For the Latin American world, "Güero" means "the stranger", the incomer, the foreigner. This is exactly a story of güeros.
Random meetings that become friendships; you meet someone on a journey, then you separate. Then you meet again, by chance.
I met Mattia 10 years ago in Byron Bay, Australia. Mattia had just started working in a restaurant run by another fellow countryman, while I was almost at the end of a long and exciting winter of wandering. We met again in a similar situation a few years later in Suyalita, Mexico, where Mattia had opened a pizza restaurant. His passion for surfing, and especially for longboards, is one of the main reasons why he was there but now, after a few years, also due to the crowding and his somewhat shy nature, he was needing new stimuli.
Rejoined, we chat about travel - the travel bug distresses everyone and spares no one. He tells me that every year during the summer he manages to draw some tranquility from embarking on new adventures with his partner and his two little kids. The trip that led him from Mexico to Alaska made its mark, as he covered the entire Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the continent aboard a 4x4 vehicle equipped for camping. It is during that journey that he found the place of his dreams in the Baja California Peninsula.
And it is precisely there that we met once again. He hosted me in what many would regard as a small, dusty, godforsaken village if it weren't for that incredible setup that produces mind-blowing waves.
The Baja California peninsula has always been an exotic place, not the typical surfing destination for those like me coming from the Old Continent. Wide open spaces, endless streets, contrasting colors and atmospheres. A piece of heaven where it is still possible to enjoy the adventure and what in our perspective is deemed a true surf trip.
A gorgeous place, where long point breaks offer epic rides. You feel this peacefulness and moving energy that makes you want to change your life by getting back out there. Just as Mattia did when he decided to settle there and be a Güero.
Thank You Mattia.
Film & Edit: Jacopo Cosmelli
Rider: Alessandro Ponzanelli
Music: Giovanni Briganti
Still Photography: Filippo Maffei
Special thanks: Mattia Dalvit