Life on a boat

A decision made easy, to sail and to surf.

After careful consideration I took the opportunity to sail across the pacific and surf some of the best waves in the world. Who wouldn’t!!

I met Daniel the captain and Kyla the other new crew member on the 6^th of June and we got on pretty good, so once the plan was set out we were bound for the Pacific. There was a going away party, then another one and finally after we recovered we were ready to go for the 9^th of June…. or so we thought.

Boats are tricky things I must say. There is a saying that you should never buy a boat unless you can afford to “stand in a shower and tear up £20 notes” according to sea angler magazine. This I took as a slight exaggeration until I spent 4 weeks moored in a harbor, fix one thing, right ready to go…oh wait one more thing…

After 4 weeks of trying to get us prepared visas, food, booze, alternators, fuel filters, dingy problems, fuel, electrics, fridges the list goes on. Finally on the morning of the 5^th of July we set sail at 2am for a small island off the coast of Panama City, with the promise of a solid incoming swell.

At this point of my adventure I am sad to say that I hadn’t surfed in close to a month or done anything fun really except for getting used to spending a long time on the boat. But saying that I did have 2 weeks of 5hr per day surf at Morro Negrito so all in all not too bad at all.

Daniel told me about this wave at Isla Chepillo is one of the best in Panama, so we were hoping to score for a couple of days before we moved on to Las Perlas Islands about 60 miles off the Panamanian coast.

Sailors have certain rules that you cant start a journey on a Tuesday or Friday, as it is bad luck, but we weren’t really going very far so we didn’t take any notice as its only major voyages that really count and the swell was coming...needless to say the 5^th was a Friday and before we even left the harbor we somehow lost one of the anchors! We are now an anchor down with 3 leftover but still the Friday curse hit us hard!

We arrived in Chepillo at around 10am to see good swell but crap winds, there was a couple of people out but with a big thunderstorm on the horizon we chose to give it a miss until later in the day. The storm hit and brought 30 knots onshore winds and lots of rain for about 2 hours. And then the wind died…

We stayed at Chepillo for 3 days of epic righthanders, barrel section at the peak followed by a wall that you could fit in about 6 turns after. It kind of reminded me of pink rock for those of you who know where that is J

We surfed early morning, noon, and evening for about 2-3 hrs. a session, a couple of boats would arrive from the city around midday on the higher tide when it wasn’t much good so we took that time to rest up, only to head back out just the two of us again on the drop after they left. It certainly has its advantage the old yacht! I did a bit of fishing off the side of the boat and caught a catfish, not very big about 3lb but it’s another new species to my growing fishing list.

 

Early morning perfection

Afternoon perfection

Captain Daniel

A fishing experience

On Sunday we set sail for Las Perlas Islands about 20 miles south of Chepillo, after our little surf break this was really the start of the adventure, finally leaving sight of Panamanian coastline. I through out a nice big lure to trawl as we were sailing, on Daniel’s Penn Senator (proper fishing rod). Not too much action on the way fishing wise but just as we were coming close to the islands I pulled in a 6lb sierra mackerel which made for some good eating the next two days.  Cruising along we caught a show of some migrating whales breaching, pretty epic start to the trip!

We moored up at Isla Pedro Gonzales, as it was getting dark. I pulled out the fishing rod and dropped a line down straight to the bottom and let it sit there hoping to catch something. After dark I went below deck to cook dinner and left the line secured to the deck. In the middle of frying up some big tasty mackerel fillets I hear a shout from Daniel “Your line man, get your line!!” In turn I replied that I was busy with the dinner and asked if he could pull it up, he said, “Man you got a shark on here or something is pulling the boat around!” I ran up on deck and grabbed the rod and made my way around the boat to clear the line from underneath, it was pulling hard! The line was almost full out and it took all my strength and Daniel too to try and hold on to it. After we managed to get a bit of line back on the reel I hopped down into the dingy so that I could have more room to try and pull up whatever was on the hook. Daniel and Kyla were on the boat shining the flashlights and me in the dingy hauling ass! Whatever it was it was by far the biggest fish I have ever caught, we thought it was a shark but in truth we didn’t know what it was. It took me about 40mins to pull it to the surface and to my surprise a shout came from Daniel “ holy shit man, that’s a f**king manta ray or something!” I was told I have to cut the line, as they are too dangerous to land and big! It measured around 1.5m wide and 2m long! Most definitely the biggest fish I have ever caught! I pulled it up to the surface and shouted at the guys to grab my camera and take a photo but in the pitch dark and with the fish still fighting, they said no way, the dingy I was sitting in was being pulled all over the place, the rod bent to almost below the waters surface. I brought it to the surface and got a good view of it then dropped it back to a depth of around 2ft got the weight clear of the water and cut line. I really wanted to land it but in order to do so we would have had to gaff it and probably kill it, so despite the fact that it swam away with a hook in its mouth at least it swam away. What an adrenaline rush and what a start to my adventure, epic surf, whales, tasty fish and to top it all off a big fish on the line!

Today is the 9^th of July and we are on our way to the big island in Las Perlas, Isla del Rey. The fishing line off the back just started reeling out, I pulled in a Dogtooth Tuna and Kyla cooked it up for brunch. We are rounding the headland of del Rey now the swell is 2ft at 18sec and there are some solid white water chunks breaking off the points. The swell is increasing tomorrow to 5ft 16sec so we are hoping to score again over the next couple of days before setting sail for the Galapagos.

Isla Del Ray

We arrived at the southern tip of Isla del Rey, a few good size waves coming in but wrong tide, so we decided we would swim to the beach and mess around in the shore dump after a bit of lunch. I of course had my fishing line over the side of the boat and after a few minutes I got a bite. Well now I have to say I gave a shout despite its small size when I pulled up a baby hammerhead shark! One can be sure that big momma wasn’t too far away! Holy crap this trip is getting crazier by the day! I think I might have to keep my legs on my board tomorrow in the surf. Needless to say we took the dingy to shore

Baby Smooth Hammerhead, can grow to 16ft long this one just about 2ft

Isla Del Rey shore dump

First sight of Humpback whales off the Las Perlas Islands

Two of them here breaching, they put on quite a performance for us

The Morro Negrito Experience

I have been in Panama now for 48hrs and ill tell you something…its great craic!

I stayed in a hostel called Villa Vento Surf or something along those lines, the owner Daniel was a really nice fella, and he was generous enough to listen to me last night while I was getting slightly intoxicated. He told me about loads of secret Panamanian reefs and beaches that are nowhere to be found on the net.  I still haven’t seen the ocean but that’s just one more thing to look forward to (I only had two nights in the city before I had to head to Morro Negrito Surf camp).

So my night continued I met this English bloke named Elliot, bit of a festival head or so he said…ha he couldn’t keep up, bloody English. The night continued with some American fella talking crap, a pity I couldn’t chat to any locals…. I can’t speak that much Spanish especially after a few beers.

I then woke up with a beautiful hangover, phone ringing and I thought to myself “oh crap my taxi is outside!” Luckily the taxi was an hour late so it was I waiting on him, believe it or not! It turns out I must have made a good impression on Daniel, he said he is going to hook me up with some locals to take photos of them and they will come to the camp and hang out…. nice, good start to my photography business!! He then went on to tell me that a mate of his is leaving Panama in 3 weeks on a big yacht and he has offered me a job as a deck hand sailing across the pacific to Fiji on what can only be called the Ultimate Surf Trip!!

So I am now in a predicament, do I?

A)                    Stay in Panama and surf my brains out in this warm tropical overcast country

Or

B)                     Go on this yacht and sail across the Pacific in a once and a lifetime trip to Fiji

Oh what times we live in, choices are so hard J

Even the buses here are class, Bus Eireann could learn a lot, air con, loads of leg room, TV, hot chicks everywhere (slightly exaggerated) I love this place. J

Morro Negrito

The Camp

First 2 weeks at the camp.

I got dropped off the bus at a small police check point, Guabala, the buses have to stop here but if your asleep passing this spot while on your way to camp you’ll find yourself a bit lost, especially if you cant speak Spanish. Lucky for me the first 4 hours of the bus trip I had already slept for, so I was wide awake with anticipation of arriving, hoping that the camp driver would be there to pick me up, thankfully he was.

Just a short drive from Guabala we took a right hand turn down to the camps port, which is made up of a large shed and some rooms for guests that arrive on the wrong side of the tide. This is one disadvantage the camp has, the boat drivers only launch from after mid-tide as the camps access is dry at low tide. I however being the precise and calculating man that I am, timed it right on high so I was straight off the bus and into the boat to take me on the 40min mangrove ride to camp.

            The tidal range of Panama is similar to that of Ireland, its actually a bit bigger getting up to 6.5m on the spring high, this also causes problems for us surfers, as most spots are tide dependent. As we motored up to the camp even on a dropping high tide we were forced to walk the boat around the last bend of the mangrove in order to reach the camp. I arrived with Meeno the boat driver and Alexis the manager of the camp, they dropped me off, said a few words to the other guide Ethan and were quickly on there way.

            Ethan has been at the camp for 10 days before my arrival, he is a fairly quiet guy but we get on fine and straight away we hit up the sandbar for a short session before dark, it felt great getting in the water despite my hangover and the fact that Ethan suggested running the 1k to the peak, running is not one of my strengths. We each get a few waves under our belt and I was glad of it, the cruising walk back to the camp was held with good conversation and lots of bug bites. Ethan was telling me about the sick waves he had being getting at Leftovers the past week and I was frothing to get out there for the coming swell due in the next few days.

 

Ethan

Mark

The swell arrives followed by the guests.

            I wake up at 6am after what can only be described as a terrible sleep, my back is stiff from the hard bed, I’m covered in mozzy bites, Ill have to toughen up a bit, ah well its what I was expecting so I cant complain, I’m here for waves not for luxury.

Ethan comes down and we have a bite to eat, we discuss whether the boat is going to show to bring us to the waves on the islands but it’s a no show. So we surfed around the sandbar for the few days the swell was in, some good waves to be had, rights and lefts but the serious current will leave your arms feeling like jelly, its pretty much non stop paddling. For the next 5 days we didn’t have any communication from the camps port or see any boat. We had no contact with the port as there is no phone coverage and there is no Internet at the camp only at the port despite what it says on the website. After a almost a week of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and hotdogs, they finally arrived with another surf guide, Ben from Bryon Bay and some supplies for the guests coming that night, aaah food, finally some real food!

            Myself, Ethan and Ben headed out for a surf that morning it was pretty fun, about head high on the sandbar. The guests arrive later that evening, 7 guys from California, pretty sound guys, we get our first proper dinner some meat and rice and vegies.  For the guest’s week the swell is not up to much, so we decide to make use of the boats and head out to Isla de Silva, to check out P-Land and Leftovers.  Its fairly hard to get the boat guys motivated we would be sitting in the boat ready to go and they are still arsing around on shore. The first days were pretty sick with some solid 4-6ft sets coming in, the wave is a bit like Ballinalackin but a left, it’s a boil take off, cut back a few times and then on to the inside section that sometime breaks on to dry rock. One of the things about Panama this time of year is the wind, it is generally clean in the morning until around 11 then the onshore wind picks up and remains for the day only sometimes dying off in the evening, so the best time to surf is first thing in the morning. The guests got lucky or maybe they timed it, as it was high tide in the mornings for most of the swell, so for the first 4 days they got 3-6ft sets at P-land. Now saying that it sounds great but then we got dropped off at the very far corner of the sandbar with at least a 2 km walk back to the camp with all your boards and fishing gear at the hottest time of the day because of the low tide access restriction at the camp, this the guests were not too impressed by.

On the third day of swell we took the two boats out as usual to P-Land. Meeno the camps regular boat driver was fairly drunk when he arrived in the morning, we made it out safely and asked Meeno to go get oil for the generator so that we could get electricity for the night, he never returned. I was already informed that this happened the week before I arrived where he just didn’t show up at all and the guest left after only one day. After surfing for 4hrs and a few phone calls to Meeno and his sisters and we find out that he didn’t go to port but to the Monkey Bar in the mangroves and drank the money some Brazilians gave him to buy them booze for their boat, which was moored at Leftovers. So we all pilled into the one boat which made a 30min journey into 2hr mission back to camp, then the 2km walk across the beach, again the guests were not impressed. Ben and myself went on a mission to find Meeno and get oil and drinking water from the port. We find Meeno asleep in the boat up on the rocks at the Monkey bar, we take the guests belongings out of the boat, cameras, bags, fishing gear etc. and we make our way to port. It was after dark when we got the stuff together to head back to camp, with another guide, Mark from South Africa. It was a very interesting boat ride, through the mangroves in complete darkness no lights on the boat, not even moonlight to help us on our way. Needless to say the guests were very surprised that we arrived back that night with all their gear and oil for the generator, all was not lost. The next few days saw the swell drop so there was time for fishing to be done, some Jack Tuna, wahoo, Jew fish, parrot fish and some others too were all caught and cooked up (except for the Jack tuna they are not so great so I hear). Since the waves were gone and at this stage the tides were now more midday the potential for getting good surf was gone, so there was a lot of hanging around the camp, I went through two books in two weeks which would normally last me a couple months.

            June, Tuesday 11^th, the guests departed the camp and I went with them to investigate this boat trip across the Pacific. After two weeks at the camp I had to wash out my board bag, camera bag and shoes as they were covered in mold from the damp conditions I was living in, my room got no natural sunlight. This left me a bit pissed, so I decided to bring all my stuff with me just incase this trip was all I hoped for. I took the bus with the guest’s back down to Panama City to meet the ships captain.

            My thoughts on the camp are:

·      Fun waves, there is always something to surf, little or no barrels

·      Lots of bugs but as expected

·      Very tide dependent and quiet frustrating

·      Good food when there are guests staying

·      No boats for guides when there’s no guests

My personal opinion is yes I would stay for 3 months as a guide for free, its not the most epic place in the world but its warm and there are waves, however, I would not spend $700 a week to stay here when G-land costs only $400 a week and its offshore all day and you cant get stuck somewhere if its low tide. I think a fair price would be maybe $300 per person for a weeks stay.

I hope I dont sound too negative about the camp, Iv had a fairly good time so far apart from the few small setbacks its a pretty chilled place.

Sunshine and Barrels

After what has been and generally always is 3 months of 2ft sloppy beach breaks, the Autumn/Winter swells have finally arrived with a solid ground swell, backed up with a 14 second period, made its way to Irish coasts lighting up the dormant reefs that we have waited so patiently for over the summer period.

From what I have heard people were scoring pumping waves from Kerry to Donegal putting smiles on faces that have been longing for some good swell to arrive.

I have recently devoted myself to chasing swells around the country but on this occasion I was glad that I only had to travel down the road to find epic waves on every point/slab/beach as far as the eyes could see.

Here's a few pics from the day....

The 'Loid doing its thing.....any takers?

A rarely surfed spot due to its shifty peaks but on the occasion nothing but perfection

I don't think I have ever seen this spot this good, it was so much fun

Lauren's 

Aileen's

Things to do when its flat...

Watch the sun rise....

 Go skating....

Go fishing...

 Go for walks up mountains...

Look at nice flowers and stuff...

Join an activist group and write messages to the government in the sand...

Riley's

Here is the footage from a couple of weeks ago. Looking forward to shooting from the water again. Enjoy!!

Riley's Gopro Shoot

Recently I managed to get my hands on a Gopro HD and although I had told myself that I would never make a surf movie, I had so much fun videoing the lads getting tubed for two hours, that I might have changed my mind. All I need now is a housing for myself and a partner to shoot from land.

The day......

Well not much happened during the day, I went for a walk then had some ice cream, then in the evening I went to Riley's.

The evening.....

Its not what I would have called amazing waves, there were a lot of close-outs but every now and again there would be one gem that ran the length of the reef finishing with a little spit followed by a smile. The fact that there was a team of french bb'ders out didn't help the crowd scene, but saying that, the sun was shining, it had been two weeks since the last decent swell and we were all very happy to share.

The sun was even a little bit too strong can you believe, I think this was the first time I wished for just a little more cloud cover! (but just a little).

Using the Gopro had its benefits, for starters I didnt have to buy an expensive housing just to see if I would enjoy shooting from water, as most of the time I would rather surf. Its also small enough and light enough to hold in one hand, which is great for getting up close while not having to worry about getting sucked over and with a secure wrist strap its not going anywhere.

Here's a few screen shots from the footage.

This is one of the french bb, he got some of the best waves of the day. This was just before the weather started to turn.

     Aaron Reid was charging it on the day, got a few nugs for himself. Im looking forward to seeing more of this guy over the winter.

     Here is Aaron again on the same wave.

Summer fun

After probably the worst winter I've seen since I have started surfing which seems to have continued into the worst summer (summers are always bad we just forget how flat it can be after having a good winter) but wait.... there it is, that swell on the charts where there is the possibility of scoring some epic waves with warm water (when one is wearing a cosy 4/3) and only a few people out (if you get up early enough and paddle out when its completely dark) but its these moments when you think to yourself "man i wish ireland was like this all year round" but then also think to yourself, if it was this good all year round I wouldnt be sitting out here with just a mate. So Ireland I say to you, stay as you are, you bring us cold, rain and wind but it always pays off in the end.

And so the story begins....

Myself and Jimbo went on a little adventure to **** to meet up with Anthony for two days, to simply surf the shit out of it. At 6am we left Co Clare behind us with a 3hr drive ahead of us, even with the lack of sleep and the pissing rain, our spirits were high with the anticipation of good waves to come.

The first day the swell was solid, with 4-6ft sets hitting the reef and not a person in sight for miles.
Although the wind was supposed to be offshore we got a bit skunked, with a light onshore sea breeze, but there was still some ripable walls and sections all to ourselves.

Three of us out on this in the morning for a warm up session.

I had never surfed here before and as far as I know it doesnt have a name so for now we can just call it gregs, as it is quite similar to good ol' creg in Lahinch.

As the tide pushed out we made our way slightly up the coast  and again surfed empty waves with light onshore breeze, it did eventually clean right up and the sun came out. I surfed for around 7hrs got some bombs and some hidings, Anthony got a few good ones but as the tide pushed up he got into a confrontation with a submerged slab and did some damage.

The point

The next day we hit the road nice and early, after only 4hrs sleep I was not in the best form, trying to stay awake behind the wheel was a mission and even the thought of surfing again brought pain to my arms.....ah but then we arrived, the sun came up and the surf was on like donkey kong.

The second day brought sunshine and waves...nice

We arrived with many options, left or right we said, to be honest it was hard to choose both waves were perfect tubes with a good wall to finish. Since we had been surfing lefts all the previous day we decided to hit up the right. What a fun wave, looking forward to my next trip here.

The Left

The Right