Fun Fun Fun

Fun fun fun was the theme of today's surf session at Sunset. The rollers were coming through just as I arrived at 6:30am. I should have gotten there earlier but my lame-ass couldn't drag myself out of bed any earlier. Anyways, my friend Jason and I arrived first then Becky met us at 7:30am. Becky is the girl that I met last week at Sunset. She's a beginner, so I told her the basics, etiquette, punching through waves, etc... Someone did that for me, so I thought I should pay it forward to someone else as well. I guess she will be my surf buddy this weekend as Angela is down in San Diego.

I caught one nice one close to the inside. I paddled hard, felt the board catch, then stood up, and rode it straight into the beach. I saw that the wave was going to close out so I crouched down lower and then the board started to turn right. I didn't mean to do it, but the board somehow did. Hm.. How do I do THAT again? I tried to do it again but couldn't repeat it because my rides were so short. I need more practice... :-\

All in all, I had a lot of fun, catching small rollers. Becky even caught a few and stood up on at least 1 wave, so she was happy with her session.

I'll try to get up earlier to haul my ass to Sunset earlier tomorrow. Off to bed!

Same ole same old...

Same ole same old routine: my alarm went off at 5:30am, I rolled out of bed and into my wetsuit, grabbed my board, and hopped in my car to go to Sunset. Once I got there, there was N-A-D-A! Man... another morning of trying to surf but failing. Why does this seem to happen so often? I was tempted to not even wake up, but wanted to get my surfing in this morning. Sigh... And I'm sure it'll be even worse tomorrow since low tide will be even later. I left Sunset at around 7:30am when it finally looked like it was getting better and filling in a bit. Maybe I'll have to wait until the weekend to surf... BOOOOOOOoOOOoOo~~!

Back to my old self?

I surfed Sunset yesterday morning. It was actually really fun. I wasn't a popsicle like the day before, and the waves treated me better. There weren't too many people there either, which surprised me. And I managed to catch MORE than one wave this time. One wave that puzzled me - I think I was in good position, I felt it come take me underneath, I paddled like no one's business, and I ended up on the top of the wave where the wave started to crest, then it passed me by. Could I have still caught this wave? Was I too far back on my board? Maybe I should have paddled harder, faster, and longer? Or should I have just stood up and prayed that I dropped down the face? I don't get it.... :-\ Other than that, nothing really eventful. I'm feeling myself catch waves better in LA now. But I'm trying to feel out the turning part. Right now, I just go straight into the beach, occassionally turning accidently. Is there anything I can do outside of the water to practice this turning thing so that I can go down the line?

No surfing for me this morning. My body is sore all over from being on my kite for the rest of the day after my surf session yesterday...

I'm not a popsicle!

I finally started feeling better yesterday, so decided to meet up with Marlon, Danny, and Joey at Sunset in the morning at 6:30am. Angela couldn't wake up (she didn't even hear my phone call) so missed a not-so-memorable morning session. I saw some fun sets breaking on the outside so I decided to go in. And DUDE, it was SOOOO COOOOOOLD! I swear I became a popsicle. And just my luck, after a full hour and a half in the freezing water, I didn't catch one single wave. WTF man... I sat there, paddled for a few waves and missed them, and continued to sit there with my hands under my armpits to try to keep them warm, waiting, waiting, shivering, and waiting. "Just 5 more minutes," I thought. "Another 5 more minutes, just a little bit longer...." And before I knew it, a full hour had passed by. I swear I was trying to torture myself or something. How long will I last in the 54 degree water before I lose it? (The answer is 1.5 hours, in case you're curious) I'm not on Fear Factor here, am I? I'm too old to be cold like this. Finally, I said, "ENOUGH!" I was annoyed by the cold and started feeling sick, so I decided to go in. I was so cold and disoriented that I had trouble finding my car key and putting the car key into the keyhole. Marlon, Joey, and Danny were still out there, sitting, waiting, sitting in the COLD ASS water. I racked my board on my car quickly and drove home in my wetsuit to take a HOT shower. Oh, and my dumb luck again - I hit traffic on my way back so it took me over 30 minutes to get home (usually, it takes me 10-15 min max!). I think I did turn into a popsicle. My lips were blue and my teeth were chattering when I got home.

Angela wants to go to El Porto tomorrow morning. I'm a bit nervous about going there because I heard that the waves are fast and can keep you underwater if you get pummelled. Plus, there are a lot of good surfers there. I'll just try to stay out of their way. Hopefully, the ElPorto.com report will hold and it will be okay conditions for people who suck like me. We'll see how I do tomorrow. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow morning than today...

Bedridden...

I itch ALL OVER from my newly discovered mosquito bites, I have been throwing up all night (I don't know from what), and I have the chills. What gives, man? My friends went to Malibu yesterday morning and I missed a great session, I was told. Man.... no surf for me for the next couple of days until I recover... Okay, that's enough of my complaining...

:-[

Como estas? Pura Vida!

So much to talk about! So many thoughts are running through my brain about Costa Rica right now. I don't even know where to begin! I'll try to make it short and not bore you with the details. I got back late last night from Costa Rica. After one week of surfing, eating, sleeping, and surfing, a full day of work at the office kicked my ass today. I had my BEST surf sessions EVER in Costa Rica. MMMMmmmMmMMmm...waaaaaarm waaaaaaaater... Here is how it went down:

After landing in San Jose, we picked up our luxurious Daihatsu Terios and headed to Tamarindo. We decided not to bring our surfboards since American Airlines was charging $80 per surfboard each way. I figured that since we were novices, we wouldn't feel much difference between our own boards and rentals anyways. Yea, yea, I should have done some more due diligence to fly the airline that charged the least for transporting surfboards. But this actually worked out since I liked the rental boards much better than my own board at home. I drank a shot of vodka, and I slept like a baby on our redeye flight while Angela played poker during the flight with 2 guys that we met on the plane... and then got drunk and slept for an hour before we landed.

We didn't like Tamarindo much. It started with our hotel. After taking a few wrong turns, we finally arrived at our hotel - Tamarindo Vista Villas. Man, our room SUCKED BIG TIME. It was SO SMALL. All the surfers that I had met and the books that I had read recommended this place, so I was looking forward to a luxury resort with a nice large room. But no, our room was about 13x13, with 2 single beds taking up almost the entire room. We did have a nice ocean view, but our room PLAIN SUCKED. The pool and the swim-up bar was nice, I guess, but it didn't make up for the sucky ass room. We weren't too impressed with the town either. Reminded us of Tijuana. One good thing was the waaaaaarm water and the surf. What a GREAT feeling to surf in just a bikini and board shorts! No thick rubber wetsuits or booties to get in the way. I must note, however, "do not surf in just a bikini top without a rashguard" cuz sooner or later, it WILL come off, especially in my case. Mine came off at least 3 times when I got pummeled by set waves. I had to hold on to them each time I washing-machined it to prevent them from completely coming off. The surf was good for us at the Tamarindo beach break by the rivermouth - small and fun, but nothing really notable to talk about, except my occasional flashing escapades. Small little waves to warm up for my greatest, best sessions ever in Jaco. (We kept hearing about Witch's Rock, and of course wanted to check it out but thought it would be better to save it for next time when we came back better surfers.)

Also, another bad thing about Tamarindo was that Angela broke out into uncontrollable itch attacks after being in the Tamarindo ocean water for about 45 minutes. Good thing that I had brought my Cortaid which killed the itch. So after each surf session in Tamarindo, she had to run up to our room to apply the Cortaid to stop the rash. I also developed a weird allegic rash on my arms and legs on the second day - weird little bumps all over my arms, shoulders, and legs. I think this might have been from the dirty ocean water. Some of the other guests had developed a similar rash as well. I later found out that the water in Tamarindo isn't very clean especially by the rivermouth where we were surfing. I was told later that there is no underlying current to take the runoff away from the beach. I liked the 9-0 Surftech epoxy tufflite board that I had rented though - light, quick, easy to catch waves. I liked it even better than Jane or my Becker and had to fight the urge to buy it! :-P

After 2 days in Tamarindo, we decided that we had had enough of our rashes and decided to head down to Jaco - supposedly the surf capital of the country. I thought about heading down to Mal Pais and Santa Teresa, but Angela wanted to spend some time in Jaco, so I decided to save Mal Pais and Santa Teresa for next time.

Jaco was great. We stayed at Hotel Club Del Mar away from the hustle and bustle of Jaco. It was a bit isolated which was nice, on the southeastern end of Jaco, close to Playa Hermosa which had bigger waves for people who like the quicker, advanced waves of El Porto. (Quicksilver was sponsoring a surfing contest there btw while we were there. Sweet!). As soon as we arrived at the hotel, Angela went to take a nap and I walked over to the local surf board to rent a surfboard. Carton's was the name of the place. It turns out that Carton is a local shaper. I rented a 9-3, Carton's "classic longboard," as he put it. I met the shaper's brother, Warner. A nice fellow. For the next three and a half days, I surfed in the mornings when I woke up and in the evening for the evening glass-off. 2 hours each session. Man, it was SOOO GOOOOD. So good that I wanted to cry... So consistent and good shape for people who suck like me. Warm water, bikini (and a rashguard), board shorts, and more warm water. And the Carton board was so sweeet. It was real wide (I think 23") with an extreme rocker and pin tail. No pearling on this baby. It was heavier than Jane, but more stable and turned well. It definitely treated me well. I wanted to buy it! But resisted the temptation. (Now, I'm on the look out for a longer board. Maybe a 9-3 or 9-6. Boy O Boy, I hope I don't get it as bad as surfsister or Marlon.... :-\) By my 4th session in Jaco, I was paddling for the bigger shoulder to head high waves (as well as the smaller ones), and was successfully making the drop down the face. The first time I did this in Jaco, I was thought it was a freak accident. I was jumping for joy, of course. Then when I kept doing it repeatedly, I was speechless! I even tried to walk the board a little bit. Failed miserably but tried. Can you believe it? Of course, when I did get pummeled by a set wave, my bikini top (even under the rash guard) flung up to hang around my neck :-P. (I hope no one saw.) I was catching the smaller knee to waist high waves with no problems. No scaredy cat here no more!

I met a surfer from Manhatten Beach, Herb, who was also vacationing at the same resort. We surfed together each morning and evening for the rest of the trip. It was so nice to have someone to surf with since Angela couldn't always wake up.

I surfed Jaco for two and a half hours Sunday morning for the last time. Surfed til I couldn't stand up anymore. Caught so many waves, wave after wave. Ah.... There was only about 5 surfers out at this particular break so we each took turns. Man.. GOOD TIMES... This was the best time that I'd ever had surfing. THE BEST, hands down. I'm definitely coming back to this place. Maybe even later this year.

By the way, I got tons of mosquito bites. Even with the repellent. I probably got about 50 on my body. Yes, eaten alive. I didn't even realize that I had gotten bit so many times, since some of these bites didn't start itching until today. Also got stung multiple times on my legs and hands by something called Golden Thread in the water. They felt like little needle pricks. Weird.

Jazzed from my great surf sessions in Jaco, I even surfed Sunset this morning. But didn't have such a great session. I had SUCH great surf sessions in Costa Rica. The first waist to chest high wave that I paddled for, I pearled! What the heck, man! Is it Jane? Is it the wave? Is it me? Is it all of the above? And I just kept falling right off my board when I tried to catch the wave. A little push and I just slid right off - like I was laying on top of a giant bannana peel. I could really tell the difference between Jane and the Carton longboard that I rode yesterday morning - the weight, stability, the dimensions, ease of turning, ease of catching waves, etc... . I want the Carton longboard with the Costa Rican wave back! :-[

Okay, was that long enough? I might remember some more stuff later.

:-)

B-B-B-Brrrr

Yesterday, I surfed Sunset. Damn, it was COLD! My hands went into the water to paddle and the sensation was like little prickly needles. My friend told me that the water temp at was 49 degrees yesterday - the coldest it had been this year. I didn't catch too many waves and froze my ASS off yesterday. Sort of miserable. Mhm. Sort of, but happy to be in the water, I guess. Still haven't decided whether it was worth the paddle out or not. Probably not. :-
I leave for Costa Rica tonight! I hope I come back with plenty of stories and WARM water waves to talk about.

Peace out for now!

There she blows! San O....

Well, I woke up at 4:30am to get to Marlon's by 5am so that we could be in the water at San O by 6:30am. And we made it down to San O by 6:30 alright. All the way down to San Onofre, I had a hard time sitting still from the anticipation of riding Jane in the repeat of last Saturday's conditions at San O. And... the freakin' wind blew that bubble BIG TIME. WTF man! We got to Dogpatch and it was windy, choppy, bumpy, and cold. Unorganized pile of shiet waves - almost as bad as that day up at Zuma last weekend. Basically, shitty. Someone take me back to last Saturday's San O. Please? Pretty please?

We decided to go to Pipe's Cafe (OMG, SOOO GOOD and cheap! Only $5 for my ham scrambler :-P) in San Clemente for breakfast and come back. When we got back, it was cleaner, but still shitty. But since we had driven so far down, we decided to go in. BAD IDEA. BAD BAAAAD IDEA! First, it took me 20 minutes to paddle out. Second, when I paddled for waves, I couldn't catch them because they didn't have much juice. Third, it was hard for me to judge which swell was actually a wave and which was just the choppiness from the wind. Have I mentioned that it was shitty? I'm surprised that I didn't see any sharks to add to the shittiness. So after about 45 minutes, with numb hands and feet, I paddled in as the wind picked up even more. Man, cold and SO not fun. Have I mentioned that it was shitty? I'll never go out in those conditions again. :-[

So I got up at 4:30am for nothing. AGAIN. Now, I'm tired. At least, Marlon got his Dewey Weber Professional (sweet board btw). I hope it's better tomorrow, but I have a sinking feeling that it won't be much better. I can only hope...

Jane. Just Plain Jane.

Same routine - my alarm went off at 5:30am, I snoozed for 5 minutes, then called Marlon and Angela. Angela was off in dreamland as she didn't pick up. Marlon was concerned about the wind and stayed in bed. But I, the trooper that I am, got up and was out the door by 6:00 am to try to get to the beach early. And it was junk. Windy, choppy, disorganized pile of mess. I talked to Marvin, Gary, and Brian (who I met today) about the possibility of the surf getting better and it didn't look promising. So here I am, back at home. Got up at 5:30am for nothing again. I guess I should try to get to work early today since I was very late to work yesterday because of my morning surf session. Funny, every time I surf in the morning, I'm late to work. Every time I don't surf, I'm early. I find myself trying to come up with excuses to stay in the water longer to surf rather than facing my responsibilities of going to work. This addiction is not going to be good for my career here. :-P

On the bright side, I caught some notable waves at Bay Street yesterday. Marlon came out and let me use his 9-0 beater board - Jane, he had named it. He said he named her Jane because it was so plain when he bought it. He had put some traction pads and a nose guard to spice it up abit, but it was still Plain Jane. And MAN, what a difference from my 8-6 Becker UFO to his 9-0 beater board. I caught and stood up on the very first wave that I paddled for. That was the first for me. I usually need a couple of tries to warm up before I catch one on my Becker. And on the second wave that I paddled for, I tried to angle the board a bit like Anon had suggested a couple of posts back, and it worked! I didn't pearl, but went down the wave at an angle. (I would surely have pearled on my Becker. I know because I had tried it with my Becker a couple of sessions ago. Or maybe it was just the waves cooperating better?) I have to work on going down the line though. I caught a few more good ones during the session - woohoo! And his beater board was bit narrower so I could keep it held under my arm. The board didn't even hurt my head like my Becker usually did when I carried it on top of my head because it was so light. And then 7:45 rolled around and I really had to get out of the water. No more fun for beachgirl on this fine morning. BOOOOOO! Needless to say, I was about 45 minutes late to work. :-\ (Late for a meeting with my boss too. And I had no excuses. If anyone has any creative excuses besides car trouble, oversleeping, traffic, and hospital emergency, please let me know.)

Yes, Jane treated me well yesterday. So, em..umm... guess what.... Mhm. I bought Jane from Marlon for two hundies. That would be his down payment for a new Dewey Webber that he has been eyeing since last week when we went boardshopping after our session in San O. I told myself that I'll get really good while riding Jane, then splurge on a brand new longboard - probably next year. I won't go nuts and start a board collection like someone I know. ;-) I'll just stick with Jane for now. I've retired my Becker for the time being.

Off to San O tomorrow! WOOHOO!

Someone Turn On the WATER please!

Where did all the waves go? I went out to dinner last night with Angela so I didn't even hear the alarm go off at 530am this morning. I don't even remember shutting it off. TWICE! (I have 2 alarms that go off at 10 minute intervals. And if I don't shut it off, they continue to ring every 5 minutes). Angela called and woke me up this time, and I rushed to Bay Street with my surfboard. Flat as in Surfsister's YO Mama So Flat flat. Man, that's 3 mornings without surfing! So, nothing much to talk about except that I'm going to try one of Marlon's 9-0 next time to see if it makes a big difference in my surfing and catching waves. If so, maybe I'll go look for a beater 9-0 board...

Crappidy Crap Crap waves!

Sunday April 3, 2004

After my GRRRREAT day at San O, since Sunday was supposed to have some wind, we decided to surf up here. We got up early and ended up at Zuma. And boy, it was CRAPPIDY CRAP CRAP waves. Nevertheless, Angela and I decided to go in and get wet. But man, it was the worst conditions I'd ever been in to surf. Remember the scene in the Perfect Storm where the boat is just teetering in the middle of the waves in the midst of the storm? Well, I felt like I was in that water. The waves were disorganized, it was windy, waves were choppy, plus the water was FREEZING! I couldn't feel my hands and feet after 20 minutes in the water. But I decided to buck up and take it. And not surprisingly, I didn't catch anything. NADA! I longed for the long, lovely rides under the warm sun in San O again. So I've already decided, I'm going down to San O again next weekend. Both days if I can and Mother Nature cooperates.


Monday April 4, 2004

Man, today was useless. My alarm went off at 5:30am, I called Angela and Marlon, pulled on my bikini and wetsuit and was out the door by 6am. Stoked to be surfing this morning... or so I thought. We went to Venice Pier and it was just CRAPPIDY CRAP CRAP waves AGAIN. Completely blown out. The wind was blowing at about 12 knots, I would say. And the waves were choppy and disorganized. So I got up early for nothing once again. I hate it when that happens. I met Johnny (a dude that I met down at San O on saturday) who was at Venice Pier too. It was funny - he and his friends were swearing at how the waves were "so shitty". So much rage.. hahaha! They probably were bitter that they had gotten up at 5 in the morning and didn't even surf. Now, it's not even 9pm and I'm already tired. I hope it's better tomorrow.

Btw, I went to ZJ tonight to buy some earplugs and Garrett at the shop said that Timmy Curran and Rob Machado was out surfing by Tower 26 in Santa Monica around 8:30am.... I wish I had seen that.

WOO-HOO at San O~!

Today was my best day surfing EVER! Gen, Danny, Marlon, and I piled into Marlon's truck and left LA at 5:30. Made it to San O in just over an hour! (hehe, speed demon Marlon was.) We hit the water at San O by 6:40am. Not bad. Not as early as we wanted to, but still not bad.

I was so stoked today. I had 2 sessions this morning. We went in for a couple of hours, took a break for some snacks, then I went in again after a short nap. And my second session was a lot better than my first. The others decided to keep napping so I went in on my own. Marlon followed about half an hour later. But while I was on my own on the water, I caught 2 waves, popped up on my feet, and rode it in all the way almost to the rocks (woohoo!)! My first wave was the most memorable: I saw the set coming in, and I decided to skip the first one since everyone is usually on the first one that rolls in in a set. I actually waited for the 3rd one since the second one still had a lot of people paddling for it. After everyone else had taken the wave in, I was the only one on this particular wave. It was perfect! Not too big, and I knew that I would catch it. So I turned the board, started paddling slow, then faster and faster (I felt like I had propellers for arms because I was paddling so fast to try to catch the wave). And through it all, I'm thinking, "don't pearl, don't pearl." So when I saw the wave right behind me, I arched my back really far up, hoping that my wave would take me, and it did! I CAUGHT it, stood up, and just rode it all the way in! Marlon saw it and was yelling "Woohoo!" :-D. After that, I repeated it a few more times. What a feeling.... But one thing that puzzles me though. I was watching the other surfers on their long boards and they were laying on their boards flat when they were catching the waves. Does that mean that I should be further back on my board so that I don't have to arch my back so hard? But when I've done that in the past, I ended up missing the wave all together. I'm perplexed... Maybe I just need to get a better feel for my board? Eh, maybe I'll figure it out eventually. My next challenge is to figure out what to do when I want to turn around. Or maybe I need to learn to turn or go down the line. I just need to learn to be better. Period.

I caught a lot of waves and had relatively long rides today. Marlon was proud of me, he said. hehehe... It's nice to have a good surfer push me to be a better surfer. And I think I improved a lot today. Either that, or the waves were very cooperative. I'd like to think it was the former rather than the latter...

We're off to Zuma tomorrow. My kiting crew will be up there so I'm hoping that Zuma will be small and cooperative for surfing in the morning and blowing in the afternoon. I'm sure it won't be nearly as good at San Onofre. But hopefully, what I learned today will stay with me for tomorrow's session.

San-O, San-O, it's off to San-O we go!

I can't WAIT til tomorrow. We're leaving for San Onofre at 5am tomorrow morning. That means that I need wake up at 4:30 to be at Marlon's before 5. Oh, and by the way, he bought another board. I've known Marlon for only about 3 weeks and he's bought 2 boards in the time that I've known him. At this rate, he'll hit 100 boards in his collection by next year! Mm-hm. Well, at least he's passionate about it. So that's good, I guess.

It's been a full 5 days without surfing. Man, I still suck so bad. Why is it that I surf so hot in my dreams but suck so bad in real life? Maybe if I dream REALLY hard tonight I'll be better at surfing.

I hope it's good at San O tomorrow... I'll dream about surfing tonight.

Zzzz....