Defeated by Hermosa

Current location: Hotel de Haan, Jaco, Costa Rica

“How pretty do I look on a scale one to ten right now?” I said as I got up from the water and faced two guys sitting on the beach. They stared at me with a terrified look on their face. “That bad huh?” I said and turned to my friend Kyle. I touched my face and the thing that was protruding from it was the size of half a tennis ball. “I think I better go get some ice then, because when my adrenaline drops it’ll probably hurt” I said, grabbed my board and started walking to the closest place that had ice. It was a beach bar in Hermosa. As I sat there with an ice bag to my face, sipping on a beer, I told Kyle what had happened. I had played a round on the white wash, the water after a wave breaks, and I should have known better. That’s how I got hit in the face with the surfboard last time too. But that time I did it on a small wave in Jaco - Hermosa is different. This place doesn’t allow stupidity, and with waves 25% bigger than in Jaco you get punished immediately for doing the wrong thing. I wasn’t ready to go surfing there, but wanted to try it. Two beers later, still with an ice bag to my face (which caused me more pain than the bruise itself), my face started to look a little better. Apparently I have amazing flexibility in my skin, and my face had looked pretty gruesome. Kyle said he had felt bad for the two guys that I scared with my appearance. We finished our beers and headed for the bus, just in time for the pro surfers to drop in. I looked at them and felt like such a rookie. I felt a little stupid with my face all bashed up. “Don’t worry about it” Kyle said, those are things that happened. I woke up the next day, more swollen that the day before and more colorful. To surf or not to surf, that was the question. I decided, against all better judgment, to go surfing. In retrospect it was the right decision. A friend went out with me and he taught me how to duck dive and how to handle the board better. I caught some good waves, but more importantly, I didn’t feel defeated any more. It was a good weekend. Now awaits a couple of days in Cañas with crocodile tagging and release and egg hunting.

#surfing #hermosa #beach #oops #eckardtadventures