The Extra Mile Adventure

Name: Anthony Desmond Breen
Age: 26 (unfortunately)
Role: Surf coordinator and writer
Hometown: San Diego, CA- America’s Finest City (hey, it’s our slogan, I didn’t make it up)

Who are you and what do you do?
I am the son of an Irish-Immigrant and a fourth generation American. I have lived between Santa Barbara and San Diego for most of my life- until recently I moved to New York City and now reside in Harlem. I enjoy writing especially plays and non-fiction short stories. I am an avid surfer and traveler. I love humor and making other’s smile, the sound of laughter gives me goose bumps. I currently work as an administrative assistant to the Monarch Theater Company and wait tables in Tribecca.

What is important to you in this world?
The ocean, the rhythm of the sea, the consistency of the tides. What is important to me is the destruction of the rainforest. The endangering of species: Polar Bears drowning in the frigid arctic because they can’t find the floating respite of an iceberg. What is important to me is that the Have’s do not keep taking from the Have-not’s but actually give back. What is important to me is that we all put aside our differences and come together and try to live in unity with one another. It is important that we stop the hate and spread the love- to borrow from the 60’s.

Your childhood dream; your adult dream?
My childhood dream was always to live on after my death, I wanted to inspire from a young age. I’ve always had the desire to have people in other country’s know who I was- this may be a selfish goal but it was my dream as a child. My dream as an adult, hmm, now that’s a little more difficult. I would say that as I enter into true autonomous adulthood I am slowly realizing that my dreams are a little less aspiring. Living in New York has made me realize that my ultimate dream is to live in close proximity to an ocean, preferably one with consistent swell and semi-warm water, and write prolifically. I want to continue to create and maintain contact with other artists, but I could never survive in this (to quote the great prophet Bob Marley) “concrete jungle”.

What inspires you about TEMA and why are you contributing?
What inspires me about The Extra Mile Adventure is the passion that everyone is sharing for this project. The inspiration that is coming out of this project is, well, inspiring at the very least; earth-changing in the future, at the very most. The opportunity to travel and inspire and work and help my fellow man all wrapped up into one intense project is exciting, it’s electrifying.

What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about new and exciting experiences. I am passionate about living life to the fullest. I am passionate about not looking back on life when I am old and grey and wondering “what if”. I want to dive naked into a hole in an iced over river and not care about the consequences. If your not living on the edge, then you’re taking up too much room.

What is your favorite food?
My favorite food? That’s a complex question. If we are talking about a genre of food I would have to say Mexican. Being raised in San Diego I have grown up in the land of mouthwatering Taqueria’s as far as the eye can see. When I’m at home I practically bleed guacamole. In terms of individual items of food, I can’t live without cheese. In my frigerator there is a constant supply of cheese of all kinds. Sometimes crackers or bread to accompany it, sometimes I eat it solo. Just a mano a mona type of deal. Me and one cheese. I also love chicken wings and Australian Meat Pies. Ohhhhh I miss meat pies. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.

Have you ever left the country?
Yes, I have left the country many times. My father is from Ireland so I have visited my family several times since I was a youngster. I grew up on the border of Mexico and the U.S. and have spent a lot of time South of the Border as well. I have been to Canada on a family trip with my mother and her parents as a child. Other countries I have traveled in our Germany (Oktoberfest ROCKS!!!), The Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia (a few times) Australia, New Zealand, and Nicaragua. I love to travel and would preferably be a nomad if I had my way.

What is your educational background?
I attended High School at Uni or USDHS, a school in San Diego that is, alas, no more. I was an undergrad at UCSB and double majored in Philosophy and Dramatic Arts with an emphasis in playwriting. I have also taken private screenwriting classes with Jacob Krueger and had training in Viewpoints.

Tell an extremely memorable moment.
We all had felt the tiny tremor. I was in the water so it didn’t seem like much. It was if god had sloshed around the ocean with his huge hands the way the wine connoseurs stir their glasses to get the full nose of the wine. I didn’t think much of it at the time. Three hours later back at Raphael’s Losman Jeremy runs in, frantic.

“No shit mates, that earthquake was an 8.0, a tsunami just hit Padang. I’m grabbing my shit and getting to high ground. You guys should do the same.”

I didn’t understand him at first and then I realized that there could very well be a tsunami headed right for us and Raphael’s Losman was in the worst possible location. The last time one came through it washed him on to the roof of his house across the street. Steve, Dan and I start to grab our shit.

“Just grab your passport and let’s go.” Steve advised.

“and your atm card” I chimed in

“oh fuck yeah your ATM card”

I started to pack my computer and my camera bag. If a tsunami was actually coming the picture’s would be worth some dough for sure. Steve came in the room to see what was taking me so long.

I grabbed my heavy bags and wobbled down the steps where Raph was waiting with his family. He was not sure about the Tsunami but he had the car ready to go, should he hear the familiar roar of the ocean. We all went inside to grab Bintangs for the walk up the hill to the hotel, then started trudging. I regretted the decision to pack so much stuff immediately. The backpack my grandmother had gotten for my trip had straps that cut into my shoulders and I dropped behind the other’s with my heavy load. Random Indo’s we passed would laugh at us and make comments about the tsunami. They were content with jeering the Boolay’s.

When we reached the hotel, Shawn and Jeremy were sitting in the middle of a pack of Brazzilian’s looking over pictures and laughing. I wanted to make some phone calls so I drifted away from the pack in search of a hotspot for some cel phone service. It wasn’t to be found, but a seat away from the Brazo’s was and I plopped down, dripping sweat. Jeremy joined me, talking to his chick- for some reason he got service but I did not. Steve and Dan were soon to follow. We sat there, drinking our Bintangs and dripping with sweat.

Suddenly Jeremy lay down on the cool marble floor and sighed with relief. We all followed to the dismay of the hotel staff. Now they had four Boolay’s spread out on the floor of their reception area like white land mines. We were eating peanuts and leaving a trail of shells around the floor.

It wasn’t long before they tired of it and started to give us the boot: “no tsunami tonight. No tsunami tonight.”
We got the picture and gathered our stuff, figuring it would have hit by now anyways and started to make our sweaty way down the hill. The town was silent and as we passed by Hosh, an Indonesian with a nice bike, he told us he was getting out of there and that it was still dangerous. We shrugged and headed to our ocean front losman to watch the sea and drift off into an alert sleep. The next morning I was awakened to somebody shaking me. I opened my eyes but no one was there. The bed was still shaking and continued to do so for about a minute. When it was over we all came out to the balcony, wondering where the epicenter of the new quake was. Soon we heard there was another tsunami alert and the mentawais had just experienced major earthquakes. The thrill we had felt before was not the same as by now we were skeptical of the tsunami. We hung around the losmen waiting for the sea to suck out to the horizon. It never did. I was disappointed. Meanwhile, there were six to eight foot smokers reeling down the reef with only a hand full of guys out. We were on it, hooting each other into stand up blue caverns. The following days were filled with talks of earthquakes and Tsunami’s. What we would do if it hit. How we would we react if we were surfing when it came? Would we be legends if we survived? How much money would a really good picture get me anyways? Questions never to be answered as the remainder of our days were filled with lots of waves but none that caused any more damage then your typical daily erosion.

Tell us a joke.
What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back?
A stick!

What is your role?
My role in this project, besides the role we all share to inspire and help others in all ways possible, is as surf co-ordinator and a writer. I will be finding the best surf possible on the best days possible in order to maximize the time being spent on that pursuit. I will also be transcribing the events taking place through the filter of my eyes. I also plan to write a theatrical script based on the people and the actions taking place before me on our journey.