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.

There are many surf festivals around the globe, more than I can enumerate, but Surfer Joe Summer Festival is so special. I mean, there's a baseline of special at any surf event: you see these performers that are so exceptional, legendary even, but only within this tiny genre. It feels like a secret. But to converge upon Livorno, a charming Italian town scarcely mentioned by the rest of the world, with roaring waves behind you, and for every person you meet to be sporting a different accent, and to be immersed deeply in this for four days... it's dreamlike.