words, photos, and graphics by Bonesaw
additional photos by Logan Matthews and Fernando Covarrubias
4.13.26: Land in Santo Domingo and meet up with the crew. There are rumblings in the group chat that it will be raining the entire trip. I’ve been to the tropics before. I’m not rattled by a little rain on the first day. I lay down the rules of the trip via text: Move as a unit. Keep a low profile. Assume positive intentions. Don’t be a wasteman.
4.16.26: We hire a driver named Cesar Amadeus Rosa. We call him Amadeus for short. He’s quiet and professional for the first few days. Josh and Ferny joke with him in Spanish and he loosens up. By day three, he’s so loose he has nicknames for everyone in his van: Cuban, Jesus Cristo, Detroit Bad Boy, Leonardo DiCaprio, Akon, Cleveland. I drive the second van, and we have nicknames too: Bonesaw, The Don, Gigi, Nagol, Lil Mah.
4.17.26: We stop to swim in a river off the highway as we drive north across the island. We get to Santiago that afternoon and it’s raining. We drive through muddy backroads to reach our rental house. There’s a pool and a billiards table inside the house. But everything has a layer of filth, too. There’s a stripper pole in a bedroom, and frogs are in the swimming pool. Later that night, a rat runs through the living room while we’re playing pool.
4.18.26: Amadeus drives us to a remote beach at the end of the Samana Peninsula. He has an family in the area and asks if we want to stop at his uncle’s store on the way. He roasts us in front of his uncle. “These guys claim they’re a skateboard team. I’ve seen them do everything but skate.” When we arrive at the beach, we head for the most remote corner, where no one will bother us, which is also covered in seaweed. “Why do you want to go to that part of the beach? It sucks,” Amadeus questions us and chuckles.
4.21.26: We take the gondola into the hills of Santo Domingo. We pass makeshift housing, baseball diamonds, and rivers as we go deeper into the outskirts of the city. We stop in a deli to ask directions to a spot we heard about. A man named Carlos volunteers to walk us there, even though it’s several blocks away. Carlos ends up spending hours with us, drinking beers and showing us the neighborhood as the de facto TM of the day. Everywhere we go, kids come out to chat with us in Spanish and try riding our boards.
4.21.26: Every time we come back from searching for spots in neighborhoods outside the tourist zone, someone warns us its dangerous there. Maybe that’s true, but we didn’t feel it. We see people living close to the edge. And we get a lot of curious looks and questions. But as soon as we open up to the locals, they show nothing but love. Thank you to Amadeus, Waldo, Debson, Israel, Spiral, El Lover, & Titty Boi for helping make this trip possible.
