I’m not from California. And even though I grew up in Florida as a kid, I was hours away from a surfing beach, and what 13 year old has the freedom to drive a few hours away to go surfing? I was living in the outskirts of Tampa and Endless Summer 2 had just come out – a surfing movie that, like the first Endless Summer, documents the travels of two surfers that explore the world looking for the best surf spots.
Had it not been for my older brother who was the embodiment of everything cool, I would not have gone to the theater to see the movie. It wasn’t even showing at the popular theater. None of my friends saw it. No one was really all that interested in surfing. If they were, it was more like the interests some had in space. It was fascinating to gaze up at the stars but no one actually planned on visiting them. And no one really believed they’d experience the surfing culture. They were too busy wondering if the girl in their first period class was interested in them. But, even still, surfing was fascinating.
My brother was the only surfer I knew. He was old enough to travel to the other side of the state and catch waves at Cocoa Beach, the same beach where Kelly Slater, the world’s most famous surfer, comes from. He even took me with him a couple times. Although, I can’t say I actually did much surfing. I learned to lay on the board and almost mastered sitting on it! It wasn’t until about fifteen years later that I got back in the water and began surfing without the encouragement of my older cooler brother. I had been living in Houston for two years and had no idea you could even surf in Texas. And while Texas isn’t one of the better known surfing destinations, there can be a good enough swell that gives you a taste for it. And Texas did that for me. Even though the water was brown, the beaches weren’t the most pristine, and the swell was choppy, once I felt the pull of the wave and experienced a true ride, I was hooked.
Several years later I ended up here in Nosara, Costa Rica, a surf town in Guanacaste. Before moving, I imagined what life must be like in a place like this. I remembered another surfing movie, The North Shore, that came out in the 80s. Even though the movie takes place at one of the biggest breaks in Hawaii, I figured that it must have a few things in common with surf towns in Costa Rica. Whether you’re in Hawaii or Costa Rica, you still get to experience surf culture in paradise. But really, I didn’t know what life would be like. Going from the big city to a small surf town would be such a major change and was I even ready for it? Absolutely I was!
About six months before the move, when I had already set things in motion to begin a new chapter in my life, I was listening to more Jack Johnson. Surf culture was an underground culture in Houston, but where I was going it was everything. As a thirteen year old kid I saw something that fascinated me, and many years later what seemed to be an impossible fantasy would become a real life experience. In time I would learn whether or not the reality was anything like the fantasy. At least I knew that I would be able to walk to the beach and surf waves that were consistently decent, rather than follow the surf report like a madman, hoping for a four foot semi clean swell, and finding out that the swell arrived the morning of a weekday, which meant waking up at 4:30 AM and driving an hour to Galveston Beach, giving me enough time to surf for an hour and a half before rushing back home to shower with the hopes of arriving to work on time.
So, am I living the dream? Did it turn out to be the Endless Summer that first caught my eye as a 13 year old kid? I can tell you this – it is up to you. Whether you live in the big city or at a beach in paradise, the way you live and how you interpret your surroundings is a choice. Stress still exists in a place like this. Many people still struggle to find ways to make a living. Many hope to simply make just enough money to enable them to stay here. But surfing helps. It’s still a choice, though, to get up in the morning, grab your board, and head out to the beach. Life here can be a lot like the Endless Summer. It can be a lot like the North Shore. And it can definitely be a lot like a Jack Johnson song. Like anywhere else, life is what you make it, but thank God we have surfing.
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