How it all started

Sitting here looking out into the El Salvadorean Jungle, it seems a bit sureal to already be on our way.  The idea for this trip was hatched from a friendship formed surfing in San Luis Obispo.  I met a Japanese/German-Alaskan Inuit from Hawaii named Genji, besides the fact that he's a short chubby pacific islander and I'm a lanky haole and an honorary ginger card carrier, we're pretty similar.  We both like getting up at 5:00am to scrape the ice off the windshield for low tide & east wind.  Well maybe like isn't the right word, but we are willing to do it for a shot at good, uncrowded waves.

After school I moved to the valley to work in a construction management and commute surf on weekends and mornings, and he moved to Hawaii to surf, aside from the few times a year he commercial fishes in Alaska to earn money to fund his surfing (not a bad gig eh?).

We decided to try surfing in El Salvador in 2007 and lucked out as a month long flat spell ended the day we arrived followed by 7 days of consistent swell.  The day after we left a hurricane showed up and blew the most of the country to bits.

I dropped by cereal spoon and picked up my camera to get this shot of Genji about to paddle out to a dawn session at a right point in El Salvador.

Warm water entered into our criteria for surf travel and in 2009 we chartered a boat in Indonesia for 2 weeks. Several other friends also made the wise choice to blow a whole years vacation time on one trip, and we had a blast.  Two for two, the surf travel bug was starting to burrow in deeper.

Giving the indian ocean some ginger juice.

No coffee needed, thank you.

In 2010 Genji took another trip to Indonesia and I visited Jessica in New Zealand.  We both got good waves, but it felt like something bigger was brewing. We decided to meet up in mainland mexico later that year and surf a long empty left pointbreak on some land owned by a mexican drug cartel.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, I swear.  We didn't get killed by any trafficantes and we actually got more good surf.  

"How was your vacation? Too short."  Lord knows how many times I've heard this one from co-workers, and I tended to agree with that sentiment when it was me coming home from a trip.

We were having fun on our surgical strikes and getting good waves and meeting interesting other surgical strikers (typical profile is married with a 9 to 5, a mortgage, and one week a year shore leave from the Mrs. to surf as many waves and drink as many beers as possible.  You know who you are).  But we dreamed of posting up a little longer at some of these spots, to really see them at their best.  There is always the next swell with a better wind forecast, or the next moon with better tides, some rare magical combination that is bound to happen without you.

Magical Happenings from our first Indo trip.

 We hatched a "dream trip" itinerary that was the discussion over many beers and many years "If you had a year and unlimited money, where would you go?".  Pie in the sky type stuff.  Then we started to realize that living in the places we wanted to see was in many cases cheaper than the places we actually lived, and the discussion started evolving into actual planning.  Due to significant others, families, work, investment opportunities, and the lack of funds for a years worth of plane tickets, we decided on taking 6 months and trying to see some of the top places we'd chosen.

So notice was given at work and to roommates (Genji told his goats), stuff moved into storage, Girlfriends kissed goodbye with promises of safe return (tan and fit as a bonus), and flights were booked to head to Chile.  After a month there we will visit Costa Rica.   Then we will return home for a bit of recharging and family time (Fishing for Genji) before heading to Indonesia for 2 months (Genji is reading over my shoulder and wants me to clarify that he will be in Indo for 3 months.  What a one upper he is).

-Kevin