7.31.2009

Ummmmm

All these folks with emails like jamesmcdooley@costaricarealtors.com are drooling for the chance to check out the Sin Fin.

I guess I've got some dedestruction to do.

A cash infusion of 5-8 thousand smackers could just make this trip interesting again...

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Mmmmmmmmmmmax

7.28.2009

Mal Pais

After a week of dodging big closeouts and crackheads in Dominical we picked up an expedition photographer and headed north to Bahia Herradura.


We looked forward to surfing the ¨world class wave¨ at Playa Escondida so we headed straight there... on a very big day. There were 30 guys in the water and sitting deeper was the only way to catch anything.


I didn´t respect the wave enough and almost got killed when I fell on the first wave of a big set. After taking four on the head I noticed a very large rock right behind me... things got worse... I got all cut up and beat up... had to ditch my board when my leash got tangled in the reef and was holding me under.... sliced the shit out of my feet hopping on the reef between piles of whitewater... my board washed up eventually... and now it´s a seriously dinged up piece of shit.


Standing safely on the reef I spent the next 15 watching people riding one hell of a beautiful wave. I was joined by a Tico and a Gringo who had also gotten washed ashore by the big set... the gringo´s board was broken in half... the Tico had some nasty scrapes... this made me feel a bit less moronic.


The crew could only handle the disgustingness of development in Bahia Herradura for one night.... and the marina wouldn´t sell us gas because we´re poor... so we set sail at dawn across the Gulf to the Nicoya Peninsula.


Now the boat is (hopefully still) anchored in Tambor and we´re all in Mal Pais. Hugh snapped his board and is living on credit so he´s off to Canada for work. Tu Laki seems to be going his own way as well. And the photographer seems to have arrived a bit too late to capture any hint of magic the little voyage held.


Everything else is up in the air.


The boat is up for sale. Cheap, too. I´m hoping someone bites because I´m ready for a change... ideally pocketting some dough and surfing a month from the comfort of $10 a night rooms while dealing with the realization of reentry.


Culture shock? Sin Fin has been another planet.


I am, however, looking forward to catching up with family, old friends, and the Teets.


Anyone want a boat?


Max

7.20.2009

HEAVY WAVES

So...

Me and Tu Laki are still getting along and we've added a third to the crew...

Hugh Wiley... a young Aussie crewing and surfing his way around the world... a much better surfer than Tu and I combined... usually the best in the water at any given break.

We surfed small Pavones and Cabo Matopalo before heading N to a calm night in Drake Bay. We all the the GRIP-E (FLU) but probably not the swine variety... after a few early evenings we attempted the controversial "drown it in booze" cure and are footloose and fancy free once again.

There in Drake Bay I awoke in a cloud of acrid rubbery smoke... a small electrical fire almost took down the boat... and fried both the iPods... thank God I was on the boat (the others were dreamily pursuing some Tica barkeeps... yeah right)... the gas supply is kinda close to the batteries and it all could have gone BOOM.

I haven't told Tu Laki about his iPod yet... he's going to be devastated... his first iPod got gangked... the second a victim of some sort of power surge during the fire.

We're now in Dominical, super laid back surf town with a mean beach break... tomorrow morning (if the boat's still where I left it) we're sailing north to Quepos to get legally checked in again... still currently in Columbia according to the passport... hopefully this doesn't fuck us... I'm expecting the boat will be thoroughly searched by the Tico Coast Guardo.

From Quepos its a mere 30 miles to Bahia Herradura where I'm looking forward to annoying and teasing billionaires at the hideous Los Suenos Marina/Development/Manifestation of Evil...

... and quite the little reminder of my halfhearted dabble with selling out at a similarly named bad joke in the Cove of the Dead...

Hey PUTITO, I surf better than you already...

The rest of you please pardon a momentary ego-trip.

Despite the Suenos folks Herradura offers a great anchorage a mere two miles from waves at Playa Escondida, four miles from Little Fiji, and six miles from Playa Hermosa... we will be staying there for a while... perhaps long enough to make a bit of money chartering folks to boat only waves.

The waves are slated to get scarily massive on Thursday... approaching 8 foot swell... today it's 4.5 feet and I'm still half drowned from the morning session so it should be exciting.

As long as the boat and I stay primarily above the water and off the bottom things can only get better in the near future.

And I knock on wood for the fifth time today...

HASTA EL TOPE! TO THE TOP!... as in fill er' up again... or today's lyric of the day from none other than Ancient King...

"IF YOU KNEW WHAT LIFE IS WORTH YOU'D LIVE IT UP."

So...

MAX

7.12.2009

LIMPIANDO TODO


Hey All,

I don´t even know where to begin so I´ll just spew...

The decision to turn around was a literal no brainer and I´ve yet to really think about it... but the surfing has been amazing.

After busting the 180 we beelined it back to Playa Venao, Panama where we surfed 4-5 hours a day for a week... scratching the itch. Not coincidentally, Venao also has the cheapest food and beer I´ve encountered on the trip... $.60 frosty bottles... $1.50 eggs and frybread breakfasts... and you can hang your hammock in the bar... plus,unlike Costa Rica, noone steals shit there... the highlight of the time was hanging and surfing with CHUKO, officially the 2nd best surfer in Panama but I saw number 1 and CHUKO has much better style... a solid dude and a new friend.

Thanks to a tip from Dank Dave we knew a big swell was enroute so we set off for Morro Negrito, a 24 hour sail closer to CR but still in Panama... there we discovered a "private surf island resort" folks drop big coin to stay at... thanks to the boat is was free.99.

There we met John from Huntington. a transplant building his own little cabina spot in Morro Negrito... population 7... he took us under his wing and aboard his panga for an exciting trip to town complete with a ride in a gigantic Panamanian Navy truck... and the next day, a tour of the area´s amazing surfspots.

The swell finally arrived and we could have gotten as nasty as we wanted to at P-LAND but opted for the saner but well overhead and heavy waves of LEFTOVERS. I got the ride of my life and can still conjure the image of dropping my first bomb and getting tubed... watching the reef slide by a few inches under the trough in front of me... and then getting utterly destroyed... magical.

Six smashings to the reef, countless to the beach, little infected nicks and scrapes to the feet, hands and knees, and a whole lot of stretching later, I can safely roll into a lineup and nab waves like I know what I´m doing.

Piece of cake... like anything else, pretend you can do it long enough, analyze the style of folks who can do it, and before you know it you´re doing it kind of thing.

I´m more scared of sharks than ever.

After a week in Morro Negrito we ran out of food so set sail back to Golfito, Costa Rica where we´re getting the boat dialed out for the next leg of the big surf trip. From here it´s back to Pavones and Cabo Matapalo... then Drake Bay, Dominical, Mal Pais, and points north.

Today we washed and disinfected the whole boat... and ripped out a wall which I shoulda removed a year ago... the boat is a bit bigger and much more comfortable now.

Thanks to all who´ve donated lately, especially Jiggabyte, Dank Dave, and Ben Nordog Norton from way back in the Cotter soccer days. Anyone on the fence should take the plunge... since I´m non-profit write that shit off!

I´m thinking of starting a surf guide company with the boat next summer... anyone who wants to be a guinea pig gets a hell of a discount if they come down now... same deal, food and gas money.

Tu Laki, God Bless Him, could probably use a break... personally, I can hardly believe he´s still putting up with me.

The dog is beyond fearless now... jumping in and swimming around at will... taking herself to shore for the morning poop... moseying back to the boat on her own when we paddle back from surfing... she´s become quite the little star.

As for me, with the dream of sailing way south on the backburner, life´s a decompression chamber at the moment. Getting into the whole tranquility (laziness) that seems to define the CRUISING LIFESTYLE. Maybe it´s the cush some Oregonians dropped on us but I can´t think or write for beans at present... so I´m out in the waves until I feel like saying something.

Much Love,

MAX

ps Thanks to the Canadian Noboarders from Calgary for these sweet pics of the Sin Fin... click the top one to spy me looking way too serious in silhouette. I still don´t have a camera.

pps A non-existent slow Bob Dylanesque cover of a punk song I haven´t heard since high school is stuck in my head and thus, in a song´s entirety, I present the Lyric of the Day...

Anti-Manifesto by PROPAGHANDI

Dance and laugh and play. Ignore the message we convey. It seems I´m only here to entertain.

A rebellion cut-to-fit. Well I refuse to be the soundtrack to it. While we entertain we're still knee-deep in shit.

Well there's something wrong inside. We've played it safe,enjoyed the ride. You won't like this but I've something to confide. We strive for something more than a faded sticker on a skateboard.

Rained on your parade and we're out the door. And I don't even care any fucking more...

Witness this pair in accomplice. Witness this pair... lethargic, unconscious. No brows furrowed in question, complacent, completing their tasks. No questions asked.

Consider this critic a cretin. Resting on laurels completely invented. Word acrobatics, performed with both harness and net.

I'm so full of SHIT.

But I will remain until this self-awareness fades. Til I defeat the purpose served by this soapbox that you made.

That you made.

Hope, perseverence: a vision (some doubt).

Green ink, a 26 oz., a bad case of big-mouth.

A sum of our parts and I've never laughed harder. A song in our hearts and I've never laughed harder. It don't really matter 'cuz nothing's ever felt as right as this. (by the way, I stole this riff)

Dance and laugh and play. Ignore the message we convey. It seems we´re only here to entertain.

A rebellion cut to fit. I refuse to be the soundtrack to it. We entertain we´re still knee deep in shit.

In shit.

And we´re so full of it.

7.11.2009

SHORTY.

Lyric of the Day

Good Times Gone and You Missed Them
What´s Gone Wrong In Your System?
Things They Bounce Just Like A Spalding
What You Think Did You Miss Your Calling
Its So Free, This Kind Of Feeling
Its Like Life, And So Appealing
When You´ve Got So Much To Say
It´s Called Gratitude
And That´s Right
Beastie Boys, Gratitude

I was going to write a blog post but my pizza is up... gotta go.

Writing tomorrow.... back in Costa Rica after muchas adventuras on the high seas off PANAMA.

MAX

7.04.2009

MORE PANAMA!

YO SUCKAS,

NO TIME TO WRITE MUCH.

STILL IN PANAMA...

ALL IS WELL.

MAX