Chica Brava Rocks ... Again!!!

Chica Brava Surf Camp in Nicaragua is fantastic! I just got home last night from a fourth Chica Brava trip in San Juan del Sur. It was a great week, with a fabulous group of gals and four outstanding surf instructors. On the first night at the camp, we, the campers, were asked to introduce ourselves and to state our goals for the week. The goals ranged from just standing on a surfboard to experiencing the drop. My goal was to catch waves consistently on the outside. In Galveston, I sometimes start on the outside, but often end up on the inside catching waves after they break. Nicaragua waves form and break much more often than the ones in Galveston, so I was sure that this would be a great place to practice. And, practice I did!

I surfed five of six days. During those surf sessions, I surfed approximately three to four hours. Our instructors took us to the best surf breaks in Nicaragua including Hermosa and Remanso. On my unscheduled "rest" day, I took a trip to one of the best and well-known beaches in Nicaragua -- Popoyo. At Popoyo, I got to watch some of the best surfers around rip through the waves, including Chica Brava leader Ashley. Watching them surf strengthened my determination to become a better surfer.

I will have to admit that I didn't have one of my best surf weeks, and I didn't meet my surf goals. I felt oddly out of place and out of sync for the first four days. By Friday, I felt a little more comfortable and had a decent day. However, I still missed waves ... many of them. This was through no fault of the fantastic Chica Brava instructors that included Candace, Sarah, "Boom Boom," and Elsi. Each one spent time with me (and Robin) during the week so that we could get the best experience possible. I learned secrets to paddling (moving arms in an "S" rotation) and to board positioning. I was also given tips to learning to judge the waves. However, I think that right now, I'm in a "place" where the only way I can get better is to do it over and over again. While looking at the pics that were taken of me, I noticed a lot of things I did wrong. For one thing, although I never do this at my home break, it looks as though that while I was in Nicaragua, I spent a lot of time popping up by going to my knees. I had some slight bruising to the knees that I hadn't had in a very long time. I'm not sure why. I guess I could have been nervous about being at a different beach or fighting an unusually strong wind, but, nevertheless, I did get to my knees several times. I had a couple of good rides too. Friday was my favorite day, because I was feeling more like myself, but I just didn't have enough time that day to correct all I needed to correct, even though I was in the water for most of the four hours we spent at the beach that day.

Wave judgment and my pop-up will continue to be my main focus. I was hoping to make it to G-town to surf today, but I just didn't have the time. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for one evening this week as well as next Friday and Sunday. I MUST keep practicing. Thanks to Chica Brava for giving me great advice!

Below are just three photos of the fabulous trip I took. I will add more in the weeks to come.

A sign on the beach at Popoyo

A mural on a wall in San Juan del Sur

A brief meeting with two of the Chica Brava instructors! :-)

Another great start at Chica Brava

Well, I'm back! Nicaragua was calling my name, so, once again I joined some pals and returned to the rockin' Chica Brava Surf Camp. Despite the crowds at the airport because of Spring Break, my friend R and I (as well as three other gals going with us this time) managed to skate through rather easily even though right after we made it through security, the airport filled with what appeared to be hundreds of people. As usual, our flight was full and two of our gals were bumped from the flight even though they arrived to the airport approximately 10 minutes after us.
Nicaragua was still the same, thank goodness. Well, it might be a little more developed in some places. We opted to drive straight to the farm, rather than stop in Granada (sp?) for lunch and the market. We stopped in San Juan del Sur at the grocery store before driving up the fun and incredibly


bumpy driveway to the house. We're staying at the same house from my visit a couple of years ago, which has a beautiful view of San Juan del Sur. I'm staying in the upstairs bedroom this year, which offers a large windowed wall and makes me feel like I am sitting on top of the world.
We went on our first surf trip today. We went to Remanso Beach, which requires a ride through some of the countryside a short way out of town. Once at the end of the bumpy road, the waves were nice! Because it was an extremely windy day, the Chica Bravas decided that Remanso would be a good beach for the beginner surfers as well as us not-quite-intermediate-but-a-little-better-than-beginner surfers (those of us who had surfed before:-)because of the strong winds. Small mountains surround Remanso and the Chica Bravas thought it would be a little more protected. It probably was. The water was quite chilly. I chose to only wear my 1.8 m rashguard. Tomorrow, though, I will probably wear the rashguard over my springsuit.
I didn't have the most fabulous of surf days. I went to the outside, but struggled to catch a wave. I was able to catch only one or two, closer to shore. Oh well. I am excited to use the 8'4" Robert August "What I Ride" board from last year. I got some great advice from the fabulous Chica Candace, and I look forward to tomorrow and discovering what my surfing adventure holds for me!

(YIKES! I've posted this three times and it hasn't shown up. Every time I have to start over. I'm just sure my first draft was the best.)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Surf-less weekend and the Big Easy

I didn't get to surf this weekend! I was going to head down to G-town after work on Friday, but got held up with some extra duties. Although I was only an hour late leaving work, I still had several things to do before I left that evening for New Orleans for the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon. So, I rushed home to get my board and realized that I just had too much to do. The surf report from the king Dude was that the waves weren't that great anyway -- surf-able, but not great. That report made my decision not hurt so bad. I knew I wasn't going to make it home early enough today to surf, so now I'm just hoping for a good day this week and some fitness release time. I really should get out one day this week.

You never know what kind
creepy characters you
might see on Bourbon St.

Needless to say, in New Orleans, I wasn't near any waves. At least, I don't think I was. I was focused on running. I had one slight mishap though when I accidentally lost my iPad. I'm pretty sure I left it on a shelf in the bathroom at the New Orleans Louis Armstrong Airport. I had pulled the iPad out of my backpack because I thought it was getting crushed. And, then my phone dinged so I set it down on a shelf near the bathroom sinks to answer the text. I don't know for sure that I left it there. In fact, I keep thinking I had it in the cab, but I know for sure I set it on a shelf near the front of the bathroom. (It had been in my backpack the rest of the time.) At first I was very upset, but then I thought about it and realized that there was no use crying over the proverbial spilled milk. I'm a little worried about any information that might be on the iPad, but there's probably very little chance that the person who finds it will be trying to use the information. I'm sure they'll just want the machine for themselves. Today, I had a great run and finished 13.3 miles (my calculations according to my GPS as opposed to their 13.1 calculation) in 1.54 (we both had the same time), which is quite good for me. I was hoping for 1:50, but this was a personal record, so I can't really complain. I even came in 32 out of 724 female runners in my age group. I feel pretty good about it. I also feel like the running will help me with my surfing. I've had a couple of surfers tell me that they were amazed at how well I keep up while paddling, as well as how long I'm able to stay out. I attribute that to my other sports of cycling, running and spinning and the cardio workouts I get from them. I just hope that my good health continues, and that I'm able to stay active in all of my sports.

During the next few weeks, I have big plans to do a lot of surfing. I have a surf trip in my near future. In fact, I've probably mentioned it in my past posts. But, in case I didn't, I'm not going to ruin the surprise for anyone who might be reading this. I'll be writing about it soon enough. Let's just say, I'm going where the blue water always has nice waves.

A hui hou (good bye until we meet again)!