Day 133

     The laughs continue and continue all throughout the day with the group of characters we have staying at the hostel. Today laughing literally almost killed me. Mike, Terry and I were out surfing this morning together. Mike and I are still probably classified as beginners although we are out riding with the best but still have only been surfing a little amount of time compared to these guys who have surfed everyday since they were 8. Terry went to University on the beach in Australia and natural rips it on the waves. It is always a battle from where we enter off the beach to get out past the breaks and into the lineup to catchwaves. It’s a bit of a paddle fighting the current but at this point its not anything new and we all know how to do it. However when the three of us entered Mike came about a minute after us as a swell rolled in pummeling him wayback towards the beach. Terry and I just assumed he was going to ride in there for the morning since its all but impossible to paddle back out once you get that far inside the breaks. We were having a good time, had each caught a few when we see Mike’s board crest the waves; he was about 50 feet away and still paddling. Mind you this had been about 30 minutes after we got out and started surfing. Mike had been paddling the whole time.

     A little backstory. Mike and I always stretch, do a little jog, and Mike always does jumping jacks on the beach right before we swim out. Terry who is a bit insane, chugs half a bottle of wine to give himself the courage to go surf the biggest wave he can find. He always pokes fun of us, but especially Mike for doing jumping jacks which he calls Star Jumps.

     Back to the story. We were in shock that Mike was still battling to get out to where we were, and he by now had almost reached us. Enter the single biggest wave of the day, a fluke monster. It picks up Terry and I and swirls us underwater for awhile, actually scaring me because it wrapped my leash around both ankles and then cinched it tight with the strength of Poseidon. However after the wave passed I was able to unbind myself and resurface, but it was the longest I had ever spent underwater because of a wave. Mike wasn’t so lucky. He was still inside the break from where Terry and I had been and caught the full fury of the wave. When I surfaced he still was under, and under. I started to panic as I could see his board floating limp on the water and Mike still wasn’t to be seen. I swam over and started yanking on the leash to pull him up. He surfaced with eyes wider than I’ve ever seen on a human, looking like he just stared down death. It is right at this point where Terry yells out “Hey Mike, looks like you should’ve done a few more of those Star Jumps!” The timing was impeccable seeing as Mike had paddled thirty minutes straight to almost get killed by the largest wave of the day about 1 minute before he was far enough out he would have avoided the whole thing.

     That night we decided to all go out for dinner since we have made three meals a day at least since we all moved in. We went to this really nice place called Costa Luna a few k’s down the road and was built on the ocean with a terrace that looked right over the sea.