Photo: Mike Murphy. Benita doing tolasana, New Jersey.
My first encounter with Matador came in late-2009 during an around-the-world trip I took after leaving my job as a New York City attorney. I met contributing editor Paul Sullivan at a cafe in Berlin after connecting with him through the Matador community, and later that evening, he brought me to a bar in Prenzlauer Berg, where then-Nights Editor Tom Gates and I slurped up Thai dumpling soup while listening to Paul deejay the party. Both of them seemed fascinated by some of the surfing stories I had gathered in Europe and encouraged me to submit to Matador Sports.