We ended up surfing three sessions today- one right when we got up, another a little bit after breakfast and a third this evening until the sun went down.  The waves were bigger today, which was a mixed thing.  It made them a bit more thrilling, but it was also harder to get out.

The first session was a little cold, crowded and windy but I caught a good wave or two.  The second session was average.  Michael and I mostly ended up surfing the inside stuff, mostly white water.  The third session was a little rough from time to time but was probably the best.  The outside break was hard to get to and you could never tell how far out it was going to break (much like the second session), but the inside stuff was pretty good.  Michael dropped in on a few good waves.  I missed a number of them, which was a little frustrating.  I’d duck a bunch of white water then finally go on a wave only to miss it or have a guy drop in on me and almost cut my head off with his board or the wave would break so that if I ducked it the white water would probably carry me too far in not to go for it anyway.  So it was fun, but it was frustrating in that it could have been much more fun (for me).

We sustained a few injuries today.  In the first session a wave knocked my board into my right hip.  It had been sore all day and this evening when I was changing I noticed that it had turned into a nasty little bruise.  Not a big deal, but sleeping on my right side was a bit uncomfortable during today’s siesta.  (This was the first time I actually slept during that time.)

Michael’s injury was much more impressive.  On that second session he was going for a big wave that ended up tossing and turning him a bunch and he ended up smacking his head against his board.  I saw him getting out of the water and was getting tired at that point anyway, so I rode a wave in to walk up to the hotel with him.  When I got close I noticed a trail of blood from a small gash in his temple going down his face.  It wasn’t all that bad and just looked that way because he’d just gotten out of the water, but it was still a nice little cut.  He ended up washing it off and putting some ice on it, which really helped the swelling.  He said it actually hurt more a little higher up.

We went to a cool little place for lunch today with the entire crew: Warren Phillips, Torri White and James and Christie Little.  Just like every other place here it was open air.  Hannah asked for two tacos and ended up getting two orders of three tacos, which she’d never have been able to eat.  She wasn’t charged for the second one.  What I particularly liked about the place was that the table tops were made of thick cross-sections of trees and the chair seats and backs were made of little logs.

For dinner we went to a pizza place.  Barry once again ordered some Diablo Chilean red wine.  I have yet to have any vivid dreams from it, so here’s to tonight.  The pizza was good but a little expensive and I’d say not worth the price.  We ate with the whole crew there too.

We’re getting up nice and early for our first surf session tomorrow.  It’s supposed to be good.  They’ve said every day is supposed to be better than the last, but my favorite time surfing so far was our first day, although Michael’s favorite was today.

In basketball news, there have been a number of conference tournament losses to some of the top teams.  If Duke wins the ACC tournament it’s possible that they could go from being a three-maybe-two seed in the NCAA tournament to a two-strong-case-for-one seed.  Both Duke and Carolina play tomorrow, so depending on what’s going on when they’re playing, those of us who care about basketball may watch the games on the internet.  Of course, of the people who care about basketball I’m the only Duke fan and the rest are all Tar Heels fans.

Zach Dotsey