Still in Domincal

Day 11

I don´t remember the last time I pursued an activity every day for 10 straight days (except that trans-Sierra Nevada ski trip). But it´s the truth - we´ve surfed every day for 10 days now.

Which means I´ve made up for a lot of surfing. Let me explain: if I´m lucky, I only get to surf 1 day a week in Oregon. Here I´ve been surfing twice per day, which means every 2 days I make up for one month of shitty weather at home. So far, I´ve made up for October through February.

That´s a lot of surfing, but I´m definitely feeling it. The rash I got from day one will not heal, which means I have a nasty-looking open sore on the right side of my stomach. Besides that, my shoulders are totally worked, my left knee keeps rubbing across the top of my board, I´ve had to get out of the water twice for bleeding, I´ve bruised my ribs a few times and hit the bottom, I have a sinus infection from seawater continuously going through my nose, and in Playa Hermosa my board was actively trying to kill me (I went head over heals and the fins hit my right hand, which basically tried to cut my middle finger off. This also looks pretty gruesome).

Heh, does it get any better than this! No way!
The surf in Dominical has been good, at least in the evenings. The night before last we surfed after sunset in a total downpour - really wild! Dominical is a laid back little town, with a few good bars. The locals are friendly, and answer everything with ´Pura Vida!´. Each night we´ve had a group of 12 going out from the hostel, the usual mix of 6 different nationalities all united by a common tradition: drinking too much. But alcohol and surfing at 7 am doesn´t really mix, so I´ve tried to avoid it as much as possible. The rum and coke in a can is tempting, however...


Achilles and I are thinking of heading to the Caribbean coast now, since the surf looks better there. I´ve heard the Afro-Cuban sensibility there is great, and it would be fun to see the other side of the country.

The daily routine here is pretty rough, and consists of the following:

0630 Get up, have a quick snack, and get out to the water.
0700 Surf
0900 Breakfast and reading.
1100 Internet
1200 Lunch
1330 Read/Naptime
1500 Get ready to surf again.
1530 Surf until it´s totally dark.
1800 Eat again.
1900 Have a few drinks
2100 Bedtime

Off to lunch now.
Pura Vida,

Clayton

And on the 6th Day, Clayton Was Still Surfing

Day 6
Let me quickly sum up the last few days. Achilles and I left to go to Esterillos Este, which is about 20 km down the coast. Unfortunately, the bus driver didnt let us know when we passed it. So we decided to ditch the bus and had our first adventure. We stood on the side of the road for a while, realizing we were in the middle of nowhere, until a 'nice' guy in a truck pulled over and said he'd give us a ride. We backtracked and decided to go all the way back to Playa Hermosa, since Achilles saw some good waves from his side of the bus.

We found a sweet spot in Playa Hermosa, called Cabinas Rancho Grande. Hermosa kicks ass. A really long black sand beach with breaks all along. But you definitely have to have your game face on. Mistakes are not advisable - you pay for them. I got tubed for the first time before eating sand for lunch. I was recirculated and dragged up and down the beach, but it was worth every minute. We´ve been out every day early and at sunset, with lots of napping and reading in between.

Might head to Dominical next. To be continued....

Interesting Experiences and Surfboard Repair - Day 4

I've had some interesting experiences in Costa Rica so far:

1) Meeting a surf instructor from Nicaragua, who was cool as shit and told me repeatedly to buy the surfboard from my roommate: "Buen precio. $85 es un buen precio. Comprala! Si no comprala, voy a comprarla." It was hilarious.

2) Acquiring a 3rd generation hostel surfboard (it's been handed down from roommate to roommate).

3) Meeting an Italian named Achilles, who is also cool as shit and who thought it was hilarious that Americans drink drip coffee. I've also been hanging out with people from Vancouver, Washington, Oregon (Portland), and California - so almost the whole west coast is covered. We just need the Yukon and Alaska.

I've spent the last 3 days surfing all day. Today I went out 3 times and it was the best so far - decent sized waves that held their shape well (a lack of witch is a most consistent problem). After paddling today until my arms felt like they were going to fall off, I'm absolutely wrecked, bruised, beat up and tired, but having fun.

The whole summer I've been surfing on a longboard (9'2"), so getting to know a 6'6" is fun but difficult. It took me all of 10 minutes to figure out how to duck dive under waves, but I'm having a hell of a time surfing them. I had some good rides today, but nothing spectacular.

I did learn to patch surfboards after noticing several dings in the tail and a few elsewhere. Based on past experience, I was worried my board would have to sit in a repair shop for several days. Turns out there's this stuff called 'Sun Resin' or something like that - epoxy that dries in 5 minutes. So I just plugged the holes and got back in the water.

It's Friday in Jaco, so things are getting busy. There's a surf competition tomorrow. I'm getting the hell out of here. Time to go South.

Happy Thanksgiving - Day 3 in Costa Rica

Well, here I am.

Today was a big day. Got up and went on a long run down the beach while the sun was out (it's been cloudy here so far). Skipped breakfast except for a powerbar so I could get in the water quickly. The surf was ok, but not spectacular.

Good news is, one of my roomates has a surfboard for sale ($85). Perfect size, decent condition, and it shreds pretty well. I was surprised by how well it surfs.

Unfortunately, the surf doesn't look so hot for the next few days. That's too bad, but I might go climb Mt. Chirripo (2nd highest peak in Central America, 13,000+), since I've got nothing better to do. I don't feel like sitting around in Jaco waiting for the surf to pickup. I'm going to try a bit further south tomorrow (Playa Hermosa).

There are really only a few things to do in Jaco:
1) Surf.
2) Get really drunk.
3) Eat.
4) Sleep.

So if the surf was any good, I would just do 1, 3, and 4. But since it isn't, I might end up doing 2 and 4. I'll keep you posted on how this story develops.

Thank You for Surfing

Thank god I finally got in the water.

I'm currently in Jaco, in the central cost of Costa Rica. It took me about 2 days to get from my house to the beach, and I was understandably anxious, especially after spending the night in the Orlando airport (pretty nice airport though). I spent the first night in San Jose, which made me even more anxious since I had a standard case of first-day travel jitters.

"What the hell am I doing here?"

It seems like most good travel adventures begin in places like San Jose. Actually, it wasn't that bad. Kind of reminded me of Chile - really upscale for Central America.

I stayed at the Hostel Galileo. Good place, really friendly staff, near the bus stops, but not prime location for doing anything else. They told me not to go out after dark, which was advice I headed only because I'm too cheap to get mugged.

So I made it to Jaco today and got in the water by 12:30. I found a good place by the beach, $10/night, with surfboard rentals that don't seem particularly cheap (15$ for 24 hours). But they let me switch the board as many times as I want.

After getting my ass kicked for about 2 hours I decided I was going to have to buy a rash guard. 5 mil wetsuits in Oregon protect you pretty well from the surfboard, and after about 10 minutes of surfing without a shirt I had red welts on my chest and arms.

But I was stoked. No question about it. This kicks ass.

All the guidebooks and everyone I talked to said Jaco is a sh*thole, but it reminds me of Roatan (which is a very tolerable sh*thole). Plus, I spent 3 hours on surfline in the hostel in San Jose trying to figure out where the surf was best and it looked like Jaco or Hermosa (actually, the Caribbean side looked better for a day or so).

There were some shredders out there: guys pulling aireals and all sorts of crazy stuff. I felt like an idiot, but was having too much fun.

In case you ever want to go to Jaco, it's a dirty town with a black, pebbly beach. There are some good eats and good bars (I'll tell you more about that when I go out to one). There are also some good surf shops where you got talk to people who actually know what they're doing. Like I said, it reminds me of Roatan - a lot - just replace the Scuba Diving with sufing.

Pura Vida!
Clayton

Out of the Office: Gone Surfing

I'll be surfing in Costa Rica for the next 3 weeks. I should have email sporadically, and maybe even a phone connection, and I'll try to post some travel stories here.

Pura Vida!

Climbing at Smith Rock

Finally got to go climbing at Smith Rock. Actually, it was the first time I've climbed in 2.5 years after blowing out my shoulder in Jan. of '06. Not only that, but it was the first time I cleaned a sport climb as well (don't worry, I had a long time to think about it).

You couldn't hope for a better weekend - shorts, t-shirts, and sandals in November. We (Robin, David, Emily) camped out at the free campground, made a big fire, and met some local climbing bums, to whom I confided I would be joining their ranks shortly.

Check out more of the pictures here.