Small Clean and Fun

The past several high tides have been a mixed bag of challenging waves at Langosta to closeouts at Casitas.  Laura and I have sessioned the estuary at Tamarindo at low tide a couple of times and was epic by my standards.  But today was the day of small, clean and fun waves.  Brad and I surfed Casitas which involved beautiful A frame waves which peeled in both directions. It was a fun filled afternoon of backhand attacks followed by forehand chasers.  It was truly an epic session.  The afternoon session involved Laura and I at the estuary during low tide and they were really fun waves.  The lefts were steeper, but the rights held their own and all in all an epic session as well.  Laura impressed me as she is getting that determination in her eyes and catching a lot of waves.

For those who do not know, waves have different shapes.  There are A frames, left handers, right handers and closeouts.  A right hand wave breaks to the right a left to the left.  When I say left you have to pretend you are in the water looking at the beach.  An A frame is a wave with a peak that peels in both directions which is great especially if there is more than one person on a wave because one person can go one way and the other person the other way.

Today a couple of neat and funny things happened.  Brad and I watched a dog that swam across the estuary to be with her owner.  The estuary can have a pretty strong current at times and can seem like you are never going to reach the other end so watching a dog doing this was impressive.  The dog also would try to swim out to the waves with the owner until a big set would come in and make her turn around.  Before we crossed the estuary, the boat guys asked us if we want a ride across the estuary, which costs about 1$, but I declined to which the guy responded, "there are crocodiles, and sharks, stingrays, oh and snakes".  Needless to say I am here writing this with a dollar still in my pocket and all limbs attached.

Over the last couple of days it has been eat, surf, eat, nap, surf, eat, sleep and repeat.  This is what I was looking forward to.  If I do this enough I think I could reverse my grey hairs.  On Thursday, Laura and I ventured to a Tamarindo institution the Taco Stop for a taco an some chips and guacamole which Laura raves about the guac and rightfully so.  It is a must when in town.  Last night after I decided to not surf even though I took my board all the way to the beach, which I thought was an impossibility the four of us went to Witches Rock Surf Camp for some happy hour.  If one does venture to this side of the world you have to eat the nachos as big as your ass accompanied with a few cold Imperials.  Other than that we have been eating in, mostly scrambles for breakfast,  grilled cheese for lunch, pasta or rice for dinner.  I am managing to have thirds at dinner.  The hunger that is built during the day is unbelievable.

On a random note my hair has decided to go it alone.  It has a mind of its own and though I have generations of straight hair in my family it seems to be doing its on thing.  Only time will tell what will happen.

Tomorrow the four of us are off to Avellanas, a beach a couple of km away.  It is Brad and Ashley's last day and we thought we would try something different.  It is an exposed beach break so it should be fun.  The village, if you can call it that, has a couple cabinas, a beach front restaurant and that is about that.  Lola's is the beach front restaurant which was named after Lola the pig.  This pig recently passed away and was about the size of a picnic table.  We will see if the menu has changed, pork chops anyone!

03-27-10

Lazy Days

Nothing to exotic happening here over the last couple of days.  Surf has been big and even too big for some spots.  People from the wedding are all gone as of today.  We have been surfing twice a day and trying different spots.  Brian (the groom) and I had are last dawn session this morning at Pico Pequeno in Tamarindo before they left.  Good waves have been had.  Laura has had some good rides and I am doing my taxes.  I thought I would make this more of a photo session then update because as we all know photos speak a thousand words.

Enjoy!!

Laura doing her thing

Lea and Laura

Nice shot from Laura

Brian taking a right hander at the south end of Tamarindo

The sunsets are like this almost every day

Me at the end of Pico Pequeno

Brad and Laura in the kitchen

What's wrong with this picture

Doing taxes 

Supervising my taxes

03-24-10

Offshore is the new offshore

It's like black is the new black.  Onshore is supposed to be the new offshore but I disagree.  For those that don't know, offshore winds hold waves up and give them their lovely curves.  Onshore pushes the waves to the beach and causes more closeouts and the ocean gets hectic.  Onshore is fun when it is a light onshore breeze that can create fun sections on a wave, but once it gets windy and you are not surfing a point break or reef you are going to be dealing with a mess.

I bring this up because if onshore is the new offshore then why have all the good days of surfing that I have had been offshore.  I scored Langosta again last night.  Brad and I had our own wave for an hour until the crowd saw we were in the place to be.  Very fun wave and another epic session.  Full day of surf and in bed by 9:30pm

This morning was also a beauty offshore morning.  We paddled across the estuary (no crocs) to Casitas.  The swell has gotten bigger and nice waves coming through.  It was busy but shifting peaks so our group of five got our pick of waves which were mostly left handers.  One barrel was had, not by me, but it brings pleasure to see
someone get shacked.

So it is Monday afternoon and we are off to find some of this big swell that has arrived.

03-22-10

The Meaning of Epic

I was going to start with a follow up of the past few days but I just got back from an Epic surf. Epic to me has a wide range. Small clean and fun can be epic. Heavy and fast can be epic as well. It can be a punchy one hit wonder or smooth open face. As long as I have a smile on my face it is epic. I basically have two ratings for surf. Epic and bush or bush league. Bush is what I have been dealing with over the last couple of days until this dawn session. I woke up at 5:25, no other soul made it with me and I strolled down the road to Langosta, where I passed a monkey on the road and a baby and momma up in the trees, picturesque kinda morning. I arrived at Langosta about a 20min walk where it was light to no wind and peeling waves off the rocks. I put in two hours of epic surf taking all the waves I wanted and me and my fish laid down some turns. Today was my first day of proper surf and epic it was.

Other than todays surf we had the booze cruise on Friday, which was exactly how it sounds, fun. The crew counted about 75 people and our group was 29 of them. Gorgeous day out and tons of wind. I tested out the camera and it takes great shots and videos. On the sail back from the snorkel spot it was Guaro and Fresca a delicious mix which the locals call ``gringo killer.`` Shots were had the sunset was beautiful and nobody drowned so all in all it was a great afternoon.

Saturday was beach day at noon on the south end of Playa Grande. The wave there is call La casita or casitas. In the past I have had great waves there and it is less crowded then the main break in Tamarindo. Caught a couple good ones and it looked like it was going to get better but it never did. I would give it a semi-bush rating.

We finally ate dinner in last night. Laura made pasta with sausage, tomato sauce, mushrooms and onions. Brad, Ash, Brian, Lea and ourselves chowed down and played crib, Laura and I dominated.

As a side note I am new to the blog world. So I apologize for the crappy layout and I am working on it.

Off on the hunt for more waves.

LK Comments - so, I finally had some of my best waves yesterday. Ahhh, it felt great! I also crossed the estuary without swearing, crying or getting frustrated!

The booze cruise was a ton of fun. I didn`t see any turtles or snakes this time (thank god) but there was a puffer fish and two people on the way back caught large tuna.

Finito for now.

03-21-10

Weddings, Surfing and Sun

It has been a busy five days. Through all of it I have scored one decent session of surf but it is soon all going to change. Tuesday morning low tide river mouth was firing some rights. Other than that I have been picking waves between closeouts. Laura is back at it and we will soon be stepping it up. Saturday is Avellanas and Sunday is Witches and Ollies with the boys.

The wedding stuff was a lot of fun. Rehearsal dinner was a beautiful sunset dinner. The wedding was meant to be on the beach but high tide was really high so we were in the garden of the Diria Hotel. Lots of people tapped out after the dinner and dance due to the full day of sun and heat. Our last major activity as a group is the sunset sail/snorkel/booze cruise. There are 29 of us.

03-19-10

We made it!!!

7am at the Toronto Airport over packed and too many people scrambling to get to their week long oasis over and done with we arrived. Having over sized luggage we were able to jump the line and talk to who seemed to be a pleasant Air Canada attendant. I was wrong.

Laura - "Can we have a plastic bag to cover our backpacks"

AC Lady - "No. Bags for strollers only. You only have one way ticket"

Dan - "We have tickets to leave from Nicaragua to Hong Kong"

AC Lady - "Do you have printer, I call manager"

This is not the conversation one wants to have when you are about to board a plane for a long trip. I was able to go into a room and print off a ticket. She called her manager again, then with some hesitation, let us go. Hugs and kisses to the family and we were off.

San Jose flight to Tamarindo on a 12 seater is always exciting. They made us take our boards out of the bags which then meant I had to fess up I had two boards. They force you to weigh everything that is going on the plane; us, boards, backpacks. Everything made it on...just have to pay to make it happen.

Got to surf the tail end of the high tide. Took the 5'8 fish out. Fun waves but I feel rusty.

Other than being in 28 degree water the best part of being here is the smell in the air.

Brad and Ashley arrived beers in hand and smiles on face. Should be a fun two weeks.

After a full day of travel there was warm water surfed and cold beer drank.

LK Comments: so great to be back...a few things I missed about Costa:

- the dust lightly covering our sticky faces as we walk to the beach

- jumping into the ocean without a goosebump present

- shelved eggs and milk

- "TAXI", "TAXI"

My mission for today is to get my hands on some amazing empanadas. Yummmm

03-15-10