|
[from the Rad mailbox - from Evan, a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara] Surf's been small, compared to what I dreamed of. Of the 7 days I surfed so far, only 3 have been shoulder-high or better. But the shape of the wave is still amazing. Playa Grande was super-hollow, not very fast. Avellanes was similar: tube-city. A break called Guillones was similar to Tressels in San Clemente, with a super-long rippable wave. Marvella had another good wave: head-high powerful surf when there was nothing else out there. Got the sickest left there. Tomorrow is my last day of surf camp. We'll surf Witch's and Ollies! Pray for surf! Also surfed Playa Negra when it was small and shallow. Got 3 dings in my board that day. They call it Playa Negra because you can see the sharp, black lava-rock reef below. Gnarly. ••• continued ••• Found a place to stay in Tamarindo i that has all the essentials (bed, shower, krapper) for 11 bucks a night! Pura vida, baby! Otherwise, prices have been decent: 5 bucks for a decent meal. I'm told, here in Tamarindo, prices are double everywhere else in the country. As for the ticas (ooh-la-la), I been talking to a few, but haven't got any closer. Surf conditions are perfect in the morning (offshore or glassy). Surf tours leave between 5:30 and 8:30 am, in concert with 4-6 hour surfing days. Leaves little time to party. Lots of hot babes, though. Everybody is friendly. Maybe tomorrow I'll do a little partying, since no more surf tours. Only thing that suks about Costa Rica is this rash I have. It's spreading all over my body. At first I just had this little rash on my arm. So I ignored it. Then it started spreading, and I was like, uh, okay, maybe I'm having an allergic reaction to something. The next day it was on my other arm. Now it's on my stomach and spreading to my thigh. Maybe I was stung by a "agua mala" (jelly fish). Not cool. Not pura vida, baby. Oh my god, I am having such fun speaking Spanish. They have been teaching me all these dirty slang words. All this time and effort I spent learning Spanish suddenly seems worth it. UPDATE: I'm a changed man. Costa Rica changes you. An hour from Playa Coco lies the best shaped waves I've ever surfed. Trip began 5:30, with bloodshot eyes and not enough sleep. Threw down some scrambled eggs, bacon & toast on the way to Playa Coco. Bought some coconuts after we arrived and had the tastiest coconut milk in the world. Took a boat-ride at 7AM up the Guanacaste coast through an un-touched national park. Being low tide, we headed up to Olies. Pulled into a cove with sheer cliffs and sparse vegetation. In the The rivermouth had the most perfect waves I've ever seen. Every one was identical to the wave before it, like they were being made by a machine .. hollow, fast, fun as hell. Ollies rules. When the tide rose, the waves stopped breaking. So we left for Witch's: another epic wave. Only this one wasn't a point, but rather beach break with 10 peaks. Waves up & down the coast, far as the eye could see. Off-shores were pretty strong. Again, perfect surfing conditions. Simply amazing. Waves were should-high, with an occasional head-high set. Funniest part of Witch's was when we had to leave and were paddling out to the boat. The boat came closer to where the waves were breaking so our tired arms didn't have to paddle so hard. I pulled myself into the boat with a sigh of exhaustion. Looking out to sea, I see a 6-foot bomb heading toward us. So I jumped out of the boat and gave it all I had to catch the wave. I caught this six-foot bomb almost at the boat. Good times. Everyone was silent most of the boat ride back. The waves were sooo epic and we were so surfed-out that we couldn't even talk. But enough of this 11-dollar-a-night thing. I need some AC to heal this rash, and do some reading to make up for the classes I'm missing in the states. I was planning to go to Croatia this summer for language school, but I'm not so sure any more. I am really shaken up. My perspective has changed. I recommend you take the opportunity next chance you get to hop on a jet & b-line it down here to Costa Rica. This is the most relaxed I've felt in a long time. "Pura Vida" (pure life) is an understatement of life here. See you all soon. A ton of photos when I get back. E-dawg PS - Hope you all can attend my lecture next month at UCSB about the "fallacy of one diet fits all approach to nutrition" and metabolic Google search for query "surf costa rica" [Comments closed] |
|