Finished up a bit of a stressful end of the day at work around 4:20.
Best thing to do for anxiety is hop in the water to surf. Pavel did not come because he had a second session in the morning with Franz, Rosie/Ruthie, and Dirk. Actually Franz didn't surf.
We didn't think the waves looked good, but as soon as I paddled out I realized they were and Pavel should definitely have come out.
I paddled out on the very left side of the lineup, with the longshore drift carrying everyone to the north (right). Was too far inside for some big sets right of the bat. Didn't do much for probably 20 minutes. The thoughts of this being a session when I didn't catch any waves definitely started to come to mind.
I almost was in great position for one, inside of the the guy with the hat and one of the girls with him, and they both showed for it. Because I was right in front of them, I had to pay attention and prepare because getting out of the way would have been quite hard. As I expected, they were both too far outside and I was in perfect position but didn't even paddle for it because of the confusion.
A bit later, a set was coming in and everyone else was paddling outside. I was sitting there thinking I really don't think we need to paddle out. It is very hard to not paddle outside when everyone else is; you assume they know more than you, and if you are wrong, you are in a very bad spot. The wave will definitely break on you (not great), and there will be people outside of you that the wave will be bringing towards you, either surfing or getting chundered. Generally I try very hard to not have the waves bringing people towards me.
But, I held my ground and was watching to see if anyone would catch it and I would have to get out of their way. Of course, I was right. Everyone was too far outside to catch it. Upon seeing this, I quickly turned around and got a couple paddles in. Not nearly enough speed because of all of the confusion and I was a bit deep, but I ended up popping up and was quite high up on the wave in the lip. Like high enough and in the lip enough to be like what is the drop going to be like. What will I be surfing on the way down.
Turned out it was relatively smooth. I imagine I had my weight pretty far back, just riding the tail all the way down. That's a good way to make anything smooth. I think I need to get better about keeping more weight forward. On these small boards you need to make the speed with your weight.
Either way, I ended up flying down the face of the wave really fast. Possibly the fastest I've ever gone on a wave. At the bottom I was going quite fast still and had lost my balance falling backwards off the board and I fell. It was a pretty fun wave. Probably my biggest drop ever.
My next wave was a really really good left. One of my best waves ever. I don't remember catching it. But it was pretty big and I was riding the face. I noticed the last section building up, and I was like great I need to go surf that. But at the same time the section I was on was not fast. I started to feel myself go out the back of the wave so I jump-scooted up to the front of the board and pumped a bit to get back down the face. In hindsight, I probably should have cut back to get back to the power of the wave and then go into the end section with more speed.
Either way, I got my weight up to the front and pumped down the face and saw it closing out and jumped off the back. Not a great jump off the back because my fins skidding out as I was turning, something I'm noticing with the quad.
I paddled back out, about 3/4 of the way, some sets came in, I went for the smaller ones, and then realized I was too tired and turned around and started to paddle in. I thought I would catch one quickly on the inside, but it ended up taking a while. By the time I finally caught one, I thought I was too far inside for it to even be fun. But it was quite fun. A quick little face and then I straightened out and rode it to the beach standing up. Really fun haha. Makes you wonder why you ever go outside. Still a decent amount of power. Maybe we stay inside more.
That was the surfing.
Pavel and Danielle were watching from the beach - they saw the last two waves.
Also I should mention this whole time it was a beautiful evening. A great temperature (I didn't think about the temperature once which is a great sign). There were just some thin clouds in the west on the horizon adding some drama to the sunset. As I put my board in the car, the view back out to the waves was fantastic. Looking through the palm trees to dark lines of waves, darker on the faces, and then a dark orange sky hombre-ing to a grey-blue.
Then we went to Super Ronny's and came back to Pachamama.
I could spend some time talking about the characters at Pachamama:
Steph
- Roommate. Wears really short shorts. 1 tattoo sleeve. From Greece and NY. Been volunteering (WOOFING) on a cattle ranch with an American owner outside San Jose. Has cattle ranch experience from upstate NY and Massachusets. All of the meat is consumed in costa rica and it's the nicest beef in Central America.
Jamison
- 23 years old. Was in corporate data sales but hated it. Learned trades after: carpentry and masonry. Can shred. Aerials apparently.
Culinary School Kid
- just graduated culinary school. found a job at a restaurant in Costa Rica. Left after two days because he realized he doesn't have a passion for cooking. Sits around Pachamama staring. Doesn't surf. We talked about food. He gave me a recipe.
- brown pork shoulder in bacon fat
- remove pork
- caramelize onions and something else I think
- add creme fresh
- add sage
and the pork and cook it in that til it's done.
Some french recipe. Sounds pretty good and different than what we usually do.
Tommy
- Might be David Beckham
- Tatted up.
Irene
- Asian, from Russia, living in Switzerland. Hates Alexei Nvalny. Works in finance. Her pants continue to rip.
wave count
mon am 3
mon pm 1
tues am 3
wed am 6
wed pm 3