tricky and shifty

i surfed redondo this morning, which was nearly empty and breaking with 6 foot waves. very tricky, with the point shifting widely from left to right across a space of 40 yards, and the waves so high frequency that you had to be very selective or else paddle for a wave only to feel it turn into mushy slosh. i felt like i was playing a game of cat and mouse as the point shifted, and at least twice i got caught inside when big sets rolled in. but the waves i did catch were especially fun and peeled nicely down the line. and the water was cool, refreshing and energizing after a long day yesterday in the sticky summertime heat of downtown lima. and all my thoughts about errands i had to run and stuff i had to take care of disappeared in the lull of the water. i took photos this morning of the rocky bluffs of lima, which appear to be old pieces of exposed seafloor that crumble in earthquakes. the rocks then make their way over to the beach and limenos think of them as sand. the geology here is fascinating, and i imagine that the rocks originally washed down to the coast from the mountains in rivers before solidifying in big heaps.

farofa

i surfed punta roquitas this morning. lots of work. the waves were high frequency, hitting square, and closing out quickly. i realized about 10 minutes into the paddle that i was too tired and sore after three days of surfing, and remembered too late that the biggest problem with the beach is that there's no easy paddle because it breaks everywhere, almost all at once, and that when it's big it's very demanding. well, it was bigger than advertised today. i got worked several times. mild stoke, and a few good rides made it worth it, but i should have gone to a different break. surfing has a way of reminding you that you always have to make good decisions, and this morning i was too groggy to even pick the right beach to go to. so, with that, i'll make a grumpy complaint. is it really necessary for surf instructors to show up with 20 students, cases of nasty soda, and an amplifier to blast reggaeton, all at 8:30 in the morning? dude, please show some restraint. or, in portuguese, "meu, deixa de ser um farofeiro, porra!"

red lines and vectors

here's an old map of surf breaks around lima. it's totally unreadable, but i like the architectonic red lines.

split pea soup

pampilla was running at 6 feet this morning, fogged in so thickly that you couldn't make out landmarks to figure out where you were in the water, and you could only see at the last second where the waves would break. a bit crowded because it's summertime and the water is warmer than normal, but people were having fun and there were enough waves to go around. it was high tide and closing out, and i caught a rare left from a swell that came in from the south. it felt slow and steady with a nice groove.

pampilla repeat

i bounced out of bed today and was in the water by 6:30 am, but in my haste to catch waves like yesterday i forgot that the tide was still kind of high. that meant that i spent a lot of time chasing garbage until about 8 am, when the tide dropped and things started popping. most of the people in the water emptied out to try to get to work on time, which freed up space and finally i found the sweet spot. patience really does pay off in surfing, though i still make lots of stupid mistakes because i'm overly eager and chase things i shouldn't or drop in too late instead of duck diving. about 8 am, the waves started breaking nicely and i caught one after another for a good 40 minutes. unreal. i pulled off a couple of big bottom turns, and one time i went from a face, to dropping down to avoid a closeout, to maneuvering around a bunch of foam, to back up onto the face again. technically, it was probably one of the better waves i've surfed. i also tried to muscle through a close out like i did yesterday but the wave was too powerful and knocked me flat. even that felt good. when i was getting into the water, an old guy who looked to be about 70, was up on a wave that he'd caught far outside, and there he was, hooting it up in joy all the way to shore "yyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

ice cream sandwich

after work, i picked up my car from the shop and cruised down to the water to see the waves. i bought an ice cream sandwich from a lady with a yellow freezer box on a tricycle and watched the surfers at dusk as the sun filled the bay of lima with yellow and red hues. i think the danafria ice cream sandwich is out of this world. it has decent quality ice cream and the chocolate cookie part is slightly crunchy, unlike the soft chewy kind in the U.S.

pampilla

i surfed pampilla today, which was just perfect at low tide this morning with 5.5 foot waves, sometimes 6.5 foot, streaming in one after another. the ocean was bursting with energy: little anchovas, glistening and silver, were popping up out of the water to feed and the sets streamed in non-stop. i was in the water a good 40 minutes before there was even a lull in the breaks. i managed to do some nice bottom turns today. on the second to last wave, which i caught after i got too far out in front of the line on an earlier wave, i forced myself to hold the line as the wave was walling up higher and higher, and just crouched down and muscled through it while it closed out. i tried to just shoot through it. what an intense feeling. holy smokes, i thought, that must be what it feels like just before you get into a barrel. surfing always brings new sensations, and opens up your imagination to
think about what else is possible.

barranquito

today i surfed barranquito, which was breaking nicely this morning, until the tide came in and it got soupy. i've always been intriqued by a reef located way outside. you can see it in the background of the photo in the little blip of whitewater on the horizon. on big days, you wait for the break at barranquito and you can hear the water crashing over the reef hundreds of yards away. it was calm this morning and luckily there were no sea doo maniacs in the ocean, so i decided to paddle out to the reef with my longboard. it's really far. not sure how far, but maybe up to one kilometer. the waves were too small to ride and disappeared only seconds after they broke, but it was worth the paddle. there were a bunch of birds just beyond the reef relaxing after eating breakfast, and a fisherman in a wooden row boat throwing out a net.

the car watcher

this is a shot of the guy who watches cars at barranquito,
where i surfed today. his services include holding your keys while
you are in the water, and bringing you a bucket of agua dulce when
you are done so that you can clean the muck off your feet.

eating right

peru's wonders aren't just limited to good waves. most fruits and vegetables are grown without pesticides, because farmers can't afford them, and you can get fruits from the desert coast, the mountains, and the amazon. one of my favorites is chirimoya, which peruvians say only grows in the desert here, though you can find it in chile and even mexico, i'm told. in this shot, there's also tuna, or prickly pear, from the mountains, and grenadilla, which is related to passion fruit, from the rainforest.
i find that i have more energy surfing when i eat right. this week, my wife got the inside line with a fruit distributor and his stuff is unreal. the chirimoya he got us was the biggest i've ever seen, and the flavors are out of this world after having grown up in a landscape of corporate industrial agriculture.

lima breaks

here's the google earth view of some of lima's breaks...

barrel

i've never got barrel, though i've come close. when i was a kid, there was an older kid in my neighborhood, a bit of a hick, who everybody called barrel because he was portly. i always wonder what became of him when people talk about barrel. here's a video i just saw at pineappleluv

rosa nautica jetty

the waves disappeared this afternoon, so i shot some photos. to the left of the jetty is redondo, and on the right side (the opposite side) is makaja.