Feral Green - from the southland
By admin | September 6, 2007
We finally crossed the boarder on September 1st. We stayed near the beach in Rosarito where a wild Labor Day party was raging all around us. The Curs barked and the feral cats whined, but nothing could keep us from sleeping. We’d worked from 8am to 4am for several days leading up to our departure.
We felt like newborns on our first morning in Mexico. We didn’t have an agenda or any experience. Therefore we decided to drive down to Punta Canoas, a surf spot we knew pretty much nothing about. What we did know was that we had to go off-road to get there. We found out after five hours of off-roading that I have a bad sense of direction, and our four maps showed different roads in different places, none too accurate. After five wrong turns resulting in a total of nine extra miles, we finally ran into two caballeros (cowboys). They rode up and told us where to go, thankfully. The sun was getting ready to set, and according to one of our maps we still had twenty four miles to go. However, the other maps showed between thirteen miles and no road at all, so we basically had no idea what lay ahead.
It got dark before we could see the ocean, and judging by the amount of traffic we’d seen on the way in, we thought it was safe to just stop and camp. The next morning our luck seemed to be improving. Eric thought he heard the ocean; we were closer than mother-of –pearl to white. We packed up and jumped in the car. It didn’t start. We were magenta. Luckily Guadalupe, a local fisherman, came over and gave us a jump. The labyrinth of dirt roads was unmarked and disorderly, but Guadalupe told us the ocean was one kilometer away. We got to our first surf spot just three hours later after eight more wrong turns.
For the next three days we saw as many people as Ray Charles sees at the bakery. The surf was a good beach break that ran for miles. The sets were head-high to overhead and El Hongo (Eric Paine) was in heaven. He was getting barrels on our new fish, it was all lefts, and he’s the only goofy foot in the group. Other highlights of El Hongo’s trip thus far include but are not limited to, making amazing salsa verde from scratch, beating Kevin at RPS (Rock Paper Scissors) for sleeping spots and washing dishes, and getting ring worm. Ring worm is a minor fungus, which in Spanish is pronounced “El Hongo,†thus his new nickname.
Sean’s new nickname is Schteve for no particular reason. His injured knee seems to be improving faster than he runs from the cops, and his surfing got better and better every day. Sean also won liars’ dice for sleeping arrangements and hasn’t lost at RPS for washing dishes yet. He’s also the only one with the skill to drive our truck right now, because the brakes’ cylinder is out. However, the cylinder took a turn for the worse after
Sean advised Kevin to drive off the dirt road over a hill. Sean thought it would be safer, but the truck started drowning in loose dirt before becoming completely high-centered.
We were thirty miles from the beach and twenty miles from the nearest town, so we started digging the truck out. After doing a mediocre digging job we hooked the winch up to a tree. Unfortunately the tree could be seen more easily out the driver side window than the windshield. We were towing ourselves sideways when the bead of our front left tire popped off, deflating the tire and rendering it as useless as a Bruce Willis in a Rogain commercial. Crap.
Unbelievably, not one, but two separate trucks of fishermen stopped to help us. All eight pescadores stayed and helped us for two and a half hours. They used the extra wood we had to set up a system to jack the front of the truck way up, change the tire and drag us back down the hill. We gave them a bunch of gear from Tavik and Slime, a bit of cash, and said adios.
So far everyone we’ve talked to has been helpful, resourceful, and magnanimous. Without the help of the locals of Baja California Norte, we’d be marooned in the desert right now.
In other highlights, Kevin stood up several times on his tabla de surf (surfboard) and is clearly a fast learner. He is also good luck concerning the swell. Every time he gets a big, thick, difficult-to-duckdive board under him, a huge set comes in. Sean, Eric, and I wait like jockeys in the gates, sitting on our boards, for Kevin to come out. It’s not great for Kevin, as he gets thrashed over and over, but what the hell. Kevin also loves to hunt and fish, so he would go out in the zodiac to fish with anyone at anytime.
His first trip out, with Sean, started well. They put the motor down and charged the oncoming waves. The problem is that the boat is old, missing half the floor boards that stabilize it, and has a hole that continually oozes water. So at thirty yards, when they barely made it over a wave that almost sent Sean into the deep unknown, I was relieved… until I saw the wave at fifty yards that was twice as big. Kevin didn’t hesitate for a second. He shot them straight up an overhead monster. The entire boat went airborne, Sean did a superman number, barely gripping the boat with his right hand, while his entire body flew into the air like Andre the Giant had dropkicked him. Kevin got them through it but caught nothing. His second trip, with Eric, was a total 180. They got out smoothly and caught lunch and dinner, along with a few bait fish to dangle on the line. The third trip, with me, we didn’t even attempt to fish. We cruised around with the dolphins, which were everywhere. They were drawn to the sound of our motor.
Unfortunately the fog filled in while we tried to pet the dolphins, playing a sort of footsy with them, and we couldn’t see the shore. I mistakenly thought I could see the truck and directed Kevin in to barren unknown landscape. Fantastic. Luckily for us, this beach caught the swell extremely well, so the waves were huge without any downtime between sets. On our third attempt we made it out. The first was a disaster, and the second almost lost us the motor. Luckily Kevin is gutsy and kept charging after we’d been sent airborne three waves in a row. Needless to say, we made it back.
Right now were fixing the tire and the brakes in Guerrero Negro. Hopefully we’ll be back on the road soon, but the way things are going so far, all I can say is – this trip is already truly feral. August 6th - 3:15pm – Bill - out.
Topics: Mexico | 1389 Comments »
Feral Green Launch!
By admin | August 29, 2007
There comes a time in every young man’s life when he must ask himself, is the juice worth the squeeze? For four of us, that time is now.
Welcome to Feral Green - a sustainable lifestyle-inspired, overland surf expedition from California to the Southern tip of South America. Over the past year, four of us close friends (Sean Robbins, Eric Paine, Bill Boyd and Kevin Broderick) have been discussing this journey of epic proportions - one that will incorporate surf, exploration, volunteer work, culture, and the promotion of Green living. The time has finally arrived; the trip launches from Newport Beach on August 31st.
Who are we? The four of us are all intelligent, hard working young men. We are all university graduates and have been successful athletes, employees, friends, and maniacs. We all have big plans for the future - starting companies, getting married, having children, and so on. However, we share a common thread in the great sweater of life. That thread is the passion for adventure travel and a reverence for nature, and it sews us into a cohesive group that desires to travel to explore the depths of the world and gain an open-minded understanding of life. What distinguishes us from the average man that reads about taking a trip like this is that we possess the tenacity to bring this dream to fruition. We’re all leaving our jobs and jumping head first into something much more profound than white picket fences and Super Bowl parties.
This trip is not just about four young men who need to reconnect with nature via a surf voyage. It’s about giving back to the communities we’re traveling through and educating the world at large about the benefits of sustainability. We plan to educate people we meet on pragmatic, environmentally friendly concepts from cars that run on alternative fuel to environmentally friendly surfboard construction. As you’ll see from the bios of each member on the website the four of us share a common goal of sustaining the world we live in and we’re all taking measures toward this end.
While most would fly down South and backpack in the mountains or on the coast, we plan to stray from the norm. We have purchased a F350 super duty diesel that has been converted to run on vegetable oil by Love Craft Biofuels in Los Angeles. Fabrication of the other vehicle components are underway. Once complete, the rig, (AKA “Green Machineâ€), will be our sustainable, roaming domicile for the duration of the trip. Equipped with a cabover truck camper and an incredible off-road trailer from Adventure Trailers we’ll be exploring the coasts and highlands of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Green Machine will be an offroad beast, capable of traversing nearly any encountered terrain.
Through our partnerships with select non-profit organizations and by planning to work with local organic farming cooperatives we have developed a plan to integrate volunteer work throughout the 40,000 mile voyage. For instance, as Environmental Ambassadors for Green Surf, Feral Green will be distributing the Spanish version of “All The Way to the Ocean†to children throughout Latin America. Written by Joel Harper, brother of famed musician Ben Harper, with a foreword by big wave surfer Laird Hamilton, this children’s picture book was created to educate children on ocean preservation and the prevention of pollution.
Other organizations we are working with include Carbonfund.org, Paso Pacifico, Techo Para Mi Pais, and Patagonia Land Trust. You can learn more about these organizations through the Volunteer section of our website.
The surf plan is to charge it hard anytime there is swell present. The team will be taking a quiver of boards shaped by Ned MacMahon of Homeblown using Biofoam blanks. The blanks were created with a soy-based formula in order to reduce harmful environmental emissions that are typical of foam blank manufacturing. We’ll be exploring breaks in almost every country; with emphasis on mainland Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Brazil.
Our media sponsor is Wet Sand (www.wetsand.com), the world’s leading swell forecasting and research portal, and they will be tracking our trip via Google Earth using live GPS coordinates transmitted from the Green Machine. Feral Green will be doing reconnaissance on surf breaks between California and Argentina and providing objective data and photos for integration in Wet Sand’s soon to be released Google Earth swell model.
Fortunately for those eager to live vicariously through Feral Green, the saga will be portrayed through continual updates on the Feral Green website. The site will include sections for journal entries, photos, videos (watch for things getting weird), route tracking, trip statistics, bios, mission statement, frequently asked questions, and information on the Green Machine, equipment, sponsors, and NPO’s. There will also be a Blogfor friends of Feral Green to chime in on our trials and tribulations. We’ll be accepting visitors as honorary weeklong guests to taste Feral Green life.
This is Feral Green.
Gratitude to our sponsors: Wet Sand, Adventure Trailer, Oakley, Biofoam, Love Craft Biofuels, Super Winch, Donahoe Racing, Bilstein, Sierra Dawn, Steel Core, and Slime.
Topics: Mexico | 3994 Comments »
FERAL GREEN EXPEDITION RIG FOR SALE - $28,000
By admin | February 10, 2007
2000 Ford Diesel/Veg F-350 4X4 Expedition Vehicle with Six Pac CamperÂ
BUY THIS TRUCK FOR YOUR OVERLAND JOURNEY!
 
This vehicle was purchased and built for long term overland expeditions and is turn-key. It transported four of us from Newport Beach, California to Santiago, Chile, on a 15,000 mile amazing journey. We plan to ship this truck out of Peru or Chile to the location of your choice or the truck can be picked up in either country. Shipping prices will vary depending on destination.Â
Asking Price - $28,000
Specifications
-2000 FORD F350 4X4
-California License # 8J33245 – Registration valid through 3/31/2008
-VIN# 3FTSW31F9YMA27931
-7.3L V-8 Power Stroke Turbo Diesel Motor – 116,000 miles (Tune Up / Timing Belt changed at 100,000 miles – Included changing all fluids, glow plugs, etc.)*
LOVECRAFT VEGETABLE OIL CONVERSION (see www.lovecraft.com for more info) – This is a $1000 conversion installed on the truck that allows it to run on vegetable oil or diesel, or any mix of the two. It is basically a filter / heater system that is connected to the fuel pump of the truck. This is a single tank system that uses the stock fuel tank. If you cannot locate vegetable oil, you can simply fill up with diesel. If you are willing to look, you can find used oil at restaurants and hotels that they are throwing away from their kitchens and are willing to give you. Veg oil produces the same power as diesel, is just efficient and costs nothing.Â
-39 gallon fuel tank
-Automatic Transmission (only 4,000 miles on rebuilt transmission) with Overdrive
-New Brakes at 112,000 miles from Ford Dealership in Panama City
-Air Conditioning/Heat/Defrost
-Power Steering
-Power Windows
-Power Locks
-Cruise Control
-Tilt Steering Wheel
-Alarm
-Bench seats (60/40) in front and back fitting 6 people comfortably
-Tow Package
-Tinted Windows
-4â€/3†Suspension Lift Kit by Donahoe Racing (new springs)
-Bilstein Off-Road Shocks
-Custom Steel Roof Rack. This rack is used to store surfboards / kayaks / a boat or whatever you like above the truck. Also attached to this rack is a full sized, brand new Yokohama spare tire and full sized rim
-4 - 35†Yokohama Mud Terrain Tires – at least ½ of the tread remaining
-Reunell Heavy Duty Off-Road Bumper (see pictures)
-High Speed Warn Winch – 9,000i (includes doubler)
-High Lift Jack (attached to bumper)
-Kenwood KDC-MP 2035 - CD Player (detachable face)
-Blaupunkt DVD-ME Player for back 3 seats
-Two Tow Straps
-Fog Lights
-Off Road Lights
-Heavy Duty Jumper Cables
-Spare Parts for the truck – Spare fuel filters, belts, fuses, oxygen sensor, glow plugs, wiring, and various nuts and bolts
-Tools – Tire Iron, Socket Set, adjustable crescent wrench, screw drivers, shovel, axe, hatchet, broom, 3 tarps, chain, rope
*We have all invoices for work done on truck
1993 Six Pac Camper – Sleeps 3 comfortably – Full sized bed and couch bed. Camper has a three way (propane, 12V, AC) fridge with freezer, 3 burner stove, oven, 2 bin sink, 13 gallon fresh water tank, 25 lb. propane tank, air conditioning, heater, silverware, and pots and pans. The cabinetry includes a pull-out medicine cabinet with 4 shelves, a wardrobe with 4 shelves that was used to store personal items (clothes, toiletries, etc.) for 4 guys, and plenty of kitchen storage space above and below the sink. Also included is a locking safe inside the camper that locks via padlock. This is great for holding your passports, money and other important documents. Also includes a brand new printer for printing photos of your journey along the way.
If interested, we can include maps and books covering a journey through Central and South America. We can also contact our sponsors and discuss a transition to continuing sponsorship for your overland expedition. Our sponsors include – Oakley, Bilstein, Donahoe Racing, Zinka, CampSuds, LoveCraft Biofuels, Riffe Spear Guns, Steele Core Straps, etc. It cannot be guaranteed that all will continue sponsorship, but if you put together a great trip, I am sure many of them will continue their support. Having just completed the journey we would be willing to provide advice on planning a similar expedition. We also have a fully functional website (www.feralgreen.com) dedicated to the trip that has been used to track our travels with blogs, videos, photos, press, etc. Transfer of the website is negotiable if planning a similar trip.
Contact Eric at feralgreentrip@gmail.com for more information.
Topics: Uncategorized | 2943 Comments »