The switch has been flipped. I'm a maniac. Water on the brain, no joke. After my swim yesterday, I went home and toiled through the core workout that Warren (my friend and a PT) designed for me to help stabilize my lower back, then a quick leg workout at the gym and finally to yoga (regular, not hot). Today, I woke up at 5am and did a brief core warm-up before my surf this morning (see below). At lunch I did another 2k, to be followed by hot yoga after work, a core workout and then lift (arms this time). What I'm trying to do, as I have done this kind of emergency prep before, is to force myself to hit the physical fitness wall as hard as possible as soon as possible. I want my body to ache with exhaustion. This is what happens on surf trips (if it is good), which is a natural result of such a single-purpose-trip. The idea is to be able to have triple-sessions everyday and more stamina allows for the best probability of being out there when everyone else has gone in for lunch or whatever. Fortunately, surfing everyday goes a long way toward the prep work, now I just need to smooth out the rough edges. I'm amped! Oh yeah, just to clarify, this is not a surf trip, it is a video acquisition trip. I need footage for my newly formed video production business. But I'll surf between all of the hard work!
The good spots get crowded, that is just a fact of life. Colorado's, where we are going (posted a pic of it yesterday) can get real crowded for short periods of time. That is because it is frequented by a number of boats in the area and if they all show up at the same time, it can be a mess. In this case, it is better to just wait it out because it will not be long before they all clear out. There is something peculiar about group think that affords many opportunities to surf between the gaps of a “shift changes”. In this case, land-based camps service the break, which utilize boats to get there, so the group dynamic is magnified by the fact that the boated-in surfers require frequent ferrying back to the camps. It is actually preferable for it to get really crowded because you know that the opportunity for solo barrels lies just beyond the frustration of the water-taxi surfers. For some reason, these windows happen at all venues, I've seen 50 guys at Macaroni's turn into 5 within an hour, 25 guys turn into 2 (me and Ben) at K-59 in El Sal, 20 into 2 at Lance's Left (yesterday's post). You have to be ready to pounce. Fatigue can be an issue, but if you have already been there and back recently (the idea behind the workouts), then it is no problem. Nica has that prevailing offshore wind, so triple sessions are likely because it does not typically blow out in the arvo.
Today’s surf was silly. I counted 36 waves during my session. It was soooo consistent and good! All but one of those waves, I was able to complete turns on! I had so many good ones that they all meld together in my head. Jay came out and said, “I saw you fall on that set, that good one.” I honestly could not remember the wave that he was talking about and it was a set! It was a good workout to be sure. I got out there at the crack, right at 5:45 and then headed back up the hill at 7:30, so that is a 105 minute session. This means that I caught a wave on average every 3 minutes. That rarely happens! But wind swell comes through again, which is why it is my favorite.
Addendum: I wrote this yesterday but I don’t know why I did not hit publish. I think I was probably a little delirious from my swim at lunch. I pushed it a little too hard. I felt sick after. But I did manage to recover enough to go to hot yoga, the gym (arms) and another core workout. I’m laser-focused on this prep. I guess I cannot be accused of apathy in this case - I really hope we score because I’m amped!
I’ve been skunked in Costa Rica, not a good feeling. Maybe we’ll get lucky this time. By-the-way, in case you haven’t noticed, the surf trip has already started for me. I’m on it right now, the anticipation and excitement started to grow as soon as I had confirmation on my plane ticket.
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I hope you have a good time on your trip. Sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteLast year I was surfing at that Ranch place near Zihuatanejo in the morning with about 30 other guys.
My friend and I came in at around 11am for lunch, and then all of the sudden everyone left (I had ordered a plate of food, and the lady hadn't even finished making it yet before 3/4s of the people had come in).
So my friend and I talked ourselves into going out again, and we had another hour long session, with a little ruffle on the wave faces, with one other guy.
It opens up your surfing a lot when you don't fear falling, because you can paddle right back out and get another one.