Monday, May 16, 2016

Nica: The Blogger's Dilemma

I started this blog to chronicle, at least for myself if not for anyone else, my bodysurfing sessions, experiences and history. Today, I find myself with an interesting challenge – I’ve just returned from six days of wonderful surf in Nicaragua, with a fantastic pod of bodysurfers.  In short, the best multi-day period of surf of my life.  Yet, during the excursion, I wrote not a word.  And now, the dilemma is how much to write – I could write so much! – and how to organize it.

Rather than a daily journal, my thought is to present this in separate pieces, covering the breaks we surfed – The Boom, The Point, the broad beach and the bay – and a few key topics: the pod, the Nicaraguan Chinandega Lifeguards and the travel.  It makes sense to start with the “home” break to our camp, The Boom.  Those wishing just to read surf story or view the surf photos should skip to that, Nica Blog Post #2.

That's because a bit of context is required before jumping in.  The trip, six days of surf cradled between two Saturdays of travel, was to a surf camp called Rise Up Surf, which is located on the south-facing Pacific coast of Nicaragua.  It's in the less-popular (for surfing) north of Nicaragua.  If you're trying to find it on the map, it's due west of the city of Chinandega, in Aposentillo.
Rise Up Surf from the water.  Photo Bill Schildge
The facility, which I'll describe in a later post, has a dozen rooms, surf guides and vehicles, and a full staff.  Our group consisted of 12 surfers:  10 bodysurfers: Jody, Chris, Bret, Bruce, Julie, Briguitte, Bill, George, Meredith and myself; a bodyboarder/bodysurfer, Drew; and a long boarder, Meredith's partner, Hayley.  Together, we took over the camp.

Our pod with the Chinandega Lifeguards.  Photo Bill Schildge
Daily, we surfed near camp at The Boom or ventured to one of the other breaks, sometimes all together and sometimes splitting up to pursue our respective preferences.  The next few blog posts are my stories from those days.

Before proceeding, though, I need to thank Jody for organizing the trip, Froggy (Bill) for photo-documenting the trip and my Del Mar surf friends, Bret and Chris, for urging Jody to include me and me to join in.


2 comments:

mike said...

Or you could just not post,and merely enjoy the memories.Just a thought.

Hank H H said...

Mike, as I noted at the beginning of this blog entry, I started writing this blog for myself, to memorialize my experiences for the future. Unfortunately, memories fade, but the ability to revisit a diary, blog or other memorial brings them back more fully and clearly. Sometimes it's an effort to do this, but many are the times that I've flipped back through this blog and been glad that I did so.