Well...I just finished up 4 days of surf camp in the remote western coast of Guatemala. And frankly, I feel like I got run over by a bus. Every part of my body aches, none more so than my lower back which I can hardly even bend. I am ok when I am laying down flat or standing up straight, but anytime I need to get up, unless there is something I can reach up for and literally pull myself up with, it is a slow and arduous process. It's like I went from 30 to 90 years old overnight. Pass the ibuprofen!
So why surf camp? Well I am actually on a bus right now headed down to Costa Rica to meet up with my buddy Raff and his friends, who do an annual surf trip around this time. I've never surfed before, but since I'm gonna be in the general vicinity and it's something I've always wanted to take a crack at, I figured I'd meet up and tag along. And as far as the whole surfing part, no problem. I've got nearly a decade of skateboarding under my belt so I'll pretty much be shredding out of the gate. Or so I thought at first - before I had some candid conversations with Raff and some other surfers I met along my travels, which gave me a more realistic picture of what learning to surf is like. I was still pretty confident, but the idea of sitting on the beach for the whole week watching everyone surf and not being able to do so myself was enough to take things a bit more seriously. In doing so, I had a tough decision to make - the week before I was to meet up in Costa Rica, I had plans to get my open water scuba certification in the Bay Islands of Honduras. I had made arrangements with a dive school and was all set to go. Decisions, decisions. A week of partying and scuba diving in the beautiful Bay Islands, or surf camp in the black sand beaches of western Guatemala? I chose surf camp. And I'm glad I did.
After some email correspondence with Rafa, the owner of the camp, I arranged to be picked up in Antigua last Saturday. Also along for the ride were two guys from Australia (Aussies) and a girl from New Zealand (Kiwi) who were really cool and equally as excited about getting to the ocean. We hit it off immediately, sharing stories of our lives and travels, and a general excitement about what was to come. They were experienced surfers and were excited for me and my first delve into the sport. It was going to be a great group spend the next few days with. After a three hour ride to the pacific coast, an hour of which was spent traversing a dirt path to the ocean, we finally made it to camp.
http://www.surf-guatemala.com/
What a gem. Very rustic, but what it lacked in modern facilities, it more than made up for in charm. The grounds were nothing more than a few thatch roof bungalows, a dining hut, and lots of hammocks. I opened the door of my bungalow to find bats swirling around the ceiling and the others reported crabs crawling around in theirs. Welcome guests as far as I'm concerned.
Very relaxing setup. But I wasn't here to relax! Eager to get started, I asked Rafa when my first lesson would be. "En la manana", he replied. "No es possible ahora. Las olas son mas fuerte." I was a little dissapointed but I trusted his assessment that the waves were too strong. He explained that we needed to wait until the tides changed in the morning at which time things would mellow out, giving us a window of an hour or two for lessons before picking back up. On the other hand, the other guys wasted little time in suiting up and hitting the waves. Before long, the locals joined in and there were about a dozen people out there. It was a lot of fun to watch. I sat with Rafa as I looked on, and peppered him with questions about the tides, how waves are formed, how they break, and what he sees when he scans the ocean's topography. It was a nice little lesson in itself.
Soon it was time for lunch. Not having very much fish since arriving in Guatemala I was rooting for just that and I was not dissapointed. Fresh catch! Very quickly there was nothing more than a head and vertebrae remaining on my plate. This would be our staple lunch for the next several days. Glorious!
Here at surf camp, the honestly policy ruled. There was a small binder where each of us had our own running tab and anytime we had a meal, spent the night, took a surf lesson, etc, we put a tick mark next to that item on our page. Same went for the fridge stocked full of beverages. That night, with a bonfire on the beach and a lightning storm playing out in the distance, many a tickmark went into the beer column.
I slept like a rock, and as I opened my eyes around 7am, the excitement started to creep in - it was time for my first lesson! I found Juan Carlos, who was one of the local guys working at the camp who would be giving me my lesson and we wasted little time in getting started. Instead of one of the slick shortboards which lined the racks, I was fixed up with the massive 9' bright blue foam board. About as uncool as you could get in terms of surfboards, but apparently the best one to learn on. Surfs up!
After a brief lesson on the sand, we hit the waves. Or rather, the waves hit me - over and over again. I consider myself to be in fairly good shape, but I was frustratingly weak when it came to paddling out past the breakers. I paddled furiously, taking one step forward, but then two steps back every time I got plastered by a wave. I withstood the first few, holding on for dear life but the onslaught was relentless, and soon I was knocked clear off my board, choking up saltwater and trying to collect my board before being pounded by the next wave. Not a promising start, but I was determined, and Juan Carlos was there helping me out every step of the way. Over the coarse of the next hour, I pushed myself to the point of exhaustion, paddling out past the breakers, and with the help of Juan Carlos propelling me forward at the right moment, I caught my first wave. As I popped up to my feet and gained my balance, time seemed to slow down - I was doing it. It may have only lasted a few seconds, but I erupted out of the water screaming with both arms high in the air and looked back to see Juan Carlos celebrating just as enthusiastically. Victory!!! I caught a few more waves that morning, but it was clear that learning this sport was going to be a lot harder than I had ever anticipated. Starving and exhausted, I trudged back up to camp to a round of high fives and a chorus of encouragement from the others who were sitting down to breakfast. Despite the long road that I knew I had ahead of me, I was absolutely stoked. And that was before this was put out in front of me:
I earned this one!
One of the things I enjoyed most about camp was the synergy with the locals. Rafa created a welcoming environment for the local surfers, many of which were teenagers, to hang out, borrow boards, and interact with the people staying at the camp. It was a great way to help facilitate the progress of the sport within the village. Also, those same kids tearing it up on the waves were the ones giving the surf lessons, which I found very cool. Especially because they were all incredibly nice, welcoming, and encouraging. They seemed to really enjoy sharing their beach with us, which is different from what I've heard about other locations in Central America.
In between surf sessions, we enjoyed exploring the little town of El Paredon. It was a really really small fishing village with sand streets, a few tiendas, random animals running around, and not much else.
As we passed by one of the tiendas, there was an oldschool Tony Hawk arcade game out front with two kids furiously mashing down buttons and wrenching the joystick back and forth. They were fighting over the game, trying to outposition one another on the little stool in order to assume full control. Fully engagaed. But as we walked up closer, we noticed the "Please Insert Coin" text flashing across the screen, with just generic video clips playing in the background. They were having a heck of a time for not even playing! Luckily Sebastion, one of the Aussie guys, had a few coins in his pocket which he pumped into the machine to the absolute delight of the two kids. Very cool.
Over the next three days, my strength and confidence increased, as did my timeline for how long it would realistically take to get good at this. Long gone was the notion that I could become proficient in a matter of days or even weeks. There is definitely a barrier to entry as the initial pain period of learning and building up the requisite muscles and confidence is pretty rough. Forget standing up, the amount of fortitude it takes to fight your way out there, just to put yourself in position to have a chance is the most challenging part, at least at first. Even just balancing yourself on the board while trying to paddle out - stuff that you would think would be really easy was surprisingly difficult. It didnt help that this was a very difficult place to learn. Overall the waves were strong, fast, messy and unpredictable.
Still, wanting to get the most practice possible, in addition to my morning lesson I ventured out each afternoon at high tide for what turned out to be my daily ass whooping. Despite my determination, I never made it past the breakers at high tide. Constant sets of waves would batter and wear me down until finally the big one came and delivered the knockout blow, crashing down and violently spinning me along the ocean floor like a rag-doll (they call it the spin cycle). But despite the challenges, I had an absolute blast. There is something amazing about learning to first understand and then eventually harness the raw power of Mother Nature in the form of these waves. Even taking a massive tumble is exhillarating in a sense. It's all part of the process which must be embraced as a whole.
For now, I need to continue fighting through the intitial sucking period in order to really experience what it's all about. I've got a few weeks in Costa Rica to practice, after which time I think I'll know whether this is something I want to continue on with because as of right now I'm really not sure. I have no idea how my surfing career will pan out or even if it will last much longer, but what I do know is that it could not have kicked off in a better way!
