Luis, myself and Russ Buskirk at the 2009 Worlds in Portugal

Thanks,
Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc

I helped Anna Levesque of Girls at Play produce her latest Whitewater Instructional DVD.  Anna is a Kokotat girl, but does use the IR sprayskirts.  This is an excerpt from the DVD defining how to most easily put a spraydeck on your body and your boat.

And this was the latest from Heehaw Jones about Shred Ready “Appreal”

Though my days on the whitewater have not been as plentiful as I would like as of late… I have gotten some quality days.  Quality over quantity I guess.

Fifteen years as kayaking buds and Brad Kee and I finally did our first run on the Linville Gorge together. Both of us being Dads, it's a wonder we even found time to do this at all. This is us during the hike into Babel Tower on a cool March day.

Finally, I have just launched a new affiliate website of Effort Inc for Ninja Surf Kayaks.  The URL is http://ninjasurfkayaks.com and it showcases the boats that my friends Ray, Drew and I designed, which are now available for purchase from Murky Water Kayak.  Take a look if you will.  There are videos like the one below showcasing each boat and lots of other info about the entire project.

Thanks,
Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc

The ending of a recent sunrise run on the Green Narrows with my good friend Ray.

SURF KAYAKING in PORTUGAL
I competed on the US East Kayak Surf Team at the World Championships in 2009.  This video is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the amount of footage I shot.  Hopefully it gives those of you who helped me get to Portugal an idea of what surf kayaking is, and what kind of incredible talent exists in the sport.  You might also see that some of the competitors do not take themselves too seriously.

Soundtrack provided by Richmond VA’s Cloak/Dagger
Preview the album at JadeTree.com
http://jadetree.com/releases/product/JT1128
or
Buy it on iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/cloak-dagger/id252141700

FISHING from KAYAKS and STANDUP PADDLEBOARDS
Hook, Line & Paddle is a paddling retail shop located in Wilmington NC, close to Wrightsville Beach. Every Sunday morning Chris and Ryan, shop owners, head out at dawn for a kayak and SUP (Standup Paddleboard) fishing trip. I was lucky enough to go with them one day last fall and it was an absolute blast. These guys have carved out a really cool niche for themselves. Maybe tons of people are fishing off of SUPs, but I haven’t seen it before.

Check these guys out at HookLineAndPaddle.com

Music in the video is by Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves. This is one of my favorite albums over the past couple years. Find them out at the following links:
Southern Lovin’ PR
http://www.southernlovin.com/family/chris-wollard-the-ship-thieves
No Idea Records
http://www.noidearecords.com/bands/releases/chriswollard_shipthieves.php
iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chris-wollard-and-the-ship-thieves/id292406243

Thanks,

Spencer Cooke
Effort Inc

Page 1 - Ray in true form

Page 2 - Surf Bag Dilemma

The Michelin Man is ready to travel.

Page 3 - Thank you Delta

In case the rule slips your mind... Don't smoke on the plane when changing your baby behind the guy in the wheelchair.

Page 4 - Fear of Flying

And off we go to find some waves.

Page 5 - We just call him Drew

First meal together in the country. - photo Drew Hayes

Gallo Pinto, breakfast of hungry guy in Costa Rica

After Gallo Pinto I am a giant among picnic tables - Photo Drew Hayes

Part of a typical day of driving in Central America.

Page 6 - We arrive at Playa Pavones

Tight squeeze on the road to Pavones. Lucky or us we were not on the school bus headed the other direction.

Sleep was more than welcome and I was awarded with the honorary Star Wars sheets.

Page 7 - The ground is alive

Pavones and Golfo Dolce from a nearby hill.

The domestic barnyard life should not go unnoticed.

Page 8 - Hermit crabs rule this land.

Page 9 - Small surf, time for some reading.

Gearing up for a session at Pavones - photo Drew Hayes

Page 10 - Bro, Vulture, same thing.

Page 11 - Go ahead, puke your money away

According to Raymond, who has lost his right shoe before in Costa Rica, there are plenty of lefts to be found on just about any beach, but no rights. According to my survey he is correct.

The guys are worn out after an attempt at paddleboarding in very windy conditions.

Page 12 - Crap in the water, watch out for king steamers!

We ate plenty of these fruits, locally referred to as Momon Chinos, and even more locally (in our car) referred to as man testicles.

Page 13 - Don't panic, Raymond is a test driver for Michelin

Drew rides a peeling left during our first session at Playa Hermosa

Page 14 - Playa Hermosa is steep

Page 15 - A little donkey commandeered the scanner while I was scanning the journal.

Page 16 - A swim and a swarm.

Iguana alongside Hermosa beah. She's a real looker.

Page 17 - Police and thieves in the street

Bottom turn in my Ninja 6'8" at Playa Hermosa

Ray pulls a camera shift while guarding the car - Photo Drew Hayes

Page 18 - The waves that made the trip

Birds of prey - We noticed three distinctly different hawks or ravens while on walks and drives between surf sessions.

Page 19 - Bug attack from hell

Birrrrd Maaaaaannnn! This was another one of the hawks.

Page 20 - Did we deserve this torture?

Black Hawk up... on a fence post

Page 21 - Gordy just bit the bag and stepped out the door.

Page 22 - Gold Bond comes highly recommended apparently

This was the size of the surf during our last couple sessions. Large.

Paddling out at Hermosa - Photo Drew Hayes

Page 23 - A theme of waxing swell

Hermosa, beautiful to some, not so much to others.

Page 24 - The Gringo Tax

Which ingredient do you want the least? - Photo Drew Hayes

Page 25 - Was a fun trip, glad I didn't hurl.

Palm lined road, Playa Hermosa - Photo Drew Hayes

Page 26 - Going home is fun too.

* Thanks to Astral Buoyancy for helping customize my surf kayak bag and for my Willis PFD * Thanks to IR for my Shorty Competition Drydeck * Thanks to Shred Ready for my Full-Cut Standard helmet * These companies make all my kayaking trips far more comfortable and successful *

We did shoot some video too…

(right to left) Ray, Drew, myself

From the plane ride home I saw this octopus shape on the Nicaragua landscape.

As a law abiding citizen I did not throw any blocks of cheese, pepperoni logs or unidentified squares into the airplane toilet.

Much much more to come when I have time to write.

Ball lover in Sugar Grove NC. My brother-in-law's dawgy, Bella, snaps a tennis ball like a hungry hippo.

I haven’t had much time for blogging this year so this one is gonna be long.  Honestly I still don’t have time to blog but there were a whole load of photos I’ve been wanting to put up here.  This post really doesn’t even cover all the things I want to journalize, but it makes a few notes about my travels and experiences through June-Sept.  Time does seem to fly.

June was the last time I spent any significant time paddling on rivers. This was me paddling a rapid on the Green River Narrows near Hendersonville NC. I paddled with my good friend Jason McClure who took this photo.

Water droplets freeze as Jason McClure waits for me below a rapid on the Green River Narrows near Hendersonville NC.

We saw Stephen Hughes, Nate Elliott and Chris Roberts doing some tree removal that very day.

Chris Roberts repacks his throw rope below a now, tree-free slot. Thanks to the safety-conscious efforts of these guys.

I have also spent a significant amount of time paddling with Anna Levesque of http://WaterGirlsAtPlay.com filming her new women's kayak instructional video. Here, she and Maria Noakes are pictured on the Green River Narrows near Hendersonville NC.

To raise money for our trip to compete in the World Surf Kayak Championships in Portugal, Joey Hall premiered his new Kayak, Surf, Travel Film, INTERFERENCE, at the Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co. We had around 80 people turn out for the showing.

We arrived in Libson (Lisboa) Portugal in late July and drove to Santa Cruz where the Ocean Spirit Festival was being held.

Here is Joey looking totally thrilled after ten hours of air travel.

The macro scene in Portugal was really interesting and beautiful.

This young man named David Speller from Jersey and the Channel Islands won his fifth consecutive World Championship title.

It is always so nice to come home...

... where I am pleased to see they have canoeing and kayaking. Or at least they had it in the 80s when they took this photo. Wilson Creek perhaps?

Common sights and sounds seem so much more rich and vibrant when you've been gone for a while.

Summer's end is near when I start seeing these fellas.

My best buddy and I took some long walks on the beautiful blue ridges of North Carolina.

In late August hurricane Bill arrived so I had to make an emergency trip back to the NC coast. Joey and I had a few nice surfing sessions at Wrightsville Beach.

Crystal Pier at Wrightsville Beach NC: A board surfer turns and burns down a small but steep wave.

I am the flower whisperer. (Chris Gallaway thinks he's the flower whisperer but it's really me.)

While I arrived a day too late for the big swell from Hurricane Bill, we still had waist to chest high surf. Though in New Jersey my good friend Drew Hayes caught up with Bill for some beautiful, overhead, glassy conditions. That's not Drew on this wave. He took the photo.

Drew also became acquainted with Zorak. See Spaceghost Coast to Coast for reference.

Mark serves the best bagels in Wrightsville Beach. A morning surf session is never complete without a stop at Manhattan Bagel.

On my way out I stopped into the local kayak shop in Wilmington NC, called HOOK, LINE & PADDLE. Ryan is one of the owners and long-time skater. Here he is showing off his original Gator and Caballero boards, and he still skates them!

When I got back home I had a chance to compare my new surf kayak designs to the old one. My friend Ray Cotton and I designed and shaped the Spray (left) in 2002. Seven years and three prototypes later Drew Hayes, Ray and I designed and shaped two new boats based on the original design with the help of our friends at Riot. Ninja 6'8" (middle) and Ninja 7'6" (right). Both new boats, plus another called the Sword, are due out on the market soon...

Back at Wrightsville Beach NC we did our first family paddling/camping trip over at Masonboro Island.

A curious stranger visited us several times throughout the night.

Chris from Hook Line & Paddle looks for a good spot to drop a crab trap off of his Native Watercraft. He and Ryan took me out for my first stand up paddleboard fishing trip. Quite fun, and I'm totally sold on the SUP as a fishing craft.

My next stop included visits to Potomac Paddlesports and Valley Mill Kayak Shop in Washington DC followed by a quick run on Great Falls of the Potomac. Here is Jim Buley dropping into Horseshoe Rapid.

Colin Kemp peels of the flake at Horseshoe in his Jackson MonStar: Maryland side of Great Falls Potomac River.

Next I had the very special treat of spending a day at Sea Girt New Jersey with my good pal Drew Hayes. The surf was no less than superb and the fishermen were pulling the Bluefish out of the water that day.

Drew left, me right. Drew wrong, me right.

Drew got to taste the fruits of his labor. Endless hours of sanding on the Sword Surf Kayak plug almost two years ago and finally he got to try the boat in excellent conditions.

Surf Taco isn't far from the break at Sea Girt. Good taco make boy into manimal.

Next stop, Farmville Virginia, Appomattox River Company. Pictured is Tom Detrick who sells more boats than anyone I know. He works for Bob Taylor who has owned and operated ARC for over 30 years. There is a lot of history in this place.

I found this precious gem in the Appomattox River Co warehouse, right beside the archived 1989 Extrasport PFDs. Don't worry, they sell 2009 Astral PFDs too.

Back home for one day then back on the road. I feel like I have to take pictures of everything these days. The digital camera plagues me. Mushrooms, rocks, bugs, flowers, animals, food, people. I waste so much time trying to compose a good shot, even with my camera phone, with which I took several of these shots.

Further South, I visited a new IR dealer, Higher Ground in Beaufort SC. These guys are a full service, technical outdoor shop, and very pleasant to do business with. Shop owner Shelby Bishop stands with a rack of Astral PFDs out front of the shop.

From Beaufort I migrated back toward the North to Sea Kayak Carolina close to Folly Beach SC. Without question, these guys are one of the most full service, guru, absolutely core, sea kayak shops out there. Steve, William and Scott stand proudly in their boat room.

No Folly Beach visit is complete without visiting and surfing with the Folly Kayak Man himself, Russ Buskirk. Here sit Russ and Bert in their workshop. Russ is a multifaceted artist, currently specializing in antique furniture restoration and pastel paintings.

Russ also just recently placed 3rd in the World Surf Kayak Championships in Portugal in the Grand Master's Division. Pictured here, Russ makes the most of a 2 foot day at the Folly Beach Washout.

Golden Orb spiders are everywhere on the Carolina coast. Ths healthy female spun her web on Russ' front porch.

Last stop on the way home: River Runner Outdoor Center sits front and center on Gervais Street in Columbia SC. Jesse Koch (pronounced Cook) manages the shop and held the sidewalk down for me while I took this photo.

Just to test myself I tried to hold this facial expression for three straight hours in the car. What can I say, I'm in training to be a smartass, and I'm passing without any problem.

Home again for one day then I’ll be at NOC for their annual Guest Appreciate Festival this weekend.  This is the typical Fall schedule of a paddlesports sales rep, so get used to it and stop giving me so much grief.

Sincerely,
Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc

This was incredible kayaking trip for our group and we hope you enjoy what we have shared.

Later,

Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc.

TODOS PHOTOS

See the VIDEO

Tuesday, February 8th

We awoke at about 6am and got our act together to go surfing. We went to check out some different spots and stopped to look at Las Tunas.
Las Tunas from afar

Las Tunas was yet another sleepy village. The break was not unlike Playa Hermosa in Costa Rica, fast barreling waves in shallow water with most closing out in explosions of sand and foam. After looking for a bit we went back to the lodge for some Desayunos. Breakfast and dinners are great at this place. Breakfast or desayunos consists of a big bowl of fresh fruit followed by a plate of scrambled eggs mixed with vegetables and a side of 3 pieces of bread. Combine that with one or two of their fresh squeezed juices and you’re loving it.
After breakfast we head south to the famous break of Montanita. Upon arriving in the town you are struck with this feeling of “oh my god what a craphole of a town”. The young surfer crowd has ruined this place. While the break was barely working today I’m sure it is awesome with some swell. But the town itself…. yuck! The town is a combination of shabby pizza places, street vendors, unfriendly looking surfers, and poor locals. We used an Internet place to check in with the northern hemisphere. After finishing up on the pleasantly fast high-speed connection we hit the cashier guy with some of our refined Spanish. “How hairbrush for the Internet tomato”. Like pretty much everyone else he looked at us like we were nuts or just stupid and said 50 cents please. In another “universal face gesture moment” he scrunched up his face when I only had a five-dollar bill and took a heavy toll on his change stash. I did give a bit back to him when I paid for Spencer’s time but it was little consolation to him since he only got one of his precious fifty-cent pieces back. Spencer haggled a street vendor down about 50% on his prices and got some trinkets for the women folk. On the way back we visited La Rinconada, a small fishing village built on the steep walls of a small ravine. This town is all but cut off from the world but has a cool point break. The swell was too small to surf today, maybe later.
the view from above La Rinconada

This town was way down a long jeep trail of a road and was full of smelling (Can be used in substitution for smiling in some cases. They were smiling too.) kids who immediately hopped on the SUV for a short ride through town.
Rinconada kids who hitched a ride with us

There was a soccer game going on in the center of town. These guys were good and would go all out to keep the ball from going out of bounds since it would bounce down the ravine toward the ocean every time it went out of bounds. You come to a place like this without running water and with intermittent electricity, see the smiles on all of the local faces, and realize how little people really need to be happy. Everyone we saw in this town was friendly and was having a great time.
the proud SUV riders

Back at Ayampe we spent the rest of the day surfing the 4’ to 6’ waves of the outgoing tide. We surfed for 3 hours or more and then headed back for a massive seafood burrito and a quiet evening.
What an unevenly tanned caveman may have looked like.

another awesome sunset at Ayampe

Wednesday February 9th

Today we were out of the lodge and on our way to surf and shoot video at Las Tunas by 6:30am. At this hour the whole coast is still asleep. In Las Tunas we drive right up on the beach, parked at the high tide line, and set up shop for a morning of video and stills.
The surf is clean, fast, steep, and intimidating.

The closeouts look brutal but there are a few rideable waves forming off to either side of an angry rip.
Drew paddles out for his spanking.

As you can see here Drew narrowly missed being devoured by an oversized, pelican-eating iguana only to catch his first ever floater onto the back an unsuspecting cow. Yes, Las Tunas was quite a break.

Once again we are the only two people in the ocean for as far as the eye can see. With these waves we get some great bottom turns, a few good lip moves, and a whole lot of beat downs. It can be hard to explain why these super short rides are fun but the adrenaline rush of the drop and bottom turn make the beating all worth it.
This wave almost scared the breakfast out of Drew so he made it his last ride of the session.



A few of Spence’s rides.





With the good lighting provided by the tropical sun and the size of the drops, there should be some keepers in the footage.

the music on the Las Tunas video is by Hellbender

We go back to the lodge to refuel and rest and then finish up the day with a great evening session at Ayampe in the incomming tide. The waves were really nice and the sun setting over the pacific was awe-inspiring. We tend to over use the word awesome. This is one of those moments and one of those places for which the word fits.

Thursday, February 10th

We had an early session with W.O.U.L.S otherwise known as waves of unusually large size. It rained last night and I guess there were some big lingering swells left over from the storm or something. In any case the typical 6’ waves were interrupted by three or four wave sets of much bigger swells. Each of these had probably 7’ swells with 14’+ faces or in river talk they had 25’ swells with a 50’ faces. They were almost as big as the “wave on the Ottawa.” We only drop on a few. For how steep they were, one wave was definitely near the top of my list for big drops I’ve taken. I got a brief freefall on the face followed by a screaming bottom turn before the weight of the world came down on my head. It was a boat-flexing, cartwheel and loop festival. I got beat soundly enough to undo my Velcro watchband. For people who have not spent a lot of time in the ocean it can be hard to explain how a drop can be bigger on a 10’ wave than a 20’ wave. It is all about the wave, how steep, how heavy, how fast, and how shallow. These were steep and heavy.
We go back to the lodge, eat, shower, and pack up. We are heading north to meet a north swell due to arrive this weekend. To give you an idea of how frequently we change or how much time we spend in our paddling gear it is only now that I have found the “I miss you cards” cards from my wife, five days after arriving. It is a nice touch and very much appreciated.
We head out and go to the city of Manta to refill our food stocks. That means we buy a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and water. W
e can’t find the real peanut butter that we bought in Guayaquil and set an underlying theme for a good part of our trip, the great peanut butter hunt. We ask many roadside markets for mantequilla de mani and get the same response. “No but we have some of these”. At which point they show us butter, cheese, or something else they are hoping we will buy. We go through this routine over an over. By now I’m sure half of Ecuador thinks Americans need peanut butter to get through the day.
A couple interesting sites from somewhere along the drive.
Here are two things you don’t often see next to one another.

At least Spidey believes in protection.

Spencer described our experience in Manta well by describing it as similar to the movie Ground Hog Day. No matter which way we went we ended up in the same traffic circle. After three trips around this big city and one dead end ride to a slum we finally took the road less traveled (by us) and escaped to the desert flatlands north of Manta. Free of Manta’s grip we quickly make our way north checking out the breaks from the SUV along the way. As the sun sets we slow down a bit as the potholes and speed bumps now sneak up on you with alarming and tire crunching speed. We get to a small resort town called Bahia De Caraquez only to watch the last ferry pull away and the workers quit for the night. Bummer, now we have to drive around the whole bay to head up to Canoa, our destination for the night. This is all Manta’s fault.

Crammed between our boats here is a very unfortunate fowl of some kind who accidentally hitched a ride somewhere along the line. No doubt during one of our 90 mile an hour, pre speed bump episodes. Funny thing was that he was so content riding there. He slept for what seemed like a day, then fell off when we unloaded the boats. Silly guy.

Naptime. Tuckered out from the long ride.

Shortly after we passed Bahia De Caraquez the weather gets bad. We had already made the transition from dry dessert low land to wet forested areas. Now the rain came down heavier and our progress further slowed as we headed into more jungle like terrain. We tried to take one road and it quickly became a wrong turn. This road is a significant road on a map, route 9 or something. It began paved and then turned into a rutted mud hole. After about 100’ of mud it was back to paving. OK, strange but it’s back to paving so we keep going. A short distance later we had the same thing again, still strange but we keep going. And then the road disappeared. When I say disappeared, I mean it completely vanished. Live trees and brush covered the road, not debris. Kind of like the road that ends in a rock wall on the Roadrunner cartoons, where is the Coyote to paint a tunnel when you need him. To the right there was a dirt road of sorts; it kind of looked like a temporary by pass for the obstructed section of road. It is not unusual to have one of these in Ecuador, it is easier to drive around a bad section of road instead of repairing it. The only problem here besides the fact that it was 10pm and pouring rain was that there were only hoof prints in the road, no tire tracks at all, just hoof prints. Cars drive on every conceivable sort of terrible roads here so one with no tire tracks is a very bad sign. It is wide and flat so we decide to shift into four-wheel drive and go for it. It is a slippery mud slinging truck-sliding ride until the “road” drops down a seemingly vertical hill and out of view. At this point we stop, say a great many dirty words and begin to think we might be stuck. The though of driving down that hill and getting stuck in a rain soaked, jungle ravine is not appealing at all. I can almost picture my shrunken head on the end of some stick at a witchdoctor’s house now. The only thing worse than stopping in deep mud is having to back up in that mud in the dark and pouring rain. We have no real choice but to put it in reverse and floor it. With the headlights full of flying mud we slowly gain momentum and begin moving backwards, bouncing, and sliding back to the pavement. We pause for one of those ‘I can’t believe we made it” moments and then go back in search for firmer ground. After going through two mudslides and a small landslide eventually arrive in Canoa. As it turns out the rental SUV goes right through mudslides when cranked up to about 60 km/hr before impact. In the dark you can’t tell one town from the next so we find an open hotel with good secure parking and crash for the night.

Friday, February 11th.

It turns out that our hotel room looks right out at the surf.

Click here for video of Canoa view from the room.
Motivated by what we see we head out for a fun morning surf session. What a great place for beginner surfers. After the previous day’s pounding it is great to surf some three to five foot, “fun” waves. The beach has a very gentle slope so you get nice long rides. It is actually very relaxing to paddle in these little waves. After packing up and checking out we get some food and go check our e-mail and laugh at the people back home. Shortly there after we are back on the road heading through lush jungle forests, cleared cropland, and some areas of horrible clear-cut forest.

Timber must be cheap here because even the poorest of homes is built of tropical hardwood, stuff that would cost a fortune back home. We make great time today speeding down the roads at 100 km /hr so. We slow only for photos and speed bumps. Speed bumps here are really interesting, they are generally hand made from bamboo and dirt but occasionally are giant concrete car killers. They sneak up on you too. Some have warning signs but many are hiding around the next corner. Don’t like cars speeding past your house? Build a speed bump or two.

We slowed down enough for one speed bump that we saw this critter walking along and had to take a picture.

Around 9 or 10pm we arrive in Tonchigue (ton-chi-way). We’re arriving on a beautiful Friday night (the rain finally stopped) and almost the whole town is on the main street milling around. There is a big crowd around the back of a box truck. Like a hawker of old this guy with a microphone touted everything he had as a cure all, fix all, or hide all for any ailment. “Use this mouthwash and your measles will clear right up while your hair grows back and your roof stops leaking!” People were buying his goods as fast as he could spit out the lies about them. It is now that we go through our usual travel planning. We decide on a town to go to, drive to it, stop in the middle of it for a while, read our tour books and only then decide where we will be staying. We asked a local guy for directions and headed for the Playa Escondido Eco Reserve described in our tour book. It is pitch black outside when we arrive but we can hear the waves crashing in the distance. The Playa Escondido Lodge is similar to the place we stayed in Ayampe, it is not up on a cliff, but has a great view as it is set right on the water in a secluded cove. The lodge is a series of open-air multi level cabins built out of native materials, native hardwoods, bamboo and palm leaves. Most of the wood used at the place was salvaged off of the beaches. The beds are great and with the help of the mosquito nets we sleep like the dead.
The lodge at Escondida.

Saturday, February
12th

We awake this morning to find that the waves we heard were not big ones crashing in the distance but were only about 200’ from where we stood and were really small. Instead of seeing big waves in the distance we ate breakfast watching tiny waves up close. Despite the lack of waves this place is great and littered with cool finds on the beach. You can walk around and pick up all types of shells while hermit crabs scurry away with every footstep. Hermit crabs are a contradiction, they hide the second you get near them and go back into their shells. The contradiction is that they have no patience at all, so after about 10 more seconds they come back out and begin to scurry around. I guess they have evolved to only have slightly more patience than the predators that hunting them. The sky must be full of birds saying, “ what was that? Did you just see a crab under that shell? Where did it go? Hey look over there, fish!” After catching up in the journal, we set off for a scouting trip to Mompiche, rumored to be the best break in all of Ecuador. After getting gas we turn off the main road and head down the dirt “road” to Mompiche. The town is another little fishing village. This village is just on the verge of starting to go bad as the locals begin to cater to the increasingly popular surf break. It is incredible how a popular surf break can ruin the town around it. The tides go way out here and the sand is really hard so you can drive around without any or at least much of a fear of getting stuck. The point break was not working but we drove down the beach and through a river to check it out.


Us standing in front of where Mompiche waves usually end at low tide, when it’s breaking.

Some beaches in Ecuador are so wide and firm that there are bus and taxi lines that run between towns on the beach at low tide as a short cut from the roads that wander all over the hills. We took some photos and checked out a cool looking lodge right on the beach looking at the Mompiche point. The cabins have a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms with enough space for about 6 people. It only costs $15/person and includes breakfast. Needless to say we’ll be staying here tomorrow night. We find another dirt road leading up off the beach so we go exploring. The road winds up through a farm and there are tons of horses and cattle on the road. We wave to a few passing surfers who are on foot. We thought they were traveling to the beach from a nearby town but would soon learn differently. We get to what we thought would be the other end of the road but it stops at a big river and mud flat. Wrong way. We double back and turn down yet another mud pit of a road to slip and slide our way to a “road” under heavy construction. We try to ask the foreman for the way out. “Where is the car hair of the tooth paste, there?” We get the same look of utter confusion and disgust we’ve become accustomed to when speaking Spanish and then he says, “no salida aqui, mucho trabajo,” (No exit here, too much work). We head back the way we came and see some surfers walking on a road to our left. We head down this small road through the hill pastures and get to see a potentially great point break.

A few of the jillion cattle we saw in these country roads.



We now begin to see larger groups of surfers. It only now dawns on us that since Mompiche was not working, these guys were surfing another beach that was working. Tons of surfers started coming over the hill. Spencer hit it on the head by saying that it was like night of the living dead. They just kept coming and coming. Since nothing ruins a day like crowds we turned around and headed back to Mompiche. Along the way we put the tailgate down and gave a ride to a bunch of kids who were boogie boarding. It turns out that they were from Canoa. We told them that we had just been there and liked it. They also told us that there was a surfing contest going on and that was why so many surfers were in town. Hopefully things will chill out on Sunday night and Monday. It is time to head back to Playa Escondida for the night. We stop by another tiny fishing village, Enero De Platino, to check out it’s point break but nothing is happening there either so we head hack for dinner. The sky is clear tonight and the stars are incredible. Everyone must go somewhere truly dark in your life to a place free of light pollution and see the true carpet of twinkling stars and light streaks of the Milky Way. The stars twinkle and the planets glow, and shooting stars streak across the sky as we hang out playing cards at our new cabin. We had to switch to a cabin further away to make room for a group of Habitat for Humanity volunteers that arrived that day. There is a crazy looking gecko lizard on the wall of the lodge that I catch and harass for a while. We finish up the day with another hour of smart-ass comments and card games.

Basically we’ve been getting skunked on surf for the past couple days due to our desire to find new spots, and that there is no decent swell where we are now. A time period longer than a day without surfing on a trip like this can make you pretty antsy. Here’s what happens to a 37 year old man when he can’t get his surfing in.

The next couple days we will finally get to surf Mompiche and another break close by, Boca Portete. Coming next journal entry. Then a couple awesome days at Canoa to finish out the trip. Until then.

Bob Esponga and the trip to Ayampe. – words by Drew Hayes

FRIDAY FEB 4th

Pack! One word describes it. You’ve barely started and it is time to get it done. The problem is you still have work to do at the job. Back on to e-mail you go, providing instructions, to do lists, and the proverbial “have fun” meaning ha ha suckers! Since my flight is at 7am or so I have to be totally ready to go the night before. I finish up work (e-mail), shove some food in my face, and get to work. While photocopying my itinerary for my wife, I make an interesting discovery. My flight does not leave at 7 am but instead leaves at 2:40 pm. All packing productivity now comes to a complete halt.
Back at the computer it’s an intensive search for Ecuadorian surf spots. I leave no stone unturned and go all the way down to the 3rd item out of 2,342 items on Google’s search for “Ecuador surf report”. Good old number 3 delivers a favorable surf forecast consisting of big 12’ and swells early in the week and 6’ swells near the end. Those meager little 6’ swells are the kind of stuff we skip work, lie to family, and run over old ladies to get to back home. To hell with the other 2,339 sites, I’m sure they don’t have anything better to say. I fire off a few more e-mails to Spencer about the good weather and surf forecasts and spend the rest of the night talking to my wife and gathering up my kayak stuff and packing my new IR drydeck.

SATURDAY FEB 5th

D-Day. I have about 3 hours to get ready. With a much tighter schedule I’m able to nearly double the rate at which I pack stuff I’ll never use. After a few last minute touches to the boat I’m off to the airport. A couple of kisses and hugs good bye from the wife and it is off to the ticket counter to check in and to pay through the nose for the “surf board” that doesn’t weigh anywhere near as much as most people’s regular luggage and is thin enough to easily fit on top of all the unimportant crap. After getting beat up over the “surfboard” it’s off to the gate. It is a two part flight, first to Houston and then to Guayaquil. The Houston leg is to meet up with Spencer and the Guayaquil leg is to go have some fun in the waves.
All of the usual airplane trip passengers are there. The retired white guy with the fanny pack turned around to his stomach, the fat lady who has to go sideways down the isle while you say the traveler’s prayer, “don’t sit next to me, don’t sit next to me, don’t sit next to me”. She doesn’t. While you did escape being squished by the fat lady with the seatbelt extender, you did end up sitting next to the beer-swilling guy with the peanut sized bladder and diagonally in front of the lady with the screaming kids. You know that lady, the one so preoccupied with the younger crying troll that her other, slightly older brat is free to terrorize everyone else around her. I did get an isle seat and was across the isle from a nice lady. I like to think of us as the two normal people in a coach class sea of freaks, misfits and people who I wish could not afford to fly. A personal highlight of the flight was when nice lady’s brother in law came back from first class to giver her a glass of white wine. I guess the thought of her stuck back with the huddled masses of poor people finally caused enough guilt to well up inside of him to throw off the thick blanket, tilt his leather seat back up, push away the china, and worst of all, pass through the protective curtain at the rear of first class and into the coach jungle. I think the thought of getting robbed, beat up, covered with poor people germs, or the thought of being mauled by the distracted lady’s kid was weighing heavily on his mind. He dropped off the wine, said a few nice words and ran back to Shangri-la like Carl Lewis doing the 50-yard dash. I like to think his conversation went something like this:
“Here drink this! The trip will go faster.”
“Thanks, what year is this stuff? Please tell me it’s not the box wine they serve back here.”
“I saw them open the bottle myself. Christ it stinks back here, are you ok?”
“I’m trying to hold out and think of happier places, like hell or prison.”
“Be brave, I gotta go. I don’t want to miss the ice cream Sunday cart.”
“Bye, tell my family I love them.”
We landed, they lead the nice people carefully off the plane and then released the animals once the jetway was cleared of important people. I met Spencer at the George Bush International Airport. What does that say for this place? An airport named after a one term president whose diplomacy amounted to a half fought war and a pretzel choking incident in Asia.

The second leg, down and to the left was typical for a flight from the U.S. to Latin America. A plane full of Americans happy to get away from that hell they live with called work and a bunch of Latin American’s happy as hell to have work in the U.S. Spencer and I spend the flight cracking juvenile jokes and listening to the Ecuadorian party guys behind us who are going home for Carnival. Carnival is a wonderful holiday of debauchery and drunkenness before they suffer during lent. The country is made up of ninety some percent Catholics. Apparently all of that pent up guilt makes for hell of a great party.
The taxicab experience consists of a ride crammed into a minivan that would be melted into scrap in the states but which puts bread on the table here. Toss two quarters to the kid helping you load up and you’re off to the hotel. The city is asleep. By asleep I mean plenty of people asleep on the sidewalks. The hotel is nice and the Spanish TV is great. And to think, Jean Claude Van Dam speaks perfect Spanish, who knew?

Drew and the friendly hairball we met in the hallway of the hotel

SUNDAY FEB 6th

Up at 9am, filter some water and brush the moss off of the teeth. Spencer dropped his friend Bob off at the pool before heading out for a look around town but Bob just kind of hung around and refused to leave. We left a buck for the staff to get bob out of the pool then caught a taxi ride back to the airport in search of a rental car. The taxicab was a rambling wreck with a happy driver who put up with our questions in broken Spanish. “I am make in the United States, where are you not tomato bread?” Like many local taxicabs, his was decorated in full force complete with Sponge Bob hanging from the mirror. Well, it kind of looked like Sponge Bob but with round marble eyes sewn onto his not quite square body. I think it was Sponge Bob’s “special brother” Carl, the sponge who rode on that really short puffer fish bus reserved for the special kids. Carnival struck again and there were no cars at any rental agency. We left our number at Avis and headed back at the hotel, we got some lunch and walked around a cool park. All town squares should have giant iguanas running around and ponds full of tropical fish and turtles.

The Iguana park in Guayaquil


After half an hour or so of making jackass comments about the lizards and their throat sacks we went back to the hotel. Pricilla at Budget got our number from Ruth at Avis and was able to hook us up at with the perfect 4 door SUV to ruin so we loaded up and headed for the beach.

A cool tre
e we spotted roadside on the drive.

On the ride out of town we were bombarded with water balloons. A tradition with the local kids involves water fights during Carnival. There are water balloons, super soaker squirt guns and my personal favorite are the water bazookas. The water bazookas are these lengths of pipe with a cut off water bottle for a nozzle. The water is drawn in and shot out by a ball on the end of a stick. When you combine this syringe on steroids with a good roadside puddle of waste laden soup you get some truly impressive projectile polio bombs. After Spence got hit by one of these horror streams, we learned to shut the windows when approaching any small town. Now that we know the drill we could happily drive down the road listening to Chris Rock on the I pod while laughing at the bacteria and viruses angrily pounding on our window. We finally arrived at the beach town of Amampe around 11pm and found out that every place was booked. Tired as hell we just slept in the car. It was quite comfortable, kind of like sleeping on a bead of nails while baking in your oven and don’t forget to throw in all of those mosquitoes from the deep woods off commercials.

MONDAY FEB 7th

We woke up early and headed up to the lodge whose parking lot we slept in.
Here’s where we woke up. Beautiful.


Finca Punta Ayampe is a giant playhouse on stilts. It feels like a huge tree house, way beyond anything you have ever dreamed of. It has a balcony with a panoramic view of Playa Ayampe and the offshore islands La Tortuga and La Iguana, a kitchen, dining room, and TV/Lounge area.
The view from the deck.

The 2nd floor is bedrooms, each sleeping four to six people and with their own bathroom.
This was our pet spider in the room they gave us. She was the size of your fist. Scary!

The beach is heavy grey sand with some fist sized stones at the high tide zone. There was a small open pavillion made from local trees, bamboo and palm leaves under which you could hide from the tropical sun. Add in some big coral and rock formations with crabs running all over the beach and you have a pretty cool place to hang out.

The music in the video is by Roy

The water was warm and the waves perfect for the first day; 5’ to 7’ faces with some extra big honkers coming through. Plenty big for fun and a few scary super sized closeouts to avoid. After two sessions totaling about 3 hours we were whipped and left the beach for some sleep in the lodge.
An incredible sunset we saw numerous times.

As if you weren’t already sick of us, or at least sick of Drew, you’ll have to be with us for twelve more days. We had to endure one another for sixteen days and we feel that everyone else should suffer with us. What’s fair is fair. If you’re lucky you’ll get the remaining days in 2-4 day doses, so it will be slightly less painful.