Here’s a peek at the Harmony Hotel’s Recording Studio with Alejandro Hidalgo & special guest Deblois Milledge. Deblois freestyles to Rich’s Django inspired riff & creates a new song call ‘Rodeo’ first attempt. Alejandro holds percussion & also guest appears in The Alejandros alongside Editor EQ Ale who edited this video plus contributed much of the music & sound production.
We had fun making this one & hope you enjoy!
Chef Juan Pa (from Chancho’s BBQ) is a super interesting man. He was raised ‘fancy’ but chose the ‘streets.’ He’s filed with tattoos and interesting attire but at one time was in law school & a paralegal, then high end culinary before finding his rightful spot as a key member in helping “Keep Nosara Weird” as our wise sage Carl Wells popularized.
There’s all kinds of good shorts & amusing moments in this episode. I sure enjoyed it & hope you do, too.
This Week In Nosara #40 is late September 2024…Here’s basic outline of this episode:
Nosara is definitely a magnet for all types of interesting and unique characters.
As we learn in this Nosara Podcast episode, Michel Viau is most certainly is one of these dynamic & unique individuals.
Michel, alongside wife & partner Chantal, are gaining momentum in shaping the landscape of the ever-evolving Nosara, seemingly in most all of the right ways.
They are committed to bridging the social and cultural gap in Nosara, so much so in 2018 they founded Nosara Community for the Arts (NOCA). Michel explains NOCA & how he’s using his background in design to achieve their success.
Thankfully, Michel’s pattern of success in life both in business & philanthropic endeavors continues today, towards a greater Nosara. Michel is in a unique position as to not be competing for funding in quite the same manner as standard NGO’s. He’s combining an environmental focus inside discipline based art projects always involving the local Tico populace & pulling in the many different types of people moving into, or becoming involved in Nosara. He’s a positive thinker and forecasting a bright 5 year outlook for Nosara as a whole.
We hope you enjoy hearing from Michel & support NOCA’s efforts!
Check out NOCA’s website &/or socials to learn more: http://www.nocanosara.com
Here’s Michel’s site to learn more: hmichelviau.com
These past few weeks have been an adventure… The Nosara Podcast surf team (current lineup is ‘Shortboard’ Esteban, ‘Longboard’ Andy, Mike ‘Boo Boo’ Beazley, & EQ.Surf.Tv Ale) made their way up for special surf trip. EQ Surf Ale is making a real surf movie from the footage so stay tuned for this. I’m making a TWINicaragua 2nd episode from EQ Surf’s footage at the Boom, then after the NP surf team takes off there’s some more footage from local photographers like Ricki, Saul, German & Gabriel & then I head down to Playa Colorado at Hacienda Iguana.
The Boom is advanced level wave which breaks right by the shore. There’s expert level surfers there like Carlos Zuniga from Chancletas who is featured prominently in this TWIN episode. There’s a solid wipeout section, me struggling with shortboard at Boom, some detailed area footage of my favorite spot, Playa Nahualapa. Introduction to Troy Walker if you don’t know him already, a private skatepark on beach at Boom, & many fun waves with Shortboard Esteban & LB Andy. The locals there are extremely dialed in & a pleasure to watch navigate this expert level wave. I’m grateful for their hospitality & guidance. It 100% is NOT a wave for everyone & I recommend beginner & most intermediate level surfers visit other, safer areas. Or at minimum hire a true local to help you understand why this isn’t your standard beach break & definitely not Playa Guiones 🙂
For the Hacienda Iguana Playa Colorado section: It’s been 12 or 13 years since I’ve been there & I wanted to see what’s changed & such plus check out a Nosara client’s massive property he’s asking me to review, obviously surf, plus try to play golf.
Some super fun waves at Colorado’s & went golfing with new friend Cesar from StopNGoSurf. Overall pleasantly surprised although my favorite area is up north. The people are awesome for & it’s not just one neighborhood. Feels like Nosara 2005 or so & there’s actually community there.
Hopefully it goes family oriented or at least more of a nature type spot and not just hardcore, aggressive vibe. My first spot in Costa Rica was a place called Playa Junquillal, which was awesome, until it wasn’t. Thankfully up there places like Amaru & Grace’s GLO Cafe exist as well as the hardcore places.
There’s many impoverished people who want and deserve a better life. plus there’s a huge environmental opportunity if they start planting now & getting wildlife back to the area. Hopefully incoming people choose to be part of the solution as best they can.
Some people up there are scared of growth, & rightfully so. What I’ve learned over 2 decades in Latin America though is people are already going to go to great spots with good surf… There’s no stopping this.
There 100% is chance of making it better by at minimum getting people involved in empowering the local populace with education & opportunities, plus a focus on nature & wildlife.
So thank goodness for people like Drew Reinhart, she shared projects like Casa Armonía (https://www.mujeresquemueven.org/casa-armonia), & it is inspiring. A little bit of $ goes a long way up there, a $100 donation buys 2 bags of concrete for their facility where they help women with education, life skills, self preservation & care, physical & mental training for their safety & a better future. Check out their site to see something great launching.
Here’s just a tiny sample of screen shot photos from the upcoming movie. Music is going to be from our band After Surf, which is one of the opening acts for the G Love Benefit Show happening November 16th… Stay tuned for movie.
Long time friend Pao Barrera dropped in for her first Nosara Podcast episode to explain the purpose & intentions for Triple Crown of Surf Nosara contests plus explain how & why the Asociacion de Surf Nosara is asking for support from the local community & visitors.
Pao is pleasure to be around, and it is fun to see her growing family evolve while she continues to be a pillar in the community.
She serves as vice president for the Asociacion de Surf Nosara & their main objective is to unite people through surfing to make a difference in the community for a greater good.
They are paying prize $ to winners plus they are getting local children involved in the festivities. They are asking for people to come join in on the fun plus consider anything and everything from financial to gift donations which may help serve as prizes & or benefit local kids. Some local leaders of the surf community are assisting Dreamcatchers Foundation on a regular basis & overall the Asociacion is committed to uniting the community through surfing.
*There’s several ‘Rich rants’ in this episode pertaining to community items; especially about empowering the local Tico populace with the education and skill set systems to acquire higher end jobs and own their own successful businesses and become the future.
Personally I am growing quite tired of people directing anger & frustration about Nosara’s challenges without being part of a solution. Being upset or angry is OK, but direct it to the right direction… The Asociacion de Surf Nosara is doing this & it has my attention a great deal.
The Asociacion de Surf Nosara is happy for anyone & everyone to help any number of ways ranging from financial assistance to used surfboards, games for kids, and even just some ideas &/or helping local kids learn to surf are super appreciated as Pao explains in this episode.
Per usual, I ask 3 favorite restaurants question of Pao plus a bunch more.
If you’re in town get to the contest to participate or just cheer on the folks involved. Shout out to all sponsors and everyone involved looking to help for a greater good.
In this Nosara Podcast episode, John and Susan (Short) Johnson openly discuss a myriad of subjects plus share their purposes & intentions behind their actions for themselves & the Nosara community as a whole.
It’s a wide ranging episode, which bounces around in all kinds of directions towards addressing the heavy hitting subjects surrounding our town (John also gets in a couple of good jokes along the way, which I’m grateful for) as well as just simple topics & personal opinions and memories of Nosara’s yesterday & perhaps what tomorrow will prove to be.
Rather than spend much time reciting the same things as the litany of articles and such that are readily available on the internet about the Johnson family, I decided to take a different approach, which hopefully proves significantly more beneficial to the community as well as the entertainment level of this episode & achieve it’s purpose of getting to know the ‘real’ version of them.
We begin with a curveball of a question & discussion with me asking their opinion about wave pools. What started as conversation starter turned into solid points from the obvious about water issues and the ocean being preferential, then into pros/cons and my wild idea about prior to any money being sent for wars… Make everyone put their guns down and have a surf (I was more serious than kidding). From there the conversation goes on a loooong ride down many lanes and avenues and I hope you enjoy it.
My goal with this episode is to provide an opportunity for people to get to know the ‘real’ version of this famous, but not so famous, duo. Reason being, this fiercely private family is constantly brought up in conversations with all kinds of things being suggested ranging from being multi billionaires with unlimited resources plotting to take over majestic Nosara all the way to extreme other end of the spectrum as kind hearted people who truly are trying to protect this town through their acquisitions and projects focused on keeping Nosara away from being engulfed by chain hotels and mega developments.
For anyone unaware: John & Susan (Short) Johnson are the owners of Nosara’s Harmony Hotel & Healing Center, Sunset Shack, El Campo (formerly Harbor Reef Hotel), new development project El Bosque, and behind many community initiatives via Harmony Projects & quietly behind the scenes of many other ones.
This is NOT a standard ‘fluff’ piece like so many others out there. Both John & Susan willingly address some of the most challenging parts of the community while providing an interesting take on things from their vantage points.
My relationship with both John & Susan started as surfing friends in the water at Playa Guiones. In recent years, I’ve spent time in water surfing with Susan & playing music with John. Turns out both John & I enjoy playing same styles of music together and I count myself fortunate to have a music friend who enjoys folk, gospel, bluegrass & from time to time we hope to play at our ‘gospel Sundays’ which is basically he & I squeezing a couple moments into our already incredibly busy schedules. He’s the only friend who has ever given me a Banjuitar (banjo strung like a guitar) & in the same conversation went over our longboard rail preferences, then bounced to meditation techniques and affirmations followed up with a recap of Nosara stuff.
Although this episode is focusing on Nosara… The Johnson’s have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast, and so many other publications due to their exposure to the public from the Johnson & Johnson name itself in addition to their many personal accolades.
For example, John is well known for Eyebeam, being cofounder of Buzzfeed, Harmony labs, but started out as a successful filmmaker who has written, produced and directed multiple films. Susan is deeply committed and concerned about the environment… So much so she started Deep Green Living and through this & her Nosara efforts and projects wants people to live in line with their environmental values (as you will hear in this episode).
I hope this episode & this synopsis help you have more insight directly to John & Susan!
Check out our YouTube channel for more