It's been 10 years since my first Surfguitar101 Festival/Convention, which is not to say that this was my tenth, but I haven't missed one yet. While last year's was fantastic, the sting of two high-profile foreign bands dropping off due to Trump's immigration nonsense forced the event into safe mode this year -- all American bands, and reverting from Long Beach's Golden Sails hotel to the Garden Grove, CA Elks Lodge location last used the year before I first attended. That said, it wasn't that much of a backpedal -- Still a three-day weekender with a secondary stage, and with some very heavy-hitting bands on the bill, like former headliners The Bomboras and The Boss Martians in addition to top-tier gets Los Straitjackets and Slacktone.

The final stop of my 2019 tour of surf music festivals brought me to Asbury Park New Jersey for the newly named Hi-Tide Summer Holiday. The previous Asbury Park surf festivals boasted excellent lineups, and Magdalena and Vincent have done a fantastic job of building not only a label, but a brand that seems to be widening the appeal of surf music and culture. I was really excited to finally get a chance to see it for myself.