One of Those Days

There’s a hollow A-frame beach break in Costa that’s one of my favorite places on earth.

The spot is fairly regulated by locals and ex-pats and parking is limited so it’s not the most accessible place by any stretch.

But the waves that break there are like a little slice of heaven.

Not crazy big but it holds just big enough.

My buddy Neal was in town visiting for a week and was scheduled to fly out but extended his trip when we saw the Code Red swell on the forecast.

The same Code Red Swell that the boys were packing MAXED out Chopes a few days earlier was making its way up to Costa.

Had been waiting to catch the spot as big as it gets and the day finally came when everything lined up perfectly.

This day was about 8′-10’+ feet by standard measure, 4′-5′ feet Hawaiian, and just glassy spitting right and left tubes with lots of juice.

Absolutely, unequivocally…

…AS GOOD AS IT GETS:

While I was watching from the car park, I noticed the lineup was damn near empty but people were starting to come out of the woodwork so I went into full Ozzy Osbourne attack mode.

I knew I’d want a bit more paddle power and top-end speed in the tube.

Luckily Neal had a backup 6’2″ Mick Fanning DHD squash tail with bright yellow rails and a deep single to double concave.

My main shortboard is 5’7″ so that 6’2″ was plenty of extra foam.

That decision ended up being THE difference maker.

From my first wave, it felt like I could do no wrong.

Frontside deep runner, foam ball, linking section after section, and out with the spit.

Backside knife in no-grab high line standing tall in the tube pumping through sections with a clean last-second doggy door exit.

Fade takeoff and scoop mid-face crouched double arm drag then speeding up in pace with the tube to get as deep as possible before exit.

Slow roll-in drop way out into the flat to drive up and under and threading the needle as the tube warbled and shifted and POOOOOMMMM.

Airdrop in under the lip from behind the peak and stabilizing and bracing through a thick double-up wedge teepee with a quick shoulder.

Getting in early racing from deep behind the section flying through and breaking the line down towards the flats and pivoting up and under with a check stall for the next section.

The longer board was giving me what felt like unlimited top-end speed to come out every time.

Just playing with it.

No claiming.

No cameras.

No chit-chatting.

Just a good ‘ole fashioned, non-stop, wave after wave, surgical tube fest.

It was a magical moment for me because I’d done a lot of these things in little bits and pieces over time.

On this day I got to put everything together and it just worked out like I grew up surfing waves like that my whole life.

About halfway into the session, the main guy Brad (an ex-pat originally from New Smyrna, a good, high IQ surfer, and a good human) paddled over from the next peak with a huge smile and was like:

“Bro! How’s it feel to combo the whole entire lineup!!??”

It was one of those days when you’re just shining and don’t want it to end…

The whole session lasted about 3 hours until the tide got too low and it stopped working. I don’t even think I did anything except get tubed the entire session.

The only wave I remember not making was backside butt drag tube setup and my buddy Neal was paddling back out up the face in front of me and we collided.

We came up leashes tangled, boards banging rails laughing together and me yelling with a shit-eating grin “bro hussle up what the fuck!?” and he was like “dude you got the juice, you shoulda picked a better line hahahaha”.

What a session.

So thankful. So blessed to be in the right spot at the right time.

So blessed to be able to go out there and give it my absolute all.

So thankful to share that experience with my good buddy Neal, glad he extended his trip, and glad he had the extra board.

So thankful for Marcel who showed me that spot and Brad and other locals for being so cool and welcoming (to me at least).

This post is more for my memory of one of the top sessions of my life so far and not about bragging or anything.

It is what it is.

Pura Vida,

A.B.