Jamie was swimming to bring awareness to water pollution and scarcity issues. It inspires me to work harder on our effort to build this Costa Rica school. Thank you so much for all your contributions through the raffle this week. We’re on our way to getting the foundation laid, but we also have a long way to go and every little bit counts. There are 6 days left to buy a raffle ticket (just $10) and support the high school with a chance to win a free trip to Costa Rica or a free surfboard. It’s a small thing to donate, but your raffle tickets really could be the difference in getting a proper high school education to a Puerto Viejo teen. Go to http://www.surfforlife.org/raffle to buy tickets.

Thanks so much!

P.S. — Don’t forget to come out to the party if you’re in San Francisco this Saturday, but you don’t have to be there to win the raffle. The details are below.

I just had the luck to and review Michael Scott Moore’s new surf book, Sweetness and Blood, for San Francisco Magazine. Here’s the review. Definitely recommend it. Buy it here.

MICHAEL SCOTT MOORE: SWEETNESS AND BLOOD
(Rodale)
The king of Morocco institutes a surf school to combat Islamic radicals. Punks in Munich dodge local police to surf urban rivers. A Cali fornian doctor sneaks surfboards into Palestine for the Gaza Surf Club. What’s happening here? When you think about America’s global pop-culture influence, Beyoncé, George Clooney, and Michael Jordan come to mind long before Kelly Slater. But journ alist, avid surfer, and former SF Weekly theater critic Michael Scott Moore does a fine job of arguing that surfing—yes, as in Point Break—may be our country’s most influential cultural export. (The sport is Polynesian in origin, but its modern incarnation is distinctly American.) Moore travels to unlikely surf destin ations worldwide, dredging up fascinating historical tidbits and interviews, many of which debunk long-held myths: For example, the first surfers to ride waves in Indonesia were not Australian hippies in the ’60s but an American couple, Bob and Louise Koke, in 1936. You don’t necessarily come away from Moore’s book convinced of his thesis, but his irreverent style and diligent research capture a truer—and sometimes darker—aspect of the surfer’s sacred search for the perfect wave.

Can’t wait to get down there to help. Check out more at www.surfforlife.org

Check out the new video. Surf for Life just made me their spokesman and I decided to donate all my Saltwater Buddha author’s profits from now until next May to this project. For those of you who have read Saltwater Buddha, you know that if I hadn’t had a supportive family that encouraged me to stay in school I probably would’ve ended up, who knows, living in van down by the river. This project allows me to give the opportunity that saved me to a group of high school kids who currently don’t even have a classroom. And if we can pull this school off, Surf for Life will be able to keep doing similar projects all over the world. Get involved. Come on Surf for Life Trip, Donate, or buy a Saltwater Buddha copy. And send this video to all your friends!

As of last night, you, the people of San Francisco, officially voted a Surfing Buddhist writer who likes to draw pictures on his blog as the Common Wealth Club’s “New Face of San Francisco Media.” This is huge — huge! Being that every president since FDR has spoken at the Common Wealth Club, and that the odds were solidly stacked against me — I mean, Markos himself of the Dailykos, that guy who’s always on CNN, was a nominee! — this is no less significant than Obama’s presidential win in November. So here is my official statement for the newspapers.

“The fact that the author of Saltwater Buddha won this award heralds an enlightened new age where media can move away from sensationalist negativity and toward, well, something more enlightened — something like what HBO did for television,” said Jaimal Yogis, the Common Wealth Club’s freshly-crowned New Face of SF Media. “It could also mean I have too many Facebook friends who I persistently annoyed to vote for me, but I highly doubt it.”

So, you’re probably wondering. What will you do for us Mr. “New Face of SF Media?” We voted you in, now let’s see some results. I’m glad you asked.

Here are just a few of my demands of the SF Media, thought up over morning coffee after a night of not much sleep:

1.) The Guardian will be forced to interview people who live in the Marina, allowing hipsters and yuppies to finally understand each other and start dating and having “yupster” children
2.) More Warrior’s coverage
3.) All bloggers worth their salt — to be determined by an old-fashioned blog-off — will be paid $1 per-word, paid for by a tax on people with loud yippee dogs, soul patches, and Escalades.
4.) A local surfing magazine
5.) All media schmoozing events will be catered by The Slanted Door, Tony’s Pizzeria, Anchor Steam and Trouble Coffee and include twister
6.) The Chron will hire a good writer, maybe two (Ok, just kidding, I love you guys. It’s just so fun to knock the daily.)
7.) The Examiner will revolt against its ownership and endorse a ban on plastic water bottles, meditation in schools, and Ross Mirkarimi for mayor
8.) San Francisco Magazine and thebolditalic.com will be so well-advertised they can pay for their writers to fly to Bali a few times per-year for reflection on future stories

I think those demands are reasonable and achievable. Thank you for voting me in, and thank you to Bruce Kelley and San Francisco Magazine for the nomination. The future looks bright!

Dear Loyal Blog Readers,
There seems to be a disturbance in the force (or the dark side, depending on your view). I was just nominated for the Common Wealth Club’s “New Face of San Francisco Media” award. It’s an honor that will be announced at the “If Not The Chronicle, Then What” party on March 24th, which is a sort of discussion on what the new journalism might look like in San Francisco. (Please come!)

The award is based on a people’s vote and seems to purposefully be a competition for how much we nominees can annoy our friends and relatives. (Apparently the size of your network now says how good of a journalist you are — I had a suspicion all along!) You vote by simply emailing “Vote for Jaimal Yogis” to mkim@commonwealthclub.org, or by tweeting my name to #inforumsf if you’re on Twitter. You don’t have to be in SF to vote. You just have to vote before March 17!!! In case you pass this around or vote on actual merit, people can see my recent magazine features here or my recent blogging at thebolditalic.com

I’ve posted this cat photo as a motivating factor because, if you don’t vote for me, you never know who the next face of SF Media might be. The other nominees are below — but they are obviously inferior. You can tell by their less cool names, all except Markos Moulitsas Zúniga. That’s pretty cool. No, they are all very worthy. But hopefully I’m your favorite.

Love you guys!!! Thanks for the help. I’ll keep you posted on the results.
Jaimal

Party details: Location: SF Club Office
Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. networking reception
Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SFmedia
Also know: Photo by Flickr user Timbo. Food sponsor: The Chef’s Palate (http://bit.ly/ChefsPal)

Here are the nominees:

Cecilia Vega (KGO-7)

Brock Keeling (SFist)

Melissa Griffin (Blogger/SF Examiner)

Joe Eskenazi (SF Weekly)

Jaimal Yogis (San Francisco Magazine)

Michael Bauer (SF Chronicle)

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (DailyKos)

Team at MissionMission

Mark Frauenfedler (Boing Boing)

Lea Troeh (The Week Intro)

Mac McLelland (Mother Jones)

Andy Wright (SF Weekly)

Vanessa Carr (Mission Local)

Tana Ganeva (AlterNet.org)

Team at LaughingSquid.com

Team at sf.curbed.com

Lois Beckett (SF Weekly)

Team at sf.eater.com

Dyanna Pure & JT Paradox (The SF Style)

Alexia Tsotsis (SF Weekly)