We left Denver on May 17th in the early morning. Chad Otterstrom, Erich Dummer and myself met at the American Airlines gate. It was just the three of us because Nova {Mike Casanova} was in Germany, Jonas couldn’t get out of High School and Derek Dennison was facing financial turmoil. However, we all decided it was now or never.
When we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica, it was dark and rainy. By the time we made it through customs it was close to 11:00 p.m. Upon exiting the terminal we were bombarded by a million taxi cab drivers explaining to us that our shuttle driver was not coming to pick us up and that we should go with them instead. It was weird that they all knew who we were and our travel plans. But luckily before we were conned into some other taxi, Chad noticed someone standing with a sign that read “Academy Snowboards. We were saved!
It took just about five hours to drive from San Jose to plya Aveanas on the north pacific side of the country. It was one hell of a ride too. Passing people on blind corners with potholes and pedestrians everywhere. We finally arrived to Cabinas Las Olas sometime just before dawn.
We awoke three hours later to the sounds of jungle. This place was alive! Critters were everywhere! I got up to use the bathroom and almost sat down on a five-inch long tree frog that had made a swimming pool out of the toilet! Trust me that is not how you want to start off your trip. We grabbed our surfboards and followed the sounds of the ocean. It was a half-mile trek down to the beach. You would walk along this really cool handmade bridge through the roughest swamp all the way to the ocean. We didn’t know what to expect for the waves. We had never been here before and we are all terrible surfers. We just hoped it wasn’t too big. And to our delight, they were perfect! They were head high or smaller with the friendliest beach we have ever been to. It went out about 100 yards and it was still only eight feet deep. The whole place was perfect! The water was about 79 degrees and you could surf the beach break on high tide and the river mouth at low tide. We were in heaven.
Following our early morning surf we walked back to the bar and ate delicious food. Our favorite dish was either El Tico—rice, beans, eggs and toast smothered in salsa Lazano or the banana pancakes. After breakfast we went back to our cabina and fell asleep until low tide. Then it was back to the water for some more surf and on to the bar for fresh fish and as many beers as we could get down before passing out.
This cycle continued for about three days. Wake up, surf, breakfast, nap, read, surf, dinner, beer. We would fill any extra time playing poker. It was really all we could hope for except there was no way of contacting anyone back in the states. You see, we were fairly remote so there was no Internet access and the phone cost exactly $13.00 per minute. This was our biggest problem, we couldn’t tell anyone back home how much fun we were having, oh and that we were safe too. A little chit chatting at the bar solved all of this. We found out that we could rent bikes from this guy for $2.00 an hour, and considering that $2.00 was the price of one beer. We knew we were getting a good deal. We were told to bike about 6km south along some sketchy dirt roads to the next town called Plya Negra to a small café. That is where the Internet was supposed to be. However, the first time we biked there they were closed—fuck! It was so hot wand 100% humidity it was devastating that they were not open. But luckily for us we found a Mercado that sold bottles of rum. This helped to console us for we missed the evening surf session that night and didn’t get to email anyone.
The next day after surfing and breakfast we got a hold of the bike guy to try and email again. We raced all the way there so we could try and make it back in time for the low tide surf. We arrived in Plya Negra drenched in sweat. Our T-shirts were entirely differenthades than when we left. However shortly after walking into the café we soon realized that we were lied to. There was no Internet there! There was once, but no more. We were upset. We were so upset that we headed straight to the closest bar and had a drink. After cooling down we started long haul back to Las Olas. We made it back in time for good evening surf. That night at the bar eating dinner I decided to cough up the money and make a call to the states and let everyone know that we good and everything was ok. This was a struggle considering that every minute I was on the phone would be an equal cost of six icy cold beers. But in the long run, I knew I was doing the right thing.
Sometime during our time at the bar we found out that we could rent a car for one day. It was settled, the next morning a car would show up around noon and we would spend the day romping through the jungle in a little two-wheel drive shoebox. After a little surf in the morning we met the guy from the rental car company at the bar. It originally was going to cost $45.00 but by the end I am sure that it was closer to $85.00. At any rate we took off north toward Tamarindo to see if we could actually find an Internet connection. We ended up getting a little lost due to some detours because some of the roads had been washed away due to the rain. We finally made it to Tamarindo and to say the least we were not impressed. It was busy with tourists and there was a Taco Bell and a Pizza hut and even a Burger King. It was just totally blown out. We found an Internet café, did our business and got the fuck out of there. We drove north for an hour or two until we hit this little gem of a town called Plya Flamingo. It was a cool little town that was located on this bay. The water was clean and clear and we went for a swim. It was nice just to get out away and see some new terrain.
We headed back south around 3:00 p.m. so we could hit the evening surf back at Las Olas. On the way back we found a couple puddles to drive through just for fun. Chad Otterstom is what we like to call a “Performance Driver. He ain’t afraid to drive through no puddles, man. Watch the Jungle Blasters 1 (2004) video.
The evening surf was great. A little swell came in and everything picked up a notch. We continued going for it from the waves straight to the bar because it was our last night in town. I think that the bar got the best of me that night because we played poker until late and I ended up losing most of my money.
The next day we decided to surf all day since this would be last time we would be in the ocean for a while. The swell continued so the waves were the best since we had arrived. I hadn’t gotten much of a tan since we got there because I was constantly wearing SPF 50. I thought that no one would believe me if I came back with no color so I decided to not wear any sunscreen that entire day. We must have surfed for about five hours straight. I didn’t notice it right away but soon I would realize that this would officially be the worst sunburn of my life. My entire upper body would soon peel and I thought that I might have gotten sun poisoning. Lets just say that it made for a very uncomfortable flight home.
Around 4:00 p.m. our ride showed up. We paid our bill and stoked the whole crew out with Academy stickers and schwag. We told everyone thanks and that we would be back as soon as we could. Our ride picked us up in this sweet Montero with leather seats. Our driver was the same who had picked us up. He brought his two-month-old Rott Weiler puppy along for the ride. His name was Coco and he was flipp’n awesome. Another five hours and we were back in San Jose. Yeffrey dropped us off at a hotel near the airport and before we knew it is was already morning. Our cab showed up and five minutes later we were checking in at the American Airlines counter. Our trip was over. Eight days of bliss and now we are back wishing we were still there. Just surfing, eating, drinking, napping, surfing. That is the good life people.
We want to thank everyone who helped make this adventure possible. TransWorld , Jardine Hammond, Maxx Von Marbod, everyone at the ’05 Team Challenge, Roche at Cabina’s Las Olas, Yeffrey at MOP Adventures, and of course Academy La Familia.
Puda Vida!
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To get the video, you can click the individual link in the right column, or click here to browse our ever-growing collection of movies.
To get the photos: you can click the individual link in the right column, or click here to get to our ever-growing collection of photos.
To view the video, you’ll need the latest version of Quicktime, which works for both Mac and PC, is available as a free download at www.apple.com/quicktime/download.king, napping, surfing. That is the good life people.
We want to thank everyone who helped make this adventure possible. TransWorld , Jardine Hammond, Maxx Von Marbod, everyone at the ’05 Team Challenge, Roche at Cabina’s Las Olas, Yeffrey at MOP Adventures, and of course Academy La Familia.
Puda Vida!
—
To get the video, you can click the individual link in the right column, or click here to browse our ever-growing collection of movies.
To get the photos: you can click the individual link in the right column, or click here to get to our ever-growing collection of photos.
To view the video, you’ll need the latest version of Quicktime, which works for both Mac and PC, is available as a free download at www.apple.com/quicktime/download.
