Megan Abubo

Crossing Journal Costa Rica - June 2003 Upon arrival in Miami I could tell the "rainy season" was no joke. Danielle had emailed me a few days before and warned me to bring a raincoat and possibly waterproof my bag. I thought she was just joking when she said she was putting her leather in a plastic bag but I was wrong. When I picked my bags up in Costa Rica with the two hundred other American tourists they were soaked through and through. My clothing bag and board bag weighed an additional 25 pounds total. That is always fun after arriving from a 15 hour plane commute. Although my clothing and board bag were eggie, I wasn't I was excited for another Quiksilver Crossing adventure in a new destination that I have never been to. The first thing we did upon arrival was grind some really good local food at a California equivalent of el pollo loco, yet much better. Little did I know, the small meal helped my tummy for the four-hour drive to come. It turned out to be a very slow drive with tons of turns about every 25 feet. I was so lucky to be in the middle and I didn't get very car sick, but Lisa wasn't so lucky. We were bummed we missed out on the crocodile bridge on the way to the beach. We heard it was quite a site to see hundreds of crocs all over the place.

It is always hard to arrive in a new place at night unable to see the beautiful country and people all over the place. It kind of leaves the mind to imagination what the country may hold. We spent the night in a hotel because our arrival was sort of delayed and the boat couldn't wait for us so they had to anchor out. Sea legs are easy to grow if the seas are calm but if it's rough when immediately entering the boat, it can be a rough couple of days. I had a hard time the first couple of days with my stomach feeling pretty ill, I think it was a combination of bad ice cubes and bad seas. But the thought of great surf is what saved me each time I felt ill. Drink down a Sprite and just breathe in the ocean air and imagine the wonderful waves to be. We were all so excited to get some surf. Most of the girls hadn't been surfing much because they came from small surf seasons in their homelands. Costa Rica is such a green country. There are so many sounds coming out of the jungle when we sat in the line-ups. The water was very mud colored due to the rainy season and so many rivers. The jungles look even greener when matched alongside the brown water color. The freaky thing about surfing in this kind of water is zero visibility. I would put my hand down six inches in the water and was unable to see it. I kept thinking, I wonder what could be lurking. Especially after paddling back out by yourself to the lineup 500 yards away.

Some of the waves we caught were so long that the paddle back out would take a few minutes. I often wondered if there were any crocs below. That was the talk of the trip... the crocs! I think it was a bit less random then we thought, only certain rivers would have them because they were fresh water crocs.

While we were going on our first crossing to have our first surf, Hornbaker told us that there was a swell but we may have missed the biggest day of it. However, tomorrow upon arrival it was still supposed to be 4-6 foot faces. We all tried to get some sleep because we knew the morning could bring some good waves and lots of surfing. I woke up just like the rest of the girls, pretty early, due to the jet lag factor. We all sat up top and listened to music, and then got our boards ready in anticipation for our first surf in Costa Rica. We anchored up to this nice right hand point that was about 3, maybe 4 foot. Jeff told us it was a long board wave but it was the most consistent and nicest wave in that area. The only bummer about the day so far was the lack of sunlight, so Jeff was tin boat driver instead photographer. It was really rainy, and almost chilly. The water had a bit of a chill factor to it because of the fresh water run off. There was only one guy out, which is really nice to start a surf trip off with. He was kind of a beginner so he let us take over the line-up. It was kind of a tricky wave to get used to because for the first time none of us never really knew where to sit. At first I think we were sitting on the shoulder, then soon we moved much deeper and were taking off between two huge rocks that stuck out above the water. We used them as markers for where to take off. I realized that the sets broke wider than the first rock so you didn't have to watch it, but if you got the wider wave you had to watch out for the small rocks inside. Pretty mellow though. My favorite spot to sit was right next to Sofia, we had our own little peak in between the two peaks and they were smaller but much wedgier all the way through. We surfed for a few hours. Everyone was getting their sea legs in. Lisa was doing this crazy off the tops and roundhouse cutbacks, Chelsea's backhand attack was lethal and she was surfing so fast even though the waves were a little fat. Sophia was ripping, catching ten times as many waves as anyone else, that girl never lets up. Kula and Mary were supercharged catching anything they could get their hands on to. Kula has a classic old school Hawaiian long board stance and Mary has a classic California long board style. So both of them kind of brought out a bit of the old school way of surfing and was a fresh approach to the Crossing trip. I have never been on a trip with long boarders before. I think all of our surfing kind of brought some attention. We thought we were in the middle of nowhere and there was just this one lone guy out surfing, then all of a sudden we realize there were beautiful homes hidden in the bushes. Not tacky just all over, but they were kind of hidden because you couldn't really see them well. Then on the beach there were about 10 Americans checking us out.

Costa Rica is a very friendly American tourist country. Then the lineup got a little more packed cause people always have fun surfing with us. After what I thought was maximum surf lineup capacity and the small lightening thunderstorm, I signaled Jeff and the tin boat to come pick me up. Lightening has this weird effect on me and scares the crap out of me. That evening we sat in the captains' area pretty happy to have waves, beautiful nature, and each other. What a great start to a trip. Not perfect weather, but perfect scenery. Beauty doesn't always come with sunshine. Sometimes it takes a little bit of rain to make a rainbow, and that is just what we were waiting for. The next few days brought us nice waves and sunshine. We didn't stray too far from our right hand point but we did explore a punchy little 'off the wall' type beach break. This place is pretty tidal and the high tides kill the place because it makes a lot of the waves too fat. When we didn't surf or shoot we were playing cards, dancing, or listening to ipods, the latest music craze. The best part about the trip was the fishing! I love fishing off the Indies. It is the best to just be working so hard to catch a fish and wondering the whole time while your reeling it in, what is it? An ahi, a skip jack, a marline…..so fun! And we had wonderful fisherman on board. Mark the captain was a passionate Marline fisherman and just got a kick out of fishing and knew so much about catching fish and the right lures and got so excited to see us catch fish. Jeff was super into it also. I caught two fish in a row one afternoon on our way to this secret little island while we were waiting for more swell. The first fish felt like it was just gonna be huge, it fought and fought. Took about 20 minutes to reel in, then I saw it. It was a ten pound fish……..forgot what kind. Jeff said that is why it felt so heavy and fought so much. Man I thought okay somebody else's turn, but then everyone went to sleep and about an hour later it was my turn again. This time the fish was much easier, about the same size but took a few minutes and was very easy. I felt a little embarrassed when I looked back and realized how small my first fish was and the fact that I nearly gave up.

We ended up going to this little island just off the mainland about 12 hours from hour spot we were at the last few days. I think it was a sanctuary because there were no houses and only a few dive boats. It was beautiful and you could hear all of these creepy noises in the jungle. We hung out for a little and then went into a calm bay.

In the morning Lisa came back from a wave scout with Jeff and Miller and had us get ready for a pretty crazy left. She said it was about 6 foot maybe bigger. She said there were quite a few big boils in the wave so it looked pretty challenging to. I got my 6'3" ready and hopped in the boat. Chelsea was psyched it was our first left, she loves going left because she always has to go right and she is a goofy footer, I would be excited too. When we pulled up to the wave it was high tide so much of the boils were under water. The drop was steep and many of the waves looked like they would close out but didn't I was pretty timid out there. Meanwhile Chelsea just tore it apart, she got shacked, and did huge floaters and was ripping. This was her day and she was ripping. I think Jeff and Sonny were very pleased with the results from Chelsea. Sofia went for it on a few also and got a couple of beatings. Lisa had lots of fun to, she had a couple of crazy drops. The misfortune of the day was Kula breaking her favorite board. I felt so bad for her because she only had two boards with her. After that session we were all pretty ready for a big breaky and some good coffee Kula had brought from the islands. We then motored on to the secret island and saw the waves were too stormy and headed back to our spot. We figured it would be good because the swell was picking up so much. We motored all afternoon and all night to arrive in the morning to a big, fat swell. I think our spot was better when it was low tide and about 4 foot. It wasn't too great at 6 foot maybe bigger with a high tide. We surfed anyways. I took out much too small of a board and so did Danielle. I had a hard time in the beginning out there because I kept sliding out. We switched boards and our session got a little better. The paddle out was crazy. It was sort of like surfing a big bombie in the middle of nowhere. All of a sudden sets would appear and they wouldn't stop. It was fun surfing a little size though. We all had a blast. We went in and got some grub. We watched a surf video. A pelican has been hanging with us through the whole trip, taking dumps everywhere and blocking passages to our rooms. It is pretty hysterical. We tried everything to get the pelican off the boat but it doesn't budge. Oh well.

We went back for an arvo surf and it was going off. By far the best we have seen it. Five foot peaks and super long rides, ripable walls, yet shortboardable. Low tide really helped it out. We surfed till dark and I think Jeff and Miller were happy with what they got, and we were happy with the surf. Tomorrow is off to the left, Chelsea was beaming, and we were amped because the left was supposed to be the really good wave in the area. We pulled up to this super super long lefthander. It looked pretty quick but insane. There were quite a few people out but we decided to join them. Every person in the water said, you should have been here yesterday. I hate when they say that. Blah blah blah! But it was still fun. It was low tide and this is a high tide spot so almost every wave was too fast for us. We surfed for a while anyways because it was something new. There was a huge river flowing straight through the middle of the break, it was beautiful. The sand was super black and you could hear screaming monkeys in the bushes. What an amazing place! I could only imagine how good this wave could get. Today it was a little bit sectioney. The anchorage out the back was pretty rocky and we all opted to go in early for the afternoon.

We checked out the land near the marina and had a drink at the local bar. We gave cookie the night off and ate on land. He was happy to be able to relax and just hang. The captain said this area was old CIA headquarters in the seventies. Kind of creepy, I wonder how much stuff is still happening there right now. Big brother, you never know where he is. We had a huge rager this night, the dance floor on the Crossing never saw such a hip crowd. We danced until the wee hours, I even danced until midnight. Chelsea and I were co-dj'ers. It was hilarious. I had so much fun. All the girls were going off!

The next morning, on my last day I was a little hungover on the ride out. We spent the day on the beach of the left. Some of us surfed and some of us just did photos. That was the best part of the trip, everyone was just kind of on their own trip yet we blended so well together. We were all so cruisy. Chelsea and Sofia surfed for quite a while and just had a blast. Lisa, Kula, Mary, and I stayed on the beach cause we did photos, I think I would have much rather been in the water surfing but you gotta do what you gotta do. I was sad to leave the beautiful coastline of Costa Rica. It is such an amazing place. Good surf, close to home, and very nice people make this place a wonderful surf destination. The only thing I learned is to come during the dry season not the rainy season. I couldn't have asked for a better captain, photographers, surfers, and crew to go to such a wonderful place. Ciao baby!