Slow Baja - Surf Baja And Sungodz With Sasha Eisenman

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Sungodz California is the creation of Surfer, turned Fashion Photographer, turned Designer Sasha Eisenman. Sasha grew up in Huntington Beach and began surfing in the Newport River Jetties in the mid-1980s. He traveled camping and Surfing all throughout Baja back in those days, and many of the experiences of this time would later become a foundational part of Sungodz California style. An esthetic that was further shaped during his time working at the legendary Frog House surf shop in Newport Beach in the early 90’s. --from about Sungodz Check out Sungodz here: https://sungodz.com/ For more information about Slow Baja: ⁠https://www.slowbaja.com/⁠ Get your Baja insurance here:  ⁠https://www.bajabound.com/quote/?r=fl9vypdv2t⁠ More information on Slow Baja Adventures: ⁠https://www.slowbaja.com/adventures

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning in to the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Well, it's been a minute, and I got to thank you for tuning in really, you know, I'm a one-man band here. And when I do things like the Slow Baja Winter Expedition, I have best laid plants of mysomen. I really do.

I had a couple of shows that I was trying to get keyed up, tuned up, posted up from the trip. But, you know, I just never got there. Never got to any Wi-Fi. Never. We did real Slow Baja stuff. And it was really terrific. And it was really great not to worry about all the stuff that we worry about in our regular life's Wi-Fi and posting stuff to the Internet.

So we were really tuned into where we are and what we were doing on that trip. And it was a pretty amazing, pretty amazing trip. I'll be bringing you a show about that very soon. But today's show was recorded just before my Slow Baja vintage trip in October. And I'd hope to go surfing with Sasha. He's really cool dude. And I really want to get back in the water. So I'm looking for opportunities to do that where the water is warm.

But it didn't happen because I was prepping. for the trip, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, getting car stuff done, getting trip stuff done. And I got up to meet him and we recorded in the parking lot of Los Olas, Las Olas restaurant. We were hoping to record inside, but they had some music blaren. It was Friday. People were having a good time. We just couldn't find a quiet space to record. So we moved to the furthest reaches of the parking lot. Took a couple of margaritas to go and sat down on the tailgate of his beautiful a 1979 international scout and we recorded and the coaster went by and Harleys went by and helicopters flew over and and and cars started up next to us in the parking lot anyways i hope

it makes you feel like you're sitting right there next to me having a margarita talking slow bah-ha so without further ado sasha isaman today on slow bah-ha here we are slow-baha podcast right next to the highway. Yeah. Slow Baja podcast. You'll go anywhere. Too bad the music was so loud inside because that would have been a good spot. You're going to get this.

That's you, man. All right. Let me hear you. Say hello. Tell me your name. Spell your name. Hello. Slow Baja.

This is Sasha's sun gods here. Keep talking, Sasha. I can't even see. I can't see this. Yeah, you got me? Yeah, I got you. I think you're good. Keep talking.

Spell your last name for me? Spell your first name? So my first name is spelled just like a girl's name. It's S-A-S-A-S-H-A. And my last name is spelled E-I-S-E-N-M-A. That's Eisenman. That means Iron Man in German, just so you know. Awesome.

All right, well, I think we got you. All right, cool. Again, I can't see this screen, so we're just going to... We're just going to go for it. We're just going for it. It is recording. Yeah, it's going. Hey, we're going.

We're doing it. Nice to meet you. Saludos, amigos. Cheers, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, well, hey, got our matching sun god's gear on. Thanks for the shirt. Yeah, you're welcome.

Looks good on you. It does. That's your color. I do. This is my new color. You're just like you're doing my color palette. Yeah. This is the color for fall.

Sasha, nice to meet you. Thanks for making some. time. Sorry, I didn't get to surf with you today. Yeah. But I'm just stoked. And we're sitting out here in the parking lot of Los Alas, Los Olas, Los Los Olas, which of course means the waves. Yeah, you're going to, you're going to temper your excitement. Yeah, I'm pretty excited just to sit here in the sun and drink this margarita. Yeah, so tell me about what we're sitting in here.

So this is my 1979 International Scout, too. I've actually had this for 20 years, believe it or not. This used to be my daily driver, and I got it, yeah, like 20 years ago. Prior to that, I'd always been driving European cars, kind of. Like, I was driving around in an old Mercedes station wagon that had been my dad's, and I was just at a certain point I was like, why do I keep driving these European cars? I want to, like, get a classic American car.

and I was looking in I was looking in Auto Trader magazine I was down in Huntington Beach visiting my parents, that's where they live, that's where I grew up, and I came across this, and I didn't even know what an international scout was.

I was like, whoa, that looks like a Bronco, what is that? And I was like, what, it's $2,000 bucks. I was like, I can swing that. I mean, it didn't sound crazy cheap like it does now, but it It sounded like doable.

I was like, okay, yeah, two. Anyway, so I went and looked at it, and it turned out to be a cool older lady that was selling it. She's like, yeah, this was my husband. He passed away. He got lung cancer. He passed away. And this was his truck that he loved.

And he took it fishing a lot in the mountains. He had this all over the mountains in California. foreign you all here and there everywhere and I was like whoa well are you sure you you want to let it go you want to sell to me she's like well I kind of have to like I have to unload stuff and she's like you like you seem like a guy like that he would have liked so I feel all right letting it go to you and I was like I was like well yeah I'll be honored to be the steward of this thing and and I remember it still had his it had his cigarette butts but he's in the ashtray and some of them were like not fully smoked so i pulled one out and smoked the last

bit of it and i was like all right dude we're bonded we're bonded and this is my truck and i'm going to carry on your legacy with it now awesome well sasha the reason we're here always is always on this little baha's to talk about your connection your connection to baha and uh you're huntington beach kid yeah and you started surfing about what age well so i was born in 197 72 and we from as early as I can remember we started my mom started taking us down to Bolsa Chica Beach initially we'd just be boogie boarding and this is like you know when we were four or five six years old and then there was a there was a kind of older guy that lived in our neighborhood a Japanese guy who was called Mike Kukuchi and his his little boy was a

friend of mine, his son Quai, was his name. And so sometimes I started going to the beach with Mike Kukuchi. And if anyone's a surfer or knows about Huntington Beach surfing, they'll know the name, Mike Kukuchi. People knew him as Kooch. And Kooch was kind of like an HB legend guy. And I didn't know that because I was just a little kid. But so I'd be on our boogie boards. and Mike Kikuchi would bring his surfboard. And at a certain point, probably as I was like maybe eight or nine or something, I remember being at Bolsa Chica Beach and on my boogie board with my friend, like in the shallows. And way, way out, I saw his dad, Mike, like, take off on a wave.

And it looked, it was all like sparkly light. And it looked like he was, it looked like he was flying in the sky. I saw him like go into this wave and just like, and I was like, holy crap, that looks amazing. I was like, I have to do that. And so like very soon after that, I made my dad get me a used surfboard. He got me a used surfboard probably when I was like, yeah, like maybe eight or nine or ten. I don't remember exactly. But like, let's say ten, ten years old.

He got me a used board on Huntington Beach Main Street. It was a Dan Kiyaloa, town and country twin fin. And so maybe I got that board in like 1982. And I remember it was a twin fin, and I was already seeing that boards had three fins. And I was like, but, dad, it only has two fins. This board's not going to work. And he was like, well, this is the board you're getting, you know. So he didn't know about surfboards.

He wasn't a surfer. Anyway, it turns out, you know, Dan Kiloa, town and country, twin fin. I still have it. That board is, I, somehow, it didn't get lost to time, and it's sitting in my garage, and it's worth a, it's worth a lot of money now. And that was my first board, and that was 1982, and I've been kind of surfing, trying to surf since then. And, yeah. Well, we're meeting here to talk about this right across the street from the Cardiff State Beach or down the street a little bit.

So you've got PCH running right behind us. So there's a little bit of road noise, which I'm going to apologize for. But you know, I'm always out trying to get these stories, find these people where they are. And Sasha was surfing today. And I was able to buzz up from Pacific Beach. Just had lunch with Jeff Hill at Baja Bound. And I'm pretty stoked to be here. But we were talking earlier.

And you were talking about your family trips to Astero Beach. And your parents would take you down there. And it didn't sound like your folks were like big surfers, but they were big adventurers. Exactly. So my parents were not surfers. They're not from California. My dad was from New Jersey and New York, and my dad was like kind of like a early beatnik, you know, even though he would call himself probably like an anti-beat beat.

Yeah, he was kind of like a beat poet guy, and he was into that movement, and he in right out of high school and like I think he graduated high school in like 1958 he hitchedike across the country and hitchhiked out to California and went to go check out the university at Berkeley and decided it wasn't for him then he hitchhiked back across the country riding like box cars and doing all that kind of like beatnik stuff that Jack Kerouac and those people were doing and then he ended up he ended up going to Europe and he went and lived in the beat hotel in Paris and he went and lived in the Beat hotel in Paris and this was like 1959 and my mom was from the Midlands in England and she also was a bit of a hitchhiker because she saved up money with a couple girlfriends of hers and convinced her parents

to let them hitchhike to down to the bottom of England get on the ship and they were going to go and go to France and go to Paris for like a two weeks in the summer or something. She got to Paris. She saw it and was like, this is where I need to be. I'm not going back to my little village in England to tell my folks I'm not coming home. And her girlfriends were like, you're out of your mind. We've got to go back to England. She's like, I'm not.

You can. They went back to England. She stayed in Paris. And then my dad was in Paris. And they met at the cafe in Paris. And yeah, and then they just ended up like having this adventurous life together and traveling as far out as places like India and Iran. And so anyway, back to Baja. They were adventurous people.

But so my dad, when we moved, we moved to California. I was actually born in Jerusalem as my dad was doing research in Jerusalem working at the Hebrew. University in Jerusalem at that time. And we came to California in like 1973. Hang on for just a second. So your dad is an expert on the sea scrolls. Yeah. So my dad is Robert Eisenman. He's one of the main Dead Sea Scrolls archaeologists and scholars. And he's written quite a few books on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the community at Kumran, which is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. And he's one of the people credited with kind of breaking the monopoly that the Vatican had on the all the scrolls material, which was kind of kept under lock and key since they were found. The majority of it was

a lot of scholars were prevented from looking at the bulk of the material. And my dad broke that monopoly. And he was immediately sued by basically people that were connected to the Vatican. But that's another story. But anyway. So back to Astero Beach. 19, what, you were heading down there as a kid? 78?

Even earlier. So, like, we're in California. And initially, my dad took a teaching position at Cal State Long Beach. We came from Jerusalem. I was one years old. My other brother hadn't been born yet. And then so he just. immediately started just kind of like getting his traveler bug again and he was he'd heard that

people were going down to Baja and I think someone in his in his department at the religious studies department at Cal State Long Beach had mentioned to him that there was this place called Astero Beach and he my dad would just always do things on a whim he would never plan anything we were just like wake up on like a Saturday morning and he'd be like let's go to Ansonata or let's go to big sir he would just you know he would say that to to my mom or us and we would just be like oh yeah all right let's go and he would just kind of like he he he wasn't ever somebody to plan anything he would just always like throw things together on a spur of a moment and so that's that's what happened he he heard about this place of stara beach and he took us down there probably

the first time of 75 76 I'm guessing and then we we went down there and we went down there And, you know, I don't remember those first trips. I was too young. But I remember the subsequent trips as I started to get a little bit older when I was like five or six, seven. And, yeah, we just go, like, each year we'd go a couple times. We'd go either head south to Estero, stopping at LaFonda, even before it was Demetri's LaFonda, when there was just LaFonda on the bluff there. and it just seemed like another world and it was I can remember what it was like

can just remember like the tail end of the 70s in Baja I can remember like 78 79 and and going out to La Bufidora and buying like the kiss rock and roll belt buckles and everything was kiss at that time you know like it was still the 70s so they were like all all the little stands that now would be selling I don't know what like I don't know what they would be selling now like the equivalent but then they were selling kiss stuff and it was all kiss and switchblades and you know firecrackers and uh bull whips and all this stuff and me and my brothers were just like oh yeah this is awesome and we were we were crazy about we you know so when my dad would make these spur the moment announcements like we're you know we're going we're going to go let's go to should we go to

ensignada or should we go to big sir those were his two go-to spots and we were like Ensonada, let's cut Astero. And so we'd go to Astero Beach. Have you stayed at the Astero Beach Hotel? Yeah, yeah, yeah, years ago. Did you ever stay there before the remodel when it was like, did you ever stay there in the 80s? Last time I stayed there was 22 years ago, so yeah, I'd never stayed there in the 80s. Okay.

Well, it used to just, like, I don't know who designed that hotel or who created or what it was, But it is like a mid-century marvel. It's a huge property. And it's, for those who don't know, it's like, what, 10, 15 miles south of Ensenada just before you get to the turnoff to go out to the Labufidora. It's in that, it's on the front of the estuary there. And it's this huge, at the time, it was, it had tennis courts and it had like a kind of upper end like trailer park where a lot of expats lived and had like kind of like a permanent. like trailer set up and then it had the hotel itself and it just had such a great feeling and it I look back at the pictures now that I have with my parents and I see like like holy crap this

place is like it's like a mid-century marvel it's like it had like the breeze blocks and like the cool rooms with like the popcorn ceiling with like the sparkly bits in the in the in the ceiling and it was just really special just a really like if somebody was smart they would take that place over and they could turn it into like what the Parker and the parker in the parker in the parker palm in the parker in the parker is you could do that in ensignada with astero beach yeah i think about that at the san nicholas it's sort of you know uh 1968 and never really been remodeled well so it's still mostly 1968 but it's not being embraced as 1968 and if you embraced as 1968 and all of a sudden sideburns and

mutton chops and yeah and wide lapels where they're not being embraced as 1968 and if you embraced as 1968 and all of a sudden lapels were there. I think it could be a very hip thing. Not that they understand that but yeah, I Estero Beach, I was there a long time ago and it was the Astero Beach volleyball tournament and there was a lot of drinking going on so I don't have the same memory

of. Yeah, well it was really special and my parents really liked it because it felt to them it felt like being in Europe or being well Baja in general kind of

kind of felt like being in Israel as well a little bit, especially, you know, when eventually when we got further south and we saw the Sea of Cortez, that was like, that's like being at the Dead Sea. And, you know, so we, for us, for our family, we had that linkage with it, where it reminded us of, reminded my parents of like their time in Italy and places in Europe and reminded them them also of Israel in the Dead Sea. So let's talk about you had this connection to Astero and you're there. There's a great little beach there.

It's a nice little wave which unfortunately got sort of engineered out by accident, I'm sure, not intentionally, but that wave went away. But as you were a high schooler in Huntington, you started making trips. You got your own car and your parents said, hey, yeah, why not? Yeah. Yeah, so what happened was, so I was already doing these trips with my parents, like several times a year. We'd go down, and by this point, I'm like surf crazy. I'm surfing every day. We lived not that far from the beach, but, you know, I could ride my bike down to the beach, down Brooker Street, and I would surf river jetties.

Anyway, so we're going down to Baja a lot with my folks, and I'm bringing my boards. I'm surfing and there was this wave there at Astero Beach that sadly it's gone now, but there was this amazing sandbar in front there and a huge sand beach. And they did something, anyone that knows that area, they built like a jetty or something just north of there and it just changed the whole sand flow. And so if you go there now, that beach is totally gone and that wave is gone. But anyway, to Michael's question, I, um, I, um, eventually got my driver's license and my dad gave me his uh pujo 504 1970 pujo 504 and um and all i wanted to do

immediately as soon as i could drive was go to go to baha and i had a couple like um high school buddies kind of like some high school knuckle knuckle hattie surfer buddies cori and jeff no offense if you're watching this but you guys are knuckleheads um in a good way but anyway um um um We started going down to, I convinced my parents to let us go down to Baja. I was like, I said, come on, I know how to do it. I've watched you, dad. I know where, you know, I know where we're going. And I was like, we're just going to go to LaFonda or we're just going to go to K-38.

And so my dad let us go. And we went down and we started camping at K-38 initially. And at that time, there was no, nothing there. There was no, that whole condominium complex that's on the bluff now. That wasn't there. You could just camp right on the point and just, you know, walk down a little trail and surf that wave. It was amazing.

And anyway, so eventually we weren't satisfied doing, you know, that little Tijuana-Ensenada stretch. And I, on one trip, I think we were camping at San Miguel. I was like, you know what, let's see what's down past Ensenada. And we were like 17. And so we got in the, you know, got in the Pujo, packed everything up, headed out from San Miguel and made our way past Ensenada through the mountains. And, you know, I figured there must be waves down towards San Quintin.

And I just remember at that point we were in uncharted territory because I was like, holy shit, this is, these are places that, you know, even my dad hasn't been to because he'd never been south of Ensonata. And I was like, wow, this really feels like we're stepping out. into orbit like now we're now we're a satellite going out into out into space we've left we've left ensignada orbit and we're going into like the real Baja so I'm just gonna let this train pass sip on this Margie yeah good idea we got down to San Quintin and we were like wow where where the hell are we and we'd heard of we'd

heard of shipwrecks we knew that that was a spot down there and we're this is probably like 1987 and we're like poking around trying to find like how do we get to shipwrecks and somehow we found the little dirt turn off and we got out to shipwrecks and lo and behold there was this huge ship wrecked on the point there and at that time it was intact like it probably just run aground like a few years prior to that and it's a fickle wave and we actually scored it was like two to three maybe four foot sets and like it's a it's kind of like a rinkan type wave like a softer wave but real classic point and we we surfed it it was awesome and after that like you know we had the bug i i for sure had the bug and i was like okay this is this this is this is the new thing we're we're not just going tijuana

and so we're going deep and you know we were still just kids in high school and um we got we got back home and i had these you know trips i wanted to do and people the word kind of got out like hey that you know that guy Sasha he's he's going he's taking Corey him and Corey and Jeff they're like going to Baja all the time and my last name's Eisenman and some people started calling me Bahaisman and this one guy in particular Kevin Coonhart who used to shape my surfboards he kind of he's the one that gave me that name Bahaisman and yeah I was pretty stoked to be called Bahaisman But, so let me interject here.

Think about that in those days, you know, your parents can't contact you and you can't contact your parents. No cell phones. No cell phones. You're driving this. You're talking about a fickle wave. You're driving a Pugetho 504, which is, you know. Fickle. Yeah, fickle is one way of putting it.

Well, they can run across Algeria and have, you know, interesting choice of vehicles. I like the way your dad thinks. Yeah, he thought, you know, he was still thinking, like, you know, his European mind. mindset like, I'm going to get a Pujo and we were like, what the hell is a Pujo? But anyway, he always was buying Pujos. Pretty interesting choice. But so there you are. Your kids going down and you're, you know, I guess, you know, phone, did you even have phone call or phone calling cards?

Or was that just like, no. No, no. There's just, we didn't call. We didn't. It was just like, we're going and we'll be back on this day. And my dad, my dad was like, I guess. He didn't say this, but subsequently I've talked to him. And I was like, what was your rationale or letting this go?

And he was like, he was like, you needed to learn how to be a man. You needed to, you know, I didn't want you to be a wimp. Yeah, you were talking about your friends a little bit in our prior conversation at the beach. And you were just saying, like, maybe they would not have been capable of doing these. No, not casting aspersions against your friends. So just saying, but you were saying like you were an older brother and your family. So you had a sense of responsibility and that, you know, you're not going to, you're going to make sure that nothing happened. It was truly stupid.

Probably did lots of little stupid things. Yeah, again, no offense to Corey and Jeff. But I think, you know, me being the older brother, I had two younger brothers and a sister. And I was just kind of like that older brother mentality. And I just, you know, I think that Corey and Jeff's parents let them go on those trips as well because. They sort of knew that maybe I would make sure that nothing bad was going to happen or I'd try to. And I did. And I just kind of like ran kind of a tight ship.

And I was like, you know, they would be like, yeah, let's go to the strip club. And I'm like, no, sorry guys, but no, we're not doing that. We're like, you know, they might have wanted to bring a little weed. And I'd be like, no, sorry, but no, we're not doing that. And I just like, let's, we're doing this. You know, we're going to run a tight ship. We're going to Baja to find waves. We're going to go and score great surf.

We don't need to think about whether we need to have some pot or whether we need to go to the strip club when we're 17. We're just going to go look for waves. And so I kind of kept it focused and kept like the knucklehead business to a minimum, if any. And yeah, we drank beer. We drank a lot of beer, but we drink, you know, We'd find our camp spot and, you know, we'd get our case of Pacifico and, you know, we'd drink our beer until we, you know, fell asleep. But we wanted to wake up in the morning and not be completely wrecked and we wanted to surf.

And so that was the focus. And then I remember we were at San Miguel on one of these trips. And in the evening, we had kind of met this older guy. I mean, to us, he seemed a lot older. Like, I don't know how old he was, but he seemed like he was. 30. He's probably 30. He seemed like he was 60.

But, yeah, like an old-timey guy, like a good surfer. We've been out in the water with him earlier, and we were sitting around the campfire, and we were having some beers with him. And he started telling these stories about places further south. And he started talking about the one thing that really stuck in my mind. that he mentioned he was like he's like yeah you guys got to get down to the seven sister points especially in the winter you got to you got to make your way to the seven sisters and i was just like hope the seven sisters i was like oh my god yeah that's that's that's that's where i need to i need to get

to the seven sisters what i was like what is that that just sounds amazing you know and he was like hang on let me show you and he he went you know into his i think it was like vw bus or something and he pulled out the triple a map and he had all like kind of drawn like sketched on top of it over where it said you know baha he had written treasure map and it was like illustrated and i awesome yeah and our my eyes like bugged out of my head i was like whoa the treasure map and he got out the treasure he's like you want to see the treasure map i was like yeah let's see the treasure map and he he had opened it up like the whole peninsula laid out with scribbled on their pen and ink like lines to these points to these points of

on the map and this is like 1988 and with like he's like written like the wall or whatever these various spots and he's like long right hand point break breaks best December to February dominant offshore winds blah blah blah and I was looking at this I was going to go oh my god oh my god this is this is the holy grail this is it you know and um I like dude could I could I copy the treasure map and he was like, bro, I normally don't let anyone copy the treasure map, but tell you what. He's like, go get your map, get a pen. I'm going to let you, like, write a couple things down. And I ran and got my AAA map, got my pen, and I was like scribbling as fast as I can

trying to copy the treasure map. And I got most of the seven sisters locked in and some other stuff. And then even some points in southern Baja, you let me see, like, stuff I never heard of, like Punta Canejo and other places. And that was the moment after I found that that link that I was like, we are going to these places. And we did. Well, if you're going to those places, you're going to need some Baja bound insurance.

So we're going to take a quick break here, get a message from our sponsor, Baja Baja Bound, and we'll be right back with Sasha talking about Baja and surf. Stay tuned. That sounds good. I just want to take a look at this. You good? Yeah. I might want another one of these.

Yeah. Do we want to... Should we get one now? Yeah, do you mind running and I'll stay? here, yeah, two marks? Mark for you, Mark for me? Yeah, let's do two marks. Okay, I'll be right back.

We'll be right here. Here at Slough, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Saludos, Amigo. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. This is a couple of delinquents, drinking margaritas in the parking lot, recording podcasts. Just doing what we've always done, pretty much. So let's pick it up. Yeah, so I got a couple things I want to tell you, but a couple more stories. Let's go. Can I tell you? Let's go.

All right, so we'd seen the treasure map. And right, not very long after having seen the treasure map, I think, you know. Hey, let me just interject. for a second here. So knowledge, knowledge was not ever present like it is now. You can figure out anything about anything anywhere in the world. Yeah, you had to earn it. And those days, you said it. You had to earn it. So this guy, this older dude. Yeah. Must have thought enough of you kids, quote unquote, kids. Yeah, I think he was probably like tripping out. Like, well, these kids are deep south. They're like, where are their parents? They're like, you know. And so he invested.

a little in you. He shared his gold. That's right. He did. His treasure map. Yeah. And he, I'm sure, yeah, like he said, he's like, I don't, I don't share the treasure map. All right. Pick it up. And, um, so where is the first place on the treasure map that you said, we got to go there? Where's the aspirational trip that came after that? Well, um, one of the things that he, he told us about was, he was like, yeah, he's like, but guys, just so you know, like, yeah, you know, there's all these amazing spots. But another thing you got to be aware of is the Sea of Cortez. And we're like, the Sea of Cortez.

And he's like, oh, yeah. He's like, the Sea of Cortez is amazing, man. And he's like, there's these towns down there that, you know, nobody's ever seen that, you know, out of the 1950s or 40s, it's still just like, you know, real old-timey, like little fishing towns. And he's like, it's amazing down there. And that also really stuck in my mind. And I remember, you know, coming back from that trip. And I was telling my dad about that. And my dad, apparently, that kind of got in his head.

So the first thing that happened out of that trip was that suddenly my dad was like, you know what? We're going to go to the Sea of Cortez. And I was like, oh, so we're not, now you want to go further south. And he was like, yeah, yeah. like, I've always wanted to go to the Sea of Cortez. I was like, you have? And he started like studying the map and he took us on one last grand family trip in his Mercedes station wagon.

And he looked at the map and he decided that we were going to Bahia to Los Angeles. And which was way further than he'd ever been or that I've ever been. And I think he was almost like trying to outdo me a little bit or just kind of show that he was still dad still got his chops dad still got his chops dad's dad's dad still and so we went in the mercedes station wagon me my mom my two younger brothers and my sister like all like piled in the mercedes uh the 85 i think it's not oh 1983 mercedes station wagon and um we went i remember like you know we got i think probably we spent the first night at estero or the familiar places And then he set off and we got, by the time we got to Catavina,

and it was like a hundred, you know, a hundred or whatever temperature it was. Because it was, I think it was summertime. My mom was like, are you sure? You know, are you sure? And we stayed at that motel that they have in Catavina that night, the first night. And it was, me and my brothers were just like, whoa, this is awesome. We saw all the boulders and everything. and talk about, you know, like, feeling like it was like we were in Israel.

It really felt like that. I felt like you were in, like, the Negev Desert, except, you know, there goes that train again. They don't have the boulders like that, but, yeah, we were just losing our minds. Yeah, that's quintessential. I really think, like, I want to spend a week or two in Catavina now I know a guide there, which will open up a lot of territory to me there, but that is such quintessential picture in your head. Baja, the cactus, the boulders, the desert, the tranquility, the whole thing. And that hotel there, I mean, God bless it, I was just talking about that hotel at lunch today.

Yeah, what's it called? It has so much potential. It's so cool. It's so wonderful. Yeah, I think at that time it was called the La Pinta Hotel. Yeah, now it's independent, so it's... Yeah, it was the La Pinta Hotel, and we stayed the night there. And I think actually, now that I start thinking about it, we had to stay the night there because the gas station didn't

have gas. Yeah. And that was, we needed to gas up to get to Bahia. And they, we got to that, you know, my dad was assuming like, oh, it's a gas, he saw on the map there. There should be a gas station on the map. We got there and the Pemex didn't have gas and they're like, oh, you're going to have to wait till the morning because we're thinking that the truck's coming in the morning or, anyway, so we stayed the night at the La Pinta and then in the morning, I don't think the gas station had gas, but somebody like a rancher or somebody came and they had, they had gas. And people, anyway, we got gas and we made our way to Bahia, Los Angeles. And we rolled into Bahia, Los Angeles later that evening.

And we found the Villa Vita Hotel, which I think is still there. And we went down, we checked into there, and then we went down for dinner at Guillermo. We got down to Guillermo and walked out on the little beach and the little dock they have there. And there was that, like, heat lightning that they had. have where they it was like a sun was setting blue sky but big puffy clouds out over the sea of cortez and all the clouds were just like flashing like that kind of like orange almost like purple flashing lightning doesn't make any sound it's just like boom boom you know flashing away and uh we're looking and my dad was looking at that and we're looking in the water and there was stingrays

gliding by right you know right off the shore and dolphin and everything. And my dad was looking at the heat lighting and looking at the stingrays and looking at everything. He looked back and he was like, he was like, this place is wild. He's like, this is out of Hemingway. He's like, he's like, this is a primordial soup. I remember she said that. It stuck with me, a primordial soup.

And, yeah, it was Hemingway. Yeah, well, amazing. Amazing that your dad who had that sense of adventure and had that, that Beatnik-Kara-esque drive. made that trip, piled the family into the Mercedes wagon and got down to Bahia de Los Angeles. We got us down to Bejita, Los Angeles. And, yeah, we were, so then I'm just going to interject from family bonding. We ran out of gas at Catavina as well. Or we had to stop at Catavina to wait for gas because that gas station did not have gas.

I guess that's the thing. I there in 1986. And I was with my dad in the Volkswagen camper, and we ended up popping the top and camping right there waiting for the gas, which didn't come. which didn't come, but the green angels came the next day and sold us 10 gallons of gas or something. We kept on motoring down the road. Yeah, so we're only there like maybe two years after that, you know. And, or, you know, I'm 17, but my other brother's 15 and my other brother's like 12 and my sister's like nine or 10. So we're like, you know, they got little kids and it's hot.

And I remember that the first night we spent in Bahia, Los Angeles, at the Villa Vita, I think it was at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. They turned off the generator. And there's no more electricity in the town at that point. And so they had, there was air conditioning in the room at 9 o'clock. It's done. And it was, you know, Bahia, Bahia, Los Angeles style, humid, hot. Yeah. And it was, that was a rough night.

Not so much for me and my brothers, because we were just stoked chasing geckos, running wild. But my mom was like, like, I don't know how much more I can take of this. How many more nights we're going to stay here? And, yeah, that was so cool how they just had the generator shuts off. And then that's it. You've got, you've got get out the candles and you're just, you're really going back to Hemingway kind of vibes. Yeah. And so you were chasing that, I think, a little.

bit in your high school days. I still am. And exactly, that's what I was getting to. That never leaves, does it? Yeah, no, once you've had a taste of that and that the romance of that and just that kind of way of living, like, I just, I just want to get back to that. And I don't know that I can. I don't know where I'll find it again if I ever will.

But I try to, you know, I try to recreate it the best I can in some of the things I do with my brand, but I won't get into that yet, but I've still got more Baja to tell. Let's have another margarita sip here and get into the Baja train. You know, I got one more big early Baja story to tell. One more big early Baja story. Let's get on to the Baja. So after the successful, you know, family vacation trip to Baha Angeles, we were you know coming up on graduation and I you know I had the treasure map in hand more or less

and I really had my sight set on I wanted to go the whole way I wanted to go to Cabo and by this point my dad had bought me a used but almost new 1985 Toyota four runner I had to convince him beg him to get me that and he did and um i wrapped it around a telephone pole almost immediately but that's another story um but anyway repaired that damage and we were ready to go and i was like dad i want you know i want to i think i'm ready to go all the way i want to go to cobb i want to do the whole thing when we graduate this you know next year that summer you know can i go with you know Corey and Jeff and a couple other people like I kind of had this was starting to put together this trip we're going to it was an expedition really we were going to go all the way to Cabo and he was

like yeah okay yeah I think you you know he's I was like I've been almost there we went to by Los Angeles I know where I'm going it's not that much further I thought yeah it's not that much further 800 miles. And he green lighted it. And then I was able to convince the other guy's parents to let them go. And then some other friends kind of joined on to the trip. So by this point, my friend Corey had also gotten not a four-owner, but a Toyota Toyota truck, a red Toyota four-by truck with a shell on it.

And then another, and my other friend Jeff had, he also got a Toyota, like a beige Toyota truck with a shell on it. So we had three trucks. And I was like, oh, we're bulletproof. We're going with three, four by four trucks. I got the forerunner. They got their, they got their Toyotas. And so in my, in my fourrunner is me and my younger brother, Han. He was two years younger than me.

So he would have been like 16. And we set off and like Jeff, Jeff had his truck. Corey had his truck. I forget. There were like two other guys in that, you know, in each truck. And so we were like, we're going to go all the way down. It was summertime. We just graduated.

And we're like, we're going to surf Scorpion Bay. We're going to go to Punta Canejo. We're going to, and we're going to hit all the spots. We're going to go to ship. We knew that there was such a place that shipwrecks on the East Cape of Baja. down to Cabo and we're like we're going to get to the East Cape we're going to we're going to surf that shipwrecks and that's that was the goal and um so we set off and I think you know the first night we probably stayed at you know La Fonda or San Miguel or something like that and then and then we jumped off from there and as we were coming through San Quintin the transmission on jest truck went out And we're only just as far as San Quintin. And we're like, oh, son of a bitch.

And so, yeah, he couldn't get it into gear. It was just popping out of gear. It wouldn't go into gear. And so we hit, he ended up, we ended up like pushing his, his truck off to the side of the road in San Catina and some local mechanic guys like kind of like found us. And they were like, yeah, Amigo, yeah, I take your truck. like bring your truck and they like oh yeah can you do the transmission and yeah yeah of course we can do it so these guys took the his truck into their yard and we're still thinking like yeah it's not a big

deal they'll fix the transmission we'll be on our way it's it's not a big deal and um so we ended up camping on those beaches like to the south of san canteen there's like a kind of quite a ways to the south there's like a stretch where there's like a lot of like different beach breaks. So we camp down there and each day we, and we ended up being there for like three or four days while we were waiting on these guys to fix the transmission. And so we're like, this isn't so bad. You know, we got three weeks to do this trip. So we'll put in some time here.

We'll surf the beach breaks. And so each day we'd kind of go up and, you know, after we'd surf, we'd go up and check on Jeff's truck. And each time we'd go. we noticed that more and more of the truck was taken apart and was like laying out in this yard and and I think you know most of everyone you're going to meet in Baja is super honest and super nice and just amazing but we got unlucky we we got we got we got our truck ended up in in the hands of some guys that weren't weren't those nice guys and uh and it After about four days, we went there, and it just became clear that they were just taking this truck apart.

They weren't doing any. It looked like they were parting the truck out. And so eventually we were like, hey guys, you know, like, this doesn't seem like it's happening. Like, we want the truck back. Yeah, you got to put it back together. And they were like, they were like, no, no, Amigo, you're going to have to pay this much. and, you know, we already did this much work. Anyway, this is a really stupid story, but it's a knuckleheady story,

but we hatched this plan to steal back the truck. And we actually went there the following afternoon when they weren't looking. I don't know how we did it, but we got in this yard. No one was around. We threw all the parts back in the truck, and we were like pushing it to get it, you know, to get it out. We were going to like get it away from this yard and figure it out. Anyway, sure enough, like the guy showed up, the Federali showed up, everybody showed up.

And they were like, you can't, you guys are stealing this truck. And we're like, this is our truck. We're not stealing it. They're like, no, no, no. These guys did this work. Anyway, we had to pay them basically all the money we had. And, or that Jeff had. And so that truck wasn't getting fixed.

And we had to find a way to get that truck back to the U.S. And we found a cattle truck that was willing to put his truck in the back of it and get it back up to the border and get him back up. So we paid that guy, this cattle truck guy, and we had to find this embankment because there was no way to go. get the truck up the up a ramp into into the back of this cattle truck. So we actually ended up like pushing his Toyota off of this embankment and into this cattle truck.

And he tied it in the back of this cattle truck. And Jeff and this other guy, Bobby, went home with the truck. And me, my brother, Corey, and two other guys continued on to combo. Dude, we're not leaving. We're not giving up. Dude, it was your problem, your truck. That's the way it was in those days. Yeah.

Sorry, that was a tangent, side story. Sorry, bro. Sorry, bro. Good luck. But, yeah, Jeff. Jeff ended up getting, you know, cattle truck back to the border. And I don't know. But, you know, there's that thing that your dad wanted you to figure out how to be a man.

Yeah. How to solve these things. You figured out that these guys were ripping you off. Yeah, I mean, it certainly seemed that way. Then you had to figure out, like, you know, what how, what the plan was. and then the federalities come and you dealt with that and all that and whatever, you know. Yeah, we're kids. You're still kids.

And you're dealing in a language and a culture and all this stuff that you don't know. And somebody is taking advantage of you. Yeah. And there's not a whole bunch you can do about that. And you're trying to figure out how to navigate through that. Yeah. And where do you think like, okay, let, you know, you made the trip. You made it home.

What do you think that did for your soul? Well, I'll tell you about the rest of the trip. Yeah, let's go. bit so so after you know we jettisoned jeff cut him lose then we you know we still had two great running trucks and we we were off and we made our way down and we got to um i think we drove maybe we got maybe we went to um i think we went to the wall but we already knew that the wall didn't break in the summer so we just camped there and kind of checked it out and we're like okay This is reconnaissance.

We'll be back here in the winter. We camped at the wall. And then the next day we pushed on through and went all the way to Punta Canejo. And that's a trick off the road in and of itself. We went out to Punta Canejo after doing that, like, super long straight away that you get to after, like, what is that, that town, Sudad Constituccion or something like that. Yeah, Sudet Constitione. Yeah. We passed through Sudet Constitione.

institution when we were like, you know, just these little surf kids and we went on that straight away that seemed like it lasted five, six hours. I don't know. And then we knew where the turnoff for Canejo was because of the treasure map. And so we went out to Conejo, scored, found Conejo, scored these epic left-hand point waves, surfed that. That was incredible. Stayed there, I think like a night or two. And then we pushed on to Cabo. And when we got down, we eventually got to Cabo and it was like this tropical wonderland that we thought it would be.

And but we didn't count on that it was hard to find somewhere to camp on the beach. And we're like, because everything seemed like it was private. But there wasn't that much development yet. But eventually we found a beach where we could drive out onto. and we were able to camp and there was a surf spot there and we didn't we didn't know what spot we were at we found out later it's a spot called chalinos and it was a pretty cool like kind of right-hand reef reef point spot and we ended up just posting up at chelanos for like five five or six

nights and surfing that spot in trunks every day and it was like warm water clear warm water and just so cool, like drinking our beers. And then eventually we went out, we took the East Cape Road and made our way out to found shipwrecks and camped out there. And at this point, we've been gone like two weeks and our parents haven't heard from us. I think we went into town, we went into Cabo San Lucas and eventually got on a pay phone and I actually called them. And we're like, hey, we're in Cabo. We're okay. You know, and I'm sure my mom was just like, collect call. Can you collect international calling?

Can you accept a collect call from Sasha? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's interesting. Again, when we have connectivity and information in our pockets, supercomputers in our pockets, where you know where these breaks are, you know what the conditions are, you know all the stuff,

you know where the I Overlander tells you to camp and all that. Yeah, we didn't know any of it. You're just kids making it up. 100%. And for you, that's how. half a life ago. It is, yeah. And you're still just passionate talking about these stories.

Yeah, totally. I mean, I didn't realize it, but we got a helicopter coming over. So, I mean, I knew all that at the time that what we were doing was cool. And, like, I really liked it. And I just wanted to keep doing it. But I didn't know that it was going to, like, dwell inside you, eat at you forever. Set the course for the rest of my life, that all of my creative everything would be linked to that.

But I'm happy that it is, and it's a great thing. Can we dig into you that creative everything? So you've got a brand, it's Sun Gods, which is how I think I stumbled upon you. That's an amazing, cool, throwback. Throwback surf brand. Yeah. Yeah, throwback surfed brand. Yeah.

Fabulous T-shirts and fabulous colors. He's got a T-shirt. I'm wearing the shorts. Yeah. But, you know, you had a career as a photographer. And again, like, you know, I worked as a photographer, too. But I tried to make Gray Davis look like a human, the governor of California, for four out of his five-year terms.

But you were photographing for Playboy. Yeah. Yeah. I never ever, like, I was never comfortable photographing beautiful women. I did it in college for, you know, like a fashion guide. And I fell off a rock. I was photographing two girls in the setting sun and bikinis. and I fell off a rock and fell like camera and lens first into the sand.

Ruined. Yeah, it ruined a good F2 and an 1828 for you Nikon gear nerds. But you photographed for Playboy. How did that come about? How did Baja fit into Playboy photographer? All right. So, yeah, so after high school, Eventually, I ended up going to UC San Diego, and I went there and got into their film program.

And that was an amazing thing in and of itself because I got to live in San Diego. I lived off campus. I lived in an apartment in Mission Beach, like right on Jersey Court, like one house back from the beach in, like, the early 90s. And it was, I think our rent was like 600 bucks. and we were living at the beach, me and this other day, and went to UC San Diego, studied film. It's not really considered like a film school, but they did have a kind of like pretty arty art program there

and film program there. And they, you know, looked at a lot of like John Luke Godard films and Antonioi movies and even like way more obscure shit, like just weird nutty stuff like, Kenneth Anger and really weird film stuff. And out of that, I thought, I was like, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to find, I'm going to try to be a director. I think I can make, I want to make some movies or something.

And then, and I eventually ended up in, in Los Angeles. This is like 1998 by now. And I'm trying to find my way as a, to some. somehow cracky and become a filmmaker. And along the way, I started taking pictures. And I had, I bought a Pentax-67 camera, a medium-format camera. And I was like, I'm going to try to take, like, some fashion kind of pictures. And I remember I took some pictures of a girlfriend,

and thinking that I was going to try to take like a fashion style picture like fashion magazine and took these kind of like arty pick what I thought were already fashiony kind of pictures and and then I was at the time I was living I was living in Beechwood Canyon but I was in touch with a lot of people that the friends the first friends that I was making in Los Angeles were like all in bands and stuff and I And I started bringing, well, first my Pentex, but then other cameras out at night to, like, shows and stuff and started photographing bands and started photographing just this whole, like, kind of Silver Lake, the early, like, Silver Lake Elliot Smith Day's kind of rock scene. And I did pictures with, like, for instance, like this band called the Beachwood Sparks that went on to be kind of a kind of, you know, one of the darlings of the. Silver Lake scene. And so I started building a body of work of this kind of rock scene that I was

photographing. And then I met this guy called Bob Richardson. And Bob Richardson is, was Terry Richardson's dad. If you know Terry Richardson is. Yeah. Famed fashion photographer. Yeah. Yeah. So I met Bob. He shoots a lot of stuff. It just seems very raw. Like you're sitting there right there like wow these are just snapshots yeah beautiful snapshots yeah well i knew terry richardson but i didn't know who bob richardson was it turns out that terry richison had a dad this guy bob richardson who had been every bit the uh famous fashion photographer that his son terry was and in the 60s he had done amazing work for american vogue french vogue like all the vogue and he had that same edgy thing that terry had

So I somehow met Bob Richardson and and I, he started coming around to the parties and the places that we were going. And by this point, he was in his 70s. And he was kind of like an old junkie. He'd been a heroin addict. He might have still been a heroin addict. And he was coming to these parties and stuff. And me and my friend Rex were taking him around.

Kind of just like, yeah, hey, you know, we'll take you to these. parties that we're going to and and then eventually I let him know I was like hey you know I'm kind of taking some pictures and he was like oh yeah let me see your pictures and then one afternoon I brought him my pictures and I showed him he's like let me see what you're doing and I showed him my pictures and he was like it's not bad it's pretty good it's not bad what you're doing he's like you want to be a photographer and I was like I was like I thought I wanted to be a director but I don't know how I'm going to get into that I was like yeah I might want to be a photographer. I was like, but I don't know, I don't know what to do. And he's like, well,

I'll tell you, I'll tell you what to do. He's like, here's the treasure map. Here's the treasure map. Here's the, here's another treasure map. He's like, if you can get yourself to London, he's like, I'll get you appointments with the right people that'll make it so that you can be a photographer. And I was like, really? And he's like, yeah. He's like, you got, he's like, you got an eye, you got good work. He's like, I think no one here is going to get what you're doing. I don't even think anyone in New York is going to get what you're doing.

But if you can get to London, I'll get you in front of the right people and I'll help you out. And based on that, I was like, I was like, all right, I'm going to do it, Bob. And I got myself a ticket to London, bought a flight to London. And this was like

1999 or 2000. Got on a plane to London. and arrived in London and got there with all my my portfolio and stuff and I called Bob. I was like, hey, Bob, it's Sasha. I'm here in London. Like you said, I'm ready to go. Like, you know, tell me where I need to go. Can you give me the list where I need to go?

And he was like, he's like, what? He's like, you're in London? I was like, yeah, I'm in London. I was like, you know, where do I need to go? And he's like, and he literally. said he said you I've helped you enough you you know you know the names of I've already told you the names of the people you need to see you figure it out and he hung up the phone on me and I was like I almost had a you know just an instant panic attack I was like oh shit I've totally been had I've

totally been misled I trusted this this old guy he got me to fly all the way to London and he just told me to fuck off and hung up on me. And, you know, I was like, I was almost going to cry and just, like, go home. I was in, like, I was staying in, like, a room above a pub somewhere on, like, you know, no money. And I didn't know what to do. And I was like, wait a minute, I've got the treasure map. He already told me the names. He told me who I needed to see.

He's like, you need to see Camilla Louther at this agency. and you need to see so-and-so at British Vogue and you need to see Emma Reeves at Days and Confused and you need to see Terry Jones at ID. I was like, I knew who I needed, I knew who the people were. I was like, well, what am I an idiot? I can't call these people up.

And I was like, you know, I'll figure it out. So I just, you know, still pre, like, cell phone book. Yeah, and I just got, got, got, got, you know, found the numbers and I called and I managed to like kind of cold calls. all these people. And I was like, you know, talk to the person at the desk. And I was like, oh, yeah, I'm a photographer from California. Bob Richardson sent me over here. I'm supposed to see Emma Reeves or I'm supposed to see Terry Jones at ID or I'm supposed to see so-and-so at British Vogue. And I actually managed to get every single one of those appointments

that Bob told me about. On my own, I got in there. I mean, I used his name heavily. but I got in there myself. And all of them went pretty well, but my meeting with Days and Confused, which was a very influential magazine at the time, went super well. And they were like, we love what you're doing.

Go back to California, shoot exactly this for us. We're going to send you a box of clothes, shoot this, and we're going to use it. And so I went back and did like one of my shoots that I was already doing with the stuff that they sent, me and they and they literally they put it on the they gave me a story in the magazine put it on the

cover and you know there are people like banging down the door to be on the cover of days and confused at that time and it was a big deal and then next month they gave me another shoot and that became a cover too and then in very short order I got a big agent and I was off to the races as a photographer wow wow all right well man it's been a fun rock so far. Can you sum up Sun Gods in a couple of minutes here? Yeah, let's jump into such a great vibe. Sun Gods is such a great vibe. We didn't even talk

about Playboy, which is fine. Yeah, yeah. Different thing. We have to talk about Playboy next time. Another time. Another time. So Sun Gods, yeah. So then I ended up being becoming a fashion photographer and I ended up eventually working for

play. You know, I worked I worked for all of them pretty much, L, Glamour, Vogue, GQ, Target, H&M, Nike, a bunch of stuff. Did that for nearly 20 years, and it was great. I got to travel all over the world. But in order to do that, I had to live, well, they were really wanting me to live in New York. They're like, to do this, you need to be in New York. you need to be in Manhattan, or if you're not going to be here, you need to be in London or Paris. At that time, L.A. was, even Los Angeles was still considered like a backwater.

And they're like, you can't be in L.A. and do this. And so I kind of pretended like I was in New York and I was staying at my grandma's house, kind of trying to put in the time. But really, I was still, like, had my roots in California. and in the back of my mind I really always wanted to get back to my surfing routes and I kind of put that on the back burner during that whole time there was a photographer and I lived I ended up living in in Los Angeles I had a house in Silver Lake and while I was there I had it in my mind I was like eventually eventually I want to get down to north county San Diego I want to just get back to ensignitas or somewhere like that and I want to have a surfing life again and I just maybe I'll have like a surf brand maybe I'll just make surfing clothes and I'll just I won't be doing this photography thing but in my mind I the picture I saw was I was going to be like 70 years old doing that and I was like this is my retirement plan I thought and and anyway flash forward to 2016 I was living in

LA and it was summertime and my daughter had just been born and was roasting hot and I was just like you know what this is brutal like why are we here why are we in LA and I said to my wife let's let's get out of here let's let's get down to North County San Diego I'm sure we can rent a place for the summer like people do in Europe like let's be like Europeans and just like rent a place down down at the beach so I found a condo in La Costa that would do a three-month lease. And I was like, awesome. All right, we'll rent that for the summer. I'll run out the house in L.A. We'll get down to North County and we'll just, you know, change it up and just like be down and down there for the summer.

Came down here for the summer. This is 2016 and spent an amazing summer here just surfing and hanging out. And in that summer, I got the idea for sun gods and like everything. that I wanted to do in terms of my surf brand idea. And at the end of the summer, I was just like, this is too good. There's no way we're going back to L.A. I was like, do you want to go back to L.A.? And she's like, no, I don't want to go back to L.A. I was like, me neither.

We're not doing it. We're not going back. And so then we ended up renting something full-time. Put my house in Silver Lake on the market to sell. It's gone way up by then. And we sold the house in our house. LA, ended up being able to buy a place down here. And I was like, screw it. I'm not going to be a photographer anymore. I'm just going to go back to being a surfer. I bought a couple places in

Joshua Tree that had turned into vacation rentals for me. And I was like, kind of did the numbers. And I was like, you know what? The way the Airbnb is going in Joshua Tree, I think I don't need to be a photographer anymore. I think we can make it work down here. And I was like, I'm just going to focus on this sun gods thing and and the idea originally it was actually an idea that i'd had nearly 10 years prior um because i've always liked short shorts i've always hated as shorts got longer and board shorts in particular like i'm from you know remember times of the early 80s and even the 70s when shorts were short you know like opi stubbies oh p stubby oh O-P stubbies.

I was like, had it in my head. Hang-ten, all of that. I was like, shorts need to be at the longest, five-inch in-scene. So early on, like, while I was still in L.A., I was like, I want to, no, at that time, it was like, 2011, 2012. Nobody was making, like, shorter shorts. And I was like, I need to make, like, an O.P-style short. I want to have a, I should just do this and figure out how to make, like, a, short or short and I got the name sung gods because so s-o-s-un-g-o-d-z-

yeah and gods which is a N-G-O-D-Z which is the nod to Jimmy Z's you remember Jimmy Z's in the 1980s so I was like I'm gonna tap into Jimmy Z's I'm gonna tap into O-P I'm gonna tap into stubbies I'm gonna tap into lightning bowl a little bit and I'm just gonna like bring all the stuff that I like back and and um so it took me a while to eventually do the idea that I had and and the the sun gods I the sun god's name uh just a little side note one time me and this this dude Rex who was like my best buddy like when we were still living in LA like years earlier before I was married we went to some party in the Hollywood Hills that some a girl had invited us to and we showed up at summertime and I think we're

just wearing shorts we're all tan long hair and uh we rang the doorbell and this girl came to the door she wasn't our friend she was someone else and and uh we rang the doorbell and she answered the door and she called to her friend she's like hey Amanda there's a couple sun gods at the door in my head. I was like, sun gods. And yeah, it's that that was probably like 2004 or something stuck in my house like sun gods. And yeah, so the idea was percolating for a long time. And then eventually, we finally got down here to North County, San Diego. And in like 2018, I was like, you know, enough talking about sun gods, thinking about sun gods, I'm going to do it. If it's just me and nobody else helping me and that's what it is and so I just started making t-shirts

and made this thing called sun gods and it's just like a like you said like an old school throwback surfer brand where I'm just taking inspiration from Baja and all these stories that I've been telling you about and also you know my surfing heritage and what I've been interested in all along, which is just, you know, what I considered like the surfing high water mark was kind of achieved like, I think, 78 to 83. In those years, I mean, that was, nothing, you know, throughout the 50s and 60s, it was always building up to that. And then in those years, you had, you know, people like Mark Richards, Shane Horan, you had, you had all. You had all. You had all, All the brands coming like early Quicksilver, early Billabong,

that were doing something that no one else had ever seen before. And those brands still exist, but they've forgotten how to do what they did the right way originally. And that's why I have on my tagline on my Instagram, I'm just doing what others forgot, what others forgot how. Well, we're going to leave it right there. Sasha, thanks, man. been an awfully fun. All right.

Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm just doing what others already they've done. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm just, you know, doing what other people have done, but they forgot how, somewhere along the way. Hey, tell me where are the best place or people to follow you and find out what you're up to?

Follow me on Instagram at Sung Gods with a Z, California. Sun Gods with a Z, California. And look at the website, sungods. God's.com. And the place that I always love to see what you're up to, Sun God's Garage. Oh, yeah. Sun God's Garage, that's my car fetish. Yeah, we have, we share that.

Alter ego. And you've got some photography stuff going on as well. You want to drop folks over there? Yeah, you can, if you want to see what I used to be up to as a photographer, go and look at Mr. Sasha Eisenman on Instagram, and that's, that's a bunch of my archival stuff. Who knows? Maybe one of these days I'll pick up the camera again.

I hope not, but it might. Maybe I will. It'll all be in the show notes. Hey, Sasha, thanks, man. It's been a lot of fun. Thank you. Great. And this magnificent 1979 scout rally is for sale.

So if it's still for sale by the time this podcast comes out, I'll let you know, folks. It's for sale today. We'll see about tomorrow. All right, thanks, everyone. Hey, well, I hope you enjoyed. that conversation. Fun stuff, you know, kid growing up in Huntington Beach going down to Baja, having a good time with his mom and dad, and then having a good time with his high school buddies and sorting stuff out when it goes sideways. And I think that's what a lot of Baja is,

is sorting stuff out when it goes sideways. And in those days, you know, they just had to figure it out. They didn't have I overlander and crowdsourced answers and what did you do and who can I call. You just had to figure it out in those good stories of those guys figuring the stuff back in the day. Well, if you like what I'm doing, and I'm doing a lot these days, we had a great experience delivering baseball gear. We got the first Baja Baseball Gear deliveries done on my Slow Baja Winter Expedition. I had Matthew Schnitzer from Barbers for Baja and Ted Donovan, Baja visitor, and we were able to make a gear donation to Mike, coach Mike Espinoza in El Rosario and to these kids, great kids, the Osteneros from Guerrero Negro.

They were out fundraising for their state championship Little League tournament. They were out on the street, out on the highway, in their uniforms fundraising, and we just exploded their minds showing up, dropping some tacos in their tank, and dropping four bags of gear on the team. And it was really amazing to watch. I hate to say it, a young lad, didn't. Well, let's just say it. He couldn't control his happy emotions and the tears were flowing down his cheeks when he got that baseball bat. And that's really heartening. Then we got to San Ignacio for the big delivery with Coach Honus, Jonas, who's an amazing guy. He's got about 40 kids in San Ignacio. And he showed me the back of his truck. All the gear he has for his entire program. Seriously, it's less than my son Rob has and two bags in the back of his forerunner. And so we were able to. hook Jonas up with, I don't know, more gear. The kids were, the kids were super stoked.

So anyways, if you like what I'm doing here, folks, check out barbers for baja.baha.org. Barbersforbaha.org. Click on that baseball in Baja link and you can make a tax deductible donation to help us keep the work going. I'm bringing down some stuff to Mulehay on my next trip, which is coming right up. And I'm going to go see those Austenaroes from Guerrero at the championships down La Paz. See how those guys are doing. And it's really heartening, again, to bring this desperately needed gear

to kids and coaches up and down the peninsula. So please, if you like what we're doing, drop a taco in the tank. All right, well, listen, we got some merch in the stores. We've still got, we've got a replen on the deluxe canvas bag. Those are, those are truly, truly beautiful.

I've been using mine all the time. Everybody on the Slow Baja Winter Expedition got one as their swag bag. They're really terrific bags. So we've got a replant on those. We've got hats in stock. Almost every style. There's only one that's out of stock right now. So if you're looking for a freshie for the summer, get yourself a hat. We've got black teas in stock. Got some white teas and some bigger size sweatshirts still in stock. So get on the shop, the Slow Baja shop at Slobaha.com. Pick out some merch. Help me do this thing. Share the love. And you can always drop a Taco in the tank through Buy Me a Taco, which is the link at the donations tab. Now, that's

official through Buy Me a Taco. And I appreciate the folks who've been doing that. So thanks. I'll be back with something fun. And in the words of Mary McGee's pal, Steve McQueen, he loved Baja. He loved the desert. And he said, Baja's life, anything that happens before or after is just waiting. You know, people always ask me, what's the best modification that I've ever made? to Slow Baja. Without a doubt, it's my Shielman seats. You know, Toby at Shield Man USA could not be easier to work with. He recommended Averio F for me and a Vero F XXL for my navigator, Ted. This Ted's kind of a big guy. And Toby was absolutely right. The seats are great and they fit both of us perfectly. And let me tell you, after driving around Baja for over a year on these seats,

I could not be happier. Shield Man, Slow Baja approved, learn more and get yours at Shieldman. com.