Jordy Smith is the only surfer who can still feel the chop from Slater’s wake. If Slater wants to get this thing over with and not worry about Smith, he needs a third place finish or better. If Slater gets a fifth or a ninth, Smith can take the fight to Hawaii with a first. If Slater gets a thirteenth or a twenty-fifth, Smith needs a third. And if Smith get a fifth or worse, than Slater will be champion even with a twenty-fifth.

-Source

Here’s the thing, there are so many great surfers competing from Puerto Rico that all these guys have the chance of getting knocked out by a local PR ripper. Just to name a few; Darren Muschette, Brian Toth, Dylan Graves, Carlos Cabrero, Alejandro Moreda, Pablo Dias just to name a few (if I left some out and you want to be added, email me and I’ll add to the list, or comment them in!).

I digress; If you are in Rincon or anywhere on the west side of the island, go check out the slideshow, it’s bound to be a good time with GREAT photos.

Pre-Sydney, Summer and I would cruise out there to play black jack, Caribbean stud poker and Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. It is the newest casino hotel on the west side of Puerto Rico and is located a few blocks away from the BQN (Ramey Base) airport.

First, here is the flyer Rachel sent out to all of her friends..next are some Google Map directions to the Marriott Hotel & Casino in Aguadilla by the airport and last is google’s widget if you know the address of where you are located.

View Courtyard Marriott Aguadilla in a larger map

chorus: Boop boop dittum dattum wattum, choo (3x)
And they swam and they swam all over the dam (repeats last line)

Stop! said the mommy fishy, You’ll get lost!
But the three little fishes didn’t want to be bossed
So the three little fishes set off on a spree
And they swam and they swam right out to the sea

Whee yelled the fishes, oh here’s a lot of fun.
Swim in the sea ’til the day is done
So they swam and they swam, it was all, a lark.
‘Til all of a sudden they saw a shark.

Whoa(?) cried the fishes, oh look at the whales
Quick as they could they turned on their tails
Back to the pool in the meadow they swam
And swam and swam back over the dam.

When I left California I was mountain biking whenever there weren’t waves and was really getting into it. I brought a nice bike down here and have ridden a few times, but haven’t really fallen into the mountain bike scene down here, so right now that bike is barely being used. I am surfing everyday there are waves, but the surf season is going to be coming to an end pretty soon and I am going to have to find something new to keep me occupied until the baby arrives

Summer likes going to the track (the streets are dangerous) once the sun goes down and gets her workout doing circles rocking out to music and listening to her iPod’s Nike Sport Kit that tells her how far she has gone, how she is doing compared to other exercise sessions along with words of encouragement from different professional athletes.

I go to the track with Summer when we aren’t spending enough time together because of work or surf, but I don’t really like going around in circles for my exercise, I prefer doing something that has a side effect of healthiness…like surfing, mountain biking, skin diving, skateboarding, walking the golf course and walking to the bar (just kidding).

We both love riding bikes and pretty much left the beach cruiser life in San Diego because of all the hills here. Well, we decided that the only hill we really need to battle is the one up to our house. Once we get to the bottom of the hill we can cruise from town south all the way to Calvache without any real hills and north all the way to the Dome without any real hills to climb. We decided, it’s time to purchase two earth cruisers so we can comfortably ride around Rincon, get some exercise and spend time together.

We headed out of Rincon on Saturday on a mission to come home with two 3 speed cruisers. On our hit list of stores: Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Sams Club and Ciclo Mundo. We stopped at the fruit stand on the 115 on the left hand side for a glass of Mavi Frio and some fruit. We had to take a picture of the grapefruit, look at the size of this thing! It’s as big as our baby (estimated size)!!!! After about 2 hours of looking for bikes (along with an hour of browsing the baby section in Sears) we struck out. Every store has 18 speed bikes and fancy looking mountain bikes but no one had a 3 speed cruiser. Come on people!

When I got home, I went on eBay and found the exact bikes we want and they weren’t even expensive, until you factored in the $156 in shipping it was going to cost to get them to Puerto Rico. Hopefully we’ll be able to find a bike store or bicycle shop in San Juan that has cruisers for sale, because now I am really in the mood for a bike ride.

Well, let me put it to you this way…

Stefan about to get shacked in PR:

Photo: Rachel Tanner

And there you have one of the many reasons why we moved from California to Puerto Rico .

This guys name is Ernest Ranglin, and I would describe his music as Reggae/Ska/Jazz all smashed together (description by Ken). He sent me over a few you tube videos of his live gigs, and his music is tight. The first video is him rocking out with just an acoustic base (maybe a cello) at his side (he is playing the guitar) and is much more jazzy with a island style base line. The second video is of him with a a full crew on stage rocking out some ska/reggae/jass styley! The third video sounds as if it professionally produced and is really really good.

Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Stefan and I are sick of being dry docked, and we decided it was time to get back into the ocean, surfboard or no surfboard…So we got kayaks!

We heard a rumor that Sam’s Club had kayaks back in stock (for $499 each), so we picked up a pair.

Here is Stefan kayaking at Tres Palmas. Weird how Tres can go from 40 ft surf to absolutely nothing at all…

After paddling around in the new kayaks for a couple of hours, Stefan and I decided to play a game of (giant) chess at one of the local Rincon resorts.

It was lots of fun, but kayaking and chess (or anything else) are simply diversions for surfers…Donde estas tus olas, Puerto Rico?

We are thinking about starting a bowling league, but what if we are the only league in Puerto Rico? Then who do we bowl against? I guess we’ll have to start two leagues so we have someone to compete against?

Two things about the bowling alley in Aguadilla:

1. Don’t bowl on lane 18. The air conditioning misses you entirely.
2. Don’t drink the rum and Cokes unless you want to get really, really, really drunk.

More Rinconians getting their bowl on:

Looks like a strike for Stefan…

Summer bowled a 151, beating Noel by 1:

Stefan bowled a 169! Unfortunately Luis bowled a 170 for the win:

This map is to the Walgreens because the bowling alley wasn’t coming up on the search, but it will get you to within 100ft of the bowling alley. The bowling alley is across the street next to the Wendy’s fast food joint.

View Larger Map

Rincon Bowling Night

: Tuesdays, 6:00pm

Smokey, this is not ‘Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.

This may not be ‘Nam, but it is Puerto Rico so I am not going to make any rules at all. If you would like to play, Summer and I are going to go Tuesday nights around 6:00pm and would like all of you to come. As far as we are concerned, the more the merrier (rowdier)!

If you have never been to the bowling alley in Aguadilla, it is tricky to find, but once you have been there once, you’ll never have a problem finding your way back. It is right across the street from the Walgreens and next to Wendy’s on the No. 2. It is hard to see because it is up about 40 feet on a hill above Wendy’s and they don’t have any Vegas blinking lights advertising * Bowling * Bowling * Bowling . I embedded a Google Map below with directions to the Wendy’s. You will be able to find it from there.

Bowl Aguadilla with us, Tuesday Nights at 6:00pm

Let us know if you are thinking about going. Once we get this rolling on the weekly basis, we’ll reserve lanes, set up some teams and keep an official score sheet that we’ll post publicly here. It could be that my poker habits are bleeding into the rest of my life (especially since I am no good at bowling), but I think I’d like to make a $1 wager per game (yes, an entire dollar). Ya know, spice it up a bit. Who’s in!

While we were wondering around (with no real place to go) we were checking out menus to see if anything ‘caught our fancy’ for a nice dinner out. We found a really good sushi restaurant in the El San Juan Hotel with great decor, great sushi and nice cold unfiltered sake! Before we headed in there for dinner, we walked past another restaurant in the same hotel that specialized in Northern Italian Cuisine. It was a little pricey, and we figured if they couldn’t spell Surf and Turf properly before they put a $75 price tag on it, they probably couldn’t cook it well either.

Julie and Stefan

Carrie, Nicole and Redeye

Summer and HOLY CRAP! Who’s that guy?! (Lorenz)

Drew and Julie

Roberto and Summer

Brittany and Tony

Here’s a little video of everyone getting down to “Thriller”: