Back

Since I last wrote, I feel a distinct change. I feel like “I’m back.” Back to my normal self. I obviously have been having a great time in Puerto Rico but the transition from home to here for what I initially thought was going to be a 3-month stay was a bit jarring. The best way I can describe it is like being disconnected from my power source. Back home, my power source was doing and teaching lots of Bikram yoga, the yoga community, and my amazing network of friends. I really fed off of these things more than I realized. Coming down here without those things felt like being “unplugged.”

Throughout this whole process, I’ve constantly told myself the key is in my hand—it’s all in your mental outlook. During the first couple of weeks, I gave a lot of focus towards being joyful no matter if I was alone or in an unfamiliar place, etc. While I did at most times feel joyful (especially when surfing!), I am just now finally feeling like I used to—essentially in a constant state of joy and comfort. I guess to put a long story short, I’ve finally “settled in.”

It also helps so much that I have more people to hang out with now. I’ve met more people out surfing. In the small community of northwest PR surfing, meeting one person automatically connects you to many more. Sort of like playing MineSweeper, you know? You click on one box and it opens several… haha that is your random computer game tangent for the day…

Anyway, yesterday was the best PR day ever! I woke up just before 7am to go surf at Secret Spot, so I could avoid the afternoon wind that diminishes the wave quality. Still half-way asleep, I made my way out to Secret Spot and ended up getting my car stuck driving down a sand road I shouldn’t have. It rained the night before, rendering the sand too soft and deep for the Beach Bomb.

I know this doesn’t sound like the start to a great day, but the key is in my hand, remember? Worrying would solve nothing…so I did my best not to fret. I simply grabbed my board, locked up the car, and headed to the beach. This could be dealt with after surfing.

The conditions at Secret Spot were ok this morning… it was still a bit disorganized so the wave quality was about a 5 out of 10. But, when a wave would finally take form, it would be intense! These waves were really peaking up and getting very steep and hollow. I missed on a lot of waves by taking off too deep—too close to the peak and not making the drop. Can I blame some of it on being half-asleep still? I did wake up enough to have a few good rides before I felt like I should really go and deal with my car.

I called a couple friends and luckily, my buddy Tom knew a tow truck driver. Rafy made it out in about 30 minutes and easily got the Beach Bomb back on solid footing. It was nice having to wait on him actually, because I hiked back to the paved road through the beautiful surrounding nature—palms, pines, and sand against the backdrop of dense green foothills.

Where dirt road meets paved--the turn-off for Secret Spot where I waited on Rafy

Rafy got the Beach Bomb out no problem.

Problem solved. Headed home to do some work. Had such a fun and productive day working mostly on the business startup side of things. Since I discarded the initial name and concept I had for my business, I am now reworking my concept, which includes name, logo, building my own site, etc.

Around 5pm Ray and Tony called me up to ask if I was going to surf at sunset. I was in such a productive mode with work stuff I almost said, “No.” But I thought, wait, I’M IN PUERTO RICO, of course I want to go surf again. It was rainy, but as the surfers know, when the rain clears is often the best time, condition-wise, to go surf.

Beach Bomb was very cranky about me getting her stuck earlier and refused to start. So I let her be--luckily the guys live close and were able to pick me up.

We went to nearby Surfer’s Beach, my 2^nd-favorite spot here in PR. It's so beautiful to see the huge rocky cliffs covered in thick jungle and towering palms on the shore when you're out there. As one friend put it, "you expect to see King Kong pop out at any moment."

Sure enough, the rain stopped as we got there and the conditions were super nice and glassy. At first, the waves looked very small from the shore, which was a little bit of a bummer. Since all I had was my short board, I wondered if I would even be able to catch these waves that looked more suited for a longboard. But it was incredibly beautiful out and I couldn’t wait to get in the water, so we all paddled out anyway.

Thank God we did! Once we were out there for a bit, some bigger waves started coming through and they were FUN FUN FUN! Very nice 3- and even some 4-foot waves. There were about 8 of us out there. Even though that is a small number of people for Surfer’s Beach, there were still barely enough rideable waves to go around. So, we all kind of adopted the mutual agreement to Party Wave. If you don’t surf, this simply means that more than one person rides the same wave. Normally, you don’t do that surfing because the person in front as you go down the line of the wave can get in the way of the person in the back, who has the right-of-way in this situation. Also, it can be dangerous if the two people run into each other. But with friends and people who know what they are doing, it can be fun. So, we all had a blast doing the party wave thing. We were out there so long that by the time I caught my last wave to go back to shore, it was because it was too dark to judge the waves anymore! Here I’d like to point out that there has never been a shark attack reported in Puerto Rico… so sharks really aren’t a concern at dusk and night.

We all hung out a bit longer on shore and had an after-surf beer (the time when beer tastes its best, to be sure). A bunch of us went to dinner and then I crashed! It was a great day.

Today has been essentially a repeat. I made it up early for a fun session at Surfer’s Beach (very similar to last night), working the rest of the day, and will catch a sunset session shortly. I love this way of life… tomorrow though I will modify the schedule to make sure I get in a home-practice of Bikram yoga. A home practice isn't quite the same as being at a real studio, but it still is so beneficial. Yoga keeps me limber, injury-free and soreness-free so I am able to surf as much as possible.

We have a small swell coming for the weekend, so the waves will be a bit bigger than they are now. Can’t wait!

Thanks for reading! Few more pics below. Randy, if you are reading this I haven't forgotten your request for more people shots and shots of town. Look for them in one of the next few blogs :)

Beach Bomb in a pickle

Cool hermit crab I found on my hike

Hilarious! This is how I got my bathroom a little hotter for yoga the other day!

Smooth Sailing

Smooth sailing... settling in to a routine, the slower pace compared to home. Not too shabby :) Side note, it's surprising how little $ I'm spending by not going out as much and not drinking, hahaha.

It was the weekend, but I’m backwards. After putting in a lot of work at the beginning of the week, I took Thursday and Friday off and worked Saturday and Sunday instead. Don’t get me wrong; there was still plenty of play too!

Saturday morning, I checked a bunch of spots to go surf but Wilderness was literally flat, as were all the neighboring breaks. I also checked Jobos to the north. There were some waves, but it was seriously PACKED due to a charity event there (and due to the fact it was one of the only spots that actually was surfable that day). At Jobos, there’s just really one main peak anyway that you have to share with a bunch of people, and also the conditions were pretty choppy, so I passed it up. I took another day off surfing, just my second in 2 weeks. Instead, I went to Crashboat beach to bask in the sun.

CRASHBOAT BEACH

Crashboat is a BEAUTIFUL beach where a lot of people go to hang out. I must have spent the first 45 minutes there just floating on my back and swimming around in the amazing water. If you’ve ever been to Waikiki in Hawaii, it is almost exactly the same. Same pretty golden-colored sand, same CLEAR turquoise water, same lush green backdrop. It reminded me of being at the 2007 Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Waikiki for 9 weeks. We’d have pretty much one day-off a week, which had to be used for studying. I would study all day at the beach and take study breaks by swimming and floating around on my back just marveling at how beautiful it all was. Same deal at Crashboat.

Took pics of Crashboat with my iPhone and made a panorama out of them

Rest of the day and night, I spent working, downloading lots and lots of music, and watching LOST on my computer. Stayed in for the night so I could wake up early to surf.

Sunday morning, I accidentally missed dawn patrol with Tom because I set my alarm improperly (yep, that old story). Luckily, I woke up on my own just before 7am anyway and headed out right away to Secret Spot.

This was my first time surfing Secret Spot. When I got there, Tom was just finishing up his surf and told me all about the break—the current, where to paddle out, etc, so I knew what to expect. It’s kind of a point-break off of a huge rock. For anyone who’s been to PR before, it reminds me exactly of a mini-Jobos in that respect. Mini, because it’s just a little bitty cove and one peak. The wave is very different though—Jobos is usually a mellow wave, while at Secret Spot the wave really peaks up and gets much more hollow (non-surfers think: steeper and more challenging). Today was a bit choppy and disorganized, but everyone told me that on a typical day, the wave is awesome. Today was still fun, just not every wave that came through was good so you had to pick and choose carefully.

The spot is very beautiful, tucked away, big rocks, sand dunes, palms, cypress trees. Green cliffs in the background. There were only about 5 of us out there, which was nice.

After surfing Secret Spot, I went to my friend Diana’s café El Carey for some breakfast and coffee. It was really fun because everyone I had just surfed with ended up going there afterwards. I met all of them and we all hung out for a long time just talking. Turns out we all travel to surf, and we were talking about our favorite trips. I picked up a lot of good info on places I want to go. A couple of the guys got me really interested in going to Panama after hearing them talk about how much they love it.

Tomorrow looks like surfing Secret Spot again, and on through the week until the next swell shows up on Friday. Can’t wait to see what this next swell brings; hopefully I can go back to my favorite spot Wilderness if this swell "wraps around" the island to reach the more southern breaks like the last one did.

Hope everyone has a GREAT week, and thanks again for reading! Pics from today at Secret Spot below. Will post surf pics when/if I can locate a photographer before I go!

Walking up to the beach at Secret Spot

"Parking lot"

West end of Secret Spot

Looking East, big dunes

Looking north out over the Atlantic

Dawn patrollers

Facing south; backdrop of green

466 leaving Secret Spot

shift

Buenas Tardes

Another beautiful day here in Puerto Rico. The swell has officially died off as of today... today is the first day since I've been here that I haven't surfed. Gotta love those odds! Feels weird not to surf. Instead, today I drove over to Jobos beach and checked out a new friend's restaurant. Diana is a SUPER cool woman who's probably in her mid to late 30s. She and her husband own El Carey (sea turtle) in Jobos. What a place! This is my Green Room Cafe while I am away--they have lots of healthy dishes (think fish, rice and beans, lots of veggies, MMMM!) They have all the acai bowls and smoothies like the Green Room too. I met Diana, her husband, and 2 young sons while surfing at Wilderness over the past 3 days. They are the nicest, coolest family you could imagine, and I love the fact they all surf together. So it was cool to see them today, and their food is amazing to say the least.

El Carey in Jobos

Yesterday I had another fun, mellow surf at Wilderness and actually just hung out there for at least an hour afterwards talking to Masso, the local watchdog/surfer of Wilderness. He has a close eye on everything going on at his spot, and is just as friendly and down-to-earth guy as you could want to meet. Pretty fun to see who you end up meeting while hanging out at your favorite break, like Masso and Diana--all the people who are drawn to the same place because they are all like-minded individuals.

Upside Down Wilderness Anole

Even though I've really enjoyed my stay here thus far, I made the decision yesterday to cut my trip to 1 month instead of 3. Truthfully, I never really knew how long I would want to be here, but had to plan for SOMEthing, so I initially decided 3 months. I thought a lot about it. Big part of shortening the trip is that May and June onward through summer is really the off-season for waves in PR. Yeah, I knew this when I planned the trip, but there were so many other things I did not know that I found out while down here that swayed my decision:

I learned that while surfing is my passion and probably the biggest part of my life, it does not make up the WHOLE of my existence. For one example, I thought I would not mind being away from the yoga studio--practicing and teaching--for 3 months. But after just a short amount of time, it became apparent to me that yoga was a bigger part of my life than I had realized! I would rather not be away from the studio for that long.

I also realized pretty quickly that while Aguadilla is a great town, it's not the town for me. It is way too sleepy a town. I had to learn that by spending some quality time here. Had to spend time here to find out that it even mattered to me to be in a lively town. I didn’t realize that was important to me until now.

Instead, I would like to try Rincon, PR in the winter for a month or so. From what I've heard and experienced from past visits, there's a bit more going on in that town and it's more youthful. Plus, in the winter, Rincon's waves are world-class (but no waves in the Spring/Summer, which is why I was not down there for this trip).

I had to make this decision right away, in order to give more notice to the people affected by it. I was a hard decision for me, because on some level, I felt like I failed the challenge of being gone the whole 3 months. But I realized that was silly, I had nothing to prove in that regard. While I also felt somewhat bad for inconveniencing others with my change of plans, I trust that the people in my life support my happiness and are flexible. I realized that it’s good to be flexible to change and fluctuation, because that is where growth and evolution lie.

Trusting my own judgment call without doubts...

"What is the biggest problem in human life? Because of lack of self-realization, you always underestimate yourself."

--Bikram Choudhury

Good realizations, here's to life and learning, and displacing yourself to find out more. I'm actually really stoked that I've learned so much so quickly--more quickly than I anticipated. Sometimes the conclusions are not what you expect, but that's the cool part of it! It has been a great journey already and I still have 3 weeks of it left.

Thanks again for reading... stay tuned for more. Fully prepared to have an amazing 3 weeks here in PR.

Inside El Carey. Snapped a few pics quickly before leaving, had wanted pics of Diana and fam but they were in the back kitchen

Citrus Red Snapper at El Carey, MMM!

Frape wall at El Carey

Yesterday's mofongo--mashed plantain goodness. MM! This is the culinary issue of my blog I guess, haha

Almost forgot this edition's self-portrait!! hahaha

Day #?

Written this morning, but didn't have time to finish before it was time to go surf, so I'm posting now:

It's a good day

Good morning! Taking the time this morning to blog. The crew of people I've been surfing with the past couple days are very easy-going and not into the dawn patrol thing, so I'm waiting 'til go-time of late morning. Fine with me, as the wind today (and thus wave quality) is not predicted to be any better or worse for late morning. And, I am easing into the day with a nice cup of joe and really enjoying it :)

Well, hmm, the past couple days I worked a lot on this first website I'm doing. Pretty much finished with the design elements and layout of each page, as it's a pretty basic site, just waiting on some content and working on a few technical aspects of it.

I decided to concentrate more on work for 2 days and a little less on surfing (1 session a day instead of 2) because I started to feel just a small hint of soreness in my elbows and shoulders (sites of previous wakeboarding injuries). I got a little burnt out spending so many consecutive hours on the site for 2 days,

And also because during this process, I am teaching myself a lot. I can build simple websites, but as is my nature, I'm really not content with that. I want to be better at it. I eventually want to be one of the best, if this is what I'm gonna stick with! I am considering going back to school for this too, we'll see. Baby steps.

Surfing has been good, the waves are more mellow right now, in the 3-4 foot range. I have been spoiled on the big waves, to where now it seems harder to SHRED the little ones! It reminds me of why they say the best surfers come from FL east coast, because it takes a good surfer to really rip on a small, weak wave! So it is great practice. Still lots of fun. And no crowds, because the locals don't really waste their time on these smaller waves!! In Cocoa Beach it would be PACKED on a 3-4 foot day, but not here.

Had a grill-out with a few friends last night, which was good fun. We also planned a poker night for Thursday, so I'll be able to get my poker fix this week! While I was out last night, Sheena was texting me with pictures and videos from poker night at Rum Runners in Cocoa Beach. It was soooo awesome to get the video of everyone at the poker table saying "HI COURTNEY!!!" It really made my day! I sent them a hello video back :)

I am very excited for my girls Sheena and Jessica to come visit in about 10 days!! I imagine that in addition to lots of surfing, we will probably make trips around the island to the rainforest and to my favorite, the north shore, which is more natural-looking and dense than the area I'm in... think big wild sand dunes, dense palm groves, big rocks and caves and stuff out into the ocean... super cool. If you surfers have heard of the famous break Hollows, that's where Hollows is.

Hollows in Arecibo, PR

Thanks so much for reading--it really means a lot to me that a lot of you have said you enjoy following my blog. Thank you for staying connected by reading it. I sure do miss everyone at home; I have the best people in the world as my friends back home. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for that. In a few weeks' time, I will be back home with the energy of a new experience to share with everyone in person.

As per many requests, here are pics, pics, and more pics! You guys sure are a visual bunch, loving the pictures! Well I aim to please. Only wish I had a camera other than my iPhone, but I do what I can for ya!

-Court

Yesterday's self-portrait, chillin on the beach at Surfer's Beach

Surfer's Beach, painted wall is a surfer's memorial

Surfer's Beach 3

SB 4. That wave you see out back is 3 foot... there were some decent waves coming through yesterday but zero people surfing, since compared to how it can be here, this was not a "good day"

Surfer's Beach 5

Famous board Mellow Yellow crazy fin setup

Mango trees, almost ripe... I'm waaaiting...

Jessica, bring your machete.

4/7/10, Took the day off--I sunned myself for a while on Crashboat Beach after surfing at Wildo all morning.

Days 5&6

The Quickening

Two days since my last blog, and it feels like 2 months. Because, of the sudden amount of time on my hands and sudden shift into a new life. My geographical location may be temporary, but some of these shifts are more lasting. For instance, a shift in jobs. Another instance, a shift back into creative output (many projects, which I will discuss further down). So many more differences: no dog, no close friends, no hot yoga studio. Not drinking, no distractions from work and various other creative endeavors. Of course, there's surfing, the main theme to this adventure, but I also had the intent for (most of) the other shifts as well. And I can only surf so many hours of the day!

Contemplation. I have so much space and time to think. Maybe too much! I have to be careful to stay on the positive side of thinking, about all things. It is a trial for me to be in a new situation essentially by myself with no security blankets and keep all thoughts positive. It is a good challenge, it only strengthens this ability in me, where I don't have the close network of friends and established life to fall back on.

That's the heavier stuff... the lighter stuff would be how much fun the surf still is! I cannot believe how good it's been since I've gotten here. I mean, this trip was my dedication to my love of surfing, and here I am getting just what I had hoped for: good waves that I can progress on. Fantastic! What have I learned? One of them is "stay on your feet!" Sounds basic, right? Actually something that helped me in skateboarding a while back. Just making the dedication "my feet are NOT coming off this board no matter what!" Sometimes the big waves out at Wilderness could get a little hairy and try to knock me off my balance, or I would do some turns and stuff that would make me fall, but now I'm using that same "just stay on your feet no matter what" mentality and becoming way more consistent on each wave. Sounds basic but it helped. I so wish I had surfing pictures to share, but I don't! That is one of my goals while I am down here though, to get some surf pics taken! Soon.

Saturday, I surfed Wilderness, head-high to overhead waves, very fun, lots of good rides again. Today, I got up just before 6am to make the sunrise Easter session with Tom and some of his buddies, again at Wilderness. It was a little choppy and not as organized as usual (non-surfers, this just means the quality wasn't a 10...I'd give the quality a 6), but BIG still. I had a bunch of good rides again, but I was also getting my butt kicked on a few waves!! Because they weren't as organized, sometimes I'd take off on a wave and it would end up not being the best takeoff spot and I'd get slammed! Thank God I am a yogi, because flexibility really comes in handy at times like those. I had a few hard falls: I kinda got a whip-lash effect twice and one time hit my face and head right on the deck of my board, also one time the fins on my board hit me real hard on the palm of my hand as I fell.

EASTER SUNDAY AT WILDERNESS

I have a theory about wrecks and accidents in sports: they're no accident, and completely avoidable given the right mindset. Clearly, I did not have this mindset going on today, but the best thing to do when that happens is laugh it off! You take all power away from the mindset that is drawing accidents and falls towards you, and start bringing the vibe back in the good direction. When I hurt my hand, it hurt a lot and at first I thought it was going to be bad, but I shrugged it off and said, it's fine. I laughed off that fall and my other goofy falls. And no joke--I watched that thing on my hand go from a purple lump to nothing, all in the time I was out surfing, a couple hours. Feels fine now. Powerful stuff.

The other great thing about surfing today was the SEA TURTLES! The whole time I was out, there were about 3 or 4 HUGE turtles... I think they were Green Sea Turtles... in the line-up with us. One of them was swimming on the surface of the water out to sea as I was paddling back out after catching a wave. I caught up to him, and fully expected him to submarine to escape me... but he stayed right on the surface and I paddled right alongside him within 2-3 feet for a bit. It was really cool, I've never been so close to one without it swimming away.

Besides surfing I've just really been burying myself into the web design/new business startup work and learning some tools of the trade, as well as other creative endeavors--doing a lot of photo manipulation and graphic designs with Photoshop, also a couple other side projects in the works that I won't talk about just yet because I'm not sure where I will go with them. Anyway, very good to be creating again, an area of my life you could say I neglected a bit over the last 2 years.

I did my first home practice of Bikram yoga today. I'm excited because I was able to heat the room enough to get a good sweat on... boy did it feel good to do yoga after the rough day of surfing... I feel all better! Yoga is the magic cure-all!

Also, my buddy Ray got back into town today, so I'm excited to hang out with him and his crew of friends that I really enjoyed hanging out with the last time I was visiting in December. I definitely need to get out and be social at this point before I become too reclusive artist type.

Thanks for reading my long blog.

As per request, more pictures:

There's some abuse going on down here. Me, abusing Jungle Love Acai energy drink!!

Fire at Wilderness Saturday. Don't worry everything was OK.

Another self portrait Saturday after I came in from surfing

Previous tenants left me some starfish. They're still drying out but will go into this little decorative hodge-podge of sea objects I made in my apartment

My view chillin on the beach on Saturday after surfing