This blog. Its pretty much all about surfing. Its my own blog, its for me and anyone else who bothers to read it. I've kept this blog for so long that I feel bad when I don't write a blog that often. I intend to print it up some day and keep it for when my kids get older. Much older. The blog follows many different topics, but mostly its about surfing and life in the surf world and living in Tamarindo raising my family and what the fuck to make of it all. Life feels either really complicated or really easy depending on how you want to view things.
Let me clear up a rumor from the start: I was not attacked by a crocodile. Yes, we were at Ollie's Point last Tuesday and yes I was in the water very close to a crocodile (30-40 feet or so), and yes the crocodile was swimming towards me with his mouth open and all of his shiny sharp teeth staring at me, but no I did not at all get attacked. Thank you Chilo and Charlie for picking me up in the panga right away. It was entertaining watching the entire lineup at Ollie's Point clear out after that moment, not that it happens that often but when it does its pretty interesting if you happen to be in the water.
I hit the nail on the head with these Zori trips. This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, from the very beginning of Witch's Rock Surf Camp. I am really happy that the boat is working out and that all of our guests have had such a good time. I knew we would get it dialed, but still the initial not-knowing along with the big cash investment and then the learning curve involved in owning a big boat, the setting up of a new business and so on, it can be daunting. But fortunately I'm not the only one who wants to surf remote surf breaks on a yacht and we've started getting a serious number of booked trips. I'm going to stay really busy this summer, which makes me very very content.
The Zori now has a great aft canopy, 4 staterooms, a wind generator 12-volt system that powers the lights, music, the charger for the ipod or vhf radios. We run all Zori tours with a surf panga as our dingy. It helps having a dingy with a 115hp Yamaha to make quick runs to check waves. I can honestly that this yacht is more dialed in for surfers going on extended surf trips than any other boat in the area. It is pretty dope. Since my last blog I've taken a group on a 7 day surf tour in Nicaragua and guided 3 different multi-day surf trips to Witch's Rock and Ollie's Point. I guess you could say I've been on the boat a lot lately instead of keeping up with facebook and email. I have experienced some great surf that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't on the boat, and thats the whole point.
10 days out of the last 20 have been like this.
9 years ago was March 2001. We had just opened WRSC, which meant we had rented a run-down house on the beach in Playa Coco, bought a small boat, and opened the most crude bar you've ever seen. All I wanted to do was surf really good waves, and taking people to Witch's and Ollie's by boat seemed to be a great way to do it. Mind you I didn't have any clue about boats and grew up always getting sea sick. All we could afford was this shitty little fishing boat, which we bought and which I captained. When I finally had my first guests wanting to pay me to take them to Witch's Rock, I realized I'd never actually taken the boat that far and I had no idea how to get there. There was no Google Earth, I didn't own a gps or any charts, so I ended up watching Endless Summer II at 4am looking for landmarks from when Robert August goes there in the film. All worked out well, I found Witch's Rock, we surfed, I found our way back home, and then over time I repeated this process many many times. This lead to an affinity for being a surf explorer on the open water. Along the way I dreamed of owning a bigger boat that could do multi-day trips, allowing me to get even further off of the map.
the view from WRSC Playas del Coco
It wasn't long before I was running trips to Witch's and Ollie's every day. Sometimes I'd send out two boats. It became obvious that sending more people to the surf breaks wasn't a sustainable business model. I was also getting so many requests for surf lessons that I ended up constantly driving guests to Tamarindo to teach them how to surf. Tamarindo and surf lessons seemed like the great way to grow the business so we opened our second surf camp in Tamarindo in October of 2001. This camp grew quickly, people loved it, it was a lot of fun but it was also a lot more work. Priorities needed to be reevaluated.
Holly Rice and Maxi Molina digging holes, July 2002
After a couple of years of managing both surf camps, we decided to close the Coco camp and put our eggs in the Tamarindo basket. This was a solid move. Running two surf camps was so much more work, and our guest experience suffered. We wanted to make things easier on us. I wanted to be able to surf more. Tamarindo blossomed, the surf camp grew big time, and the rest is history.
We have slowly evolved over the years into an 18 room hotel, nice surf shop, very comfortable restaurant and bar on the beach. Over the years, I have been approached at different times by investors of one type or another. I usually don't bring up these encounters in my blog, and I'm not really sure why. Maybe its because I don't want people to think I have huge plans that will change the way things are now. Changing the vibe of this place is the last thing I want to do! As the founder of the company, I need to listen to all propositions and make intelligent decisions.
A couple of years ago I was approached by what I thought to be a solid opportunity. An ex-Vice President of Intercontinental Hotels and a headhunter with extensive history with Nike and Motorola wanted (and still want) to bring investors to WRSC with the plans to open up 3-5 more similar surf camps in other beach towns. I hadn't seriously considered what that would mean, but after many months they came to me with a drawn out investment plan as a pdf that was distributed quite far. People like Jake Burton and John Hendricks read the proposal, I started having phone calls with people from Quiksilver and Nike. The opportunities seemed worth being involved in talking about what could be. And so I did.
2 and a half years later, I'm one month away from being free from a contract I thought I was supposed to sign, a contract that has limited me from being able to talk to any other companies about a possible investment deal. Its a long story, let me try to state it as simply as possible: after much thought, I have no interest in signing up for big deals with big corporations that call for opening more Witch's Rock Surf Camps. Our property in Tamarindo is special, it wouldn't work the way it works here pretty much anywhere else. WRSC started with driving a school bus from California to Costa Rica, not five school buses. Not with a huge budget. Not all corporate. It might work for Intercontinental Hotels, but I'd rather work on making high quality surf shirts developed from sustainable caña brava or surf wax derived from glycerin, which was derived from making biodiesel, not opening up central offices in San Jose. And my GM Yana, well, Yana is the shit and the man I've entrusted the power to help make this happen. We will move along steadily as we have for so long, growing a company organically and feeling so connected to it that it feels like its an extension of what you are.
I guess you could say it has been the Zori that has allowed me to come full circle with my initial goals for moving to Costa Rica in the first place. All I really wanted to do, and all I still really want to do is surf. All of this talk of corporate acquisitions and power suits can be blown out of my ass. I just figured you should know, because I felt kindof weird not telling you about all of this these last couple of years. Lets just call this a breakthrough in our relationship, shall we?
Again thinking about surfing, did I mention that right outside of my house the waves have been very very good? I love it when that happens!
the Tamarindo Rivermouth showing the classic deep barrel section
My good friend Andrew Illig came down with his wife Georgia last week. We hung out all week and scored tons of great waves. I'm sure its nice to be able to check out of New York City for 8 days and get enough good waves to last 3 months. I made sure to dial him into the best that we could get. Heres a few pics from one of many solid sessions, this time right out in front of WRSC in the rivermouth:
Andrew Illig, shwa-PACK!
Andrew Illig tube ride #7
Joe Walsh setting up for the pit...
at 6ft 3inches I squeeze myself into the barrel by doing the patented two-arms-forward classic-tube-ride approach (don't even think about stealing it because its mine!)
another gem stands up on the sand bar...
I love my 5'9" Hynson Black Knight Quad, it has served me well this last year. It is my favorite board, but it has its limitations like any other board. My friend Sean Mattison has just released a sick new board called the Von Sol. Its a hybrid between a fish and a thruster, with characteristics that bring out the best of both designs. It stays tighter in the pocket and allows for more vertical top-to-bottom attacks, a couple of features the standard fish design lacks. Check out Sean simply RULING in Nicaragua recently, to music from my friends Chad, Jon and Tim from the band Switchfoot, then check out the new Von Sols in the Witch's Rock Surf Shop in the very near future.
Another successful surf contest, another successful beach party. Two weeks ago WRSC hosted the CNS Torneo Witch's Rock surf contest here in Tamarindo. It was the best turnout we have had, the beach was packed. The conditions were not epic by any means, but early mornings had clean waves with chest high sets, there were some barrels coming in...
lots of airs by tiny rippers (like 120 pound Luis Castro)
the beach was packed with spectators
the guys weren't the only ones who were killing it out there
Matias Braun from Montezuma won, though there was a lot of talent in the water and it could have gone many ways
Tamarindo Surfrider Pub Crawl: If you were in Tamarindo for St Patrick's Day, chances are you saw or were on the WRSC school bus doing the Tamarindo Surfrider Pub Crawl. I drank too many beers to count BY FAR, thank you to Mike, Yana, Holly, Reggie and everyone else who bought me a beer (I finally recovered a couple of days ago)
Holly, getting ready to take a shot as we celebrate the babysitter
Flash and I raising some havoc
I'm realizing that I didn't announce that I moved my family out of the condo and back into our house above the surf camp restaurant. Yes I did, it was the last day of February. So I guess that means we've been here about 4 weeks now. The space was the original rooms in the original house that we originally rented when we started WRSC Tamarindo, now its remodeled and our new home. Its not quite done yet, but its close to being done, and at least we get to live back on the beach.
a view from the kitchen out towards the beach (still need to finish the deck)
new tiled bathrooms are far better than the skybox bathroom squalor
I will post more photos when we get the house more in order (when we're not living out of suitcases). We need to build our closets and kitchen furniture, paint, install a couple of doors, mirrors, an AC, put up a new handrail on our deck, and so on, but at least we're back on the beach. Yes, the live music can get a little old from time to time, but most of the time its like living above a bar (oh wait, we are living above a bar). The boys sleep through it. I have a nice view of the surf from pretty much every room, so when the waves are crackalackin' like they were this morning I can run out there and score (priceless).
And now I'm g0ing to throw in a bunch of photos of my kids. Anyone who has kids and doesn't show everyone they know too many photos of their kids, there is something wrong with you. Kids are rad.
My boys remind me how awesome life is and what my priorities are. Happy turned 2 on February 1st, Otis turns 4 tomorrow!! holy shit this is happening way too fast!!!
Otis and Happy, growing up really fast
Otis and his self portrait
Happy, always wanting to steal my Powerade
checking out bugs at the Arenal Volcano last Thursday
the Liberia Mall jump-jump
The boys are spending more and more time in the water. It is awesome! We gave Otis an early birthday present today, a new boogie board out of the surf shop. Its small enough that he can handle it on his own, much easier than an 8 ft soft top surfboard. Otis spent 2 hours paddling the board into waves and riding them up onto the sand by himself. To watch him while I was sitting in a beach chair, that felt crazy. Happy is right there behind him and I'm pretty sure it will be Happy that will be the big wave surfer in the family.
Thats about everything thats been going on around here. My family is doing great, the surf camp is doing well, life is good. We have been very lucky to have a lot of friends and family pass through, right now my parents are down here for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we'll have a birthday party for Otis. I'm trying to make sure to put love into everything. When I get time I've been going through and emailing old friends which has been nice.
