The Last Last Day...

So where were we? I can't recall... it's 21.15 in San Diego airport and I'm a bit tired, and possibly emotional!

Didn't sleep too well, damn eye giving me a hard time, quite painful, and anxious about the travelling arrangements today. Got up about 6/6.30, made some tea, had a poo (must explain the bagno sometime - or maybe not!), wiped my eye. Other people got up slowly, we had to clear out our tents by 730 so the guys could pack luggage into the van for leaving at 8. Breakfast was bacon and egg bagels - I only managed one! There was some tension for me until Kevin saw my bag and agreed it could go on the planes, rather than in the van - that means I'll definitely have it to go to Toronto.

Guy decided that the excellent swell was just the thing for a bit of gaybo SUPping, so he borrowed my Speedos and wore one of the traditional wrestler's masks to go out for an hour or so. Sigh. He really is an exhibitionist of spectacular proportions! Still, it amused the natives. Except for some.

Then it was onto to the water - I tried hard, caught some reasonable waves but my timing on the wave itself wasn't very good. I was sailing too upwind, the better stuff was slightly downwind, but I was running out of steam by the time I noticed that! Damn. I was on the Quatro 85 FSW and a 5.0 - it was a nice combination and handled pretty well, although I hate the straps, damn MFC things, crap padding, and they hurt my rather sore feet.

Came off the water at 1.30, as we'd agreed, for lunch - the planes were leaving at 4, so seemed we could get in some more time. BUT... it turned out that they were expecting to leave at 2.30, or they couldn't get back to Mexico before the night came! So the pause turned into a stop, a hurried repacking of our wet gear, lots of goodbyes, soup and a burger quickly taken before we took off.

Everything went so smoothly after that, that we rolled up at the motel about 6, leaving 2 hours before I had to get to the airport. Took a shower, should really see Guy right for that room fee, and said good bye to the guys heading out downtown before getting a beer and another burger in the Waterfront Bar. This time it was packed with people watching the college football - God that game leaves me cold! And now I'm sitting in San Diego airport, waiting for the red-eye to Washington, en route to Toronto, knackered, red-eyed, and a bit spaced out. Hopefully I'll get some sleep, but who knows?

In sum, a great week, big big up and thanks to Kathy, Kevin, Rodney, Neil, Joey, Naro and the kitchen ladies. Lovely place, great kit, fantastic conditions. See you again I hope!

The Last Day (well, nearly!)

Let me see, how did today start? Oh yes, early! Didn't sleep too well, woke about 2.30 with my mind racing, trying to process the sailing done so far, and things I should do next time. My eye was also pretty painful, more news on the stye to come later.

So a bit of a lazy morning, apart from the energetic video watching, which was a bit helpful - seeing oneself makes a big difference, especially if we get told what to do next time. Cribby of course wanted to do something - so we organised a 100m sprint race to see how much slower the "average" person is than Usain Bolt. I found a 100yd tape in the toolshed - obviously being an American shed, it would contain every tool known to man - which saved Cribby measuring it out with a mast bottom section (which turned out to be more than the 2m long he'd guessed it was!). So we ran 110 yds, on the basis that's pretty close, in a win time of 15.7 secs (approx!) and I came last a bit later. Not too bad really. Oh yes, this was on the runway, so the stones didn't help.

The previous evening's forfeit was replanned during the video session - Andy had to dance a ballet choreographed by Chikoka the Japanese dancer, dressed in a very short skirt, coconut bra and black wig. He performed marvellously, accompanied by Koka, to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy! Very well carried off, and probably the highlight of the forfeit season.

Then the Cribby Duracell bunny had another idea - try to surf the Bombora by walking out across Pelican Island, causing them all to take flight so we could photograph them. It all worked fine, the birds were an astounding sight wheeling in a huge circle, waiting for things to settle down before they returned. I got a shot of Cribby on the wave with the pelicans surrounding him.

A huge lunch, how fortunate that I've been working fairly hard to offset the intake! Then time for us to get out there, the wind had come up considerably on previous days - rigged a 4.5m and 85l Quatro FSW. Guy was taking pictures on the hill, and has a good one of one of my best attempts! Nice... The wind came up some more and the 4.5 got a bit much on the wave, turning downwind, and then I pulled my elbow really hard on a gybe out the back, which was a bit of a shock. I'd already paused a few times for a drink and a think, and to clean up my popped stye (yuck!! But at least that's sorted for now), so had another. Pretty tired though, so stopped about 6.15 - Guy sailed on until it was dark...

Better Than Life

A very slow start to the day for me - lost to drink on the infamous birthday, body a bit racked after the effort expended! It takes a long time to loosen up in the mornings, for both me and the fog, but today was clear from the off - if only I was the same!

There's a group of friends from LA here, and a couple of other guys who had been staying for 10 days and planning to leave today. Each of them is like some stereotype from a typical US crap TV show, like Murder She Wrote or Diagnosis Murder - the retired aeroengineer, the Chinese doctor who fancies himself technically and keeps a blog, the tall skinny rugged silver-haired surfer, the keen naive-seeming "nice" lady, and the comedy Japanese ex-dancer who at 4' 11'' sails 75l boards all the time. And they all talk just like you'd think they should. Amazing. There's a lot of apparent competition too, someone always knows more than someone else...

After the video session, which Guy came to a bit late to find us watching the Jem Hall Winner to Wavesailor DVD (which is pretty pants actually, although maybe it has some redeeming features we didn't get to), Guy decided we'd have a quick jumping session in the freshening wind. This is about 12.15, with lunch planned for 1, so not too clever methought. That and the proposal that we head out to the Bombora which is a monster peak so we can jump off it.

But it turned out well, 5.5 95l FSW, had a quick hit until 1.30, with lunch postponed officially. Got some good waves but the jumping was pants - not enough wind, not enough ramp waves on the way out. And lunch was good - tasty hot dogs and amazing lentil soup. I wonder what happens to all the food we don't eat?

The afternoon's session kicked off about 3.30, and was pretty good actually, 5.0 and 95l got progressively harder to handle in the increasing and very gusty wind. Because it's cross-off, it comes over the land and island, which makes it very turbulent - no wonder pelicans use swell lines to get upwind to the island! I stopped a couple of times for a rest which was a good idea and acquitted myself well with Mr. G who said I was the only person doing what he'd said i.e. stay up upwind to get the wave peaks - yay! I tried hard, but got caught out on the ledge once, cracking it at a high speed and dismounting violently, which slightly put me off on subsequent attempts. Ah well. I did get one good jump in, as the wind picked up.

The evening offered the customary entertainment, playing Spoof for a forfeit. You each have 3 bottle caps, and on the call you hold 0-3 in your right hand. Each then guesses the total caps held, and the winner if any drops out. The last person not to drop out has to perform a forfeit - the Swede Juke had already "won" twice, having to be buried in seaweed and wear a pair of giant pink underpants all day. Amazingly he didn't lose again! It's pretty random in early phases, I stick to the average, but when down to the last two it gets pretty tactical. Tomorrow's forfeit is to oil up the large hairy person Clark on the staff for the proposed wrestling match with Guy - another long story, involving Guy not showing for the afternoon photo session with Clark's remote controlled mast-attached camera. I retired tired - the fresh and burgeoning stye in my left eye is getting to bursting point and very painful.

The Birthday

Pretty low-key kind of birthday really - usual thing, morning spent doing some onland exercises, wave riding, upwind slogging, including the martial arts-style kick around the top of the wave. Lunch, then Cribby took a 90l board out to the big break on the island, did some stuff which impressed the locals, then waved us on. Very light wind really hard work, no waterstarting, trying to catch waves. I struggled to do this for ages, getting on them but not seeming to get very far. Stopped for a bit to have a rest, then Cribby called us over to the beach for tips - sheet in more, turn along the top of the wave. If only he'd said that earlier, because I got going on one immediately, even starting to look up and down the wave, trying to bottom turn and get off the top before falling off! Nice. A good birthday treat. Lots of ideas for improvement :-)

Great dinner, salmon cooked in soy sauce. Repaired to the bar, everyone else seemed to disappear... then Kevin the boss suggested we go into the food room, and bingo! Everyone there, a cake, song - a proper birthday!! Spent the rest of the evening drinking margaritas, playing spoof for the opportunity to wear the pink knickers all day (!) and talking bollocks before retiring far too pissed - woke up about 4.30 and was even drunker than I'd been when I went to bed!

A Hard Day at the Office

I'm not sure what today was like for Cribby, probably just another day at the office, but for me, it was pretty tough. It started fairly quietly with a very cloudy overcast sky, the sun not even visible, long strings of pelicans making their way along the swell to the island as they must have for thousands of years - the original Ocean Groovers! After the 8 am cooked brekkie (toasted bagels or Yank muffins with fried egg, bacon and cheese), Cribby, Jerry and I went surfing, paddling out a bit to try to catch some waves. Got some tips on paddling which was really helpful - get the board even flatter than I think, it just glides along.

Then it was time for some dry land wave exercises - lots of fussing around getting boards placed on boardbags and rigs set up so we could practise the moves, especially the bottom turn - feet jammed into straps initiating the turn by banking, front hand by the harness line, shoot the rig forward and grab the boom right at the back. Incredibly hot. I thought I was gonna get heatstroke, drank litres of fluid, hoped the suncream was holding up.

Feeling virtuous, it was lunchtime - chicken soup done with rice, salsa and lime, almost Thai in its fresh sharpness with coriander. Lovely. Clark drove a few of us to to the Point to check out the surf there - it looked reasonable, but the tide was coming in so no time to waste! Got back, suited up, more surfing... bigger crowd this time, more wave action but not so you'd think you could get it initially. I was absolutely dying for a leak, not surprisingly, and not wanting to christen the suit, went back to the beach while the others headed out to the island where the waves were breaking big but very complicatedly. I paddled out to the previous spot and sat with a non-Cribbista, trying to catch some and not doing well - they didn't ramp up enough and I was working hard against the current to avoid drifting away from the spot. One of Guy's good (but should have been obvious!) tips was to take a transit in two directions for the location of the wave peak, which helped.

Knackered from all the paddling, arms tired, we headed back. Now it was time to go windsurfing!! In virtually no wind, certainly not planing wind. It took ages to rig, especially as I had to take most of the damn suit off again to take another desperate leak! Eventually I staggered down to the beach, and out, cursing the hidden rocks and uneven surface carrying the kit so as not to dent it on the buggers, rather than trying to float it. The plan was to catch waves and practise getting speed on the wave in light wind by staying near the top...

And that was hard work!! My arms were killing me, and my brain felt like total mush, no reflexes at all or so I thought... But in fact, I've improved hugely, even managed some tacks, and although I couldn't waterstart easily in the very light wind, just uphauled. Cribby was either filming or on the water talking to people. I caught a few waves, but instantly forgot the training and ran off the back! Totally discouraged, made my way back to the beach for a break, hopefully to stop because I was feeling pretty low - my mood wasn't helped by yet more holes in the beach and some very painful encounters with sharp rocks! However, a rest, and I headed back out, determined not to quit - besides, other people were catching waves and I wanted some of that action. This time it was better, and I came out for some mini-rests on the now smoother flatter sandy beach exposed by the falling tide. Still totally knackered though!! Easily got upwind back to base, and derigged. I checked with Cribby on my performance and... he was really pleased with my wave selection!! I got some really good ones, just didn't ride them too well, but as he said, great technique is pointless if you pick crap waves. So that's cool - lots of potential to improve, but a solid base. Dinner, of which I ate a lot, was ribs, baked pots, salad, garlic bread. A couple of beers and time for the sack, along with ibuprofen and paracetamol, my two best friends.

Down to Work

Interesting breakfast this morning - huevos rancheros or fried eggs with salsa and stuff in tortillas - good.

The morning was spent looking at ancient native settlements and petraglyphs with Clark - very interesting. Hard to believe how much ancient man changed the landscape, the simple dents are actually pit dwellings, with the shells scattered around actually midden heaps, not remnants of some ancient sea. Amazing. Lots of pictures to put up later.

Got back for burgers, but felt like a cheat since I'd done nothing all morning! But then the afternoon we cracked into business. Lots of onland practising stance and things for catching waves before rigging up (RD FWS 95, 5.0) and going out for Cribby to meet us on the beach. I started in my rash vest, but was totally frozen, so came out and switched to the wetsuit. What a good call! The afternoon was then spent on the sandy beach, practising rocket starts, where you jump on the board and plane off the beach, going upwind, and mincing - move yer arse to the front of the board to increase hip rotation and thus sheeting in. Cool. Getting ok at getting upwind, and also stooging about waiting for waves. Finally had a session trying to catch nonexistent waves while Guy videod, before calling it a day about 6.30. Hard work, but good, the wetsuit was brill. Good call!

Supper - no idea, but it had better come soon, I'm starving!

The Eternal Triangle

Today was about The Triangle and The Eternal Machine...
Breakfast has two options - cold anytime or hot about 8. This morning hot was sausages and pancakes, very tasty. Trying to hold back on the food - easy to pig out and feel totally bloated!

After breakfast lots of hanging about, then we took a bike ride up to the point, stopping on the way to check out the various spots so that Cribby could be sure what was happening. Rodney the kit man came with us to explain how each spot worked. The bikes are pretty far out - Santa Cruz Hecklers and stuff, $4000 bikes :-o !

The critical part of the morning was the explanation of the Eternal Triangle - sail out upwind to the Waiting Room, hang around until the right wave appears, then catch it heading downwind, until you kick out and cycle back round to the Waiting Room - a triangle defined entirely by the physics of waves, wind and the hydrography of the spot. With a place like this the waves are so predictable they break in the same spot, and it's easy to work out how to avoid them if you need to or catch them if you want to do that.

The afternoon was spent trying to do this - good fun, and the water was warm enough that we could wear rash vests (polypro!) and board shorts, but I did get a bit cold towards the end. However, I'd sweated myself stupid doing exercises with Cribby handling the board in the waves, which involved standing up in it for hours, so I'd worn my suit, and got almost heatstroke! Bah... now that's a worry, what am I gonna wear tomorrow if that's too hot and my vest is too cold?

Supper was tamales - not really very tasty, but hey, it fills. More chilli sauce or salsa next time!

Girls, guns, guts...

turns out that Ali and I had similar sleep experiences. Cribby texts to say he's been up since 6 and is in the bar from last night having breakfast. About 7.30 we getup there and meet Lisa, who serves crappy tea (tepid microwaved water), but the bar is nice, full of elderly US HD bikers, including one astoundingly butch lady, with a flayed leathery face, remind me of Cindy Ross on reflection but taller!

back at the motel we fuss over the packing of the "small bag" and its contents for the post-flight sail. I pack the minimum, no toothbrush - mistake! Never don't take a toothbrush! It's a $60 cab fare to Brown Field - big corporate jet there, but there are also a couple of small single engined Cessnas. Apparently there are 3 planes taking us all down there, and we're assigned by weight!

Taking off scarey-ish, engine noise rises, plane bounces along, and we're off! Ali and me sat in the back, good view out of the side, up to 4000ft, 140 knots. Nice. Seem to be moving very slowly until you realise the clods are whizzing by...

landed at espenada to clear customs and immigration - very long winded as we also waited for the fog over the camp airstrip to clear. nice lady officer asked us to "go to the light" - turns out to be a random indicator for people to have their bags checked! Big cheer when someone got theirs red - just a set of traffic lights with a button :-)

Took off again, with no real plan apparently. lots of radio discussion about the chances of landing ok - that wasn't too scarey :-o. Mike went ahead, we were with Jose, Carlos the other pilot. Circled over the campsite - heavy fog to the ground. Turned back and landed at El Rosario, just a concrete strip in the middle of nowhere. This triggered a showing from the mexican military, who turned up with 5 armed teeneagres and a humvee. After a few explanations, they examined everyone's bags before posing with us al in front of the humvee and planes - cool.

Eventually took off in a hurry and got in no problem - Mike led the way. 15 minutes later we swung in over the camp and dived for the dirt airstrip - wow, scarey, the stones and dust kicked up and we swerved up the track before swinging round and pulled up in front of the camp.

Tents assigned by ourselves - one each , lots of space. A camp tour with Clark, our camp host for the week. Nice guy, will I remember all the important things? We'd got there too late to do much, but we took out surfboards and SUPs, me distressingly in my speedos which endeared me to the locals - not! SUPping is ok, starting to get the idea before stopped because I was getting cold.

Came in, beer, margerita, big spaghetti meal, logn chat with a local sailor, then suddenly got hit from behind by the huge drink, and collapsed into bed. A bit apprehensive about tomorrow - images from the Westward Ho! incident crowded into my head along with all sorts of silly anxieties and concerns. Sleep came and ended about 5...

Respect to Musharraf Khan!

Olympic and only Bangla Deshi Channel swimmer!

Upgraded to World Plus, sitting beside German student Tim, en route to UCSB for a semester of Economics major, working for a large German insurance co in a sandwich course. Marco the steward found me funny, not sure how that worked out. Went up to meet Cribby and Will in 1st class, both wearing their matching pyjamas and enjoying the "whatever you want" menu! Watched Amelie - lovely film. Great views of landscape - Greenland icebergs and glaciers, Utah/Wyoming desert and hills, LA pool madness.

LA - long wait for parking slot, got in early. Guy taken off by immigration people because of some transgression years ago - Will and I waited for the luggage and of course mine was almost the last off. Not that that mattered, since Guy was still waiting to be interviewed. He's brought a sail, on the basis that will be the one he needs! Black passenger helper lady not happy with her Portuguese? charge who having been wheeled from the plane, now wanted to stand up and get his baggage! Eventually it had all arrived and he leapt up and wandered off to her obvious disgust! Japanese translator walking around with very pretty and slight Japanese lady, waiting for companion. exchange between Imm official and translator - "how can I respect you when you walk away when I'm talking to you" - not sure what that was all about, didn't seem to phase the stereotypically inscrutable Jap guy.

Guy on the phone trying to organise the Venice Beach trip, supposed to happen while we wait for the other flight to arrive. I'm Bag Bitch... everyone else is on the phone. Usual airport bedlam of cars, people, noise... several groups of Chinese wearing facemasks! Turns out that Guy booked the bus for the wrong day, so we get a new one, and our first meeting with the redoubtable Musharraf Khan, but it turns out that there isn't time since it'll be a 2-3 hour trip which means we can't really do it with an hour to spare now. So we debus, and repair to a dodgy snack bar on the arrivals floor, Guy and I having hotdogs and purchasing lots of water for the arrivals, who shortly arrive. Guy is waving his hand-writtenTWATS sign in the arrival queue...

Musharraf - after discovering we are from England, announces he swam the Channel in 88, and was in the Montreal Olympics in '76, the only Banga Deshi rep. not sure if he medalled, I suspect not. He was also a Flying Officer in the BD airforce, and said something I didn't quite catch when I asked about the BD separation from Pakistan in '71. He returns to take us to SD, and we pack in. The traffic is immense - 8 lanes in each direction of solid cars, SUVs, trucks... The unspeakable scale of America-style living hits me right between the eyes. And it's 120+ miles to SD and we're doing 20-30mph. It takes 3 hours and we try to sleep, me stretched on the first bench, Guy in the front and the others doing what they can. The aircon is far too high, I'm forced to put on my wool fleece to try to warm my arms up. Ridge Living - that's what they want! Enjoy Ridge Living for only $umptyumpump thousand, No Money Down!

The GPS takes us straight to the hotel on Pacific Highway, with a view of the harbour and a couple of railtracks behind us - the Amtrak passenger trains have HUGE horns, it's not until we walk out later we discover why they use them so freely. Musharraf bids us goodbye almost forlornly, off to break his Ramadan fast - he took some water on the trip, probably his first of the day. That would be hard!

Classic US motel - Ali is already in our room having arrived directly an hour before. We all go up in search of burgers or more specifically the bird in the burger bar flyer... we find the joint but she's not there...! Huge HungryBoy burgers, very tasty, too many baskets of chips. Then to The Waterfront bar, where the blues band is setting up and three honeys are keen to converse with these strange-accented chaps. We eventually return to the motel, and I sleep fitfully, waking at 2.30 to toss and turn with the airconditioning cycling on and off, alternating between chilling and sweating - yuck.