de

amory

arte(new Visions from the old world)

PHOTOs: sergiO Villalba

“i tried to photograph the mysterious, true

and magical soul of popular spain in all its

passion, loVe, humor, tenderness, rage, pain, in

all its truth; and the fullest and most intense

moments in the liVes of these characters as

simple as they are irresistible, with all their

inner strength, as a personal challenge that gaVe

me strength and understanding and in which i

inVested all my heart. “ — cristina garcia rodero

photography and words by

sergio VillalbaJaVi muÑoZ (pacotwo)

cover photo by Sergio villalba

“EvEry oncE in a whilE somEonE’s photography comEs along that is so hEartfElt that all you want to do is sharE it with thE rEst of thE world. facEs of surfErs wE do not rEcognizE, wavEs on mars, landscapEs of prEhistoric Earth. wElcomE to Javi muÑoz and sErgio villa-ba’s vision of surfing.”

—pEtE taras

My name is Sergio. i’m 30 at the moment. i grew up in a small town in the south of tenerife [canary islands, Spain]. as far as i can remember i always took photos. i started using my mum’s compact Minolta camera when i was a kid. right now i’m on a plane, destination France, and that camera’s inside my bag over my head. Surfing was my obsession from an early age. there was something about the shape of the waves that really attracted me, so my main subjects were the waves first, the surfers later. there’s no romantic story about hasselblad cameras or invaluable knowledge passing from dad to son. My dad still doesn’t really know what i do for a living. i moved to barcelona when i was 19. right after my parents got divorced the atmosphere at home was unbearable, so i left. i worked there providing imagery for three prestigious music clubs, as well as for a pre-press company retouching photos for the Spanish versions of National geographic and playboy. but even though i still consider that city my second home, i got really sick of it. i left and came back to my island where, little by little, i managed to get my own equipment and in a year was getting paid for shooting mainly surfing. Not much, but i knew i was on the right path. My last five years have been pretty hectic. i traveled to every single continent (last year i spent nine months abroad). i got some really well-paid assignments and also did some not-so-well-paid

but 100% worth it off-the-beaten-track trips to oman, the Faroe islands and iceland (when it wasn’t such a famous coldwater destination). i did the first ever surf shoot in a studio with hMi lights on my island with some of the best surfers in the world. that got me the cover of Stab mag in australia and put my photos on the walls of the camera club in Sydney. i never went to photography school because i always thought learning the biographies of guys who were dead was a waste of time. later i real-ized i was wrong. there’s a lot of inspiration to be found in other artists’ work. i love richard avedon’s portraits, James Nachtwey and reza’s war photography, Salgado’s photos of africa and Manuel outumuro’s fashion photos. it’s not easy to make money in the surf photo business nowadays, but yeah, it’s possible if you just take every single assignment, keep your rates as high as possible and work hard. living off of photography is sometimes more social than technical. i love visiting places where people don’t know what surfing is. i hate the “surf for the masses” places. i only go to hawaii if it’s for an assignment. i went to victoria, australia, and found it just too crowded. loved tasmania though. loved Morocco and oman and its endless right-handers. loved canada, the Faroe islands, Scotland and iceland. Don’t know why, but having been born in such a subtropical place like the canary islands, i feel really attracted to cold places. there’s

something magic about them. Near where i live there are a bunch of world-class waves that are only surfed by a bunch of locals. Most of them are my friends, but there are also a couple of waves where just a few guys surf and nobody takes photos. believe me when i say that the North Shore of tenerife is the most localized place on earth. tenerife is where i am most of the time. there i shoot with the best surfers from the canaries: Jonathan gonzalez, vilayta and alex Zirke, who are two big-wave chargers, alejandro ruíz, ale Díaz, Matías hernández — i know these guys will be out there in any conditions and i’ve always felt good shooting with friends. goals? Stay healthy so i can do this as long as possible. you can’t sleep two weeks in the desert, roofless, drinking hot water, unless you have good health. if i can do what i do for the rest of my life i’ll be happy. i love the life i have now. pacotwo and i are working really hard on our agency as well [We photo agency — http://www.wephotoagency.com/]. i hope to keep growing as a company. to have enough work to share it with other up-and-coming professionals who deserve it. and to have two kids with my girlfriend and seeing them grow up. Stay by the sea and live in a quiet place. and give my kids a good education so they can be good human beings.

“i love visiting places where people don’t know what surfing is. i hate the ‘surf for the masses’ places.”

S e r g i o V i l l a l b a

i’m Javi Muñoz, but i’m better known as “pacotwo.” the nickname…it’s a long story. i’m 35 and i grew up in the basque country. i still remember the day a friend of mine came to the beach with a sponge that was some kind of a hybrid between a surfboard and a bodyboard. From that day i knew i wanted one of those. i started bodyboarding and years later moved on to surfing. i always wanted to be a journalist, actually. i still keep thou-sands of magazines that i started buying when i was a kid. then i got a degree in communica-tions and joined my passion for surfing with my vocation. i bought a 35mm Minolta and started going to the best spots in my area. i was fortunate to connect with the people of Zarautz (thanks, guys) and step by step i started to get on the radar of the two main Spanish magazines, Surfer Rule and 3sesenta. i live in hondarribia, a mellow fishing town in the basque country, which i highly recommend visiting. We have medieval buildings and colorful fishermen’s houses — pretty cool. it’s just on the border with France, so if i swim across a river, then i’m in France, and with the european Union we don’t need passports anymore here. of course, if you want to work as a surf photographer, you gotta travel. i’m used to making two or three big trips per year but i also love to take little escapes through europe when there’s a good forecast. i’ve been all over europe, the

US, puerto rico, Mexico, Morocco, South africa, Namibia…but if there’s a place i can’t miss every winter it’s the canary islands. i’ve been there more than 20 times. When i’m at home i shoot the area between Mundaka and hossegor. Zarautz is always a good place to take photos when the sandbanks are good. the level of surfing there is the best in Spain by far. i definitely feel comfortable with the euro-pean crew. these past years i’ve been hanging out mostly with the Spanish ‘QS warriors (aritz, hodei, Jonathan and gony), but also with freesurfers like indar Unanue or pablo gutierrez and the young guns from my area. lately i’ve made a couple of trips with Frenchies, Dutch…and it’s been so cool. actually, all the european surfers are like a big family. i read pretty much all the surf magazines from europe and the US, and some aussie ones when i get the chance to find them. i’m also very interested in the design side, and i think that a good layout makes big differences between maga-zines. i love mags like Wallpaper or some aussie bodyboard mags that are very inspiring in that sense. people always tell you how lucky you are, working on the beach and traveling to so many countries, but the truth is it’s often not as nice as it looks. Nobody gets rich with surf photography — and i really don’t mind that much, but often you have to deal with factors like sharp reefs, sharks, or long walks with all your gear, and that’s not

easy. the last five years have been key in deciding whether the tradeoff is really worth it to engage in this. there are months in which we make very little money; there’s even the possibility of losing money. Many taxes, fuel, equipment, etc. but then there are months when things go well, and that’s when those losses are offset.

“i definitely feel comfortable with the european crew. these past years i’ve been hanging out mostly with the Spanish ‘QS warriors.”

P a c o t w o

traditional festiVal in tenerife, canaries. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

editor in chief taylor paul

managing editor stuart cornuelle

associate editor beau flemister

photo editor peter taras

associate photo editor Jimmy wilson

art director chato aganZa

guest artist Jamie parkhurst

online editor Jason miller

sergio Villalba and pacotwo

Editorial

photography by

offshore winds push the smell of sardines from a factory in peniche. aritZ aranburu, loVing it. PHOTO:

PacOTwO

aritZ aranburu, north of london, south of iceland. PHOTO: PacOTwO

san sebastian in summer is a mixture of sun, chefs, shorebreak, hungoVer chicks and local pros like borJa agote. PHOTO: PacOTwO

alex knost at the duct tape inVitational in salinas. PHOTO: PacOTwO

ZarautZ sunset. PHOTOs: PacOTwO

the guggenheim museum in bilbao is worth a Visit. the building itself is a piece of art. PHOTO: PacOTwO

indar unanue with a fiesta look. PHOTO: PacOTwO

—pacotwo

“i don’t really haVe a specific goal, Just try to be happy eVery day, and the surf photography is pretty key for that. i basi-cally like going to surf with my friends, then haVing some dinner and a couple of drinks in the bars. there’s a really good nighttime Vibe in places like san sebas-tian and ZarautZ. i loVe the simple life.”

postcard from hossegor. PHOTO: PacOTwO

(left) Jonathan gonZaleZ loVes surfing at home in the canaries more than anyone. PHOTO: PacOTwO

(aboVe) no caption needed when you haVe a dusty window. PHOTO: PacOTwO

scotland yard. PHOTO: PacOTwO

cesar Vargas at risco de famara, lanZarote. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

Julian wilson during the first surfing studio session. kai neVille’s on the crane filming for lost atlas. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

bereniç and the pilot whale. the atlantic. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

the end of the road. faroe islands. probably the most stunning place on earth. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

gony ZubiZarreta enJoying the good life in southern spain. PHOTO: PacOTwO

eneko acero spends lots of his time in the barrel at mundaka. PHOTO: PacOTwO

sunset in san sebastian. PHOTO: PacOTwO

hodei collaZo, forgetting the craZiness of the ‘Qs tour in andalucía. PHOTO: PacOTwO

pat g. and gabe kling chatting with alba and adur. PHOTO: PacOTwO

the winter is hard but also fun in france. PHOTO: PacOTwO

“i moVed to barcelona when i was 19. right after my parents got diVorced the atmosphere at home was unbearable, so i left. i worked there proViding imagery to three prestigious music clubs, as well as for a pre-press company retouching photos for the spanish Versions of national geographic and playboy.”—sergio Villalba

“i moVed to barcelona when i was 19. right after my parents got diVorced the atmosphere at home was unbearable, so i left. i worked there proViding imagery to three prestigious music clubs, as well as for a pre-press company retouching photos for the spanish Versions of national geographic and playboy.”—sergio Villalba

frenchman romain laulhe, barreled in scotland. PHOTO: PacOTwO

indar unanue after our first surf in iceland. 2007. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

faroe islands. 2008. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

el Quemao is the european Version of pipe. PHOTO: PacOTwO

christophe allary, faroe islands. as far as we know this waVe had neVer been surfed before. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

another cold place: the scottish highlands. photo: sergiO Villalba

herr nico Von rupp. scotland. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

hector menendeZ Jumping off a cliff near ericeira, portugal. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

cutting the perceptiVe boundaries in tenerife. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

hector menendeZ in nyc during a nike 6.0 trip. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

ZarautZ is home to a bunch of the best spanish surfers, and also owns a few dead railways. or maybe not so dead. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

la palma island. shot for the coVer of the canary islands’ main bank’s 2009 calendar. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

adam melling and the huge white screen. siam park. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

kolohe andino. siam park. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

kepa acero riding my faVorite waVe on earth. i shot fisheye that day and left all my eQuipment on land. nobody was around. PHOTO: sergiO

Villalba

a brutal waVe in a cold, cold place. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

Jaime aZpiroZ works at pukas surfboards and surfs in front of his neighborhood in san sebastian. PHOTO: PacOTwO

a lake pouring fresh water into the north atlantic. my scariest heli ride so far. faroe islands. PHOTO: sergiO Villalba

the aZores islands haVe some stunning scenery. iker fuentes. PHOTO: PacOTwO

bakio is a good place to surf on sundays. PHOTO: PacOTwO

the aZores islands haVe some stunning scenery. iker fuentes. PHOTO: PacOTwO

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