June 6 narrative

Woke up really early to catch a 6 am panga to Carranera Point.  Don Choy didn’t show up, but there was another panga at the ready, so we hopped in with him.  We motored directly to Carranera point where the swell had just barely started to fill in, but the surf was rideable.  We caught a bunch of waves on the outside point, and the inside section, and both were over shallow reef.  Even though the surf was not spectacular, it was amazing being out in the early morning light in oily glass water, fun little waves as the sounds of the jungle drifted offshore, and the sounds of thunder resonated from miles away.  Also of particular interest was the gin clear water, and being mesmerized by looking straight down as you surf across the face of a wave.

After we wrapped up that fun little sesh, we got our “check in the block” for an Atlantic surf session.

We caught our panga ride back to Bocas Town, and met the family at La Pirata for a quick breakfast since we had a 1010 flight to catch.

I broke off one of my side fins in the reef and that required a bit of negotiation from the surf shop.  The day before I had given the surf shop attendant a t shirt from Tom Neilson’s Cocoa Beach shop.

We settled on 10 bucks for the fin, very reasonable.

We made the several block walk to the aeropuerto, and boarded our plane to Albrook.  John Thurber picked us up, and we hit El Rey before making the drive up to the beach, as Matthew had rented a luxury home on AirBnB.

Rebecca reminisced about her fun times in high school, as “Land Down Under” dredged up memories of growing up in Panama while we crossed the ridge of the Tula Vieja on the Autopista.

At the beach, Richard immediately rallied us to rent boards in Palmar as the surf was firing.  It really was, and I caught a couple GREAT waves in the heavy Pacific surf.  The locals were really cool and it seemed like they were cheering me on as the Viejo in the line up.

Also surfed Little Hawaii, and fulfilled the bucket list item to surf two oceans in the same day.

The evening fare, cooked up on the grill. Filte’ that would make Bill Fahy proud