Photos: @mattaleong @mikeitophoto @photokeoki @greylockwoodphoto
It's been well over a year for traveling surfers to congregate to an international surfing event which celebrates the camaraderie of riding waves and having a good ‘ol time. The Mexilogfest is an annual gathering held in Mexico at one of the country's pristine breaks for longboarding which attracts international talent from over 25 countries to its event. With a short pause in 2020 due to the pandemic, event organizer, and all-around stoked amigo, Israel Preciado, who found it necessary to push forward with this year's event held in Nayarit, Mexico. 
In the small, touristy stretch of coast in Puerto Vallarta, the shifty right-hander known as Punta De Burros, which got its name because of its slow moving wave, is ideal for longboarding and is considered one of the better, easier accessible waves in the area. The surfers got to experience what this break had to offer with well overhead sets in the first few days of the event eventually tapering off to almost flat conditions for the finals day. With the event in a non-elimination format, surfers have the opportunity to surf three times in three rounds of competition where the top 16 surfers will be chosen according to the highest averaged accumulative score from the end of the three rounds. Meaning top two rides of each surfer are taken from each round with the average of all six waves ridden are tallied up for a ranking, top 16 surfers of men and women move onto the quarter-finals, then each heat thereafter are single elimination form.
For the first three days, competition went underway with a lingering diminishing swell enough to get through the bulk of the rounds. Some of the most noted rides in the early rounds came from California’s Jack Van Wagoner, Christian Stutzman, Kris Hall, Sayulita local Joel Barraza, and Julian Schweitzer from Uruguay and not to mention crowd favorite Andy Nieblas. On the women's side, world champion Honolua Blomfield and Rosie Jaffurs from the North Shore of Oahu were in elegant form throughout the entire event thus landing a spot on the finals day. California surfers Tessa Timmons, Hallie Rohr, Makala Smith were also making their way stylishly through the field while Mexico’s own elegant Lola Mignot nabbed the last spot in the finals.
Apart from the competition on Day one, Thera Surf, a collective of parents, professionals, and individuals from the surf community whose mission is to provide special needs children a chance to ride waves safely and feel the healing power of the ocean. Mexilogfest competitors also had the opportunity to volunteer with Thera Surf in between their heats.
With a dropping swell and timing the tides were key to having enough waves to keep the competition going, event organizers, judges, and athletes all decided to call the event and split the money equally between the semifinalists. With a decision made not to run the rest of the competition, Mexi Log Fest still needed to crown a winner. Amongst the entire field, this was sorted by taking the highest average wave score up until the top 16 surfers and the winners of the Mexi Log Fest was sorted. The finals results were as followed:
Mens:
Womens:
Mexilogfest been the first international longboard event following the pandemic, the gathering of friends both old and new felt as if the previous year has been stretched out too long. During the day, contestants would spend majority of the time at the beach surfing and cheering each other on and during the nights, the fiesta would take over. A chance for the contestants to rekindle relationships while dancing to live music with the latest alternative surf movies playing in the background.
The vibes around the Mexilogfest is about having a good time, period. Lost Not Found Magazine is happy support what Israel has done with this event and look forward to seeing everyone again in 2022!
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