roadie journal #4

hopefully you enjoyed the info and stats from the last post on Costa Rica. now, lets talk about some crazy huge waves.

if you're not knowledgeable about surfing, thats ok. Costa Rica is known as one of the top surfing destinations on the globe, b/c it consistently produces good (head-high or higher) waves year around and the water temperature stays around 75-80 degrees all year long. so, surfing was definitely a huge item on our agenda for the trip. we (my brother Seth & I) were able to surf 5 straight days on the Northwest coast, just south of Tamarindo and Nosara. the four beaches we surfed were Playa Cameronal, Playa Carillo, Playa Samara & Buena Vista. Carillo and Samara were pretty small b/c they were tucked away in a bay type beaches. Cameronal & Buena Vista were seriously fierce. these waves are so different than what i'm used to on the east coast of North & South Carolina. in Costa Rica, the waves are so powerful and strong. the waves were consistently over head-high, which means over 6ft tall. not only are they tall, but they're really really long. also, the waves break about 250-300 yards away from land, so its extremely hard to paddle all the way out past the breakers. it took us 10-15 minutes just to get to the spot we aimed for. the waves come in as "sets," which means they travel together, so to speak, at different times. so, every 5-8 minutes a set would come in. if you were too close to the beach, you would be demolished by the waves repeatedly crashing on you. if you were too far out, you would miss the waves.

at one point, Seth was caught too far in, so he jumped off his board to dive under a massive wave, but his leash broke. the leash is the chord attached to your ancle that keeps you connected to your surfboard. so, he was a couple hundred yards away from the beach without a board, in deep water, trying to stay afloat and swim in while huge waves were crashing on him, taking him under the water. fortunately, he made it in, but stayed out for the rest of the morning. i can't imagine how those guys on tv surf 40-50ft waves. even the 10-12ft waves we were facing seemed deadly. needless to say, this was a crazy experience that i could talk about all night. to close, nature is fierce and amazingly powerful. God is even more amazing to put it all in motion with the word of His mouth.

our God is awesome!! hope you enjoy the pics.