the early bird special

only a handful of people at pampilla this morning, as most people were either in bed or down at the beaches south of lima. lots of waves, though mostly slow ones with a mushy feel. still, i had quite a few good runs. my arms were awfully sore after 7 straight days surfing and i lacked explosiveness while paddling to catch waves. so my thoughts circled back to eating right to speed up recovery times. the photo today is what limenos call the o'neill store, even though the owner sells other brands. he's a nice and helpful guy, hawking mainly equipment and clothes, but no boards. one time when i was there, two kids stormed in, cut in line and started barking at the owner. he sighed, looked up and said: "first of all you need to wait until i finish taking care of these gentlemen and second of all i won't respond to you unless you greet me with buenas tardes." i thought that rocked. the store is located at Av. Santa Cruz 851, half a block from the ovalo gutierrez and is one of the few places where you can always find surf wax. our thought for the day, from the groovy janitor in the movie step into liquid: "surfing is the ultimate spontaneous involvement in a natural medium" -- true dat!