http://www.jchawaii.com/surfboards.php?word=trx

It has been almost a year now and I was going through Surfline today to find a photo with John Carper and Aaron Chang with John wearing my shirt.  Pretty stoked that it wasn’t just a wash out design.

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/chang-and-koniakowsky-open-gallery-in-soloana-beach_45629/

Finally yesterday we had some swell.  Nothing epic, but enough to get excited about.  I actually was more amped than usual.  I made my usual calls of making plans to get a session in with the boys.  I made a call to Jamie M only to get sent right to his voicemail.  I knew he was thinking about getting a ticket to Mexico, but never heard a definite answer.  When he didnt answer his phone the night before I knew he had gone.  Damn him.  Joining Zack and Rich, I knew they were going to score some real barrels.

Brad took the place of Jamie and we dawn patrolled  with Rob Kelly.   Joe Reighn joined us to shoot some photos before he had to go to school.  It was cloudy with a little north wind bump, but it cleaned up fast and was super shallow.  It was nice to get some beach break mini barrels again.  Water was still a little chilly.  You didn’t need gloves, which is a huge plus with body movement.  It makes it easier just to catch waves and conserve some energy while paddling.

I have been under the weather since I have been home so I was only able to surf once.  I still managed to surf over two hours and catch a shit load of waves.  It was crowded first thing, but that just comes with this time of the year.  Everyone is finishing school and the water is warming up.  Luckily it was a southeast swell with northwest winds so it was super peaky and waves were breaking everywhere.  Spreads out the crowd.  Hopefully waves will start to come in more consistently.

photo.joe.reighn

Surf Shed

Mango Madness

Road to Paradise

It is walking distance to the beach!  Just down the road a about 100 yards sits a beautiful beach.  There are no waves here, but the reef is absolutely amazing.  I have snorkeled most reefs down the shoreline of Rincon and out front of my shed is probably the best.  Sea turtles surround the reefs and can be seen with almost every swim.  People that have not experienced swimming with sea turtles are really missing out.  It is a wonderful thing.  I have gone out for a swim that lasted up to two hours.  There is much to see in the underwater life.

Photos don't compare

Wear a helmet surfing groms!

Urchin the size of your HEAD..wear booties too!

When the waves are good the shed is not too far from them.  When it is small, it is a mission.  This is talking about without a car.  I can easily walk the beach and be to Tres Palms in about ten minutes.  Since Tres needs to be big to break I have to keep walking about another five minutes to Dogmans and just a little farther to Marias.  If I wanted to I could make it to Domes, but haven’t made that journey yet.  I can usually find a ride because everyone surfs!

Right handers everywhere!

continued..

Now at this time the partying had mellowed out and it was all about the surf and relaxation.  We had a bunch of fun little swells with minor crowds because it was on the windy side.  When I say on the windy side, I mean 5 mph with a little side chop.  You can get pretty spoiled here with all world class surf, but a little wind in New Jersey would be epic so we were always out there.  Now funds were getting really low and I made the decision to sell my only board, that was working insane.  There wasn’t much for swell in the forecast so I thought hell with it, I need to eat.  I sold it to a local that had been hanging with us for a lot of our trip.  Carlito is from San Juan who moved to Rincon to get in the surf scene with his friend David.  These kids are classic and good surfers.  Carlito had a piece of shit log that was so excited to have a white, light board and that was cool to see his so amped.  So I am officially in PR to surf and do not have a board.  I wasn’t stressing because I am still in PR and love everything else about it besides the surf.

At this point we lucked out with Stefen asking Warls to watch his house while Summer, the baby and him go to Florida for a couple days.  I was invited to join Warls so we could give Jacques and Cora some alone time at their apartment.  Stefen and Summer’s house is amazing and Warls and I appreciate to accommodations.  During our stay there I was able to talk Carlito into leting me use his old board until I figured out what I was going to do about a board.  He was all good with the idea so I was ready for the next swell.  A swell eventually came and it was really fun.  They called the waves to be pretty big, but came up a little shy.  It was still overhead, clean, warm, and sunny.  The reason for me staying here!!  We shot photos with Mark Buondonno.  It was hard to get good ones because this board, I shit you not, weighed about 50 lbs.  I managed to get a couple though and had a blast trying to make this board work.  I had a good turn on what should have been my wave in, but was too excited and needed one last wave.  DUMB.  I bashed my ankle on the board or reef.  It scraped it up a little and it started to swell instantly.  I was again out of the water with an injury.

No waves were in the forecast for about a week so my ankle was able to heal without any stressing on wanting to surf.  By this time I received word from Monica that she was coming back for a visit and was going to bring a board for me from home.  It was perfect to think she was coming back down to hang and was bringing one of my boards that I knew would work.  Thanks Mon, you’re the best!

Old boards suck

Old boards still suck

Now this vacation, in my mind, was to surf when there were waves and relax, relax, relax!  It has been over  a coupe years since I have been in the tropics.  I have been Jersey bound to long, which is not good for anyone’s mental, physical and emotional health. When you are from where I am you know exactly what I am talking about.  I’m sure this is expressed at anyone’s hometown if you are there to long at one time.  Anyway, this was my time for a break and I was taking full advantage of it.

It all started on the plane.  I actually slept the first flight to Orlando, but my friends started the party right away.  Drinks in hand as I wake up, so I didn’t want to miss out anymore and joined the journey.  We met up with the others in Orlando.  We met them on the plane and flew to Ft. Lauderdale in a heartbeat.  I think we were able to suck down one cocktail.  Now in Ft. Lauderdale it was late, but we were all pretty fired up.  The final flight to Aguadilla we met to guys on a one-way trip, but on the same mission at that point of the night as us.  Lets get drunk!  They were able to bring a bottle of  whiskey that they generously shared with all of us.  Thank god because Spirit over charges drinks on there flight.  By the time we arrived, getting yelled at more than once, all of us were feeling great and clueless to how the hell we were getting to where we needed to get.  Warls took charge and pretended he knew Spanish making up words to get a taxi driver.  It worked!  We were on our way.  I believe there was a party that night in Rincon because we couldn’t get a hold of Jacques or Cora, who have been here in PR since November.  They slept right through our calls, but thanks to Warls again we were able to find Stefan at 3:30 am (sorry brotha, but thanks again!) who took us to Jacques to finally crash out.  Well most of us.

We woke up to little Sienna wondering who the hell was all over her floor.  I’m pretty sure she loved all the attention though once we were up.  This is the daughter of Jacques and Cora, who is the most adorable person alive.  I think we had a day or so before we checked into our place in Corcega.  Quez and Cora were amazing to take all of to the beach and let us stay with them until we were settled in.  Good stuff!  The waves were small, but still really fun.  Warls and I spent the whole day in the water, which was amazing, so warm.  The sun attacked us, especially Matt, not putting any sunscreen on.  It was ok though because I would rather be red going on tan than pale.

The next couple days were classic.  The waves were super fun, trade winds, but sizable and ripable beyond belief.  Rights!  You were able to sneak a couple lefts, but if you wanted a good one, go right!  I guess because of it being a little windy, for here, there were no crowds.  We must have surfed 3 or 4 days with just our crew out at times.  There would be a little wobble, but you could just get around it and the next section would be a perfect bowl, then the next, and next and next.  A good vacation with waves always involves cold beer after the long surf, even before the surf too sometimes.  Either way we were on the beach enjoying life.  My friends and I are all good at making this happen.

In Corcega, our place was pretty amazing.  It was a little trendy, actually very trendy, but perfect.  We all fit comfortably and were ready to settle in.  Somehow we met a little Irish fella, Enda, I think the first night, and he was at our place hanging the very next day.  He joined us with most of outings along with Tina, Kim and Whitney, who joined us later also.  At this point it was full beach out party mode.  We did get our surfing in during the day, but ended with a good night out either at a bar, Jacques and Cora’s or at our rental.

This will definitely be trip that will not be forgotten.  I could not have asked for a better crew of people to come down here and have the time we experienced.  When it was time to leave, Warls extended his ticket, and we were all packed up to go.  He drove us all to the airport to find out our flight was cancelled.  We were pissed because it was late, but stoked because we had two more days in PR.  Who wouldn’t be excited to HAVE to stay in PR.  During this time we spent time at a hotel where I met Koren.  She was bartending the day we were supposed to leave.  We talked the whole day and I came up about my thoughts on wanting to stay.  She then mentioned she was going to have a room available a week later.  That was what I need to hear.  I cancelled my flight to stay down here with no return flight.  Was this a good decision?  I still don’t know, but I am enjoying every moment of it.  Money is short, but that’s life.  I have stressed over money most of my life so I might as well do it somewhere I love.