Jim LaDiana : Musician-Educator and founder of Los Peatones del Surf (The Surfwalkers) a surf rock band in Caribbean Costa Rica. 

    Hailing from both N.Y.C. and L.A., guitarist Jim La Diana has been deeply engaged in music for over 5 decades. He is now a coastal resident of Talamanca Costa Rica, a Central American nation situated about as far west as you can get in the Caribbean basin. 

    One of his chief bona fides is his publication, Strings of Memories, (http://www.innercityprojections.com/strings-of-memories.html) which grew out of his extensive writing on the subject of those hidden, hero guitarists we've all listened to but who's names and bios we were unaware of. The great session players of film and TV soundtracks, usually based in Hollywood. 

    Through many interviews and visits with these forgotten giants of U.S. popular culture, Jim developed several close friendships over the years. He was invited to perform with 30 other guitarists at Tommy Tedesco's memorial service. Tommy Tedesco was one of those iconic session guitarists. He also helped orchestrate interviews with many of the same amazing players for the NAMM Oral History Project. 

    When Jim moved permanently to Costa Rica, Central America in 2017, he noticed that the live music scene was lacking in surf music. This is ironic because there are thousands of surfers passing through or living in the country on both coasts. Jim saw a vacuum. On the Caribbean coast where live bands routinely grind out covers of Calypso or Marley tunes, his creation, Los Peatones del Surf (the Surfwalkers) has been making quite a splash in front of live audiences. This group also performs in Panama and the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. See the FB page, Los Peatones del Surf, for videos of live shows. 

    Jim's idea was to introduce 60's style surf-guitar sounds using a Quilter amp, the tone block 202. He had to wait many months to get it shipped but it was worth the wait. 

    Another meaningful part of Jim's artistic contribution has been his 20 years of work with special education students in California. He developed a program specifically for this population. M.E.W. (Music Experience Workshop) 

    Go Tone Block 202 by Quilter !!!! Go Los Peatones del Surf !!!!