12/5/96. After work, we again decided to try our luck in the Pinones area again. After all, third time's a charm, isn't it?

Surprise! Although a bit windy, it was head-high and good. It broke off of a shallow shelf reef to a sectiony left. (Don’t know the name of the spot, but it is the first one east of Toconos proper).

My first wave was the best of the sesh--maybe several feet overhead. Just rode the face inside till it closed out. Gotta be assertive (but not pushy) in a new lineup. The locals were a bit standoffish, but cool. Wish I could speak the language—even though I’m not too chatty while surfing, it would help break the silent tension.

As sunset neared, the surf got progressively smaller, but started improving over the shallow shelf (because of the outgoing tide?).

Caught a nice wedgy peak outside of everyone that just barreled out. I could see everyone's faces collectively inhale as they anticipated a tube ride. But I wasn't ready for the intense suckout and kooked it in the barrel. Got respect points for taking off in a critical section, but lost a few for not making it out of the clean barrel.

Jerry had his best session, taking off on some nice lefts and riding them to the beach. Bodyboarding with him is always fun because he gets so stoked over everything. It has given me a renewed zest for the sport (as if I needed another reason), and I’m playing Yoda, trying to pass on some of my knowledge to him.

The inside rip was pretty strong--reminiscent of the one in front of Pipe, but maybe a couple magnitudes less. Worked it again till well after sunset, and came in fully satisfied.

Photo by Steve Fitzpatrick

12/6/96. Traffic was horrendous in the late afternoon, so we decided to jump in the water somewhere closer to home. Right in front of our hotel in San Juan, is a cute beachbreak. The surf strength gets diminished by the offshore reef. What was left was something very akin to Bellows Beach back home, sans the Portuguese-Man-o-War.

A bunch of local kids bodyboarded and surfed the small peaks. We had a twilight sesh—no big deal. Didn’t know the spot name, so we christened it Condados.

More to come...

Salud de Paradicio
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