Surf Panama, Chapter V
Spare time
Getting back to your roots
thousands miles from home
Surf Panama by Albert Folch and Dizy Díaz, Chapter V
In such a place, time changes radically. Suddenly, immersed in a new environment, you lose touch with an imposed time and you slide gently towards a more natural perception of hours and days. Rediscovering time as a continuous flow, rather than an ordered sequence, reconnects you to the rhythm of Nature. As you find yourself alone riding the waves of a faraway sea or collecting seashells on the smooth sand, this new awareness arises out of the blue.
There are a few hours per day you just can’t surf: the sun is so bright it leaves no shadow, the heat is grueling and the ocean is having some rest. Like in a pre-industrial civilization, your time is ruled by the sun, the moon, the tides. Although you are forced to leave your board at home, you feel the wonderful sensation of having spare time. You rediscover the infantile sense of non-urgency: you can take a nap, have some food, read a book, you can even play and discover the environment around you.
I don’t know why, but we started playing at being explorers. We grabbed a machete, we penetrated the mangrove forest and actually began patrolling the place. It’d begun as a game, but it turned into a half-serious thing. We spent hours discovering plants and spotting animals, collecting seeds, beautifully shaped-stones, little branches from the trees. We laid them out in order, from the smaller ones to the bigger ones, then we took pictures of them. But why?
Like probably most of the people, we realized that this was something we were actually doing a lot in our childhood. We recalled afterwards the intrinsic satisfaction and the fulfillment it used to give us. Collecting objects is a natural human activity. This hunting and gathering need seems to be strongly rooted in our “humanness”. In their first phase of their life, children collect what they could find in their immediate environment: they accumulate little rocks, buttons, stamps, bottles of sand, pictures, small seashells, pens and pencils, pieces of wood.
After all, it is exactly like kids’ innate curiosity and trembling desire to know. As you leave the city behind and go back to the outdoor, it’s fascinating to find yourself doing the same thing after all those years. Unlike the real explorers and researchers, we weren’t seeking scientific results. We were looking for an aesthetic content, for simple beauty.
We support:
Photo. Dizy Díaz
Words. Vincenzo Angileri / Eldorado
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Traveller/s
Albert Folch
Surfer and Art director
Founder and creative director from Folch, a graphic design agency based in Barcelona working for the most prestigious national and international clients. Albert was one of the founders of the acclaimed Apartamento magazine. Partner of the new footwear brand Deux Souliers, he is behind the erotic publication Odiseo and Eldorado, one of his most ambitious projects. Beside his creative skills, he is a nature lover and he is absolutely addicted to surf.
@albertfolchrubio
@albertfolchrubioDizy Díaz
Surfer and Photographer
Local surfer from Playa de Sta. Marina (Ribadesella, Asturias) and freelance photographer, Dizy uses analogue photography as a form of expression. He sees the imperfection of film and the dirt of grain as something truly authentic. When he was 15, 'Paris-Texas' by Wim Wenders changed his way of seeing the things around him. In that moment, he choose photography as a travel mate for the rest of his life. His first work as a photographer was a portrait of the city of his birth, which represents a strong influence in the aesthetics of his photography.
