I somehow talked myself into paddling out despite all of the reasons not to at the end of my previous entry. The waves were well overhead but makeable when they didn't section off. And there was no one out thar!
The river was mellow, considering the amount of water coming down. I suppose its recent widening helped reduce the speed at the expense of its girth. And boy do I know what THAT feels like (pitching).
The paddle-out was sketchy but not an issue. I did take one on the head, probs a 4 on the Beatdown Scale©.
What a set-up, macking El Recodo, by myself, with distant thunder and several tufts of cumulonimbus formations maddogging me.
It was tricky finding a good paddle spot for one that wouldn't section off. Easy, you might be thinking, just catch it after the section! But those would fizzle into fatness and were just a drop.
After about a half-hour I caught one. It was a doozy! I got two cutbacks on it and three top turns, including one really good smack on which I thought for sure I was going to pearl. I was AMPING, definitely the best wave I've caught in a year (this sesh marked a year since I'd surfed in Nica, by the way).
After about five minutes of straight paddling out and against the current I perched again. I noticed a guy coming up the rocks down the beach from me. I was bummed but thankfully he had no entourage. He and I didn't exchange a word and he was out there with me for about a half-hour before he caught one I let go as I was just in too critical a spot for it. He caught it and he...
...WENT IN! I had to laugh. Here I had made my peace with this guy and a couple of other dudes subtracting from my wave count and he went in with no sign of a posse
As I bobbed up and down with the wave action, I noticed there were a couple of guys from Pando's development up the beach, their body language looking weird. I quickly guessed that a body had washed up. When my mom was with my stepdad, they rented a beach house at the beachbreak up the way here and we would sometimes see a crowd gather at El Majahual, gawking at the latest drowning victim. It was usually an inexperienced swimmer, a drunk, or an inexperienced drunk getting caught in a rip and surfacing the next day.
In between dodging sets and bemoaning my lackluster positioning, I spotted something on the rocks, mind you I was about 250 meters away as the crow flies. There was something odd there, it was a white bulk which didn't seem to belong. More of a crowd gathered.
Then I saw the police pick-up truck, which then left without taking what I thought was a body. I made the decision to go in about another twenty minutes later as the wind was picking up to my disadvantage. I wasn't about to fight the current AND the ferocious shorebreak so I opted for the El Cocal beachbreak, towards Punta Roca. When I eventually caught a small wave to aid me in my journey, I looked towards my line-up spot and was shocked at how quickly I was moving as I faded off this relative piddler.
The go-in was rough. There was no sand! I caught a foothold on a rock while in waist deep water and did my damnedest to quickly twinkletoe in before the next shorebreak wave slammed my body along with my dreams of a perfect landfall against the rocks. I made it and had a long walk back to the car.
I asked the guys at the development if it was a swimmer from El Majahual and they confirmed it.
 |
| My surf boner was saying LET'S GO, but my mind, heart, and body were saying no |
The paddle-out was sketchy but not an issue. I did take one on the head, probs a 4 on the Beatdown Scale©.
What a set-up, macking El Recodo, by myself, with distant thunder and several tufts of cumulonimbus formations maddogging me.
It was tricky finding a good paddle spot for one that wouldn't section off. Easy, you might be thinking, just catch it after the section! But those would fizzle into fatness and were just a drop.
After about a half-hour I caught one. It was a doozy! I got two cutbacks on it and three top turns, including one really good smack on which I thought for sure I was going to pearl. I was AMPING, definitely the best wave I've caught in a year (this sesh marked a year since I'd surfed in Nica, by the way).
After about five minutes of straight paddling out and against the current I perched again. I noticed a guy coming up the rocks down the beach from me. I was bummed but thankfully he had no entourage. He and I didn't exchange a word and he was out there with me for about a half-hour before he caught one I let go as I was just in too critical a spot for it. He caught it and he...
...WENT IN! I had to laugh. Here I had made my peace with this guy and a couple of other dudes subtracting from my wave count and he went in with no sign of a posse
As I bobbed up and down with the wave action, I noticed there were a couple of guys from Pando's development up the beach, their body language looking weird. I quickly guessed that a body had washed up. When my mom was with my stepdad, they rented a beach house at the beachbreak up the way here and we would sometimes see a crowd gather at El Majahual, gawking at the latest drowning victim. It was usually an inexperienced swimmer, a drunk, or an inexperienced drunk getting caught in a rip and surfacing the next day.
In between dodging sets and bemoaning my lackluster positioning, I spotted something on the rocks, mind you I was about 250 meters away as the crow flies. There was something odd there, it was a white bulk which didn't seem to belong. More of a crowd gathered.
Then I saw the police pick-up truck, which then left without taking what I thought was a body. I made the decision to go in about another twenty minutes later as the wind was picking up to my disadvantage. I wasn't about to fight the current AND the ferocious shorebreak so I opted for the El Cocal beachbreak, towards Punta Roca. When I eventually caught a small wave to aid me in my journey, I looked towards my line-up spot and was shocked at how quickly I was moving as I faded off this relative piddler.
The go-in was rough. There was no sand! I caught a foothold on a rock while in waist deep water and did my damnedest to quickly twinkletoe in before the next shorebreak wave slammed my body along with my dreams of a perfect landfall against the rocks. I made it and had a long walk back to the car.
I asked the guys at the development if it was a swimmer from El Majahual and they confirmed it.
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