Kite Surfing and the Paginas Sociales (February 25th)

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When Mike and I lived in Santiago, we had one goal: We wanted our pictures in the social pages. Everyday, El Mercurio (the biggest newspaper in Chile), along with every other newspaper in Chile, prints pictures of parties, weddings, corporate events and the like, on the last several pages of the main section. To most Americans, its kind of silly. Anyways, we failed, mostly because at every nice event we went to, Mike managed to tear up either his coaster or napkin into hundreds of little pieces on his table.

I wish I could say that I was in a picture in the social pages, if nothing else just to prove it was Mike holding me back. Unfortunately, there will be no pictures of me. However, this weekend I did take photographs for the social pages, which I think is also kind of cool.

Here is how it happened: My friend Rodrigo works for a Chilean affiliate of IMG. He is a lawyer and handles some of their contract work. This week, their media person quit, so Rodrigo is temporarily in charge of that as well.

On Saturday and Sunday, Rodrigo's company sponsored a Kitesurfing championship in Santo Domingo (about an hour due west and a little south of Santiago). Rodrigo called around to the papers and magazines, asking if they wanted to send any photographers down for the tournament. Caras ("Faces" in English), a People-style magazine, said that they couldn't send any photographers down, but that they would publish pictures of the event.

So, I decided to tag along to the beach for the day and be the designated photographer. When we arrived, the beach was almost empty. It was cloudy, and very little wind. I took a few pictures of a guy going up in some kind of kite, but not much was happening. About 2:00, we all went out to lunch, came back, and the beach was full.

There was a little kite surfing going on, but I had my instructions. Make sure, Rodrigo told me, to take pictures of the models. Didn't need to tell me that twice. Tough day at the beach, with a nice camera and an excuse to talk to every girl you see.

To be fair, I did have to be professional and take pictures of families and teenagers too. I wanted to get some pictures of the kitesurfing, but the wind never picked up. The event was postponed for the next day, and I was on my way back to Santiago to see U2.

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