Around The World In 80 Waves

After pushing the envelope to the very edge of my own comfort zone and probably some way past it at the triple overhead waves of the point, I was looking for something considerably less gnarly the following day, so chose the wide expanse of sand about a kilometer east along the bay.

It was just a short stroll from the hostel and I had been told it would work best at mid tide so went there after watching the nutters take on more madness at the point over high tide first thing in the morning.

I spotted a channel to paddle out into straightway and was out back in no time at all. However because I had left it late after watching the surfers the convections currents had already kicked in making the water surface really choppy.

There was still a 10 foot swell passing through so this made catching the waves rather unpredictable and quite difficult. On this one I am sort of taking the drop on I had to paddle so early to be sure of catching the wave that I passed a point of no return, to then have no choice but try and land the drop on the wave closing out behind me. 

Here is not a picture of me because I am still in the process of trying to make my way back to the surface of the water, which I should add is a good 20 seconds after I have spectacularly been swallowed by it!

The surfers amongst you may know the sensation of swimming hard towards the surface only to discover that you were in fact swimming down instead due to being so disorientated by your wipeout. This does mean that you can get a solid push off the bottom if the water is not moving too much, unlike my own situation where with each stroke you make upwards you make very little progress due to all the air in the water. 

However it eventually gets brighter in the water and you surface grab hold of your board and get on it just in time for the next one to hit you and throw you around like a rag doll.

As you can see here I am unaware that I am about to be eating sand again and probably just getting some air in my lungs.

Other times you do see them coming, but as you can see that is not necessarily a good thing either. No matter what I do from here I am getting hammered.

At least I caught something today, but so far I am just getting my backside kicked since arriving in Panama.

Maybe there will be something less extreme as I head towards the city?