Tamarindo

The pavement is already warm as I walk barefoot down the road from my cabina to the water. Acrid smoke from a small brush and garbage fire floods my nostrils when I turn off onto the small path that leads down to the beach but is quickly blown away by the constant offshore breeze that makes this such a well known surf town. Two other surfers wait in the line-up and a third paddles out just behind me. Other than a small group further up the river mouth channel, it is nearly deserted on a Saturday morning.

Within thirty minutes the same sun I watched dip below the horizon last night rises over the hills and bleeds into the water before me, turning it instantly to brilliant gold. Along with the sun comes more surfers and we four quickly become ten. Several of us are fairly new surfers so there are plenty of waves to be had for those of us not enough in control of our boards to grab a clean ride down the line.

Other than a quick sunset session last night, this is the first time I’ve been out on my new board. I wandered around town visitng nearly every surf shop in Tamarindo before walking into Blue Trailz and walking back out with a new Bessel 6’3 swallow-tail. Board prices here are on par with what would be charged in North America, but by paying cash I got a bit of a deal for my board, fins, traction pad, and bag.

Out in the water I’m having somewhat of a rough go. The pop-up is happening, but as was an issue in the past, I’m not throwing my front foot far enough forward and rather than planing across the water I’m digging my back end in and effectively putting on the brakes and sinking. Desipite feeling as though my surfing has taken a giant step backwards I’m confident that by the end of the trip I will be a much more competent surfer. By riding the same board every day I should quickly get used to how it performs and the rest is just practice.

Other than a periodic time checks to follow the schedule the tides lay out for me, I’ve abandoned my watch and am alternating between surfing, eating, and filling pages in my notebook. As I write this it’s just after 2pm and I’ve had two sessions today for about four hours in the water. Travel stresses and a late night before my flight have left me quite exhausted but after a nap and some food I’ll be ready to go another round with the ocean and hopefully I’ll spend less time getting pounded by waves and more time working on my ability to surf a right break. My only goal for this trip is to be able to execute a bottom turn and be able to pump my way down the line to pick up speed. Anything beyond that is a sheer bonus but I’m aiming for at least 15 days in the water so I guess we’ll see where that takes me.

One lesson learned thus far is that the pavement is extremely hot after a few hours under the sun and during my short walk out to the water for my mid-day session I burnt my feet so badly that they’ve both blistered on the bottom. I guess it’s flip flops to the beach until my city-soft feet heal up and get a little tougher.

I hope everyone back home is enjoying the snow. It hit 28°C before 8:00 this morning and has been getting up to 35°C under the intense mid-day sun.