I should start off by saying that I learned today that we are actually at Playa Guiones, Costa Rica and not Nosara, Costa Rica.

When we woke up this morning it was really windy outside and that was messing with the waves, so instead of doing like we have been and surfing a session, coming in to eat breakfast then going back out for another session we ate breakfast, chilled for a bit to wait for the wind to die down then went out.

It still wasn’t great at first.  Barry and Hannah were off somewhere a little away from me and Michael and he and I kept getting sucked out a little bit.  There weren’t many waves at all for a while but then they built up and we started to catch some.  They were of a decent size today.  Barry and Warren said about four feet, but, showing how little I still know about surfing, I’m not sure where they were measuring from because some of the waves I dropped in on were definitely at least as tall as I am.

Michael and I both got tired of paddling all the way back out and noticed that there was some pretty good waves inside, so we started surfing those and had a good bit of fun.  Other people started falling back and surfing where we were too.  On the last really good wave I caught I dropped in on it and started going left then saw a girl’s head pop up out of the water and bailed before I could decapitate her.  On my way back out a guy, it turned out to be this girl’s uncle, asked me if I could help his wife.

It turns out the three of them, the girl I almost decapitated and her aunt and uncle, had been swimming and got swept out by the current.  I didn’t know that all three of them were struggling at first and put the woman on my board then started paddling.  A big wave came up behind us and after it cleared I couldn’t see her.  I didn’t know if she was in front of us or behind us or what, which was a bit scary.  We did finally see her, maybe twenty feet or so in front of us.  Barry paddled over to her and helped her out, putting her on his back and paddling in on his little board.  Hannah grabbed the girl, whose name was Ellie, and they chatted as they headed in.  I had the man grab onto the side of my board and we paddled in, although to be fair I did tell the guy that he was stuck with the worst of the three and it didn’t feel like he was helping paddle too much.  Fortunately some waves came along and helped push us in.  I would tell him to hold on tight to the board and hold his breath then I’d just duck under and let my leash (strapped to my ankle, for you non-surfers) pull me in.

For the record, Michael was hovering around to help out if/as needed.  He did ask Ellie if she was okay, which was nice.  I know he would have helped out more if given the opportunity.

They all made it in safe and sound, and it felt good to be able to help them out.  We all got to do our heroic deed for the day.

I was pretty gassed after that and went on back to La Casa Romantica with Michael.  Hannah was up a few minutes later and the three of us hung out by the pool.  Barry came up a little while later and was talking about how well Tori was doing after just three lessons.  Every day I’ve joked that she’s better than me and Michael, but it might actually be true at this point.  Guess it doesn’t hurt to get lessons.

I had a chance to briefly chat with Amanda before we went to eat, which was nice.

We ate at Rosi’s Soda Tica with Torri and Warren then we all went to get some ice cream again.  Sitting there were the woman and the girl that we’d helped out earlier and we talked to them quite a bit.  Barry, Hannah and I teased Michael about asking out Ellie.  The woman, whose name I don’t think I ever caught, wanted to buy us dinner, but Barry waved it off, though he did say that we were eating at The Guilded Iguana tonight and would be glad of their company, so maybe Michael will have a chance with Ellie while listening to the live music.

Zach Dotsey