The Last Paddle-In

Yes, it's time to paddle back in to the beach and out of the water. The sun has set and alas, my time in Puerto Rico has ultimately come to an end. It's strange, after a short vacation or trip I would normally feel like the time just flew by. In fact, the older I've gotten, it seems like time in general just keeps speeding up and speeding up. I remember as a child, when the 2 and 1/2 months of summer vacation from school seemed to last an eternity. But now, months and seasons seem to fly by at the blink of an eye. But my time in Puerto Rico did not feel that way. I think it's because I experienced so many different new things while I was down there and had so much time to ruminate on them as well. And also, it may be like my friend Oded exclaimed while he was out there in the big waves with me: "I feel so alive!". I think at moments like that, time almost grinds to a halt, very much in contrast to the blurring speed of my usual zombie-esque state of everyday life.

Leaving Puerto Rico and coming back to Charleston left me with a few mixed feelings. I really wasn't that sad to be leaving, as I felt as though I had experienced so many wonderful things while I was there, and wanted to return to my normal environment while still filled with those positive vibes. I was also ready to continue on to the next unknown chapter of my life (ie living off the grid as it were, without the security blanket of a 9-5 job which I have been wrapped in for the last 5 years or so).

But last week, when I went out to the local surf break (The Washout) here in Charleston, SC, I definitely found myself missing Puerto Rico a lot!!! It was supposed to be a relatively "good" day out there, but instead I had to put on my wetsuit to face windy, sloppy 1-2 ft conditions that were incredibly underwhelming to say the least. If I were back in Puerto Rico, I would have looked at waves like that, walked away from the beach and found more excitement playing dominoes with the tired old guys. Unbelievably, against my own desires, I have become a wave snob. I'm sure my standards will steadily drop the longer I stay here but it's always a bit hard coming down from that mountain top experience.

Anyways, thanks to all of you out there for reading the blog. I hope some of you are now inspired to come join or visit me on my next surfari, or just go out there and do something that really makes you feel alive.

Peace!

Cabo Rojo and the Southwest Coast

During the last week of my stay in Puerto Rico, my Mom came down from Gainesville to visit me. She was very excited to see all the places and people I had written about in the blog. And on the first couple of days she even came out to watch me surf at Maria's and Wilderness. But after those two days, she figured that she would enjoy herself more just hanging out and swimming around the local beach by the apartment instead of trying to pinpoint me in the lineup at a surfing beach with her binoculars - plus those surfing beaches are extremely unhospitable places to try and take a leisurely swim.

On the last weekend, we went down to the Southwest tip of the island around Cabo Rojo. Before we got there, we made a quick stop in Puerto Real where the annual Fish Festival was in full swing. Lots of people out and about, all locals and we made our way to an authentic fish restaurant where the front of the restaurant faced the street and the back of it was right on the water where its fishing boat was conveniently parked. In the restaurant, the waiter comes out with a big tray loaded with fresh fish and you just point at whichever one you want to eat. Then, about 15 minutes later, that same fish comes back out to your table on plate, deep fried, in its entirety - head, tail, etc... pretty tasty!

After eating, Mom and I drove to the extreme Southwest corner of the island where the landscape changed dramatically from the usual lush jungle/beach/mangrove setting we were used to. Instead, this area looked rather desolate and rugged, accentuated by the salt flats. At land's end, there is a small lighthouse, some precipitous cliffs and a nice quiet beach called "La Playuela" which is excellent for swimming. A nice calm and picturesque setting indeed!


The lighthouse at Cabo Rojo

The cliffs of Cabo Rojo

"La Playuela"

Clash of the Titans

So back in late March my friend Oded came over from Fort Lauderdale to visit me for a few days. We were able to catch a good sized swell while he was here so we did quite a bit of time in the water. But on Wednesday, March 26th, I was delighted to hear that Oded was up for a trip to the big city (San Juan) to watch the big World Cup Qualifier that would played that night.

The game pitted fierce island rivals Puerto Rico against the Dominican Republic in a one game elimination in the long qualifying process for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Now Puerto Rico (ranked 149th in the world) and the Dominican Republic (ranked 178th) have about a snowball's chance of actually making it all the way there. Both countries are hispanic rarities in that baseball is considered their national sport, rather than soccer (which is rightly the national sport in about 95% of the rest of the world).

After spending the day in Old San Juan, cleaning out a casino, sampling free Don Q rum and touring old forts and castles, Oded and I headed over to the stadium at night. Although the quality of the players in the game was far from top class, there was a lot of intensity out there. And the atmosphere in the stands was very good, lots of cheering, singing, trumpet playing, toilet paper throwing, drums, etc to make it a very lively affair.

The game had to go into overtime where Puerto Rico finally scored, securing their right to receive the privilege of surely being thrashed in the next round by Honduras. Definitely had a great time.

Goal Celebration



Game Atmosphere


Top Picture
Standing in awe and reverence outside the National Stadium in Bayamon, the true epicenter of Puerto Rican soccer... reminded me a lot of the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro :)

Gas Chambers & Manglito

So what did mere mortals do during the peak onslaught of the big swell? Well, Jason and I certainly spent many hours watching the big waves from the beach and we also looked for places where the swell was a little more manageable. We found a couple spots in Rincon and Aguadilla where it usually never broke, but during this epic swell all kinds of remote coastal nooks and crannies were lighting up. These spots didn't take the full brunt of the swell since some of them were almost completely blocked from the North/Northeast direction of the swell, or the wrap that did make it to those spots was much tamer. So ironically, during the biggest days of the swell, Jason and I probably surfed the smallest waves, but once the swell started to taper off, we were able to emerge from our ratholes and charge the spots that were previously unrideable.

Some of the coolest (and most photogenic) spots we checked out were Gas Chambers and Manglito next to Crashboat Beach. These two breaks are very similar in that they break very close to shore against rocky cliffs and that they are both very hollow tube-like waves. They are fickle though, meaning they only break on a few occasions each year, when a swell is both big enough and comes from the right direction. The lineups for the waves were extremely crowded, and dominated by boogey boards in a ratio of about 2:1 to surfers. With these kind of waves, it's all about getting barreled, shacked, pitted, tubed (I'm sure there's plenty of other synonyms for the word). And it seems like these waves are more conducive (and less hazardous) to the bodyboarders. Especially considering that there were often rebound waves coming through here: these are waves that had crashed, had hit the rocky shoreline and were now heading back towards the lineup where the surfers were on their waves - quite a few times we saw people on a wave when a rebound wave came in and violently smacked them off of it.

In fact, after watching these waves for a while, I was quite excited about trying my luck at the Wishing Well break close by. It looked a little bit smaller and slightly slower than Gas Chambers and Manglito and at the time I was psyched about surfing anything that looked less than double overhead big.

Now let me explain something about the characteristics of waves, because none of them ever seem to be EXACTLY the same.. but in Puerto Rico, although the waves are quite a bit bigger than your average US East Coast beach break, they tend to be slightly more forgiving. This can be seen in the way most waves in Puerto Rico sort of crumble over, and then peel to one side. This makes the wave easy to get into, and easy to stay on - allowing the surfer time and space to adjust. However, it does require the surfer to paddle harder and push himself into the wave. On the East Coast of the US the wave usually pitches enough to push you in, and then just tumbles over all at once into a close out with very little open face to ride. So back to these barreling waves in Puerto Rico, of which Wishing Wells that I was about to surf is one. They jack up extremely quick, break close to the shore, are extremely glassy and clean and are as fast as greased lightning.

So I drop into my first wave and get wiped out pretty quick. I need to turn down the line as soon as possible I tell myself in preparation for my second attempt. I drop in again but I didn't calculate the angle just right as I am high up on the wave where the lip picks me up off my board and slams me down on the flat glassy water below. Faceplant... hard! It literally felt like getting an extremely forceful open handed slap on the side of my grill.. quite jarring. I shake off the cobwebs, get back in the lineup and try to settle down. "Get the angle right, don't stay too high on the wave" I tell myself. Drop in number 3: I really don't remember what I did that time, but I sure remember the final result.. faceplant! Smacked again. So after that, with my tail between my legs, I paddled out of that situation. I can still remember the awesome view of the glassy tube in front of me, like looking down the barrel of a big gun (and when ridden properly, the surfer looks like a bullet going through it). Cool wave, but it allows no room for error, and I still make a ton of 'em. I can totally see how (good) surfers get all excited about these waves, because it's all adrenalin right from the get go. No moves, no waiting for the wave, just screaming through a tube at top speed like a bat out of hell.


This is what Gas Chambers looks like in between sets... not only do you have to worry about trying to catch this freight train of a wave and trying to emerge unscathed.. but you also gotta look out for the 50 other guys out there trying to do the same thing!


Surfer at Manglito making it look oh so easy, in the right place at the exact right time.


Busy picture? Let's see whats happening here starting from the right: Surfer dropped in too deep and is about to get cleaned out by whitewater. Bodyboarder looks like he has this wave dialed and may actually make it out, while the water-borne photographer is getting ready to snap a great picture.

Revisiting the Big Swell

First off, let me apologize for being a slacker as far as updating the blog. But to be honest, I am frequently surprised at how busy I can get even when I'm unemployed. Checking different spots for waves and surfing them takes up a considerable amount of time! Anyhow, I did want to share some more thoughts about the big swell we had here about 10 days ago now.

It was in the late afternoon of Tuesday, March 18th that the first forerunners of the swell started hitting the island. My friend Jason and I were chomping at the bit to see what kind of waves would be rolling in. So we headed to Maria's in Rincon where we were joined by about 80 of our closest surfing buddies in the water. The conditions were good, offshore wind blowing and the sets were building ranging in size from about 1 ft to 3ft overhead. Now those are some pretty big freakin waves but I had been out in similar conditions once before so that helped relax me a little bit. Another thing which I learned to do is not look backwards at the wave right before it breaks - or let me rephrase - at least you shouldn't think about it rationally as it is swells up behind you. Any rational thought would tell you to freak out, panic or release your bowels. So no, I didn't do any of those, but instead just worked on timing, paddling hard and catching some of these beasts. And when you do catch one, holy cow, what a feeling! The drop, the speed, the bottom turn as you go back up the face of it and the push the wave keeps giving you - awesome!!! I was able to catch about 3 or 4 waves and after my last one, I just rode the whitewater back to the beach. And on the way in, I saw a $5 bill floating in the water which I grabbed - as if to pound into my head with the subtlety of a sledgehammer - this was your lucky day!!!


As bright and inspiring as Tuesday night was, Wednesday morning was dark and gloomy. The true size of the swell had really filled in and its menace was accentuated by the overcast skies. Outside my front yard, huge 25 foot waves were churning, in a pretty chaotic manner looking extremely gnarly and nasty. But sure enough, there were a couple heads bobbing out there by the main break about 150 - 200 yards out. You couldn't have paid me $5000 to go out in that stuff, so I tried to ponder what made these guys go out there? As Jason explained to me, these guys are "chargers". Chargers are surfers who will "charge" any wave they see, regardless of how big and nasty it looks, or whether they have ever surfed the break before. Chargers are inebriated in self confidence of their surfing abilities, desire to conquer new challenges - or as Jason speculated about the guys out in the water this morning "maybe they just smoked too much weed".

So as we were watching this scene, I picked out this head that was bobbing up out of the water every few seconds. Was it a bodyboarder? Or maybe some lunatic who went in there to swim or bodysurf? No way, this guy looked like he was in trouble. Jason and I ran down the beach to keep up with him, not really sure what we could do to help since we couldn't go into the water very far ourselves without getting into the same mess. But we followed him down a few hundred yards to where he finally washed up onto the beach. Like a scene out of a movie, he stumbled onto the beach and collapsed. We dragged him a little farther from the ocean and after about 2 minutes of gasping, he finally told us how his leash snapped and that he was caught on the inside (the area where the wave breaks) and couldn't get out. So he tried to swim parallel with the beach for a little bit, while constantly getting hammered and held down by huge waves. "I thought I was gonna die, bro" this young American charger repeatedly muttered. There was blood all over his arms and legs which were lacerated in various locations as a result of multiple collisions with the reef.

Jason and I decided to head to Rincon to look for some smaller protected spots that we might be able to surf. While we were there we rode by Tres Palmas, which was looking super huge but not super organized. Tons of onlookers were onhand and I remember seeing another surfer on the side of the road who had an abrasion/laceration about the size of a dartboard on his back. After all the nastiness I had seen earlier in the morning, I was happy to find refuge at some spots in Aguadilla that were "merely" head high.

Here are some more pictures that I took:

A (kamikaze) surfer drops into a huge wave at Tres Palmas.

Maria's in Rincon can't handle the size of the swell.

Tres Palmas...

Yes, I have spent several hours during the past few days looking at this wave in Rincon. It is absolutely spectacular and can hold the biggest swells in the island (and possibly this entire side of the Atlantic Ocean)

Check out the link below for some pictures: First off, you'll see a ton of local Bodyboarders at Crashboat Beach in Aguadilla. Then the monstrous wave you see is Tres Palmas, looking about quadruple or quintuple overhead. The surfers who are on the wave have obviously been towed into the wave by Jetski as one can see how early they have gotten into the wave. Even though they rode slightly smaller waves, the guys who paddled in may have been even more impressive, as they had to drop all the way from the top.. absolutely amazing stuff.

http://www.surfpr.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3375

And if you're still interested, this is another excellent link with pictures of the tow in surfers at Tres Palmas.
http://www.playero.com/main/LoadWhatsUp.do?id=448

My front yard... going off!!!

Look what I woke up to this morning... the beach in my front yard was going off on the second day of the North swell hitting the island right now. It is the largest swell in a decade and has been nothing short of spectacular. On this morning, the waves were a bit cleaner than yesterday, and about 6 guys, including pro surfing brothers Graves and Toth went out in the water. They paddled into waves with about 20 foot faces, at least triple overhead. Freaking amazing. These pictures, and my crappy zoom, really can not do it justice, although I want to thank my landlord for letting me snap them from the roof of the house.

Tupi Cabrera, some photographers and videographers check out the scene before a larger crowd began to gather.

Zoom in on this, and you'll see one surfer paddling for the wave as another two bob over the top and to safety before it breaks.

Make sure to click on this photo to enlarge it, and then magnify in on the surfer riding the wave, you can then appreciate some of the size.

If you magnify on this one, you'll see a guy dropping in on a wave, unfortunately, the electrical line seems to block a better view of him.

Calm before the Storm?

Here is a view of nice tranquil Caribbean waters which lie south of Rincon heading towards Mayaguez.
Last week was definitely exciting, as I hosted a ton of visitors. First of all there was Carlos and Sarah coming in to visit for a week from Columbia, SC and New Orleans respectively. They stayed in Rincon but we hung out together pretty much every day, exploring various surf breaks, waterfalls and newly opened restaurants like the Taco Maker. During the middle of the week, my new friend Matt Cox came into town from San Juan to do a job interview and then headed directly to the beach with us (while still wearing his suit) to join us in the water on a bodyboard. Later that night we headed to Mayaguez to feast at the Ponderosa and clean out the Mayaquez Resort and Casino. Carlos and I walked out with earnings of around $20 each!!!

On Friday, Papus, Carolyn and Kobe stayed in Rincon and joined us for dinner/drinks at the Tamboo beachfront grill. They were my Salsa gurus and I hadn't seen them since they relocated to Knoxville, TN about 9 months ago, so catching up was fun. Then on Friday night/Saturday morning, Joel and Megan from St. Petersburg, FL flew into Aguadilla and we spent the next two days exploring and surfing various breaks. Saturday we hit the North Coast by Isabela surfing Jobos and Middles. On Sunday, we took a look at Rincon breaks like Domes and Maria's which were very small. Luckily, we salvaged the day with a terrific late afternoon session at Wilderness up in Aguadilla. I think I had the longest ride of my life there, independently verified and described by Joel as being around 30 seconds long and covering around 150 yards.

There were lots of people coming in and out of my apartment, so I could definitely understand when my landlord Eloy asked me "Exactly how many people do you have staying in your apartment?" I explained the topsy turvy situation and reassured him that this kind of traffic won't be happening again. Joel is coming back for his second straight weekend this Friday again and then my Mom will be coming to stay with me the week before I leave on April 8th.

But all the buzz around the island now is about the swell of the DECADE which is going to peak on Wednesday and Thursday. They are saying it will be the biggest waves to hit the island since 1999. Most of the beaches will be closed since it will be so gigantic. My plan is to search for more protected/shielded and smaller spots since I don't want to have anything to do with the 20-30 foot waves (triple to quadruple overhead - yes, you will be able to fit four surfers standing up on a surfboard underneath the open faces of these waves!!!) The swell is starting to build right now outside my apartment, only about 3-5 seas right now, but one can sense that these are the harbingers of the maelstrom that is about to pummel this island.

Here is a nice link with the surf forecasts for this region: http://www.surfline.com/surfline/forecasts4/forecast_mo.cfm?alias=puertorico&county=nwpuertorico

Hopefully I'll be able to post some good pictures on the blog after this weekend too.


Rocky, rolling on his back and having a ball.


Carlos and I tower above the waterfall.


Traffic cop: Only in Puerto Rico would it make sense to allow a mentally challenged individual to direct traffic.

Say "Hello" to Rocky!!!

After receiving various criticisms over my blog being too Feline-centric, I decided I should strive for a little more balance by showing you a picture of this friendly pooch waiting outside my door. His name is Rocky and he belongs to the landlords above and is a very friendly and well-behaved dog.

As for goings on.. just been doing a steady amount of surfing as my shoulder continues to recover. Never surfing too long and the surf hasn't been too big lately either which makes things easier. The one exception being a session up at Wilderness in Aguadilla on Friday morning. There was good size there - about head high - as well as very strong offshore winds which held the wave up for a long time. Unfortunately, it also makes it a lot more difficult to paddle into the wave, especially if you're riding a shortboard as I was (and also if you're still a big time surf rookie!). There was also a very strong current in the water, so once you reached the take off zone, you couldn't just catch your breath, you had to keep paddling continuously just to hold your position. So, in between that, and lots of aborted take offs ie. paddling like a madman to try and catch the wave while the offshore wind just holds it up and keeps it from breaking, I was pretty tired after about 2 hours. And most significantly, my shoulder was tight and swollen again.. dadgumit! Luckily a day of rest on Saturday, lots of ultrasound, stretching and some light easy days in Rincon have reduced the stiffness and swelling and I am feeling good again.

And politics, yeah, those have been in high gear around here the past few days.. and what was cute for the first day or two, has now become incredibly annoying. The candidates have been having rallies and parades, which they conduct through major streets and highways... they usually consist of tons of cars, tons of people drinking on the side of the roads, 4 Wheelers, ATVs, motorcycles, horn honking, tire squealing, engine revving, loud ass music and speakers, and traffic blockades. This was all just building into a crescendo for the actual Primary election which occurred yesterday on Sunday.

And Sunday was a special day alright as alcohol sales were banned on the island! Although there were no planned rallies on that day, people still gathered on the streets, especially in front of the campaign offices. And late on Sunday night, there was another traffic jam in Aguada as I was driving back home from Rincon. As I was sitting in my car, all of a sudden I see about a hundred kids just hauling ass down the street towards me.. a few seconds later, about 30 cops decked in Riot Gear in pursuit run by.. who knows what had beeng going down.. but as I sat there, I contemplated that for once I was actually grateful for the blandness and general apathy associated with politics back on the mainland....

Here, experience the excitement as my progress is once more ground to a halt as another political cluster--err I mean parade passes by.

Looking out my front yard, it's the US Coast Guard again. This time, it looks like they're keeping an eye on a snorkeler in the foreground.. that must be a hell of a swim from Santo Domingo!!

Someone else told me that they haven't gotten sick of the sunset pictures yet, so here's another attempt to actually push your tolerance for these pics over the limit.

No news is good news

Yes, haven't posted anything lately because I've actually been able to get out in the water and do some real surfing! A moderate sized NW swell hit the island this past weekend and I was finally able to get on it with my surfboards. All my rehabbing and the recent acquisition of a personal ultrasound machine have definitely helped me recover. I'm not at a 100% but I am vastly improved and continuing to convalesce.

So unfortunately, when I am shredding it up in the water, it is impossible for me to take any pictures... so may as well just send some new pictures of the sunset...

Surf contest

So in another long string of firsts that I have experienced while being on the island, I had the opportunity to take in a professional surf contest this past weekend. It was being held at Domes Beach in Rincon and I knew something big was going on as soon as I had to stop and park my car almost 1/2 a mile away from the beach it was so packed. At the beach there was gigantic crowd and great atmosphere. Lots of families, food, drink and good times.

The only disappointment was the small size of the waves... it was literally about knee to thigh high most of the weekend (1-2 feet). This makes it very tough on the surfers since it is very hard to generate enough speed to do high powered manuevers on waves like that, and they are also so weak that you can only do maybe one or two tricks on a wave at best - hmmm, sounds a lot like surfing in South Carolina or Florida doesn't it??? oh, but at least these Puerto Rican waves don't close out as often!! Anyhow, every now and then (like every 30-40 minutes) a slightly larger sized set, about waist to stomach high, would roll in, and whoever was fortunate enough to catch it would then remind you why these guys are so good. Whoever caught those rare waves would always win their heat and get a big score since they would be able to pull off many more moves on the longer faster ride. A lot of the surfers really looked like they were in the same skill category, but serendipity would determine who got the better waves and ultimately who would win. The other trend I noticed was that younger and lighter surfers tended to do better in the weak surf, as they didn't require as much speed or power to be able to carve and maneuver on the waves.

As for the atmosphere, everyone seemed in a festive mood. Probably didn't hurt that the contest was sponsored by Corona Extra beer and all kinds of libations were freely flowing on the beach, from spiked coconuts, pineapples with their cores removed and filled with rum, all brands of beers and home made concoctions. Right next to me, there was a friendly young family who I started chatting with. They had come from across the island to support one of their local surfers and they began to thrust a beer into my hand each time they dug into their cooler. Gotta love the hospitality! On my other side, there was this tired (old) drunk local who I watched progress - or should I say "regress" - through all the known stages of inebriation. First he was very loud and cheery, often yelling out "Viva Puerto Ricoooo!!", but then he became a little more exhausted and somber, in fact for about 15 minutes he was weeping like a child as he wistfully muttered something about "Mariaaaaaa!"... check out the attached YouTube clip on the bottom to sample a little bit of his audio...

So back to the contest, in the final it was a young kid named Eric Torres vs. one of the local pros from here in Rincon - Darren Muschett. The heat was very close, but it was evident that Darren's local knowledge gave him the edge as he knew exactly where to wait to catch the best waves. Also, having a ton of his friends and family hooting and hollering as he rode the waves definitely didn't hurt his cause either. It was his first contest win as a Pro and definitely not a bad way to pocket $4000.

Every time I've come down to PR I've always seen him out surfing in Rincon and I have to admit that I love watching him surf. While there are always plenty of other really good surfers out in the water, riding the same kinds of waves, it seems like he just moves at vastly greater speed than the rest of them. Not to mention the radical moves this guy can pull off when the surf is big... which reminds of another one of the cool things I like about surfing - you get to be in the water right next to the pros!!! I mean in what other sport do you get to be right next to the pros? You can't just go down to your neighbourhood basketball court and jump into a pickup game where LeBron James is playing, right? Or step on to the training pitch at Milanello and play alongside Kaka and Alexandre Pato! But when surfing, you can be right next to them in the lineup and watch these guys do all kinds of amazing stuff... Carlos knows what I'm talking about, as I guarantee you we will both never forget the amazing 360 degree air Darren pulled off right next to us at Maria's while we were both just trying to stay alive among the 12-15 ft waves!!


Leif Engstrom, a goofyfoot like me (goofy means you put your right leg forward as opposed to your left) catches one of the better waves of the contest while a barge steams past in the background


Darren Muschett enjoys the thrill of victory.. as well as the putrid taste of getting doused by nasty Mexican beer!!!


Here's a quick video clip from the contest... the drunk guy next to me starts doing a strange kind of moaning karaoke along to Paul van Dyk's timeless trance classic "Time of our Lives"

Secure the Borders!!

Now I know there are a lot of voices back in the US calling for the government to do more to secure our borders and stop the overwhelming influx of illegal immigrants entering our country. Well, I think those concerned citizens shouldn't be losing any more sleep as I can attest first-hand that our border with the Dominican Republic is being well patrolled! Allow me to set the scene:

It was Thursday morning, the night immediately after the amazing Lunar Eclipse of Wednesday, Feb 20th. Actually, I didn't even know that an eclipse was going to occur, but luckily my landlord Eloy came and knocked on my door and ushered me outside. It was absolutely spectacular, way better than any solar eclipse since you could actually look very clearly at the whole event as it happened. I had seen other lunar eclipses before but this one was particularly striking in how bright the moon originally was, and then how truly blood-red it turned. If I was living in the Middle Ages, I would have definitely gone ape$%^& too at the sight of something like that!

Anyways, back to the morning after, I woke up on Thursday and went out to the front yard and saw a helicopter just hovering over one spot in the bay. It was a red US Coast Guard chopper and it was sitting right on top of some type of boat. There were a couple of Puerto Ricans who had pulled their cars over to survey the scene as well... I started chatting with one of them and he told me that he suspected it was a boat from the Dominican Republic either carrying refugees or smuggling drugs. Apparently it is a rather frequent occurrence around here and these guys didn't seem to sympathetic to the boaters' plight. "I'm not racist or anything, but they're bad people!!!" one local explained to me. After about a half hour, the boat turned back to head west again and started travelling towards the horizon as the chopper now flew back to its base in Aguadilla, surely in need of some refuelling too. But just as the boat was about to drop out of sight, it doubles back and starts heading towards Puerto Rico again. And sure enough, the helicopter returns and intercepts it. This time, the chopper is accompanied by a second helicopter as well and after hovering above the boat for another 45 minutes or so, the boat finally follows them towards Aguadilla. The locals here tell me that they will most likely be arrested and thrown in jail now, before ultimately being deported again.

For the pictures, I suggest downloading them and using magnify/zoom to see the most details.. again, I apologize that my camera doesn't have a better zoom lens. All pics were taken from my front yard.


Here you can see the chopper hovering extremely low above the boat with Desecheo Island in the background.


Now there's two helicopters keeping an eye on our Dominican friends.

Politics of the Caribbean

Election excitement is in the air!!! Yes, the buzz of the upcoming election is definitely electric down here in Puerto Rico. I haven't exactly been caught up in the fever yet though, and must declare that at this point I am still undecided. But I can tell you who I am definitely not voting for: Berty! Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the incumbent mayor of Aguada right now and his stupid campaign van has annoyed me quite a bit so far. Following the general guideline of music or noise coming from cars in Puerto Rico, this van is also annoying. I guess I should be happy that it's not blasting Reggaeton like 98% of the other cars driving around.

NOTE: if you are not familiar with Reggaeton, it is sort of like a Spanish HipHop, that has the distinctive characteristic of always using the EXACT same beat in every song. Feel free to download or listen to about 10 seconds of any song by Daddy Yankee or Don Omar, or remember that song Gasolina or "Are you Ready??".. well yeah, when you've heard 10 seconds of that, just imagine that exact same song being played for hours on end.

But back to Berty, he and a bunch of other candidates running for Alcalde (mayor) or Senador (if you need a translation for that you're too dumb to be reading my blog so please just log onto PerezHilton.com right now) have these cars, trucks, and vans that drive around, sometimes with big pictures of the electoral hopefuls and usually some Salsa type of music playing with songs that are customized to the candidate. Saying crap like "4 more years", "___ brings progress!" or sometimes just "___ is gonna win, ___ is gonna win".. Now, I haven't seen cars driving around with huge speakers on top of them since the Blues Brothers movie when they are announcing their big final concert at the Palace Ballroom, but these speakers are really loud and clear and you can hear them from a ways away. Just check out the incredible volume my tiny little camera picked up from the van in the video above!

In other non-political news I am very happy to report that I have been able to get back into the water. On Tuesday, I purchased a bodyboard at SurfTown in Rincon, a Custom-X 40" board along with some fins and some sockfins with tethers that help ensure that your fins still stay attached to your leg if one of them gets pulled off by a big wave. I tried out the gear later that afternoon and was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was to be back in the water and catching waves. I didn't have to do any overhead paddling - the main source of my shoulder aggravation. And the waves weren't too big so I didn't have to duckdive (submerge under oncoming waves). On Wednesday, the waves did get a bit bigger so it was little more challenging and my legs were a bit sore after that session. And again today I went out for a leisurely session. While I am new at bodyboarding, one of the things I do like about it is the fact that I am lot more fearless in catching waves. I guess psychologically you don't fear the spill as much when you're already lying down as opposed to standing up where you feel more vulnerable. I do still need to work a lot on my technique though, specifically digging my rail into the wave to traverse down the line on it. With a surfboard, it seemed easier since I was accustomed to it, and since the fins underneath the board help you move down the wave more... bodyboard has no fins underneath it so you really have to lean with your body to stick the side of the board into the open face of the wave... enough waveriding mechanics, yawn.. let's look at some pictures!


Wednesday Feb 13th was a solid day at Domes beach in Rincon, waves were a good 2-3 feet overhead.


And when a macking wave like this one pushes through, a mad scramble ensues as half the people try and jockey to try and catch it while the other half just try to get the hell out of the way!!!


Somebody call Hans Blix and tell him to head down to Puerto Rico ASAP as this is some hard evidence on new weapons of mass destruction being kept here.. namely my new bodyboard and fins!!!!


And oh yeah had to put in another picture of the sunset.. at least this time with some surfing!

Soccer balls, whales and cocks

So this past Tuesday I finally got a chance to check out the local soccer scene in Rincon. I remember seeing some people playing here at the community sports complex while driving by on my previous visit back in November so I took my boots with me and drove on down. I got there around 7 PM and there were tons of people walking around the track, which was encouraging to me until I thought about all the other people across the island who were probably stuck in Burger King drive thru windows at the same time. Inside the track there were a couple of youth teams practicing. I did spot one guy who looked like an adult with a Barcelona jersey on who was lacing up his shoes. Turns out his name is Angelo and he is a Cuban who has been living in Miami Beach for the past 16 years working as a photographer. He tells me that more adults should be coming out later so we just shoot the breeze and kick a ball back and forth to warm up. Turns out, he also decided to move down to Rincon for a while, a year in his case, after becoming burnt out on Miami, the scene, the drugs, etc... he's actually 44 years old and although he seems a little out of shape I could tell from the way he could use both feet and the technique he had that he knew how to play. He went on to tell me that when he was growing up in Cuba, soccer was his sport - apparently under Castro, sports are very highly encouraged and developed and every high school student has to have at least one or two sports in which they specialize. What's also interesting about Angelo is how he came to South Florida - by raft! He came back in 1991 and told me that the journey took almost 5 days. Wow.

Anyways, at around 8PM some more adults show up, and they are an interesting crew ranging in age from mid 20's to early 40's so I felt like I was right in the median. There were about 10 of us when we began to play and the people were from all over: Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Mexico even a Dominican, but I am pretty sure there was not a single Puerto Rican playing!!! Was it like that for you too Jean-Claude when you played over here in San Juan? I imagine so. It was fun playing with the guys and they all seemed friendly and reminded me to come out when they play on Tues/Thur nights as well as on Sunday when they play out at the old Ramey Air Force base in Aguadilla (site of the current Aguadilla airport). Unfortunately, my shoulder was killing me after the soccer game, which was much to my chagrin. I already had decided to give up the surfing for a while, so I figured soccer would use my legs and not cause any further shoulder pain.. but I was wrong, I guess the fast running motion caused a lot of friction up there as well, so I'm going to have to put the soccer on hold as well. Gulp.

Although facing the fact that I couldn't do any of my two favourite recreational activities, I figured I should galvanize my efforts to rest and rehabilitate my shoulder. I've done a lot of stretching, icing and ibuprofen over the last week and the improvement has been significant. I am optimistic that I'll be back in the water within 2 weeks, if not earlier granted I get a bodyboard!

Speaking of the water, it's hard to stay away and even though there is almost no swell filling into the Northwest coast here I decided to drive up to Aguadilla to check out some of the breaks which are right off the North coast. I went to beaches called Crashboat and Wilderness. At Wilderness a.k.a. Wildo, there is just a dirt road and parking area, and lots of trees and high cliffs that rise above you. I sat down and surveyed the small clean waves coming in. And then off in the distance, I noticed large splashes of water occurring in a somewhat regular pattern. As I looked again, I realized that it was a whale out there! It's hard for me to gauge large distances across water, but I'd guess it was about a mile offshore but the amount of spray it produced when jumping out of the water was impressive. About every 20 seconds or so, this whale would rise out of the water, lift both fins horizontally and then splash down with a backside belly flop. I had never seen a whale before in my life, so it was pretty mesmerizing. I was very astonished by both the creature's size and playfulness.

Which brings us to today, Sunday! I have to be honest, I was looking forward to Sunday all week, especially after being so athletically incapacitated for its duration. You see on Sunday, I was going to get my first taste of what the Puerto Ricans call the "Deporte de Caballeros" = The Sport of Gentlemen, and here in Puerto Rico I could do so without fear of criminal prosecution!!! So I headed down to the Gallera Guanina, the neighbourhood Cockfighting Coliseum which is conveniently located just a few blocks from my apartment. I arrived around 2:30PM, about a half hour before the fights started but I wasn't anxious since it gave me more time to soak up the ambience. The place was already buzzing with activity. Mostly, it was older crusty looking men who were chatting among themselves, while pointing at the fight board and looking at the numbered cages where the roosters were kept. There were also younger people there, a lot of kids or grandkids I assume. One sign that caught my attention inside read: "No hable palabras obcenas, hay damas en la gallera." - "Don't use obscene language, there are ladies in the building." And the sign wasn't lying, there was ONE young mother in the building tending to her baby up in the top row of the bleachers. There seemed to be a lot of pride exhibited by the Galleros for their sport, as many of them wore large gold necklaces which had silhouettes of fighting birds, or they wore hats that said "Cock fight" or had belt buckles with roosters on them, etc..

Although the fighting had not yet begun, there was considerable activity in the Armadero/Armory where the Galleros/Cockfighters were prepping their birds. Behind glass, you could see how they would take their bird, have one person, usually a younger kid hold it, while the Gallero uses some pliers to snip off one of the claws. This claw was the one located up higher on the leg in the back region, and here they would affix with tape, rope and glue an artificial claw which looked like a sharpened piece of plastic. Finally the first fight was ready to start. People took their places in the arena, and the prefight environment becomes rather chaotic. Both birds are brought into the arena in sacks, from which they are weighed, they are then removed from the bags and prepped by neutral attendees. And at this time there is a lot of yelling as fans and Galleros place their bets on which bird they think will win. But it's very unregulated and unofficial as no one seems to be recording who is betting on what, it's just guys pointing at each other and nodding. So the birds are placed into holding cells which are then lifted and the fight begins!

To me it just looks like a flurry of feathers as they jump up and ruffle their claws together... this goes on for about 30 seconds and by then it seems like one bird takes the upper hand, jumping higher and pouncing more often than the other. And at this point both birds still look like they are in good condition. But now the bird who has the upperhand seems to start doing a lot more pecking with its beak, mostly aiming at its adversary's long neck. Once one of the birds stops resisting and just lays on the ground, the judge declares the fight over and the Galleros come into the ring and reclaim their birds, the losing bird usually a little bloody while missing a few chunks from its neck and probably much closer to becoming part of someone's next meal of Arroz con pollo.

At this time, a young kid comes out into the arena and picks up some stray feathers and performs some perfunctory cleaning with a sponge and disinfectant. The bettors now come over to each other and settle their scores. I am always kinda shocked when I see people pull wads of cash out of their pockets, especially in such an unluxurious setting. I would imagine that disagreements and skirmishes would be somewhat common at this time as well. So I stuck around for 3 more fights and realized that it is always pretty much the same and I really wasn't getting into it that much. The owners of the birds get very animated though while their birds are fighting; yelling and clapping and making strange animal noises too. Them and the bettors have a lot at stake I suppose, but I don't. In retrospect, I didn't find it super unpleasant but definitely nothing I care to watch again either. The only similar event I have been to I would say is a bullfight in Sevilla. Now while there is way more pageantry, human skill and elegance on display in a bullfight, it is also much more bloody and gorey.


Sorry about the poor quality of the cockfighting pics, seems my battery was running low. Prepping the arena for the next bout.


The birds in action.


A convoy of about 20 cop cars passed me in Aguadilla so I took a picture. Cop cars down here always drive around with their lights on, which initially made paranoid types like me shudder in anticipation of getting yet another ticket!! Wonder what these guys were up to though, on their way to stop an armed robbery? I think it's more likely they were giving J. Lo an escort to an emergency evening visit to her hairdresser.

And the top pic, yeah, it's another sunset, I know, this time taken from a rest area on an Aguadilla cliff.

Superbowl and Profound Thoughts

So on Sunday I decided to go and watch the Superbowl with a bunch of ex-Pats, no not former Patriot fans but people who are originally from the US, most of whom are tourists or some of whom are temporary (like me) or long term transplants to Puerto Rico. I went down to Rincon, ex-Pat central and watched the game at the Tamboo bar which is right on the beach. The game was ok and I really didn't come into it pulling for one team or the other, but early on I casually shifted to a Pro NY mentality - since when I am a neutral observer I usually root for the underdog. Well, I wasn't alone since a ton of of the American surfers and ex-Pats down here seem to come from the NY area. And, then you throw in the fact that probably 95% of all Puerto Ricans have either lived in the NY area or at least have relatives there, you had a very strong go NY vibe going. One downer for me was the fact that the Fox Puerto Rico channel showed almost none of the big SuperBowl commercials which have become just about as important as the game recently. Instead it was cheap little local commercials for Used Car dealerships and banks, pretty lame.

Back in the barrio, I finally met my neighbour, who is renting out a 2 BR apt on the ground floor next to me. Her name is Maria and she is actually from Sweden, working for some kind of non-profit organization down here for a while. She has several cats, including the aforepictured kitten who I now know is named "Sweetie". She seemed very friendly and she told me that she is ethnically German so we actually got to speak some Deutsch together.

Well, the pain in my shoulder / rotator cuff is still quite prevalent. As difficult as the choice is, I have decided to take a couple of days off from surfing, which I last did on Saturday. The overhead paddling and pushdown for duckdiving motions are pretty intense even when you are at full strength, so doing these with injured body parts is very difficult and after feeling so sore afterwards I was convinced that this couldn't be helping the healing process. So after talking to several health care professionals back in the States who I am lucky enough to call good friends, I have decided to hit the inflammation hard with a steady dose of NSAIDs ie Motrin, continue doing my restrengthening exercises and icings, and give that shoulder some rest. It's not easy to see such nice waves go by and not just jump all over them, but I gotta be patient and mercifully enough, the surf in Rincon has really tapered off recently and should be quiet for the next few days anyway.

So I've also been lucky enough to have time to contemplate some profound thoughts such as.. "to boogie or not to boogie".. Now I know, that to some of you who are trivializing your lives with minor concerns such as jobs, bills, significant others and kids it may seem that this question is not as important as it truly is... you see, as a surfer you feel as though you have reached the top of the evolutionary ladder, standing up and riding the waves from a prominent stature. Now when you see a boogey or body boarder lying on his stomach, you literally and figuratively look down on them like we would a prehistoric cromagnon walking around on all fours. But this devolution would actually serve a purpose, since bodyboarding is both quite similar yet importantly different than stand up surfing.

You see, on a surfboard, the only way you can propel yourself through the water is by paddling which uses your arms and shoulders. Bodyboarders, however, wear fins on their feet and kicking is the main method of propulsion through the water. So this would allow me to still get out there in the water, catch some sweet waves, while also giving my shoulder more time to heal without stressing it out too much. I think I am comfortable enough in my "surfual orientation" to know that I am just experimenting with this and that I am not crossing over to the otherside... the other good thing is that back in the US, bodyboarders are very rare and castigated from the rest of the surfing society... but here, bodyboarding is really the surfing vehicle of choice for the locals, and there are lots of them out there. So who knows, this could my opportunity to blend in better with the locals, without having to grow and trim a beard the width of a pencil or having to listen to 6 hours of Reggaeton everyday.


Well, I'm sure I'll eventually get over the beauty of the sunsets here, but it hasn't happened yet. These two pictures are of the beach right below my apartment. The first view is to the left or west towards Rincon and the sunset.



The second view is to the right and towards the east and one can see the city of Aguadilla in the distance.

Getting settled in the Barrio

First of all, due to popular demand I have changed my blog colors to a bright new happy background from the former black industrial/goth theme I had before. Not too much new going on here, but I did want to post a few more pics. This morning I finally made it out to do some surfing. I hit Marias beach in Rincon which is on the west coast and was still getting a little bit of leftover swell and wasn't too blown out by the steady Northeasterly tradewinds. I have been having quite a bit of pain due to a rotator cuff injury I sustained, so although the waves were a bit smaller than the first couple days here ie about chest to shoulder high, I was still a bit trepidacious going in there. The paddle out wasnt too bad, but duckdiving - the technique used to go underneath oncoming waves, requires a pushup kind of motion which proved somewhat painful. I was able to catch a few decent rides though, nothing epic, but at least a good taste of the riches Puerto Rico has to offer. I was a bit sore afterwards but am optimistic and hopeful that my rotator cuff will continue to heal. To further that healing, I abstained from going out for an afternoon session.


So here's a picture of the balcony of the house where I am staying, where my landlords Eloy and Gladys live above me. My pad is right where the window A/C unit is and the front door is behind those palm-esque foliage.


This is the new ride, if I was staying longer I would consider painting it bright Yellow to help blend in with the locals.



This is the tiny little kitty that lives on the property here too, he's really cute. I think my thumb may be almost as big as his head.