Time to Clean Up!

I woke up this morning at my friend Mar’s house in Nuevo Vallarta and I knew that it was time to get out of there. I have been staying on her couch for the past 3 days and I felt like I was intruding a tad even though she assured me I could stay as long as I wanted. Ive been getting tired of the drive to surf from her house which is about 40 minutes through the mountains and it eats the gas in the van so here I am, back in Punta Mita camped out on the street in front of my friend’s hotel.

I have been trying to clean up for the past couple of days and just live healthier overall. I needed to take a break from beer and all that mess so I’m going to go a week or two with nothing and find some clarity in my mind and get back on track. I’ve noticed that I’m increasingly getting lost about what Im doing down here overall. I used to have a mission and now I just feel a little lost. I don’t want to return to a work based society yet but I need to find some form of a project or something. Im not really sure what is wrong, just a slump I guess. Ive had these before where I just kind of drop out but they usually don’t last that long. Ill fight through this and get my head back in the game.

I surfed out at La Lancha today and it was just a crapshoot. There were some big waves coming through and frankly I was pretty nervous. It has been awhile since I have been in surf with any size to it and La Lancha was definitely pumping them out. Just massive walls of messy waves coming through all disorganized and La Lancha doing what it does best, shift all over the place. I took my first wave which was kind of a late drop and I saw the wall pitching so I quickly shot to the top and tried out make it out but got sucked under and had a bit of a spill. It shook me up a little and I spent the next hour dodging a little. I set up perfectly for a few good ones but usually I got beat to them as the non closing out lines were not very common. Everyone took a wave in and I found myself alone out there to face my fears and I was a little unnerved. Big surf can be a but nerve racking but its always better to share the fear with fellow surfers. Here I was alone and waves were coming in sets, seemingly stacked to the horizon. That’s when you paddle your ass off and try and get out of the impact zone. I made it through a few sets before I worked my way back in a little to try and pick off some of the smaller waves on the inside. I took one which turned out to be an elevator drop and I missed the bottom turn and pretty much shot straight while the whole thing collapsed on my head as I fell off the back of the board. I only made one more wave and I got killed on that one too and that’s when I decided to call it quits for La Lancha for the day.

There was a strong longshore current running with all the water moving around and especially with the waves angling out of the west. I was being dragged rapidly toward a rocky patch when I noticed a Canadian couple I met the other day paddling just inside me. The wife took a ride inside and I got a chance to have a word with the husband when I noticed a large wave angling down on us. I raced for the outside and made it over the top just in time to turn around and see that 6ft wall of water collapse on his head. Boom! I watched him be dragged under water for a little ways before resurfacing and he caught a small wave to the beach. I gave up paddling against the current and instead turned with it and very swiftly cleared the rocky area when I bellied in (rode a wave staying on my stomach on the board) to the beach. Phew! What a day!

I drove into Mita and bought a loaf of bread and a coke and headed to my camp site to make PP&J sandwiches. I had 2, finished my coke and then pretty much passed out from exhaustion. I just woke up around 630pm and talked with the hotel owner a bit and about some other surf spots around here that work better with the large NW we have filling in. Im going to try Burros in the morning and maybe Anclote in the afternoon, but we shall see how all that pans out.

My friend Debo is coming in tomorrow after driving in from Texas. She stopped in San Miguel de Allende for a few days and she should be arriving some time tomorrow. Im glad she came back down because a few weeks ago she was thinking about returning to Texas for awhile to work and let Mexico cool down. I think she made a great decision and hopefully it will work out for her when she reopens her restaurant in a few weeks. Tourist season is here and its starting to pick up a little which is good because it was a really slow summer with all the travel advisories and the bad press Mexico has been getting lately. Its weird though because Ive been noticing a pattern in the vehicles Ive been seeing. It seems only people from California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Canada are coming in. I have one of the only Texas plates I have seen and Im one of the only Texas I have met up until this point. I don’t feel like getting into a big social rant right now so Ill leave that alone. Im sure someone will leave a smartass comment about it though.

It has been a little lonely and quiet with Joe and Paul both gone. I have been hanging out with Mar and she has been a great help in talking to me about my crazy problems Ive been having lately with anxiety and general paranoia. I read about some breathing techniques on the net that Im going to start trying the next time I feel it kicking in. Its something I have been struggling with ever since I got down here and I don’t understand it. I have never really had a form of mental illness (that I knew about haha) that I’ve had to deal with and confront on an almost day to day basis. It has been taking a toll on me mentally but I think Im starting to get a grip on it and control it. We shall see anyways.

My plan right now is to hang out a few more days and see what happens with the surf. I would like to go south but its just so good here right now with size I don’t see a reason to pull out just yet. Maybe Im avoiding the inevitable of facing my fear of driving through Michoacan and Guerrero but honestly the surf is just too good. I really want to hit south Jalisco and explore Bahia Tenacatita and Chamela as I have scouted some awesome looking camping sites using aerial photographs. Ok, Im off to read a book before calling it a night.