Punta Brava

It’s Thursday , and I’ve been here two nights now. Right now I am waiting for some guys to show up to take me around a development project in which I thinking of buying a place. God knows if they’ll show.

This morning I surfed the famous reef break and managed to get some pretty good waves before destroying my board on a rock. Destroy is a relative term…the board can be repaired, but it won’t be the same…so in my book, it’s done. Pretty stupid how I did it too. I had to duck dive under an inbound wave and I pushed too deep and hit the bottom. When you surf in water that’s between 2 to 8 feet deep in places, things like this tend to happen on a regular basis…hence the business of ‘Ding Repair’.

Oh, and on one wave this morning, I was cruising down a long left when I surfed right over a 6 foot reef shark. It was probably only about 3 feet long, but the crystal clear waters have a way of distorting the size of things…plus it sounds better to say it was a 6 foot shark.

If life is about having fun, and surfing is fun, then does surfing equal life? Someone asked me why I learned how to surf and why it has become my passion. Two reasons. One, you can’t play rugby past the age of 30 without really fucking up your knees. Two, the movie Point Break. Sounds cheesy right? Watch Point Break, and then go out and paddle into the surf. It will change your life. And your life will become way more fun.

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It’s 4pm and I am chocking back the tears after looking at my surfboard. The ding sucks, and I still have another 2 days of surfing. My friend Gucci from Argentina owns a couple of surf stores in Tamarindo, and his guys will be able to make it like new. But it’s done. Not only have I become a wave snob, but now I am willing to toss out a $1000 board if it isn’t perfect. It’s probably no different that shredding a snow board on rocks, and realizing that carving will be a little more difficult. (Mental note, work extra hard next month and buy 2 boards!)

By the way…sketch. The developers never showed so I hiked into the project myself in the 40 plus temperature. Stupid move because I am no dehydrated and feeling the heat prickles. So, I am back in my cabina cooling down, drinking water and eating some trail mix.

The property was beautiful, but nothing is happening right now and they don’t even have power in from the biggest town nearby some hour’s drive. Sketch. So it looks as if I am going to pass on this until they at least get some of the infrastructure down pat.

There also seems to be quite a few problems between the locals and the expats over development, water rights and so forth. No different from anywhere else in the world I guess.

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”My second home is a third world cantina.“ I love that bumper sticker. It’s Friday the 20th and I am here waiting for the surf. Big shock.

Last night when I came home, there was a Scorpion the size of a lobster on my screen door. This was after a pretty uneventful night except for having to leave the pizza joint because I was being harassed by an Italian girl who was decidedly a little too friendly. Funny thing is that she is here in Panama on vacation and lives in…you guessed it, Tamarindo.

And talk about small world, the waitress at the restaurant that I ended up having a few post-pizza beers at is from Canada.

This morning Mike, the owner of the hotel in which I am staying, showed me a brochure of the development project that I had been looking for which stated that construction was due to begin in a few months. The brochure was dated March 2007. Nice. When I see the realtor in Panama City this weekend I think I might go all old school on his ass. There is nothing more that I hate than being scammed, or at least that they tried to scam me. Yea, I am going to old school.

One thing that being involved in the gambling business taught me is that you can’t turn the other cheek when people try to rob you. You have to stand up for yourself and let people know that it’s not cool to mess with you. I know this sounds all gangsta, but there are so many assholes on this planet that will sell their mother for a dollar. In fact, I was told of a woman here in town that is pimping her 14 year old daughter and ‘prepped’ her as a pre-teen by making her watch porn all the time. Sick. And we are in a town of maybe 250 people in a very catholic country. What is wrong with humanity?

Anyways, I need to go surf and get rid of this negative energy that is surrounding me. There are lots of good people on earth, and all surfers share a commonality of respect for the environment and each other. Surfing is awesome.

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Okay, I feel better now after getting some waves with the locals at Punta Brava, which translated means, Brave Point. They might want to rename it Punta Loco because if you wipe out and go head first, then you’ll be chum for the parrot fish that reside about 3 feet below you.