right off the bat: it's a ton of fun and if you've ever thought about going you should go.

This will be my second year at the biggest US surf event: the Surfguitar 101 Convention in Torrance, CA. 

After years of "maybe next years", I finally got my ass in gear and bought myself a plane ticket to Los Angeles for the Surfguitar101 Convention, organized chiefly by Jeff "Bigtikidude" Hanson as a big ol' meetup for members of surfguitar101.com and, you know, surf nuts in general.

Let's just skip to the end real quick: it was an absolutely incredible time. It was a kinda special thing to me getting to see a scene that I've only been a part of from afar, and the music started good and managed to top itself with each act.