After a month and a half of absolutely no good surf in Rincon, we got smacked upside the head with a gigantic swell this week. The swell came from the low pressure system that moved off into the Atlantic last week after delivering a tornado to Atlanta Georgia. Strong winds, low barometric pressure and a good fetch create waves in the Atlantic.
Check out some of the big wave pictures of Puerto Rico; the first is a sequence in Rincon Puerto Rico at the big wave spot, Tres Palmes. The second is on the North Coast of Puerto Rico.
Tow Ins at Tres Palmas | Rincon Puerto Rico Big Waves in Rincon Puerto Rico Rincon Puerto Rico can get huge surf!
The car in the foreground of this surf shot gives it some depth
Big Shore Break Surf
Enjoyed drinking red wine that was not refrigerated
Summer got PRK LASIK Surgery (more on that later)
We hung out with some friends and had sushi
I watched Cable Television! (even with 600 channels there is nothing on)
Hung out in Little Italy with Josh for a Hoegaarden beer (or two)
Saw Shawns house (that is under construction…he’s not building his himself)
Hung out with Robin and Gary for Gary’s Birthday (Summer mom and mom’s husband)
Hung out with Shawn at his place in UTC
Wend to In and Out Burger!
More on this In and Out place for those of you who don’t know how special it really is. In and Out burger is a family owned fast food restaurant with no plans of franchising or going public. Their food is simple as is their business philosophy; “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.” They only have four things on their menu: Hamburger, French Fries, Soda, Milkshakes. But, if you know the inside dilly, you may order a double double, animal style like I did last night (Two patties with fried onions). You can also order anything protein style and they will give you the burger wrapped in lettuce with no bun.
I stay away from fast food (minus SubWay) but I always hit up In and Out Burger when I am in San Diego.
What I haven’t been doing with my time is painting the sealer on the walls downstairs. Summer and I wanted to get the sealer on the walls downstairs this week so we could get rolling on decorating her office and getting the tv room downstairs ready for the couch (which arrived today).
I set up the brushes, paint tray, moved all the furniture to the center of my office and did a last minute read of the directions on the Water Tite Sealer Paint. The small print mentions that you need to spray a combination of water and muriatic acid on the walls and scrub off the white residue that is often left after concrete work. I don’t have everything I need so I think I am going to check the surf.
Scrubbing the acid on the wall is going to take some time…instead of just being careful with the paint, we are going to have to cover everything in plastic. Gotta make sure we’re good…..I’ll buy the supplies we need tomorrow.
The Surf
The surf has been good for the past two or three weeks now…work was really slowing down until Mike showed up. Now, under Mikes supervision, we’re moving again…although the posts are a little slow. I’ll try to be better with keeping you guys in the loop.
Yesterday, I was reminded why Summer and I chose Puerto Rico as our new home. The waves starting picking up last week with some small chest to head high real shallow surf (over reef; see Urchin Attack) but yesterday was a couple feet, offshore and lined up on the Caribbean side. I didn’t have the chance to take any pictures because I was too amped on surfing and I didn’t want to leave my camera in the truck with no windows.
This morning was a different story. I knew the swell was supposed to pick up through today so I checked it with some coffee and my camera. It is big.
Here is a picture of a wave , I don’t know what the spot is called that I saw coming over the hill. It has some size to it…probably double overhead on the sets…but you can’t tell from these pics. I also made the pictures clickable so you can see them at 1000 pixels if these are too small for ya.
The tide is extremely full, the rip is sweeping around the point and it seems senseless to paddle out here and wear myself out knowing that 20 minutes north in Aguadilla it is probably a foot or two overhead and lined up. I am going surfing…hasta lluego!
Stefan and I surfed at Pools yesterday and I got my inaugural sea urchin in the foot. Sea urchins are probably the biggest hazard when it comes to surfing in Puerto Rico. The little bastards are everywhere. Almost every good surf break is reef and where there is reef, there are urchins. Thousands of them. If you don’t know exactly where to get in and out of the water, you will definately step on a sea urchin. Even if you do know the beach well, you’ll end up with an urchin in your foot from time to time. I have not talked to a surfer here that has not had an experiance with sea urchin in their hands or feet.
Sea urchins (or Uni, in sushi terms) are spiny little echinoderms and are somewhat related to starfish and sea cucumbers. They concregrate all over the reef and a light touch will send the spines shooting into your foot (or hand, or whatever body part was unlucky enought to brush by an urchin), as a means of defense. It doesn’t really hurt when you step on a sea urchin, because the spines also have some sort of numbing agent. I didn’t even know that I stepped on one until I was out in the line up and started to think that my big toe felt a little numb. I took a look and saw a couple of spines hanging out of my toe. Bummer.
How to deal with an urchin in your foot depends on who you ask. I’ve been told to drip candle wax on it and the spines will back out into the wax due to the heat (I tried that, it didn’t work). I’ve been told to pour peroxide on it and forget about it. I’ve also been told to dig the spines out of my foot with tweezers. I ended up digging out the big one and leaving the little tiny spines.
Just goes to show, how different surfing hazards are depending on where you are surfing. In California we had to worry about stingrays and sharks, which are a bit more hazardous then an annoying urchin. Apparently Puerto Rico does not have sharks, so I guess that’s a decent trade off!
I have been anticipating a swell for the past three days. I haven’t checked the surf yet this morning but even if the swell did come in, I already know that it is going to be blown out. It is almost 7:00am, I have been up for the better part of an hour drinking my coffee and watering the peach fuzz and all of our new palm tree’s and the wind is blowing hard.
This mornings weather is a first for me (since we moved down in May). The trade winds are already blowing at a pretty good pace and everything is wet, like it was raining for a better part of the night. It is cool out and because it probably rained through the night, the humidity is relatively low. It reminds me of an early September morning in Jersey where I grew up.
If the surf is flat or too choppy, here is my agenda for the day:
Pick up our tile order in Mayaguez
Sweep, clean and straighten up the construction site (for my sanity)
Work in the Jungle
Try not to think about Summer being in here in less that 24 hours (or time will just creep along)
This morning, I am anticipating (along with every other surfer in Puerto Rico) a nice swell that is supposed to start filling in this Thursday or Friday. There haven’t been waves in sooooo long. Anywho, I decided to put the WaveWatch Surf Forecaster for Puerto Rico in the side bar of California to Puerto Rico so I won’t have to go far to check the swell…now you don’t have to either!
I surfed this morning for a couple of hours again. It didn’t have much size…much smaller than yesterday..but the tide was really low and the waist high sets that were coming in were sucking up on the reef and felt like chest high and juicy.
I surfed alone for about two hours and then headed over to the other side of the point to see if the secret spot (not so secret once it gets big…but no one challenges the shallow reef when it’s small) was working. It was only about waist high but it was barreling all the way across the reef…so Mark and I paddled out. It is a very sketchy spot to get in and out and is super shallow if you surf it less than 4ft.
I surfed it for about 2 hours before the sets stopped coming in and then battled my way through the dry reef and bazillion urchins to get out. No Urchins for me today, but my board lost a fin sometime in the session.
Here is a picture of the spot that I took before the swell started to come in…you can see the point set up if you use your imagination. Either way, with our without waves, a beautiful spot.
A bunch of the old surfers that have lived here a long time say that this is the worst August/September for surf in 18 years. Luckily, I have been so busy with the house, I never got bored or stir crazy (a common feeling for me after not surfing for a while). In the past two weeks I really started to think about surf again though. We are in finishing stages on much of our house so I am reliant on contractors to do the skilled labor…so I have a bit of downtime (although there is always something that can be done around the house).
Yesterday…the surf started coming in (waist to chest) around 5:00pm. Unlucky for me…I was stuck at the house because we had wet concrete at the entrance way to the driveway. Mark said it was fun..so we met at Sandy Beach this morning and surfed waist to chest high glassy waves for about 2 hours with two other people in the water. Did I mention the water is 83 degrees?
I am not going to jinx myself and say the surf drought in Puerto Rico is over, but the swell forecasting charts are calling for North Swell pushing through for the next week.
Hurricane Dean skirted passed Puerto Rico on Saturday pouring rain and minor wind on the Ponce side of the island but was more like a severe thunderstorm for the than a hurricane. Dean continued to gain strength as it headed directly for Jamaica. Jamaica is through the storm now, although I can’t find a lot of news about the category 4 hurricane, Jamaica must be worked. It is so poverty stricken I can’t imagine all those shanty’s surviving the storm.
Now Hurricane Dean is heading to the Yucatan Peninsula just south of Cancun.
More on this In and Out place for those of you who don’t know how special it really is. In and Out burger is a family owned fast food restaurant with no plans of franchising or going public. Their food is simple as is their business philosophy; “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.” They only have four things on their menu: Hamburger, French Fries, Soda, Milkshakes. But, if you know the inside dilly, you may order a double double, animal style like I did last night (Two patties with fried onions). You can also order anything protein style and they will give you the burger wrapped in lettuce with no bun. 
that I saw coming over the hill. It has some size to it…probably double overhead on the sets…but you can’t tell from these pics. I also made the pictures clickable so you can see them at 1000 pixels if these are too small for ya.
Stefan and I surfed at Pools yesterday and I got my inaugural sea urchin in the foot. Sea urchins are probably the biggest hazard when it comes to surfing in Puerto Rico. The little bastards are everywhere. Almost every good surf break is reef and where there is reef, there are urchins. Thousands of them. If you don’t know exactly where to get in and out of the water, you will definately step on a sea urchin. Even if you do know the beach well, you’ll end up with an urchin in your foot from time to time. I have not talked to a surfer here that has not had an experiance with sea urchin in their hands or feet.
