For the love of, waves?

This is only my second update of the blog since our move to Nicaragua some four weeks ago. The plan was for me to write about the house and surf and for Mel to write more about our day to day life here. Well not a lot has happened with the house in the last few weeks as we are waiting for the wood for our windows to dry in Granada. The septic system has been put in and is probably completed now. The floor for the lofts has also been put in and was being planed even on my last trip to La Vista, yesterday. I suppose I shouldn't say not a lot is being done. We are definitely making forward progress. I look forward to the day I move in more and more every time I see the house.

On the surf front, the weather has been pretty lousy for a solid ten days. Lots of rain and onshore winds. Its hard to complain about the rain out here because the dry season runs for seven months out of the year.  May marks the changing to the Nicaraguan winter. The change of seasons often bring rain and sadly onshore winds but the landscape is quickly transforming from arid and dry to green and lush. Two nights ago the lightning was constant. The night sky was bright more often than dark and it rained so hard our downstairs had an inch of water in it. It was the worst weather of the past two weeks. It was also the end of that weather pattern.

The wind has switched offshore and the waves since then have been incredible. The rain has moved all the sandbars into place and with the offshore winds conditions are great. Its incredible how a few days of really really really good surf can re-energize you and just make you smile more. I surfed three times yesterday. Twice at Colorados, once with Mel. The afternoon session for lack of a better way to put it, is why I am here. Mel and I surfed Amarillo at sunset and she was catching some great waves. It was a perfect end to one of my favorite days out here thus far. Then this morning at Amarillo it was as good as I have seen it. Almost head high, hollow and fast. Guess what the plan is this afternoon? Thats right, more surf. The internet has been touch and go recently and as I type this I realize I should upload this, grab a beer and get ready to go to the beach. Thanks for reading, Ian.

My first report.

I haven't contributed to the blog as of yet because I didn't feel like I had anything to write about in Hawaii. We worked a lot to save for this move and made some sacrifices in the process. Now that we have been here for a few days I want to contribute so here goes.

I surfed proper Colorados yesterday for the first time since our arrival. The sandbar is still kind of quirky but for the forty or so minutes I was out the left was working. The wave is pretty fickle right now, so by the time I got out the sandbar had already shifted. Overall it was a fun session. I took a couple of short vids after I got out but I am having trouble uploading them.

The walk to Colorados from Chanelles casita takes about forty five minutes. The walk to the wave was not bad at all yesterday but after surfing twice and hanging out in the pool we were dreading the walk home. And so the talk of buying a car immediately came up as a necessity not a choice. Of course half way through our walk home we decided it was not so bad after all and that a car would seriously cut into our funds and be a constant drain on our bank account.  Mel jumped in the water at Amarillo for a couple small waves. It is a mile long stretch of beach that has a small wave at both ends. I took a couple shots of Mel while she was out.

After our surfs we stopped for a few beers and Nica libres (Rum and 7 no fruit) and watched the local groms surf the closeout at the end of Gigante beach. The kids out here charge on boards that have been snapped and sawed to a point. Its pretty impressive. 

After happy hour we had a great dinner at The Swell in Gigante and meet local real estate tycoon and celebrity Dale Dagger who literally washed ashore here some 20 years ago. We talked about Hawaii in the seventies and the true spirit of Aloha it was a great evening and the sunset was pretty damn nice.

"Aloha Abroad" and our departure date, April 7th

I will always attribute my meeting Ian, to Siobhan Budge.  In some of our wildest young adult adventures, my sister and I spent a handful of summers cruising the one lane road from the lower 48 states to Alaska and back.  The Alcan produced some of our finest memories together and was the catalyst for our adventures abroad.  Years of gazing at Alaskan and Canadian road maps indefinitely averted my eyes downward, to where the road extends through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, through the Darrian Gap, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and all the way to the tip of the world where it ends, in Ushuaia, Argentina.  Sarah and I have always wanted to drive the Pan-American Highway and one afternoon, two years back, I was having a conversation with Siobhan who, ironically is from our favorite town in Alaska.  I was telling her about our dream of driving the Pan-American when she mentioned a friend of hers who had driven the Central American portion.  His name, Ian.  "You should meet him," she declared.  I'm not sure what the extent of my pursuing him actually was but, here we are today, about to embark on a crazy adventure together.  I love how the future played out.  I so feel, like this was meant to be.  That we were meant to be doing this together, and that I've waited my whole life to meet him.  I couldn't be in a better spot, personally, emotionally and spiritually.  I am inspired by Ian's courage,  his ability to break free from the norm, and his undying love and devotion to righteousness.  I am truly blessed.

We leave April 7th ... and we are, STOKED.  We're celebrating our going away at the Row Bar on Monday, April 5th and are promoting the creation of "Aloha Abroad," which came to be on a lazy Kailua afternoon.  Ian coined the organization which I am currently dubbing, a reality.  The message is simple - perpetuating the spirit of aloha, abroad.  The organization's first motion will occur at our going away party where we ask that everyone bring a new or gently used item of surf apparel for the groms of our new Central American neighborhood.  Help spread the aloha.  Stoke out the kids of Rivas!

And for some reason, I felt it necessary to post this quote that Ian muttered on our drive home from work last night.  

"A real man has nothing to do with how much money he makes.  It has to do with how high he can jump off a cliff into water.  That's a real man." - Ian Nelson

And my man, he is.

With the holidays at their official end, I can safely say, I'm stuffed. Get me back in the water please.

It's been a while since I've updated. Flipping through the picture file on our Toshiba laptop tonight, I came across the photos from our trip to Cali last January. There are a couple of pics that I absolutely adore for more reasons than one, namely that they are from the start of my love for Ian but also, because it clearly demonstrates his love for waves, which of course, is what this blog is about. I wanted to take a minute to slap these photos on this page because a) the one of him in the hood is classic, and b) Ocean Beach was big and cold and scary looking that day.

These pics also remind me that it's been a great year and I have much to be thankful for.

I also came across this one of Rubsters. Ruby lives with Ian's parents. She was rescued from the Humane Society about six months ago and has shaped up to be the world's sweetest dog. Puna and Lea love going to visit their cousin Ruby in Kailua.

Ok. And here's one more from the final day of the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa.

At the Start

My boyfriend Ian, is a man of great ambition who sees potential for growth and development in an eco-friendly development named La Vista, just north of Gigante, Nicaragua on the Pacific side of the country. On a recent visit, he became acquainted with two men from Australia who had recently bought up a grip of land in the afore mentioned area and were selling plots in the La Vista development that boast an "off-the-grid" lifestyle complete with thatched roof casitas and the ability to run off of solar and wind power. The purpose of Ian's visit was to stake out a spot for a meager investment. He wants something that's his, something that has the potential to generate revenue while we're are away and something that we can potentially flip in the future if in the end, it's not the life for us anymore.

Being the man that he is, I trust his judgement with all of my heart and am excited at the prospects of living abroad, learning Spanish, and running as far away from the race of American life as possible. I have no problem with the notion of surfing my thirties away accompanied by the most simple form of lifestyle that two human beings can reasonably create. Life in a thatched roof casita with the man I love sounds pretty righteous.

So begins our journey...