I must have done something really nice to Continental Airlines, as practically every time I fly I’m getting these mysto upgrades to 1st class. I’m a cheapskate by nature, literally buying Imperials over mixed drinks when I go out in town and haggling over a couple bucks when buying trinkets for my kids from the local vendors in town. I’d haggle if it was or 0 or 00, I guess thats how one gets ahead in business, or at least one way to do it. I found a 0 ticket to California and somehow I’m sitting in seat 1B somewhere over Belize or Mexico and I’m thinking about how I’ve just embarked on another surf adventure and how I’m truly stoked. My staff think its funny that I plan trips but wait until the last minute to actually buy my ticket and go. To me it makes no sense to leave Tamarindo when the waves are going off and while California is windy and lacking swell. Last Thursday the surf started to drop in Tamarindo and the swell models started forecasting the waves to arrive to Cali from the big storms that have been formed in the north pac for the last week or so. Me, with my commitment issues, finally bought a ticket on Friday and here I am, on my way to surf big waves in cold water, the endless winter. The decent sized NW swell should be coming in tonight. My buddy John Alexander will be picking me up in LA in Uncle Rico’s van and we’re hitting the road for a week of California surf. I had a thousand Witch’s Rock Surf Camp stickers sent to my parent’s house, my dad sent them, a couple of boards, my 4/3 suit w/ booties and hood, a cell phone and some other random necessities with Justin McCabe back to LA, I’ll be seeing him in Venice Beach this afternoon and then heading north after perhaps a PM surf if theres waves or just chilling out with old friends for a couple of hours. I’m not quite sure where we’re going first, I need to check the surf report once I get to LA, but it looks like we’ll go north to Big Sur or perhaps even Santa Cruz and then follow the swell as it travels south back to San Diego. I’m getting amped and making sure to listen to plenty of punk music to get me in the mood for surfing in FREEZING NorCal water more…

Word is that Magnum Martinez will be at the Witchs Rock Surf Camp on Friday the 13th!  I do not think Costa Ricans have any delusions about the day Friday the 13th but I sure hope all goes well for them.

It seems Joe Walsh is promoting the Magnum Martinez autograph session during a boozefest of Happy Hour specials from 5-9pm. For those of you who do not know about him, Magnum was born in Caracas Venezuela but according to Quiksilver he now hails out of Carlsbad, CA. His bio on the site reads “Magnum is a soulful, spiritual surfer from Venezuela who is an Alas Tour champ known for his powerful style. He’s well traveled and his intelligent, easy-going nature has made him a ton of friends around the world” Happy Hour at WRSC doesn’t sound like the ideal environment for autograph signing for this spiritual warrior.

Maybe we can persuade Magnum to come on down to Jaco and Hermosa so he can check out the diggs prior to the 2009 Billabong ISA World Surfing Games in Hermosa this August. Plus, I don’t think any host here will disrespect him by presenting him for autographs during a chemical intoxication session for this great athlete and surfer. In addition, this past weekends CNS Nosara Surf Contest winner Jairo Perez who is another spiritual warrior and a major up and coming star in the Latin surf world will be in attendance with Magnum Martinez according to the flyer posted on Joe Walshs’ blog.

As I am a new blogger and I do not know all of the nuances of “social networking” a new service called Firepow claims it can help me. Of course, there is a fee for this and many sites offer different rates. You can find different prices depending on the affiliate that you buy the software or the service from. This blogger will sign up for the service and verify if the service works or is just another phony baloney niche marketing promise.

While I do not think surfing in Costa Rica is a niche marketing blog, the Firepow service says it can help me get the rankings I need for help get the site noticed by other surfers who are interested in surfing in Costa Rica. So check back here often to see my updates on whether or not Firepow social networking blog service helps this Costa Rica surfing vacations site.

Scouring the net for fresh content and key questions that surfers are asking, I often find funny and crazy things surfers do or say. I accept that what I think is funny might not seem funny to you but I will give it a go and see how this feature pans out.

If you have a funny posting and want to share it, add it to comments under this post.

First one is about one surfers solution to cold weather wet suit changing and surf breaks between sessions. Check out the comments to this surfers great idea. Note: not all of us are fortunate to have tropical weather to surf in and many prefer the waves in these areas.
First post

Second one is blooper but funny.
Second post

I still have this nasty hacking cough that I’ve had for two weeks now. It got worse when we went to Peru. The cold water, the intense paddling, the abundance of waves. The fact that the coastal zone of Peru is a giant desert and it gets really windy and cold didn’t help. The biggest reason why I (and a few others of us) got sick was because when we were trying to leave Lima we were told that Costa Rica had quarantined us in Peru because we didn’t have yellow fever vaccinations. hmmm. That would have been something worth knowing when we bought our tickets to Peru in the first place. They told us that we had to get vaccinations and then wait in Peru for ten days before returning home. All of this when we were racing like hell across a very crowded Lima, arriving for our flight less than an hour before departure.

Fortunately in practically every Latin American country I’ve traveled to, there is someone willing to bend the rules with the help of a “donation” for some charitable cause. We bribed the incredibly old lady nurses that worked in the airport health clinic, they shot us up with yellow fever inoculations (probably sharing the same needle, who knows), then ran back to the ticket counter to check our bags and sprint to the gate minutes before the plane left. On the plane, my body collapsed. My hacking cough returned after doing the 1000 meter dash. Maybe I was just worn down from surfing incredibly insane waves for the past week in cold water. Who knows. All I do know is that I’m feeling like I’ve returned from the dead. I’m told this happens to me every time I travel to the edge of the earth. I can’t remember as everything seems to be a blur. You gotta love this job.

Back row (left to right)- Flash Miranda, Chris Meredith, Ed O’Neill, Amber Shaffer, Jill Marshall, JD Marshall, Patrick Smyth, me, Mike Tornichia. Front row (left to right)- Antonio Tello, Janet (Antonio’s friend), Carlos Arias, John Otto more…