time slipping by

My youngest son Happy Zephyr Walsh is going to turn 1 year old on Sunday. How did that happen? Oh, so that means Otis is almost 3? That probably explains why I can hold at-length conversations with him on the phone these days. Wow. For those of you that are here in town, please feel free to come by the surf camp this Sunday at 2PM for Happy's birthday party. There will be snacks and drinks. There will be the Super Bowl at 5PM. Sounds like another good Sunday.

I've been really lucky lately, even though I've been really busy with the surf camp I've been able to get away and surf my favorite reefs three out of the last six days. I got a few pics from a local photographer that happened to be on the beach one of the days this last week.

I went again yesterday and had really fun waves even though Tamarindo was the smallest it had been in over a week. I'm really stoked to ride a fish without a center fin as the tail slides so well frontside or backside.

I hear that a lot of businesses in the area aren't doing too well. There are commercial buildings empty or emptying. Stores are going out of business. People are losing jobs. The recession is an international thing. We are so lucky at WRSC, although we only have 18 rooms they are all full of happy guests. Our guests are the BOMB, telling their friends and coming back again and again. You guys are helping keep this crazy dream alive, and we thank you. I thank you in the biggest way.

My wife, my boys, my dad, they all arrive tomorrow night. I'm counting the hours. It has been since January 5th, three and a half weeks, since I've been with my boys. I hung out with Holly for less than 72 hours in Florida during the Surf Expo. I'm sick of doing stints of heavy work without the family.

local reefbreak on a Sunday afternoon

Here is one of my many rights that peeled across the reef at high tide. We surfed all afternoon long, literally from around 1pm until the sun went down. I think I had about 20 or 30 waves exactly like this one. Fun, open rights that were meant for carving on a retro fish. Thank goodness I happened to bring my retro fish!

There were giant whales further out to sea breaching, giant sprays could be seen as we watched the sun go down. Sea turtles and fish cluttered the reef where we surfed, it was just magical. I was pretty surprised that we were the only gringos out surfing today, but then I remembered that there are so many surf breaks like this one that the rest of the surfing world doesn't even know exists. I am constantly reminded why I decided to move here, I'd consider today one of those days :-)

Going off today, just another Sunday in Costa Rica

Well, at least I learned from my blog the other night that there are a lot of people out there operating on my frequency. I've had a couple of encounters in the last couple of days, in the water, with people I've never seen before despite having lived here for 8 years. Someone drops in on you when you're surfing, there isn't much you can do. Instead of getting upset, hold your breath and count to ten. Let it pass. Like the waves you surf every day, there will be another wave.... it really is going to be OK. Yesterday I got bent out of shape after a 14 year old tico kid dropped in on me and then continued to tell me I wasn't from around here. Hmmm... ok. He wanted to go in to the beach and fight, and I was pretty pissed about the whole deal and thought for a second that I'd love pounding him, but then wait. I'm old enough to be his dad. He must weigh 90 pounds. What the hell? All I really wanted to do was surf. Count to ten. Paddle back out. Forget it ever happened. I think things like this happen for a reason. You must get through the tough situations in surfing, don't give up in any way, and you will then be rewarded by the surf gods. Well... yesterday I had one of those days you might want to forget. Instead of dwelling on it, today we set off on a mission to spend the day surfing and chilling on the beach. Larry , Valerie, Chris, Natalia, myself. Surfing a little known reef, one of dozens along the coast here.... head high swell, offshore winds, cooler with beers, good friends, good times...

Here I was dropping in late and pulling in to the tube.


Here is a photo of Larry. He just got back from San Diego yesterday and already he's getting dialed backside.


Today I just surfed my 6ft Witch's Rock quad fish, having tons of fun doing frontside cutbacks wave after wave. All I did was frontside cutbacks on the fish, it was just the best feeling ever. We surfed for about 5 hours this afternoon, it was really a great day. I'm super stoked to have had such a good day, especially after this past week. Thank you surf gods. Thank you A LOT.

thank god this week is over

If you were in the surf camp this week, you might have seen me if you looked in the office. I was pretty much sitting at the computer from sun-up to sun-down. Wait, I was there until way after sun down. I surfed every day from Sunday until today with the exception of Wednesday (yes I'm keeping track), but besides the daily surf session I was working from when I woke up until I went to bed. Why? hmmm....I was out of town the last three out of four weeks, so this had something to do with it. San Diego to Tamarindo to Mal Pais/Playa Hermosa/San Jose to Orlando back to Tamarindo, and to where next? I don't know. Larry was gone so I was covering for him in the office. I have bills to pay to keep this thing running, and without money it gets hard to pay said bills. When you own the company and don't receive a paycheck it can be really cool or really lame, depending on how sales are doing. From the Tamarumors I've been hearing the town has been pretty slow, but thankfully the surf camp is doing well enough. My family is still in San Diego, though they're coming back in the next few days. My dad PK is coming down with them, helping Holly to fly with the boys and also to hang out in CR for a few weeks. I don't have the heart to tell him that Tamarindo has been out of weed for the last week. Maybe this is why I've been working so much lately? All I know is that I really miss my boys, I haven't seen them since January 5th. Happy is fully walking now, I can't wait to see. He turns 1 on the February 1st, we're having a birthday party at the surf camp and if you're reading this you are invited. Normally I spend hours each day with my wife and kids, but the last three weeks have been all about work. Its gotten to the point where I wonder why I do this to myself, but to be honest the surf camp has become a big business, much bigger than what I'm able to run on my own sometimes. I make it up as I go. Work has been tough. For the dozens of happy guests that we had at WRSC over the holidays, we had one unhappy one, Mr Buswell. I guess he has a lot of time on his hands as he spent it writing a nasty reviews online about the surf camp. His first and biggest complaint had to do with the waves while he was here. Maybe he doesn't realize that we have no control over the surf. Maybe he doesn't realize that when he does things like this he jeopardizes everyones job here and makes it that much harder. Since he owns his own company I would think he might understand, but in the end of the day you simply cannot make everyone happy. I and everyone else at the surf camp are committed to customer service, and everyone from Larry to Marcela to Marcos to Hazel bent over backwards for the guy. What can you do? Not much really, so I'm thinking I should send him a stripper. Not a cute one though. I have a snake living in the floorboards of my house. It keeps me from falling asleep for that extra five minutes. I've seen it multiple times, its a boa. Not a huge one, but still, its a boa. I guess its not poisonous, but the thought of a large snake crawling under the floor is kindof creepy. I'm not going to kill it though. The surf was fun today. I went to the Negra area with Chris, Hippie Tom, and Pat aka Terminator. We then went out to dinner with Randy and Toni Dietz for Randy's birthday. I stayed up late watching A Scanner Darkly on Cinemax two nights ago, what a trip that was. Then last night another movie called the Lookout, this time about a head injury. Both movies made my head hurt but not in a bad way.

Tomorrow is another day, and its going to be a good one I can just tell.

it can be hard

trying to record an audio surf report with Tico Hendrix playing downstairs...

blogging about surf

I'm back in Tamarindo, today was a long day. Actually it has been a long week. In the last seven days I hosted the CNS Red Bull surf contest at the surf camp, led a surf tour to Santa Teresa, Playa Hermosa de Jaco, and then San Jose. I flew to Orlando to the surf expo, back again to Costa Rica three days later. As soon as I landed back at the surf camp I had back to back meetings. At least they were with cool people. I'm tired though.

Check out the swell model I just pulled from wetsand right now:

I heard a rumor that there were some sets coming in at sunset. I'm pretty sure from what I saw downstairs that everyone is going out partying, hence no dawn patrol. Not me... I'm going surfing early tomorrow morning, I've already got my board ready... super excited like when I was a kid.. probably because I haven't surfed in a few days.

I've found myself listening to some Fugazi, Calexico, and of course the Hives lately.

Finally the new Zephyr Eco website is online. Still some bugs in the coding but you get the idea, www.zephyrecoproject.com
I also have a bunch of Zephyr logos from Jane Bocker that I want to implement, please give me some feedback what you think of them. And of course let me know if you need Jane's contact info, she is a great artist :-)





I have about a million emails that I haven't gotten to yet. I was considering claiming email bankruptcy, but instead literally I'm home now and I plan to be on my computer for the next week. Please resend me the email you sent me before because there were just days and days where I didn't have internet and now its just a joke. whoops.

Had a beer with Carton tonight, what a good guy. I hung with him and Josymar Fuentes at the surf camp. We spoke about finally taking the liquor bodega and making the shaping room I keep talking about but not doing. I need the guidance. I'm putting some Carton shortboards in the rental cage in the coming weeks.

At the Surf Expo I hung out with tons of folks, it was pretty cool.

I saw the boys throwing the Christian Surfers contest next month, and no word on whether or not their group is going to be able to help fund the Tom Curren concert. I'm like "uhh... its Tom Curren, do we have a choice?". The dude was world champ. He is a legend. I guess I'm going to have to email his agent and tell him its a no go as its a little over 4 weeks away. So far in 2009 we'll have 2 contests and 0 concerts. This is where I need your help, Tommy.

The new Picaresque trailer just came out two days ago:

These guys will be here on Feb 2, staying in our house in Avellanas and shooting the last part of this movie. If you're down here then and you see some surfers killing it and some guys with cameras, uh thats what it is.

What did I see at the expo? Bill Stewart's five finned beast that is ugly but appears to be magic. Some pretty good bands. Pierce Meyer from Pierce surfboards in the shaping contest. Some headbands and some mustaches. Alaia boards by Jon Wegener (his brother Tom's film Siestas y Olas was one of the reasons I moved to CR in the first place, you should buy it). Lots of chicks in bikinis. Lots.



I got pretty shacked on this Orlando wave, it was sick.

OK thats it for now, off to sleep. Its nice to be back at home, though my seem to have left the rest of my family in the last country I was in.

another good trip

Here I again sit in the airport, this time in San Jose Costa Rica. The last four days has been a whirlwind tour of Costa Rica. This last weekend we (the surf camp) hosted the CNS surf tournament in Tamarindo. Marcela and Hazel really did a good job at overseeing everything and helping coordinate with the CNS, the judges, the 911 radio station and their dj, Red Bull, etc etc. The party was pretty fun even though I wasn't really in the mood. Its hard sometimes, when you live upstairs above everything. You are always on display, especially during big events. Without Holly and the boys being there I was focused on work, but more focused about leaving at 9am the next morning.
Sunday at 8am I was showering and throwing some clothes and other items into my bag and backpack, grabbed my surfboard and took off guiding a surf tour south to Mal Pais. I took Karen and Pam, multi return WRSC guests, plus three guys from Finland. Team Finland were awesome. I learned that #1 they received 4 hours of sunlight in the entire month of December and #2 they go balls out when they surf. Their only other surfing experience was taking a month off last year in Indonesia. Classic. Big Balls is Iso Moona in Finnish in case you were wondering. Funny enough that was the only Finnish I learned while with those guys.
Sunday afternoon we got excellent waves in Santa Teresa, just north of Mal Pais. Saturday night the Chargers lost their playoff game. I was pretty bummed, but I didn't let it ruin my day. Being a Charger fan means living with this feeling at least once a year, and it makes you a better sports fan. I think.
Monday the surf was pretty windy during the day but I still happened to get four hours in the water over two sessions.
Yesterday we took off on the Ferry, hooked up with my driver Leo, and drove to Playa Hermosa. The waves were breaking right on the sand, but really clean conditions. You had enough time to do one or two quick turns and then bail as the shorebreak hit. I rode one up onto the sand, actually pretty fun... We then took off for San Jose as everyone was flying out today.
I had been planning to go to the Surf Expo in Orlando starting tomorrow but hadn't bought a ticket. Actually, on the way from Playa Hermosa last night, in the back of the van with beer in hand I realized that I didn't bring my passport. Or my license or credit card. Somehow I can guide a surf tour through Costa Rica with 5 guests and not need any of these things nor my cell phone, but flying to Orlando was another thing. I was able to get Rafa to break into my house at 7am this morning, find my things, and send them on the SANSA plane arriving at 11am this morning. I bought a ticket flying out at 1240pm.
Holly is flying out right now as well, from San Diego. We're meeting in Orlando and going to the show together. My mom and aunt are watching the boys. It will be the first time in history that Holly and I will be away from both of our boys. Although I miss Happy and Otis, I did just have a wedding anniversary on Saturday and am looking forward to three days in Florida with my wife that I haven't seen in a couple of weeks.
I'm going to Liberia on Saturday and will be working at the camp next week, hopefully catching up after being on the road this last week. I've been getting lots of waves which has been fun. Not huge, but always fun. I'll write more later, time to board the plane - joe

Setting up for the party

up late (or early)

I've been back at the surf camp since Monday night, approximately 75 hours ago. I've surfed the Tamarindo Rivermouth twice, today and Tuesday, and yesterday I surfed Marbella in the morning. Waves have been fun, definitely warmer than SD.

been writing quite a few emails and making phone calls to set up the surf contest this weekend. Its going to be a pretty big event. The local radio station 91.1 is broadcasting the contest live from the surf camp and Saturday night we are hosting the contest party sponsored by Red Bull. I just need to make sure everything happens, then I'm gone on a surf trip the next day (after the Chargers game of course)

I've made a few WRSC website updates such as adding pages for the Avellanas beach house and the Langosta beach house. I spent some time writing a "How It All Began" page since I've noticed a lot of guests don't even realize the surf camp started by driving a school bus to Costa Rica. Everyone thinks its some big company ran by who the hell knows. Um, no. Notice the crude web design work? Its just me.

Today's surf report- Friday January 9th 2009

See you on the beach, this weekend should be fun. Go Chargers!

Hello world, its me again. Yes, I've been "underground" lately. I've been trying to take some time off from the Internet. Yes, it was one of the busiest weeks of the surf camp's year this last week and I've been in California celebrating the holidays with my family. What have I been up to lately? hmmm, let me think....

OK, first off, this week I found myself in Rite Aid buying a pregnancy test for the third time in my life. The first two times I ended up with kids. Did Mr. Fertile knock another one out of the park? Fortunately not this time. Holy crap, how does one explain the emotions involved in an afternoon of thinking they're having another child? Its rough when you leave a house full of screaming kids to buy the pregnancy test. I thought I took every precaution known to the 21st century man and was stressing out there for a little while. Thank you Baby Jesus.

Next: we've been staying at my parents house in good old Tierrasanta for the holidays. Holly, Otis, Happy and I sleep together like one big happy family on an inflatable bed and a yoga mat in my old bedroom. Little things like my parents saying "warsh" and "warshington" instead of "wash" or "washington" don't seem to bother me like they used to when I was growing up. Morning breakfast is like it was growing up. My parents live in the same house I grew up in from year 1 to year 18 when I went off to college (ten miles away). They are the absolute best and we've had plenty of time to hang out. They are going to help Holly out with the boys as Im' going back to CR solo this time.

Happy turned 11 months old on the 1st of the year. He then proceeded to take his first steps in the McDonalds playground across the street. That was really cool. Otis is almost three. Whats going on here? I didn't realize having kids happened so fast.

I've been surfing every day since I've been here, almost always at Scripps. The water is colder than I remember, the coldest it ever gets at 54 degrees. I bought a new 4/3 wetsuit and some booties, since Rafa packed 5 left booties and 0 right booties in my board bag. I can't complain since I didn't pack my board for this trip. Besides, my gear was a few years old since I don't surf cold water too often. It has been nice to get a really warm wetsuit and go surf at 7am when its in the 40s outside. It has been COLD for this Costa Rica boy and surfing in my old Oneill Heat 3/2 with no booties left me frozen and purple. Not to mention I couldn't feel my feet and hence my surfing wasn't doing that great. It is now great and back to the spins and floaters, this time in a Mutant 4/3 with some top of the line booties. Ahhhh warm..... Its been nice cruising in the old surf neighborhood, running into all of the guys I used to surf with back in the day. I sound old.

Now that I think about it, I'm supposed to be on an airplane right now. Somewhere between Houston and Liberia I would imagine. Instead I'm in my parent's garage staring at my dad's restored 68 Caddy, the only place in the house where I can put on my headphones and peck away at my keyboard. Fortunately they keep the beer in the garage. How could I leave? As I said in my previous blog, there was a longshot that the Chargers would make the playoffs and I had to be here to find out. If they beat Tampa Bay and the Denver Broncos lost to the Bills, the Chargers would have had an opportunity to play and beat the Broncos in SD last Sunday. Super long shot. But it happened. Somehow the Chargers seem to win when I'm in town, and with Indy playing SD in the first round of the playoffs today I couldn't risk flying back to Tamarindo. So, instead, I called Continental about 10 minutes before my 935am departure to inform them that the Walsh clan wouldn't be making it to Houston. I got the ticket changed to Monday because there were no flights out tomorrow. They only had 1st class. Bummer. I'll write it off as a tax expense.

I've learned that I still suck at facebook. I've relearned that its only 11 minutes to drive from my parents driveway to the parking lot at Scripps, or 9 minutes if you catch the green lights. I've forgotten about work for the most part, the purpose of work the last time I checked. My kids haven't forgotten to wake up at 6am sharp, even though its still completely dark out. Ugh.

This morning was full of writing a power of attorney contract and a contract so Mike and Dayton can drive my Toyota Tundra to Costa Rica. I'm getting a camper shell painted and surf racks installed, they should be on the truck by Thursday night. Dayton flies to SD on Friday, on Saturday he and Mike Shaw (ex WRSC Coco surf camp manager circa 2003) depart San Diego for Nogales, Arizona. Then, crossing into mainland Mex they will drive south and get some waves starting at Mazatlan. When I made the drive to CR through mainland Mex I surfed Pascaules, Rio Nexpa and Puerto Escondido. We also got La Libertad El Salvador pretty fun. Hopefully they'll get some waves on the way down. Hopefully they don't have too much fun, I do need them to end up in Tamarindo with the truck. I've had to put docs together for them, find an insurance policy, iron things out with the Mexican Consulate, and so on. Its the start of moving life back to CR. We're packing everything we still have up here into a container and shipping it all back to CR. If you have anything that you want to send from LA to Costa Rica, email me. I should have extra space in the container, you can help me pay for all of this. Holly is staying in SD and selling off some surfboards, furniture, other items, so she can help arrange what you need brought to CR.

OK, so one of our 2009 resolutions was to simplify life as much as possible. We won't have our place in OB anymore. We've been living above the surf camp restaurant this whole last year and have decided that its the best place in the world, so we'll be living there for many years to come. But, since we were living in OB while we had baby Happy, we created an entire "other life" up here that still hasn't been fully ended. There are still cell phones to cancel, vehicles to get rid of, debts to pay off, and friends to visit with. Holly is staying up here with the boys while I fly back to Costa Rica with a crazy schedule.

This is what my next two weeks look like:
Monday January 5- fly to WRSC
January 9-11 - CNS 911 Red Bull Surf Contest at the surf camp
January 11-14 - I guide a surf tour down the coast of the Nicoya Peninsula
January 15-17 - I fly to Orlando for the surf expo (www.surfexpo.com)
January 19 - my company Zephyr Eco starts it's first construction project, the completion of our roads for the Zephyr Eco Resort. Larry flies to SD and Joe covers for him in the WRSC sales office.

Speaking of the Zephyr Eco Project, we've partnered up with Randy and Toni Dietz of San Clemente. They run RL Dietz & Son Construction up here and have partnered up with us to offer Zephyr Eco Construction in Guanacaste. The official partnership was formed about a week ago. They will be coming to CR on January 15. For those that don't know, Zephyr is all about sustainability. We offer sustainable construction services, from the building materials that are used to the methods in which we build. If you have any construction projects that you'd like to talk about, Zephyr Eco Construction is now officially open. Contact me via the blog :-)

Another one of my new year resolutions was to document life. I graduated UCSD with a music degree and a film degree, film being the road I figured I'd travel down. Instead I just kept surfing as my career but I've always wanted to spend time working on movie stuff. Now that I picked up a new mini HD camera I've been able to take shots of just about everything. It will be nice to show Otis video of himself singing the San Diego Super Chargers song when he was only two and a half. Besides, life feels a little crazy. Its felt crazy for a long time. When I start getting overwhelmed with how much I'm responsible for, or with how much is going on that is my fault, I can calm myself by turning on the video camera and talking to myself. Its weird but it works.

Chad Butler, the drummer from Switchfoot emailed me the day after I wrote my last blog. He will ironically be in Tamarindo during the Christian Surfers contest but without the rest of the band. We knew each other and surfed together in college, we'll likely hook up and surf a bit. If any other musician friends of mine are reading this blog and plan to be in Tamarindo during the Feb 21-22 weekend, I could set up the gear and we could all rock out. Its been a long time since the days of Pud and Tripple Nipple, my college band with Andy Waer and David Ambler. I have some old recordings somewhere, probably in my old bedroom at my parents house.

I didn't go to Rincon and surf. I played Shawn White snowboarding on my mom's PS3 instead of actually going snowboarding. I forgot how cold the winter was and couldn't hang in water colder than SD or in snow. Call me what you will, I'm flying back to palm trees and 80 degree water in 36 hours.

It is exactly 1 hour before kickoff for the Chargers vs. Colts game. I have my entire family dressed in Charger gear and a HUGE inflatable helmet on top of our car facing the street. Otis has been screaming the super charger song for weeks on end. If this doesn't help us win there isn't much more I can do. Lets hope my next blog is a Charger win.

I will be back at the camp starting Tuesday. The CNS Surf Contest is exactly one week away. Next Saturday night make plans to be at WRSC for the Red Bull sponsored contest party. I am donating a portion of the proceeds to a new fund I've started, to build a sidewalk system through the town of Tamarindo. Come enjoy the contest, eat some grub and drink some beers, party, have a great time and support the new school of Costa Rican surfers looking to bust into the international surf scene. This will be the first of many Tamarindo events the surf camp is putting on, so bring the good vibes and leave the bad ones at home. pura vida - joe