California weather expected to take a turn for the worse

S1: California escapes the bomb cyclone , but an atmospheric river is coming.

S2: Even us in San Diego could be talking about a couple inches of rain by New Year's Day.

S1: I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Heineman. This is KPBS midday edition. Chef William Bradley tells us how the Addison in San Diego earned three Michelin stars.

S2: And all the different flavors and the freshness of the Latin cuisine , I think really helps set my palate at a very young age.

S1: More food. Talk about cultural memories and tracing food origins. And time is running out to see the Comic-Con Museum's tribute to Spider-Man. That's ahead on Midday Edition. The decorations and presents and holiday cheer may have been the same. But Christmas Day , whether for San Diego and the rest of the country , couldn't have been more different. Our sunny skies and unseasonably warm temperatures were countered by a blast of Arctic air that put much of the nation in a deep freeze. California travelers felt the impact as hundreds of holiday trips across the country were delayed or canceled because of the weather. Now , this week may be a very different story for San Diego. As a winter storm approaches. Joining me is Alex Tardy , warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service right here in San Diego County. And Alex , welcome back.

S2: Thanks for having me on. Happy holidays.

S1: Yes , same to you. Now , this weather pattern that brought so much cold and snow to most of the country was called a bomb cyclone.

S2: So it's an indication of a couple of things. A lot of energy. A lot of cold air and a lot of moisture wrapping up in the low pressure area. It's kind of our cold version of a hurricane and it happened to sweep across most of the eastern United States and wreak havoc.

S1:

S2: It's not like we're going to get more storms or we're having more storms , but the magnitude intensity of those storms has increased.

S1: Now , you mentioned Montana and Buffalo , New York.

S2: Even on Christmas Day , there were places along the mid-Atlantic on the East Coast that didn't get above 25 degrees. So we're talking temperatures not getting above freezing all the way down to North Carolina.

S1: Now , some of the stories coming out of this storm are tragic , although the death toll is hard to calculate. More than two dozen people are said to have died. Some people were found dead from the cold in their cars.

S2: A lot of times in these cold outbreaks when it's snow and cold air involved , especially abruptly , how it was. Temperatures were in the forties in New York and they dropped down to five degrees in a matter of , you know , several hours. It was really abrupt from Chicago to New York when that cold air came in. So , unfortunately , are finding people off the road because of the slippery conditions , finding people in their homes. Sometimes it's a matter of their heating systems failing. Sometimes it's a matter of them just not being reachable or not being found by authorities until a day or two after , when the snow is removed or when someone happens to find a vehicle over the bank. So it is common , you know , that we find , unfortunately , people a few days after the storm has passed.

S1:

S2: I mean , the conditions that were observed , for example , in Buffalo , Chicago , you're talking major delays , hours , you're talking hundreds of cancellations. It becomes , you know , to the point where it's just not safe or airplanes are just not capable of landing and taking off.

S1:

S2: It's off the East Coast. So the cold air that's in place will slowly modify and warm through the week. In fact , we're now going to see an absolute reversal of weather where the East Coast is going to be warm , much above average for the next 7 to 10 days. And the West Coast is going to be really wet.

S1: Sometimes when there are storms forecast for the West Coast. They don't actually come down very far. It hit us here in San Diego.

S2: And that's just the way it is in California. With this particular setup , we have a very interesting situation with something we haven't seen for a long time , maybe even a few years. So we have a Pacific jet stream that's all the way across the Pacific west to east. We have tropical moisture that's being trained or brought into that Pacific jet stream. So what it could result in is not just one storm like we saw in November or December , but a series of storms , several storms they're going to hosed down the entire West Coast. And yes , even us in San Diego could be talking about a couple inches of rain by New Year's Day. So we're looking at a series of storms , not just one storm. Erm and it's got the entire Pacific to work with. The entire jet stream is pointed on California and it really makes a difference in that type of situation. You're talking about improvement to the drought , you're talking about excessive rain , you're talking about the potential for some flooding in this type of situation and it may not stop until we get into 2023 , meaning it might continue early January.

S1: So it's our turn this week.

S2: It's our turn even though the brunt of it's going to be in northern California , central California , where places in the Sierra Nevada could see up to 20 inches of water , 20 inches of water. These are mild storms. So it will be snow above 7000 feet. Well , even see a little bit of snow in our mountains , perhaps on New Year's Day. But overall , these are mild , warm tropical storms. And we're talking in San Diego , places like Palomar Mountain over the next ten days could see 5 to 7 inches of rain. San Diego area , Carlsbad area could see a few inches of rain , two or three inches of rain by New Year's Day. So , yeah , everyone's going to get wet and some places in the state are going to have extreme wet , like I mentioned , up to 20 inches of water in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. That's that's a storm that only occurs every few years and something we haven't seen the past several years.

S1: I've been speaking with Alex Tardy , meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Diego County. Alex , thank you so much and happy New Year.

S2: Thank you. Happy New Year.

S1: For over 100 years , the Michelin star has been an unparalleled sign of achievement in the culinary world. One star is prestigious enough , but only the highest quality restaurants can aspire to a three star designation. In fact , there are only 14 restaurants in the country with three stars , and now San Diego is home to one of them. Addison , housed at the Fairmont Grande Del Mar , is the first restaurant in the region to receive the honor. And at the center of this culinary vision is a San Diego native chef William Bradley. He recently spoke with Midday Edition co-host Jade Heineman. And here's their conversation.

S3: Well , first of all , congratulations to you. This is the highest honor for a restaurant to receive.

S2: And , you know , the journey really goes back to before Addison. You know , I've always inspired and looked up to the European methodology and , you know , the way they approach restaurants and the Michelin guide. When I was quite young , I kind of got influenced by that through European soccer. I've always been a huge soccer fan , and then the restaurants were something I discovered along that path. And then from there I just noticed that the true. Gods , as they say in gastronomy. We're the ones with the three star Michelin designation behind their restaurant. So it's just one of those things that's always inspired me and kind of emulated how I approached restaurants and my culinary vision as well.

S3: And you were born and raised in San Diego , Chula Vista , specifically.

S2: You know , you can only connect the dots , as they say in life as you look back. And I had a huge influence. I have grew up in a very Latin culture , being in the Chula Vista area and being involved in soccer and with a lot of Hispanic friends and the influences that they had on the food was very different than my upbringing. You know , on Sundays they would the parents would cook and all the different flavors and the freshness of the Latin cuisine , I think really helped set my palate at a very young age for for for , you know , what was to become for the future. So a lot of Latin dishes as I grew up.

S3:

S2: I think it was just more of the culture and the community , you know , respecting the food , understanding how to celebrate the harvest and just really getting together and making food that tastes really well. I mean , as you know , Latin cuisine is really based on very bold flavors and has a lot of a lot of depth. And I think that was , again , something that really woke me up and not any dishes specifically has paved the way I cook. But I think more or less that my palate at a young age.

S3:

S2: But again , I have I have a really amazing team that I surround myself with. And we all have the common goal. You know , we have a saying in the restaurant all in all the time. And when you see everyone committed from , you know , the purveyors , the concierge , everyone that's just so involved and committed to making sure that the hospitality is at the highest level , there's just something that inspires me because that drives me. So if they're driving me , I can help drive them. And what that does is that drives the restaurant. And then when you drive a restaurant to try to maximize its potential , great things can happen. It's a very positive environment and great things have happened. We've come a long way since 2006 , but it's been a great journey and it's meant a lot to us to see San Diego come along with the journey with us. You know , from the early days when we were very aware of where we are and not being too aggressive with the cuisine and slowly kind of moving in a positive direction together. I think now looking back and , you know , working and looking at 20 , 23 years soon. It's been it's been amazing.

S3:

S2: So obviously , gastronomy is a lifestyle. And California is obviously the region we live in. So there's a lot of inspiration from multiple different cuisines that we like to inspire from. You can have a little bit of Thai influence in our cuisine Japanese , Latin American elements in terms of tastes and with a lot of French technique and French elements as well. So it's a great blend , and I think that reflects Southern California and San Diego quite well.

S3: As the executive chef , you're the most visible member of your kitchen , but can you tell me more ? I mean , how how your entire talk about how your entire staff works together to turn out a service night after night at such a high level ? Yeah.

S2: I mean , we we have meetings daily. We obviously have , like many restaurants , pre chefs and post chefs with the entire team. But myself , my chef de cuisine , my sous chefs , my service director , wine director , we sit down daily and go over areas where we need to slowly improve on every day. And that's something that we've always committed ourselves to. We don't ever really want to rest on what we've achieved. We want to constantly evolve and stay relevant. So there's a lot of meetings that happen to really make sure that we're really , really working cohesively. So for instance , sometimes depending on the. The set up of the restaurant , we could be a little bit more. You know , the service team can be a lot stronger just based on evenflo's of the restaurant or at times maybe the cuisine is a little bit stronger. So there we like to balance that. What kind of slowed down the evolution of the menu are slowed down the evolution of of the service to make sure that it's very balanced. So a lot of communication is really , really key to our success and allowing to share our thoughts and our and in ways that we feel that we can contribute collectively as a team to allow the restaurant to evolve.

S3: And along with the prestige that three Michelin stars brings , it also brings a lot of expectations , a lot of customers , and a lot more scrutiny and discussion.

S2: But this is something that we are , as we call them , the restaurant. We're we're obsessed with perfection. So therefore it doesn't seem daunting to us. I actually enjoy the Michelin guide and I enjoy the three star status. I think it's amazing , it's exciting and it should be enjoyed and it should not look at as a burden. It should look at as something that's very positive and it should really , really energize the establishment , because to be amongst one of the top tables in the world , I mean , that's really , really , really special. And everyone should be extremely proud , happy that they contribute to this journey. So we really , really enjoy this process. So as as the the famous French chef GitHub was said once I heard this , it was pretty amazing. And he says , No pressure , only passion.

S3: All right. I've been speaking with William Bradley , executive chef of Addison , which was recently awarded three Michelin stars. Congratulations again to you and thanks so much for talking with us today.

S2: Thank you. Enjoy your holidays. We all do.

S1: This is KPBS Midday edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Heineman. How do you remember the events of your life's journey ? For some people , it's photos and videos or the music playing at the most precious moments of their lives. For author Manjusri Ghosh , it's the food. It's the meals created that marked the many facets of her life as a refugee immigrant traveler and scientist , Ghosh writes about the good and bad aspects of her journey from India to San Diego , all through a connection with the food that has sustained her. She's the author of Koba An Immigrant Journey of Food , Memory and Family. I spoke to her earlier this year , and I started by asking what toll the refugee and immigrant experience has taken on her and her family.

S2: The whole concept of partition , the whole concept of how India was divided into what's now three countries has been part of our world , our family history , even though we don't talk about it or record it the way other displaced folks have been doing. It's only very recent that we've started talking more about it because there was a shame associated with it. There was a let's move on with our lives associated with it. But my childhood stories were my father telling me how big the cauliflower was in what's now Bangladesh , how fragrant the turmeric was or the fish was. And so. I don't know if you would call it a cold , but it was a yearning for a country that I have never been to. It was a yearning for a life that my father kept referring to , even when he was living his life in India as an immigrant coming to America in 1903. I think I carried those stories , that trauma that my parents experienced over to America. So the only way to respond to that would be through food. Food is a connection that you can have a conversation with. The lack of food or the removal of food from your world is also a conversation starter and a memory trigger. And so so it's always a part of my life.

S1:

S2: Those triggers come from , like you mentioned earlier , music , smells , tastes , events. You know , many different ways you can trigger these thoughts. Food triggers not only the scent , those sense of smell and taste , but it also leads to a trigger of memory , even a memory that your parents may have had. But it's a memory that has been told to you through folktale or storytelling that we are so used to , at least from the South Asian perspective. So telling a story through food is a question of negotiation. It's a question of memory.

S1:

S2: So many. So when you're looking at food in West Bengal , which is.

S3: The state.

S2: My parents came from the state right next to Bangladesh , that state was colonized by , of course , the British. But we had Portuguese influence. We had immigrants who moved in from China. Not colonization , but more coming in there as business folks , as well as indentured Chinese folks who then created what we call kangaroo Chinese food , which is very different from the the Chinese food you eat in Sichuan Province or the Chinese food you eat in America. So you've had people who've been journeyed through what I call this spice route. And and so with that comes a change in place. You've had the French colonizers in Pondicherry , and therefore the food there has a French tinge. You have Portuguese influencing go and cuisine. So the food will have dishes like Pao or bread in Portuguese that that go and people in India will obviously be eating. And then just in Bengal we've had the Portuguese cheese. We also have what's called different forms of pastries , which are an Indian things to it. You have Chinese food that is slightly different , more spicy , more salty , rather than the standard Sichuan fare that you have for food in itself when it travels through the country. The influence of the colonizer or the colonizing group is pretty significant. But we also would call that Indian ised.

S1: There are very serious essays in Koba and some lighthearted ones.

S2: As an immigrant who's left this left India and lived outside of India longer than what I call home. I'm always conflicted about what is home because San Diego to me is his home , but so is New Delhi. One of the essays that I wrote and I was doing the pandemic was talking about activism and protests and what is happening in in India right now where where non Hindus are asked to provide proof of their citizenship of how patriotic people and nationalist people seem to have blended in. I wanted to talk about that in the sense of what's happening in America , what's happening in rest of the world and what's happening in India. Given this is the 75th anniversary of our independence , but have we really become independent in terms of freedom for all secularism , for all treating women with the respect that we say we do ? And it's it's this chapter about peaceful protests and. Poetry. I have related back to the concept of tea. Masala Chai is known as an Indian concept. However , Tea was not a native to India , came from China , brought in by the British colonial colonial group How we made it our own and then in contemporary India used it as part of our our struggle , our our protests , our demonstrations against injustice. To me is what needs to be highlighted as contemporary India and the grave danger to democracy that we face.

S1: I know that there are many serious and heartfelt issues in Carver , but do you also want to make your readers hungry to try some of the food that you're talking about ? Absolutely.

S2: I mean , it's I'll tell you a thing about us , Bengalis. We start the day drinking our tea and talking about lunch and dinner. At lunch we talk about dinner. At dinner , we talk about what we eat for breakfast. Food is how I think food is my. My language. So , yeah. Do I want to make people hungry ? Absolutely. Why should we not ? It's a joy to see the kind of things you can create with greens and meats and fish that's available in San Diego. The farmers in San Diego are amazing people who give you good food. Even during the pandemic , they've been growing amazing greens that you could actually convert into to Indian food standard , all Indian food that my mother used to make. So yeah , that's the plan. Okay.

S1: I've been speaking with Madhu Sri Ghosh , author of Koba An Immigrant Journey of Food , Memory and Family. Amadou Sri , thank you so much for speaking with us.

S2: Thank you so much. It's been an honor and a pleasure.

S1: Take any popular dish pizza , ice cream , hot dogs and try to trace its origin story. Chances are you're going to go on a winding road with conflicting accounts of who actually invented the dish or whether it was invented by one single person at all. KQED is Silicon Valley Reporter , a D3 bondo. Moodie recently ate a dish so mishmash with foods from different countries that she found herself on a food origin story journey that led her across the world and then back to California.

S4: One night , a few months ago , my husband , Chase Uganda , announced that we were going to the South Bay to eat Indian settlers for dinner. I figured he had misspoken. Maybe he meant to say Somoza's or Sichuan food , but no , he meant to say settlers. Now , I should probably point out that my husband and I are both Indian , but Shiv was born and brought up in Mumbai. He moved to the United States about six years ago. I , on the other hand , was born and raised in the U.S. , but I grew up eating Indian food. My mom would make dishes from Andhra Pradesh , Tamil Nadu , Gujarat and Punjab growing up here. I knew there would be gaps in my cultural understanding of India , but I never thought food would be a place I would come up short. So we get to the South Bay Milpitas , to be exact , and we enter Milan Sweets Center. It's the small restaurant tucked away in a strip mall of Indian clothing stores and threading salons. And while Milan Sweets is known for their sweets , John and Gandhi , Che chef's best friend said we had to try their scissors.

S5: I would describe a sister as a hot , steaming plate , On top of which , you can find all kinds of veggies , rice , even pasta.

S4: Okay , I should stop right here and explain exactly what a sizzler is. At its base , there's a bed of grains , whether that's noodles , rice or pasta. On top of that are grilled vegetables , usually an assortment of onions , bell peppers , sometimes zucchini and cubes of paneer all mix together in a tangy sauce. On top of that , fresh , thinly sliced cabbage and carrots , kind of like coleslaw mix. Finally , some shredded cheese , and it all comes out on the steaming hot platter. The whole thing smokes up the room and crackles as it comes towards the table. I was overwhelmed as it approached me. The Sizzler I got had pasta mixed in a kind of red vodka cream sauce with giant samosas on top of it. It was confusing because I know all of these elements separately , but together it felt like a fever dream. How did this dish come to be and why ? And again , how. To track down this origin story. I went to the obvious place to start the Internet. I scoured Indian food blogs and articles and was eventually able to piece together a sort of lure that exists around the Sizzler. And it starts in California sometime in the 1960s. Indian businessman Firoz Irani was on a trip in California , not exactly sure where when he visited a sizzler steakhouse.

S2: That you've been looking for.

S4: At that time , Sizzler Steakhouses were known for serving their steak on a sizzling platter that smoked up the whole room and made a big scene. Irani saw this and was entranced. He came back to Mumbai and went to work , creating his version of a sizzler. A few years later , in 1967 , he opened up the Sizzler restaurant in a ritzy part of the city and sold allegedly the first Indian Sizzler grilled meat or vegetables on top of a bed of rice or pasta , or both mixed in a special sauce and served on a steaming hot platter. According to legend , after Irani opened the Sizzler in Mumbai , his son Shahrukh eventually took over the business and opened another restaurant in India. From there , other families took the idea and ran with it. The two largest , most famous restaurant chains are Yoko sisters and Kobe sisters. Food blogger Indrajith Lahiri , based out of Calcutta , says part of what made the Sizzler so popular is its shochu or showiness.

S5: Going to restaurants.

S2: And dining. It was not really very popular like what it is today. And my father used to take me to all this fancy joints. I'm sure it was ordered to for some other people. And with that Shusha and that initial appeal , I asked my father that was , What is this ? And I want to point out that.

S4: According to my husband , Chekhov and our friend and the Dish really took off in the 1990s and early 2000s , Yoko and Kobe la chains had spread throughout India , and around that time the Indian middle class was growing and more people could afford to eat at restaurants. So those hours were still considered a luxury food at the time. Shiv remembers eating his first Sizzler at a rich friend's birthday party.

S5: It's kind of not food that you have. Like if you're like normal middle class , it's like very upscale. And Yoko says it's kind of like upscale. So he had a birthday party and they had , like , sectioned off a part of the restaurant. He's like , Dad had this , like , DSLR camera and stuff. So for that time , it's like he was like , obviously , like , well off.

S4: Eventually , the Sizzler gained international popularity as Indians emigrated to other countries and brought their food with them. I talked to Ryan Rizvi , who manages the Yoko Sizzler restaurants in the Middle East. He's based out of Dubai and has been tinkering with the Sizzler recipe to fit the local palate.

S2: We have a lot of local Arab customers that are coming in , you know , so we have to customize our base according to them as well. Because if you have original sources in India , they would be a little more spicy than what we have here in Dubai.

S4: This alleged history explains why someone like me who was born in the U.S. wouldn't know about settlers while she's 17 and grew up eating them. When my parents immigrated in the late eighties , they didn't know about the Sizzler because it wasn't popular enough. But in areas with a lot of recent Indian immigrants like Edison , New Jersey , Detroit , Dallas , the San Francisco Bay Area , you can find Sizzler joints all over the place. I did reach out to Sizzler , USA , the company behind the steakhouse chain , to see if they knew about any of this. Forbes Collins , the company's historian , said Sizzler was aware Indian restaurants were selling something called the Sizzler. But when I described the dish Feroz Irani created in the 1960s.

S2: The concoction , how did he build that concoction ? I mean , he must have he must have gotten the idea of the sizzling platter from us. Right.

S4: But it wasn't just the platter Collins took issue with. He says Sizzler USA had a run in with a restaurant in Florida.

S2: In Orlando , I saw a restaurant named the Sizzler Indian cuisine. We were happy. They were using our name and we tried to stop. The marketing department got involved. I wasn't involved in it.

S4: But as far as Collins knows , nothing happened. Nothing.

S2: Nothing. Nothing happened. I have no idea. So we never do anything to them.

S4: Millen Suites back in Milpitas , that restaurant , Jana and Chase Chef and I were at doesn't mention the word Sizzler is in its name , but it's known Bay Area wide for them. Here's Sanjay Patel , the owner describing all their varieties.

S5: Chinese sisters , Hawaiian Crispy Sisters , Manchurian Sisters , Kabobs , hustlers , which are made with paneer , grated paneer , kabobs. We have our tiki sizzle.

S4: Some sundaes , Dad. Mukund opened the restaurant in 1996 after moving here from England , where Sanjay was born. Milan Sweets originally served traditional Indian vegetarian food. But Sanjay , an award winning chef , wanted to try something a little different.

S5: So I had a lot of excitement inside me.

S2: I've got this new country that is fresh to new ideas.

S4: Once he got to the U.S. , he started working on the Sizzler. And to sell the idea to an Indian-American audience , the Sizzler would have to adapt.

S5: Indian people love catch up on everything that they eat. I kind of like studied , broke down. What a catch up is to try and create a sauce that has that tanginess that I can add some cream to so that it creates a sauce that's similar to a vodka sauce , or at least a creamy marinara sauce.

S4: That's what he tosses his pasta in , which serves as the base layer for his samosa sizzler. Let's do the similar sauces. And the Hawaiian crispy. And the verdict. Mm.

S2:

S4: Sometimes approaching this thing is a bit of a task. I found taking a little bit of pasta and breaking up the Somoza was the easiest way to go. And how is it sort of like creamy ? Yeah.

S2:

S4: Sauce to it. It's like , really good since having my first Sizzler. I find myself craving it on the regular. There's something poetic about it too. How ? The idea traveled from California to India all the way across the world to the Middle East , to England , and back to California. You taste familiar ingredients paired together in an unfamiliar way , and the result is unexpectedly harmonious. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If only we as humans could just do as the Sizzler does. Complement each other's cultures and embrace the contradictions.

S1: That was KQED , Silicon valley reporter aditi on the money. This is KPBS midday edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Heineman. And so now that is the birthplace of Mexican surfing. It has a rich history that many people don't know about. KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis talked with two local surfers trying to preserve and spread that history.

S2: The Baja Coast has always had amazing waves , but when Ignacio Félix was growing up in an Sanada during the 1960s , surfboards were a rare commodity. No surprise there isn't One day animals from the ecology got into that when that's done. Pedro Felix says that it wasn't like it is today and and Sonata where surfboards are everywhere. He'd only see them whenever American tourists with boards strapped to the roof of their cars came to town. Félix was among a group of curious children who spent hours at the beach just sitting there on the sand , watching the surfers catch waves as he grew older. Felix's curiosity turned into a passion , and he became one of the original co-founders of the Baja Surf Club , which was the first official club in Mexican history. He remembers being totally starstruck when surfing legends he'd only seen on magazine pages came to a sonata for a contest that he helped organize. He would ask or Mike Doyle to make him yours a David , in a way , for us to make it real. By the time Pete Torrez first picked up a board in the 1970s , surfing was becoming more popular in Mexico. But it still had a stigma. He says , that it was mostly associated with long hair , hippies and drugs.

S5: It's just to my mind , we emphasize what we are to the north and the potato. I was somebody won and we will be stuck.

S2: Mexico has thousands of miles of coastline and several world class surf spots thanks to these natural gifts. It also has a rich surf history full of adventurers who discover new waves and evangelized the sport down the country's Pacific coast. They also fought a federal government that didn't want them around. But that rich history is not well known. Torres and his son Salazar are trying to change that. They started documenting the origins of Mexican surfing through a podcast , an Instagram page called Memorabilia. They're surfing Mexicano.

S5: And that's like the main objective , you know , like to talk about surfing culture , Mexican surfing culture , and to start to give it an identity to Mexican surf because there is none.

S2: The project has taken them to famous beaches of Mazatlan , Guerrero , Oaxaca and Nayarit. They've tracked down historic photographs and interviewed the pioneers of Mexican surfing.

S5: It's amazing to see to hold that history in your hands.

S2: Torres and Salazar say that one of the most important moments in Mexican surf history happened in 1970. Felix and other members of the Baja Surf Club performed well at the 1968 World Championships in Puerto Rico. They put on a bid to host a tournament in 1970 , against all odds. They were awarded the bid ahead of surfing heavyweights like Australia and South Africa. Felix says nobody expected them to actually get the world championship. The governor of Baca , California , and the mayor of the scenario just couldn't believe it. McEnroe's help wasn't going to get any worse. Plus , Mike was profoundly a lot less. Canyon was another one there. The event was going to put Mexican surfing on the map , but the cultural upheaval of the late 1960s was in full swing. Woodstock had just made international headlines. The Mexican government wasn't interested in a south of the border version of that chaotic scene. So they canceled the contest. We had no Mexican record. No. Ken in Wisconsin , Now that we have to run Google and Dallas keeps the California band ended rather open. Felix says the government didn't want in Canada to become a campground for California hippies. But that decision derailed the development of competitive surfing in Mexico. Mexican surfers would not go to another world championship until 1988 , the year Torres was on the team. Salazar says that is very important for those who lived the history to tell their own stories.

S5: Americans have come a lot and made all kinds of stories about surfing in Mexico , and they tell very little about Mexicans. We feel it's important to get stories about Mexicans out there. You know , we think it's very important.

S2: And their efforts are starting to pay off. Salazar and Torres helped research an article on Acapulco surf culture for the latest edition of the Surfer's Journal. They see that collaboration with one of the biggest surfing magazines in the world as recognition of the important work that they're doing. With Salvo Solis , KPBS News.

S1: Your spidey sense may be telling you that time is running out to see the Spider-Man exhibit at the San Diego Comic-Con Museum. But KPBS arts reporter Beth ACCOMANDO says there are still a few weeks to go. And she reminds us about what she saw when the Spider-Man tribute opened last summer.

S4: Spider-Man may turn 60 this year , but the iconic Marvel superhero will forever be ingrained in our pop culture consciousness as a teenager , says Ben Saunders.

S2: When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko initially came up with Peter Parker and Spider-Man , they were playing with a relatively new concept , even in just sociological terms. And that's the concept of the teenager. I've got to test myself. Got to learn the full extent of my newfound powers. And it's a period of life that is marked by uncertainty about identity and rapid mood swings and periods of bravado and periods of self-doubt and impulsiveness. And they took all of that , and they made the hero that which is something we hadn't seen before. Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Into any size can't just be just like , Guys , look out. Here comes the Spider Man.

S1: In honor of Spidey's 60th.

S4: Anniversary , Comic-Con Museum is inducting him into its character Hall of Fame. It's also hosting Spider-Man Beyond Amazing , the exhibition. Saunders is one of the curators.

S2: We have 60 years worth of pop cultural material to draw upon from across pretty much every available media platform.

S4: That's because Spider-Man has won people over generation after generation. Co-curator Patrick Reed was one over as a kid.

S2: You see someone who can climb up a wall , someone in an amazing , colorful costume with their face hidden behind a mask , someone who is shooting webs from their hands and swinging over the city. And the sort of innate magic of it and just sheer. Wow. The exhibition captures.

S4: That wow factor by bringing comic book panels to life on massive walls and allowing.

S1: Visitors to pose with life.

S2: Sized Spidey statues. Spider-Man. Where ? Where ? Oh , hi. I just get so flustered when I meet a celebrity. We are very conscious of the innate power of the museum medium to tell stories. It is based around historical artifacts , original comic book art , film , props. But then we also use all sorts of modern techniques lighting projections , high definition digital canvases to tell the story in a more kinetic way and.

S4: In ways that might surprise.

S1: You , says Saunders.

S2: We made the decision quite early on not to have a lot of actual comic books , but what they do. Include.

S4: Include.

S3: Is a lot of the original.

S4: Art that was used to create those. Comic.

S1: Comic. Books.

S2: Books. The originals are usually two or three times the size of a comic book page. They're black and white , pencil and ink. You can see all the paste ups , all the corrections , all of the out , all of the lettering that's been stuck on and is starting to peel off. It's a.

S4: Way to.

S1: Peel back the curtain.

S4: On the creative process.

S2: It comes down to the miracle of human creativity in that it began with somebody working at home at a desk with a pencil. There's something about the romance of that creativity and of the way these things just rise up from the Bristol board and become what they have become in our collective imaginations.

S1: Spider-Man and Peter Parker.

S4: Have become a source of inspiration , urging us to be better , even as they struggle with their own failures , says Saunders.

S2: Peter Parker can help us figure out also what's valuable about trying to figure out who you are in a world where things not only go wrong , but often are wrong. To try and figure out what your sense of justice actually might be. Whatever life holds in store for me. I will never forget these words. With great power comes great responsibility. How much better off would we all be if there were more people in the world in positions of power who understood that some responsibility comes with that role ? It's a good message.

S4: And that's just.

S2: One of the messages that comes.

S4: Through in Spider-Man beyond. Amazing. Beth ACCOMANDO , KPBS News.

S1: Spider-Man Beyond Amazing. The exhibition will be leaving the Comic-Con museum next month.