2nd Annual Rincón International Film Festival

A lot has changed since I first moved to Rincón over 7 1/2 years ago. With each passing year, life in this small town gets a little richer with art, food, music and culture.

The 2009 Rincón International Film Festival is taking place this week in Rincón, PR. 60 films were selected from over 350 submissions and are being screened around Rincón from April 28 - May 3.

Salva Tres Palmas - The Film is being shown on Sunday, May 3 at 7pm in Rincón's town plaza. This screening is free and open to the public.

As many of you know, I have spent over seven years collaborating with our good friend SuperChad Nelsen on the Salva Tres Palmas campaign. With the adoption of the Tres Palmas Management Plan and the formation of a Management Board comprised of locals that will govern the management of the Reserve, our work is drawing to a conclusion. Consequently last summer we offered an internship to a journalism graduate student to describe the community effort in her own words and images.

Salva Tres Palmas tells the story of the Surfrider Foundation campaign and the resulting environmental victory that gave life to the Tres Palmas Marine Reserve, the first marine reserve on the main island of Puerto Rico. Tres Palmas has earned a global reputation for its "giant" surfing waves and for possessing one of the healthiest Elkhorn coral reef colonies throughout the Caribbean. This coral is of vital ecological importance to the shores of Rincón, the health of the sea and the species that inhabit it.

If you can't join us on Sunday, May 3rd at the Plaza, you can watch the film on-line here.

Enjoy the film and post your comments. We want to hear what you think...

The Film Festival is being sponsored in part by the Tourism Association of Rincón and Porta del Sol along with a variety of local merchants including the Secret Garden Art Gallery, the Shipwreck Bar & Grill, and Uncharted Studios.

1st Annual Beach Boy SUP Race in Rincon

On April 4^th, 2009 the 1^st Annual Beach Boy Race for Stand Up Paddleboarding was held in Rincon, Puerto Rico. Organized by local Rincoeños, there were over 70 participants in the race and many more on hand to watch.

Villa Cofresi was the starting point of the race and they graciously sponsored part of the event. Food and refreshments were provided before and after the race. Angelo Cordero was on site volunteering his time as the official photographer on land and in the water, as he snapped photos from a jet ski. Mar Azul donated boards for contestants that didn’t own their own boards. Shipwreck Café and Taino Divers were there with staff members helping out and participating in the event. The event really brought together everyone in the community.

The open race had about 40 participants, male and female of all ages, racing from Villa Cofresi to the marina and back. That’s about 2.5 miles but it looks a lot less when standing onshore. My confidence got the best of me when Leon encouraged me to enter into the elite category with 30 other competitors. The elite race went from Villa Cofresi, to Domes Beach and then back to Villa Cofresi for a total of 6.5 miles.

I turned in my white open shirt for the red elite shirt and lined up for the horn that signaled the start of the race. Right from the get-go the serious competitors took the lead. I quickly realized that I was in a little over my head. I began to doubt myself especially when I reached the first orange buoy marking the halfway point for the open race. I started thinking of escape plans. I thought I could turn around as soon as I saw Leon lapping me on his return trip. When he passed me and I told him my plan he insisted that I keep going. Then I thought I could discreetly exit the beach in front of my house and no one would notice. But then I thought about how good it would feel to cross the finish line. That’s when I made up my mind to finish. It didn’t matter how long it took me, it mattered that I complete the race. At that very moment I realized that I had been daydreaming and the guy I had been neck and neck with for the first half of the race had gained 20 yards on me. As I snapped to it he fell off his board in the choppy waters just as he rounded the point between the Rincon Lighthouse and Domes. That’s when I made my move. I passed him as he fell off his board for a second time in the hellish waters by the point. As I passed him I made a wake so big I knocked him off his board a third time (ok…that’s a slight exaggeration). As I rounded the buoy I smacked it so hard with excitement I knocked myself off my board. But that didn’t stop me. I let out a whoop and a holler knowing that I was half way home. As there had already been a number of people that had already passed me, I knew heading home would be much easier moving with the current. On the way back the waves were pumping, surfers were catching waves and cheering us on. I even managed to catch 2 waves around Dogmans that propelled me closer to the finish line. By this time I had a solid 200 yard lead ahead of my male competitor. As I turned the bend at Steps Beach I saw Miss Snickerdoodle Bruiser on the beach running alongside me. It was like she was cheering me on. My very own mascot! Next I passed the marina and I reached the finish line at Villa Cofresi. I knew I had placed 4^th in the women’s category since 3 other women had passed me during the race. As the wave took me to shore and everyone was cheering I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and pride. That’s when a teeny tiny vicious wave knocked me off my board and lurched me onto shore face first into the sand. What a photo finish!

Bamboo

Leon and I were interested in planting trees, bushes and flowers to beautify the property and reduce erosion. We were able to get over 200 plants for free from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources DRNA, mostly consisting of different varieties of palms and we bought hundreds of small mani plants for ground cover. Over time we continued to add different types of bushes, shrubs and flowers with some successes and some failures. Some of our favorite plantings are the various species of bamboo we planted on the east side of the property. We heard there is a man in town that goes by the name Bamboo Joe. He has 12 cuerdas (approx 12 acres) in Barrio Cruces covered in bamboo and various hard woods that he planted himself. Bamboo Joe was offering a tour of his property for anyone interested in seeing what he was doing. It turns out he built his house out of bamboo as well as furniture, lamps, toys, and tree houses too! Joe has created his own bamboo jungle unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

We were so impressed with the beauty of the bamboo garden that decided to hire Joe to plant bamboo on our property, Dos Ceibas. We already had one large patch of bamboo on the property that's been there for many years and it’s a special spot on the property for us. In fact we named one of the lots “Bamboo” because of it. The tranquility and shade it provides is a unique aspect of the bamboo patch. We love the noise it makes when the wind rusltles the leaves and makes the stalks rub against one another. The fallen leaves also provides a unique ground cover. We planted various types of bamboo as a screen on the north side of the property which has the closest proximity to a neighbor. We're looking to create a natural barrier on the border of the cano.

Here are a few species of bamboo we planted:

Bambusa Textilis, also called weavers bamboo. It's wind tolerant, compact, ideal for hedges and can grow up to 40 feet in height.

Bambusa Vulgaris, also called common bamboo has feathery yellow and green leaves. Its known to be great for erosion control and can grow up to 40 feet in height.

Dendrocalamus Asper, also known as giant bamboo can grow up to 4o feet in height. It has spines and sharp edges and grows really fast with large bright green leaves.

Bambusa Tuldoides is also known as buddhas belly because of the swollen sections called internodes. Buddhas Belly can grow up to 70 feet tall with zig zagging lowers culms! It's one of the largest bamboo species around. Obviously these are great for foliage and a privacy screen The height can also be stunted when put into pots and used for ornamental decorations.

The History of Dos Ceibas, Rincon, Puerto Rico

As I was about to leave my corporate job at Gap, Inc in NYC and move to Rincon I weighed my options about what to do next. Leon and I both have real estate in our family backgrounds so it was a natural course to follow. We also felt that Rincon, Puerto Rico is a special town that lent itself to tourism and we were watching the real estate market grow before our eyes.

The opportunity presented itself when we were introduced to Mama Kahuna. She was the owner of the legendary piece of property formerly owned by her husband, Kahuna. Back in the 60’s when the pioneers of the surfing began to visit the island, Kahuna ran the first guesthouse on the west coast. Kahuna would pick up eager surfers from the San Juan airport and drive them across the island to Rincon and continue to taxi them around daily to all the epic surf spots in town. Kahuna had a knack for deciphering when and where the waves would break. Unfortunately a fire devastated the guesthouse and shortly thereafter Kahuna passed away. That was the end of the first surfing guesthouse in Rincon. In 2004 we were fortunate enough to cross paths with Mama Kahuna. She took a liking to us, or should I say she took a strong liking to my husband Leon in particular. She blessed our future, sold us the property and our dream was born.

We interviewed a number of landscape architects around the island to help us cultivate our vision. Unfortunately we didn’t see eye to eye on some design aspects and we eventually met up with Big Prototype of Brooklyn, NY. Once we teamed up with them it was a match made in heaven. We spent the first 6 months contemplating the site design. We spent many hours day and night walking the site, getting to know the intimacies of the land. I spent three weeks clearing over 2 cuerdas (approx 2 acres) by hand with a team of local professionals in the art of machete swinging to understand what we were working with. Once we cleared the brush and opened up the view we realized we had a true gem on our hands. After months of review we finally landed on a design that felt like the perfect fit for the topography. We decided to place the road on the lower west side of the land where the views were least spectacular and most conducive for the road. That allowed us to save the most spectacular views up on the ridge for the home sites. This also allowed us to preserve the two most magnificent ceiba trees smack dab in the middle of the site, hence the name Dos Ceibas. It turns out Kahuna had planted the trees over 55 years ago. Not only are ceiba trees protected be the law, I felt like the trees represented Kahuna and Mama Kahuna and how they will always be watching out for us. We decided to divide the property into 8 lots, all offering unique ocean views from each site. I’ve tried capturing the view through photos but it never does it justice. It’s one of those things you need to experience for yourself. We’ve sold two out of the eight lots and the first home we like to call Little Malibu is nearing completion. It’s been a wonderful learning experience and I look forward to doing it seven more times.

Streetlights - Neighborhood Planning

One of the most critical decisions in planning the Dos Ceibas neighborhood was the placement of the road. The undeveloped land was a 4 acre parcel with a ridge running down the center of the property -the only access to the site was along the southern border from road 413. With the exception of a few foot trails, most of the site was covered in thick vegetation and was difficult to navigate. Figuring out the ideal location of the access road was one of our first tasks in the design of the master plan.

After walking every inch of the site with machetes, we evaluated the possible options. The road would provide access to each of the lots, but would also be the service spine for utilities (water, electricity, cable and phone service) AND have to be lit by streetlights to comply with municipal codes. We constructed a 3d model of the site topography to test the extents of the light pollution from the anticipated streetlights. Below are the images from preliminary designs A and J.

Design A locates the road on the top of the ridge - roughly dividing the property in two. While this seemed like a straightforward solution to vehicular access, the downside was that half of the properties would lose their ocean view and all of the lots would experience nightime light interference.

Design J locates the road to the west, below the ridge - allowing all of the houses to occupy the ridge and taking advantage of the elevation for ocean views. This also located the streetlights in such a way that the natural topography of the site helped to contain the light pollution. We determined that Design J would be the basis of our master plan.

Underground Electric Rincon

The development at Dos Ceibas strives to be conscious of all of the elements that go into building a neighborhood. During the planning phase of the project one of the decisions we were confronted with was how to provide municipal electric for each lot. Standard practice on the island is to run wiring from the closest pole to each house, creating an above ground network of wires crisscrossing the property.

This standard solution seemed problematic on a couple of fronts. First, we wanted to preserve the spectacular view without interference. Second, above ground wiring can be dangerous in a hurricane or high wind storms. Exposed wires are vulnerable to falling branches and debris, and if damage does occur, residential lines will only be serviced after the main municipal line are working again. We made the decision to underground all of the electric lines for the neighborhood. Timing was coordinated with the cutting of the road, so we dug a trench parallel to the road to lay our lines.

The gray PVC piping carries the lines to a junction box on the property and from here the lines are run to each lot. This strategy facilitates later construction by ensuring that each lot has direct access to municipal power, and helps to deliver a consistent attitude within the neighborhood. The image below shows the local termination for a lot - once connected to the house the electric runs will be entirely underground!

LITTLE MALIBU HOUSE: construction photos

The first house on the Dos Ceibas development located in Rincon, PR is almost complete and the slide show below gives an overview of the construction.

The dominant building method in Puerto Rico is cast in place concrete construction. Our goal for the Little Malibu house was to utilize this construction typology and re-deploy it in a way to create spaces that break with the now so common air-conditioned boxes, re-engaging a dialogue with the openness and passively oriented and cooled structures of a century ago.