Robert August, runs and more

During my trip to Costa Rica last week, I had the pleasure of meeting surfing legend Robert August again. I had met him (and his daughter) several years ago at a local surf shop. In summer 2009, I had read in the local newspaper that he would be in town and convinced my surfing sistah Robin to go with me to meet him. At the time, Robin and I had our picture taken with him and met his young daughter who was just learning to surf. We knew that we would probably meet him again in Costa Rica since the surf hotel we were staying in frequently had him give presentations. Our meeting with him, though, came a little sooner when we bumped in to his now teenaged daughter ready to shower the saltwater and sand off of herself. Robin recognized her and spoke to her and, about that time, Robert came over to get his daughter.  We exchanged small talk; mostly Robin and he did since I was showering off, but it is always good to run into a surfing legend when you are at a surf camp.

At one of his presentations, he discussed how to make a board. We (about eight of us staying at the hotel) followed him into his small shop and watched him take the core/blank and use various tools to measure, cut and shave the board to spec. He was making a performance short board/fish hybrid board. I found it interesting to hear about the importance of the lighting in the shop and why he had it set at waist level (so there are not shadows on the board when he works).  He answered questions and discussed the materials he uses, etc. He's now living most of the time in Costa Rica with his kids and his daughter has recently got hooked on surfing. In fact, he says, she goes surfing at the beach by Witch's Rock surf hotel just about every day after school. How much fun that would be!

I've been back in Texas for over a week now, but I'm sad to say that I haven't been surfing yet. I'm anxious to try out my new pop up and other board skills, but either the surf has been crappy or I've had scheduling conflict. I was out of town this weekend. I ran the half marathon distance in the San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Marathon. It was unusually warm for November (lows in the 60s and highs in the upper 70s and low 80s). I generally like warm weather, but I think I got a little dehydrated during this run. I was hoping to set a pr and finish in 1:55, but I didn't. I finished in 2:01. I think I need a little more practice, and I definitely needed to drink more water. All in all, though, it was a fun day. I looked at the gtowsurf.com webcam and, while it looked like there were waves at the 43rd street jetty, they looked messy and sloppy. I probably would have gone down anyway, but who knows? I NEED SOME NICE CLEAN WAVES TO PRACTICE MY POP-UP! But, I guess I'll take what I can get. Maybe next weekend...

Walking on sunshine

I've been lucky enough lately to pick some of my surfing spots! Since starting to surf, I've surfed in Nicaragua; the east coast/Atlantic side of Florida (Amelia Island to be exact); Miami, Florida; and, this week, Tamarindo, Costa Rica. In last week's post, I wrote about five places I would love to surf and my first spot was Costa Rica. My surfing pal Robin planned the trip through a recommendation from a friend of a friend of mine based on a few recommendations from a friend of hers. Pshewww! That's confusing. Anyway, we traveled to a place called Witch's Rock Surf Camp. It's called a camp because lessons are provided, but, basically, it's a small hotel that rents boards and provides surf instruction to those wanting to take lessons. 

Tamarindo is a sleepy coastal town about an hours' drive from Liberia, which is where the airport is located. Costa Rica is a poor country. However, many say traveling in Costa Rica is much safer than many of the other Central American countries because the infrastructure is more stable. I'm not quite sure I believe it, although I didn't see anything   bad that would make me think otherwise. It's just that things are a bit rustic. Tamarindo is definitely a Surfer's paradise though. The beach at Witch's Rock was incredible, with a shore break that consistently provided some sort of wave action, albeit sometimes small depending on the tide. During high tide and, at least once during low tide, the beach filled with surfers of all abilities ready to catch some pretty waves. The surfing was incredible to watch and be a part of. 

Robin signed us up for intermediate lessons, which was probably a little more advanced than what we probably needed. I felt incredibly uneasy the first few days. It had nothing to do with our resort nor the waves. It was a feeling I've only had a few times in my life; something unexplainable, but something to which I needed to respond. Our first lesson were in the waves out front of the hotel. We we're to meet up with Andre at 8:30. He was quite late, and not very apologetic about it. He was also not very informative. I caught quite a bit of whitewater though and, although I got a little banged up by the board when I I was trying to get out (I missed the rip I rely on inG-town). I had a hard time reading the sets.

Day two included a trip to another surf point (will have to look up the name later) with an instructor named Paco. Ross, also from Houston, and Pedro, from Brazil, joined Robin and me. The uneasy feeling from day one returned at a magnified level. It didn't help that the waves at the other beach looked huge from the shore. I hesitated even going out, which is unusual for me. I'm not easily intimidated, at least I don't think that I am, but I couldn't shake the bad feeling I had about being there at that beach on that day. I initially had a hard time getting out, and after several attempts and getting banged up badly by the board, I finally made it to the outside. However, one big wave later and I decided that my surfing there was complete. Too bad! I'm definitely going to return to that beach some day. At least Robin got a good ride! I saw her whiz by on a huge wave (size is relative, but for us, it was huge). 

By day three, I felt better. I awoke to a bright day. Not sure what had happened to my confidence and mental toughness, but I was glad it had returned. In fact, I had felt alive better later in the evening on day two. I even managed to feel the drop during a couple of my evening rides. However, day three would be my day. The camp had decided that Robin and I needed to surf the waves in front of the hotel. (I sure hope that she wasn't relegated to the hotel break because of me.) As it turns out, day three turned out well for both of us. Our surf instructor was Andres. Note: the "s" at the end of the name reassured us that we weren't going to have the same instructor as day one. Thank goodness! Andres was an incredible instructor. He taught me a new way to pop up and a new way to paddle. He mentioned that he had seen me surf and that one of my biggest problems was looking down at the board instead of looking out. He also mentioned that I might want to reconsider the way I pop up. I listened and followed what he said. Robin did the same. I saw her do the most incredible pop up, and both of us took big waves (again, size is relative, but they were big for us).  It was an incredible day, and I hope I can translate what I learned to my home break!

All good things must end. I'm writing this from the airplane on our way home. We were scheduled to surf early this morning, but neither Robin nor I felt that we really had enough time before our shuttle ride back to Liberia. I'm confident that we will be returning to Tamarindo. 

Note: The photo was on the wall of my hotel room in Tamarindo. Witch's Rock hotel was definitely created for sufers!

Top 5 destination beaches

G-town surf this weekend was a bust! Friday waves flattened after the passing of a cold front late Thursday/ early Friday. I probably could have gone SUPing (Stand-Up Paddleboarding) with Brian, but it was partly cloudy and chilly, meaning that it wasn't worth it to me. (3/2 wetsuits will probably be needed until next spring.) I was hoping that the Swell Info forecasts were correct and that choppy, small waves would be possible today(Sunday). However, they were wrong. The north winds, which shifted to the east late Saturday, flattened my hopes. In my Sunday morning update from Surfer Dude Brian, I discovered that he found some small, manageable waves to surf late Saturday afternoon. However, I must admit that the wavecam did not do them justice, because when I went to the page in the afternoon, the waves looked unsurfable.  So, sadly, I didn't get to surf this weekend, which is really too bad since the weather was gorgeous. Chilly definitely; but still gorgeous. And, because it was so beautiful, I ran and biked. I was about to say that I ran and biked instead of surfing, but I can't really say that since running and cycling are equally part of my regular weekend routine. I'm also bummed a little that I didn't get to surf because very soon I will be traveling to Central America for Witch's Rock Surf Camp. I'm very excited since I will be in Tamarindo, which is one of the top 10 surfing destinations on many of surfing lists, and definitely on mine since I took up surfing 3 1/2 years ago. Thinking about my upcoming trip, I decided to list five places I wouldn't mind surfing some day.


1.) Tamarindo, Costa Rico -- I decided to list this first since, although I will be there soon, I still haven't officially surfed there, which means it should stay on my list. Tamarindo, Costa Rica definitely makes the top 10 lists for many surfers and has shown up as #5 and #6 on two lists I just googled. I'm really looking forward to this trip, and I hope to improve my surfing while I'm there. However, I'm not sure location is my real problem just yet. I need a lot of work on form.

2.) Canary Islands/Madeira Island -- These two locations just sound like fun. The Canary Islands made both of the top 10 lists I just googled, but Madeira Island did not. I realize the Canary Islands are part of Spain, while Madeira Island is Portuguese, but they are very close to one another geographically. Reports about Madeira Island say it is a very difficult location to surf, which means I would probably only ever watch the surfers. But, my oh my, what fun!!!

3.) Gold Coast, Australia -- I have had a couple of friends travel to Australia and New Zealand lately and post wonderful surf reports and photos. Australia has always been a placed I wanted to go. To get to surf there would be incredible too.

4.) Huntington Beach, California -- I've been to California a couple of times, but have never surfed there. It made some of the lists I looked at as one of the top 10 surfing destinations. I may get the opportunity to surf there in February if I participate in the Surf City Marathon/Half-Marathon. I haven't registered yet, but I'm seriously considering it. The medal for participating is a surfboard. I already have one friend who has registered for it, and I think I might have been the driving force for him to register. So, I'm feeling a little obligated to run it.

5.) Jeffrey Bays, South Africa -- I had a hard time deciding between this beach and any of the beaches in Hawaii. After all, who wouldn't want to travel to Hawaii. However, South Africa has been on my mind lately since I read a book about waves and surfing earlier this year. Recently, I saw a person's photos of the place, and the waves looked nice; however, the photos I saw were thumbnail size, so I had to do some more investigation for larger photos. In the photos I found on the Internet, South Africa looks rustic, but beautiful.

Other notable beaches include Panama (yet another friend just returned from there with some beautiful photos) and Hawaii, of course (a good friend surfed there and gave it rave reviews). In Texas, I still need to make it to Surfside, Corpus Christi and South Padre. Wow! Will I ever fit them all in? Probably not. But, I can dream!

**photo is from a trip I took to Barbados this year. (Barbados would have made my list if I hadn't already traveled there.)