Saturday, March 22, 2008

3/22/08 Rodanthe

Sailed at Bob Rowlands' house with Knight, Contos, Perkins, and others. 6.2/102. Flat. WSW 20. Some nice jibes, small jumps, warmish 3/2 no boots.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

2/23-3/1/08 Ecuador




















Surf trip with Francis, Pat, Dan, Jeremy. Waves, Waves, Waves. Trip started trecherous for me with an icy midnight drive out to JFK. Got there early enough to wait for 6 hours at the airport. After a couple of beers I dozed on my board bag and played the Ace Combat X on the PSP (a recurring theme all week.) Flight to Panama was mostly spent dozing, I watched half of knocked up. Met Francis and Dan in Panama for out flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador.Our trip started off on the right foot when all of our luggage and boards made it to GYE. After Pat and Jeremy (who had both been there for a week) met us at the airport and loaded up the rental van we promptly ran into our first snag. The van caught on fire. We ended up on the side of the road in GYE drinking beer and waiting for an exchange from Hertz, which ended up with us having 2 vehicles instead of one. Some Dihatsu SUV and a Hyundai sedan.The first night Pat had us booked into some eco-lodge where all we did was crash, get up the next morning and leave, back to where Pat and Jeremy had been staying and had reserved us a "room." A cabina in a town called Las Tunas, on a desolate old promenade in front of a beach break with great head high waves.The next few days consisted of surfing in the AM, Jeremy documenting every move we made, lunch at some hole in the wall, chicken and rice or pizza, reading (The Time Travelers Wife) or PSP, and then surfing in the evening. The swell was increasing through the week with double overhead sets. We found a point break in a town called Las Entradas which could handle the swell size better than Las Tunas and where I caught the biggest waves of my life. One in particular had a face 4-6ft over my head.Bad news the next day, a clean up set broke my Jed Noll Beauty in half, never to be ridden again. Luckily Francis had an extra board that Pat had brought him from the dude in Norfolk, which I rode and then switched off with Dan. I loved Dan's 8' Rusty large short board. Might have to have a 2 board quiver now.The rest of the week was more of the same with extra beer drinking, custom board shorts, jewelry shopping, and more surfing. Nights were spent sweating under the mosquito netting with my first shower of the week being taken in the rain on the last night. I had caked on sun tan lotion on my face and head and my hair was matted down with whatever.The trip home was long but uneventful. Next surf trip will have more frills, some more creature comforts. But I say that every trip.