Michelle Rozzen
Photographer . Writer . Editor
Massage Therapist

I arrived to Puerto Escondido on July 28th for the IBA Zicatela Pro. I came to be the Massage Therapist at the contest and also cover the event for 71 Magazine. It's been nothing but good times with new and old friends. I've been having a blast and here are a handful of photos from my trip thus far. You can see all of the others on my facebook.

Today I turned 28, oy vey I am getting old, but I feel amazing today, seriously I do! I realized that I am so behind in blogging, it's been over a month since my last post. I've been super busy, for once. HA! So what a better way to begin a new year, with a new blog =) I will rewind back a month and start from there...

One of my best friends made a surprise visit to the California coast. Jamie lives in Arizona, so we don't see each other often. But she is one of my dearest friends who I treasure very much in my life. We have been friends since the first grade and I love her to pieces. She camped out in Malibu with her friend Joe, so I went down to visit them for the night. We spent the afternoon with our feet in the sand, talking and catching up. Then later in the evening we roasted marshmallows, Jamie played some guitar and we sang some tunes.

My cousin Rochelle announced that she is pregnant with a boy! Congrats to Rochelle and Tim. I can't wait to be an Auntie!

In the beginning of April, my cousin Andy and my brothers Brian and Daniel cruised to the opening day Dodger Vs. Angels baseball game! Fun times were had in the $2 seats!

Throughout February, March and April I bugged my friends on Facebook daily, to vote for this beautiful photo of Adam standing nude on the Bow River. I want to thank ALL of my friends who voted for this photo everyday. It's because of your support that we WON the contest. I'm now $1,000 richer and super stoked to have won the Samesun Backpackers Photo Contest. CHEERS for your support!

Last Friday my brother Brian, his girlfriend Brandice and I took a road trip to the Bay Area. We stayed at my best friend Christine's apartment in San Jose. I went to San Jose State University, so I often miss the NorCal lifestlye. Friday night we walked around downtown and started drinking early in the evening. Then, we met up with my friend Eric for sushi dinner in Japan Town in downtown San Jose, then went on a pub crawl in Campbell and somehow ended back in San Jose.

Saturday we all headed up to Hayward, to make a surprise visit to my cousins house. We planned to meet there for lunch, where we met up with my Grandparents, brother Daniel and my Mom. My cousins had no idea we were coming up, so when they opened the door they were pretty excited to say the least! We enjoyed a delicious lunch, thanks Lisa! We cruised around Castro Valley, and had an amazing dinner at this Thai food joint. We got 3 tofu dishes and they were all amazing. So delicious, the tofu just melted in my mouth. Later that night we met up with the family at a theater, where my cousins were performing at the Hayward Idol. They are both singers and both had great performance! *Pictures will be up soon. * Afterward, we all went out for dessert to the largest ice cream parlor i've ever been to. But since I'm not eating dairy right now, I got the best sweet potato fries, with marshmellow topping, soooooooo good! You gotta try it.

Sunday we went to the Farmers Market in Campbell, it's by far the best market i've been to yet. After walking around we went to a vegan restaurant in downtown San Jose called Good Karma. It's one of my new favorite restaurants in San Jose and I will be a regular customer when I go back to visit. After lunch before heading back to SoCal, we went back to Christine's and my good friend Tito stopped by to say hello. It was great seeing him, he always puts a smile on my face. He was wearing custom Nike shoes and they read NEVER GIVE UP on them, so I was stoked to see that.

Thanks to Christine and Dave for hosting us this weekend. Hope to be back in the Bay Area soon! xo

I went to Banff Canada to visit Adam, and the memories made I will cherish forever. Banff is in Alberta,  it is a beautiful and fun little town! 

Clive picked us up from the hostel and we cruised to Sunshine Village to go snowboarding. Adam taught me how to ride the mountains, thanks for being a great snowboard instructor Ad! Fun times were had for sure!

It was a mini Mexico reunion at The Beaver one night. We met up with Clive and Adriana, yeeeew!

Adam, Gee and I went walking along the river one day, it was so beautiful! The scenic views in Banff are so amazing! 

We hiked up Tunnel Mountain, the views were so spectacular! So breath taking! 

There is a photo contest going on through Samesun Backpackers. The winner of the contest wins a round trip ticket from anywhere to anywhere in the world. It's worth $2000 CAD, so this is my ticket to Australia, a country I have wanted to visit forever!Adam and I had a photo shoot at the Bow River while I was in Banff. It was such a fun day in the snow! Here are some photos from the shoot, yeeeew! Help me win this contest by voting everyday until March 31st! Vote for the photo contest here!

Banff is simply beautiful! I can't wait to go back! Hope you enjoyed looking through my photos, more on my facebook, yeeeew! 

January 23rd I saw one of my favorite bands, City and Colour @ The Henry Ford Theater in L.A. It was the first time I have seen them live, more so because I only learned about them last summer. Also, the group Lissie opened for them and she has such an incredible voice, love her! The show was so amazing!!! Also spotted at the show was singer, Pink and beau Cary Hart. Of course I snapped some photos of them, after noticing Cary and thanks for my friend Jessyka for recognizing Pink's tattoo. Photos are in the process of being published, stay tuned. Yeeewww!

Tomorrow I am off to Todos Santos! I'm so stoked to go to Mexico again! I'll be working at Tierra Prana Yoga Retreat. I'm so excited! I will be the massage therapist, photographer, bodyboarding instructor and help with guided tours. I will be updating my blog while I'm there, so check back for updates and photos! Yeeew!

My buddy Christian Driggs is a very creative film maker and artist from New Jersey. He has started a blog and I'm happy to share his artwork with you. Check him out at: Expression Session

Believe in your dreams, they do come true! They sure did for one of my closest friends! Priscilla Eve had the amazing opportunity, to sing the National Anthem at the Los Angeles Kings game last weekend. Her voice is incredible and super powerful and strong, so strong that she blew the fans away at the game! She performed to a sold out arena, of 18,000 hockey fans, which now leaves her with 18,000 fans of her music. You will be seeing her more in the future for sure! It's my pleasure and honor to share her with you. I wanted to spread the love, and of course her voice... here are some photos and of course the YouTube video. Check her out!

I'm the US News writer and photographer for 71 Mag, check out the new issue, along with the 2 articles I wrote... Interview with Aussie rider, Matt Withaar, Page 122-126, and  World Title Champion- Jeff Hubbard, Page 130-134. SUPPORT THE SPORT!  View 71 Mag here!

I have a confession.... I am really bad at updating my blog, so sorry! haha. I have been pretty busy lately. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your family and friends! Thanksgiving holidays were busy with friends and family, it's always a good time! It was also my uncle's 50th birthday, Happy Birthday Uncle Craig! Also I wanted to thank Uncle Craig, he made a toast in honor of my father. For those of you who don't know, my father lost his battle to Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) and didn't make it to his 50th birthday. Live each day as if it were your last, NEVER GIVE UP

Living in CA is great! Besides the pretty awesome weather and decent waves, although lately it's been mental cold out and the waves have been shit, all of my friends from out of the country like to visit! Josh is still in town, but sadly he is leaving on Saturday, boooo! He lives in Cape Town, South Africa, so I suppose I will just have to go visit him some day...soon! This past weekend we got to hang out again in Santa Monica. He came out with his buddy Alex, what a fun drunkin' night we all had! It's a shame the guys don't even remember what happened, haha! I'm stoked he has been in town but bummed he is leaving in a couple days. Safe travels home Josh!

I have been working a ton lately, during both US and Australia time zones. I picked up a full time gig and I've been writing new content for 71 Magazine, a new interactive bodyboarding magazine. So I have been swamped writing, interviewing and adding more to my portfolio,yeeeww!

I also wrote an article when I came back from Mexico, of Simon Ormerod, an Aussie bodyboarder and it was just published on Spongewars, check it out here: http://spongewars.com/v3e/?p=2158

For those of you in the bodyboarding scene and who don't know already, Jeff Hubbard won the IBA World Title in the Confital Pro, in the Canary Islands last week.... Congrats Hubb! You deserve it man! And for all of my friends and bodyboarders who competed (Jacob, Jason, Beta, Natasha), congrats on your accomplishments this year! Looking forward to seeing you all in Hawaii at the Pipeline Pro in February! Watch Jeff here:  http://vimeo.com/8005652

This weekend I'm stoked to hang out with Mike Egan, the editor of 71 Mag! Him and his lady are coming to town, Hollywood here we come!

Also I've been reading the novel Shantaram, it's amazing. So I shall close this blog with a quote...

"Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything exept tears. In the end that's all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that's all we have - to hold on tight until the dawn"

I'm out, peace!

Time moves so fast, I've been home from Mexico for a little over a month! It seems like just yesterday I was there, yet it also seems like months I've been away. Mr. November is keeping me busy, I've been building my portfolio, adding some links, editing photos and writing articles for the new Aussie published bodyboarding mag, 71mag.com I'm stoked to be writing for such a sick interactive publication!

While I was in Puerto Escondido (PE) I had the opportunity to interview my good friend, Kiril Shchegolsky, an Israeli bodyboarder who rips! The interview was published on Spongewars.com, read it here.

After living in PE for 3.5 months, Kiril decided to come back to the states. He came to visit me a week ago, so we cruised SoCal. We met up with Manny Vargas and my buddy Stan Moniz and went to the Wave House in San Diego. Good times...

Kiril doing the Wave House boogie, yeeeewww!

American style Mexican dinner with the Rosenfeld 5.

It was my friend Kawika's birthday, so we celebrated with sushi dinner and dancing.

It was my Mom's birthday on Sunday, we both went to see Mary Poppins, the play at a theatre in L.A. It was actually really good. Pictures to come soon...

I met up with Josh and his mate Chris during the weekend in Santa Monica. Josh and I met when we were both in PE. We cruised Venice Beach to see the whackos haha. While watching the groms at the skate park they did a commercial for Ritter Sport chocolate, way to represent Cape Town, South Africa!

I would like to wish all my friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble...