Don't Wait

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” - Heraclitus

Two years ago I stepped into a river with a friend. We mulled it over for weeks, hell, months, but we pulled the trigger, we forked over the cash, we left our girlfriends, and we went. What’s the point in having a passport if you’re not going to use it?

Could we have chosen a better month? One with less rain and more swell? Yes. Could we have saved more money if we had booked it further in advance? Yes. Could we have had the same experience, one filled with empty lineups and beautiful days? No. It would have been a different river.

We suffered through major rain on our three-week sojourn to Central America. Rain that tore through lineups, chopped up swells, ruined otherwise good surfing days. There was a dearth of swell for much of the trip punctuated by fleeting moments of glory.

A friend we were with ran into a friend from college. He’d disappeared during the pandemic. He snuck down to the tropics and had been living there for two years. On a break between storms, we went to a spot a little further out of town one morning, and the four of us surfed completely alone for over an hour during sunrise. Small waves, sheet glass. Just a few friends and a perfect morning. All you can ask of our little sport.

I stayed for an extra two weeks after we were supposed to leave. More swell on the horizon, what else was I supposed to do? I went back to that wave and Surfed it in a perfect rotation with only three others. Two of us goofys, two regulars, each splitting the peak. With more waves in the set than heads in the lineup, it was perfect.

Go. Please go. You cannot visit these places before they change before they disappear.

A surf camp opened up within walking distance of that wave just a few months after our trip. It holds some 70+ people. It is part of a global network of surf camps that are often full. I expect more will open in the area.

I can return to those banks, but I can never step back into that river.

Go. Don’t wait.

(sponsored by Trip Advisor)  ;p

-not really