Witchsrocksurfcamp

witch's rock
Sunday, July 06, 2008

Yeah this is Witch's Rock Surf Camp. Where is Witch's Rock? In the middle of nowhere, drive a long way, then hike or jump in a boat, sooner or later, depending on the weather you'll find it. You'll know it when you see it. Perfect waves, nobody out, just you and ma nature getting your fill of waves on a Sunday afternoon. That was me today, a great way to spend the lord's day getting tons of rights and lefts off of el Burro at Roca Bruja.

Here's a pic of Ricardo today, driving the panga while sitting on the center console. It was a beautiful day today, awesome sunshine, clear light-blue water and white sand beaches, and of course surf. I love getting out on the boat. This boat is the one we keep in Playa Coco for boat trips to Witch's Rock and Ollie's Point, it's name is Candy Lu, named after my mom. Hey mom, guess what, there's a boat in Costa Rica named after you! My moms never been on the boat but I'm sure she is more than happy for her son who gets to take it surfing to Witch's Rock as often as possible. Today I went by Ricardo's house before the trip. His dad, Felipe, has built a 43 foot commercial fishing boat which is sitting on stilts and barrels next to his house. He wants to sell the boat, I'm considering how I could buy it. It would make a perfect surf tour vessel, it just needs a lot of work. Me, along with one other guy (ironically named Felipe as well, as if all fiberglass guys were named Felipe in Coco) built the Holly Gwee and the Candy Lu boats in Coco in my backyard. There is something awesome about building boats in your backyard. Ask anyone who came to WRSC Coco back in the day, I always had a boat on barrels. Remember the boat Myaru? Even that boat got pimped out in it's day. Anyways, back to Ricardo's dad and this boat, the vessel was built for long-lining, going as far as Ecuador. Commercial fishing has been heavily regulated in recent years and Felipe wants to sell the boat. All I can think about is "I could put beds there" and "I wonder if I could get wifi internet on this thing" and "wouldn't it be sick to jump from the top deck 15 feet, doing a backflip into the water", things like that. Pretty much where I'm at is this: I'm hooked on surfing and anything that will get me to great waves, and boats are part of this equation when you live in remote parts of the world. A boat like this makes multi-day excursions a reality. I'm ready to have that reality. Now I just need to find a way to pay for it, but its happening (somehow). Holly and the boys are going to show up at the Liberia airport tomorrow and I'm going to say "hey, I'm buying a really shitty boat and turning it into something great" and my wife is going to look at me and not even try to rebuttle because thats just what I do. Its one of my perks. If I'm going to take on something, its going to be something like this. I could bore my shit to sleep buying stocks or collecting stamps or watching American Idol. I'd rather be a pirate and work on my pirate ship.
So today on my way to Coco, I saw two surfers at the Guardia bus stop. Board bag = surfers, without knowing what I was doing I stopped and offered them a ride. Two South Africans, Tom and Ryan, going to Coco. I told them I was surfing Witch's in the afternoon, they were stoked and paid the gas. They ended up being really good guys and really stoked on the surf at Witch's Rock. We had plenty of waves to ourselves, nobody out in the water at all. The wind had switched offshore but there was some weird currents in the water. The surf wasn't all-time but it was nonetheless really fun. On the way home we got pissed on by a huge raincloud that didn't let up from the national park all the way to Coco. Tom, Ryan and I took all of our gear back to my Dodge, which was parked up on the beach on this empty lot, Ricardo went to moor the boat. Ricardo shows up, we go to take off, Ricardo says "hey, cut through this lot", I do that, its raining a ton, I don't see the huge 3 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft huge freaking hole and drive my truck right into it.

Yeah, the same thing. Front right tire is deep in a rut. My cattle guard is all messed up, I've busted off my license plate and part of my bumper. whoops. I always laugh when people get really pissed off about things happening to their cars. I mean, I understand, it sucks. But its not like you broke your leg or something. An hour later Peeker (my longtime neighbor in Coco who I've known for as long as I've been in CR) and his son help tow my truck out. I was really stoked, as I had thought that I'd need a backhoe to get my heavy truck out of this hole and since it was a Sunday night that wasn't really likely. I jump out of the truck all stoked and immediately kick a huge rock. Ask my wife, I've got a big problem with my big toes, with my big feet in general. They are bigger than I am able to control and I'm constantly kicking the shit out of things. Just read my past blogs, I'm sure I have a half dozen big toe injuries in there!

It sucked. My foot was all covered with blood and feeling bad. A couple rum & cokes in the can seemed to make it feel better though. We drink beers at Bar Matapalo, where everyone from Jimbolo's son to Domingo to Papalino give me big hugs and tell me they haven't seen me in years. They haven't. I used to live next door to their bar. WRSC Coco existed long before WRSC Tamarindo, these were my neighbors, my friends, and in Paulino's case my boat captain. I bought my first car in Costa Rica from Peeker, he was selling it for a friend who was in prison. It was a 1977 Toyota Landcruiser and had been driven in the ocean occasionally. It rusted into a million tiny pieces. To sum up the experience: don't drive your vehicle into the ocean. Thats about all I've got for now. Today is just another adventure. Most people have days like today and recount them over and over again. I have so many days like today I talk about them once and then forget they happened. At least its way more interesting than living in the states with paved highways and beach parking lots.