Sunsets are an event on Costa Rica’s Pacific side. People gather, play guitars, bring drinks — it’s the social event of the day.
Such was supposed to be the case on a recent Sunday evening, when my wife, our two young boys, and our dog, laid down our blanket. We had beach toys for the kids and beers for us just 50 meters from the water in Playa Bejuco, Costa Rica, a quiet ex-pat community 30 minutes south of Jaco. Playa Bejuco itself is a beautiful beach with sand so fine and soft it feels like you’re walking on silk. I surfed there, we played in the water with our kids there, and we enjoyed the spectacular sunsets.
It was as beautiful as a sunset in Costa Rica is supposed to be until I saw a group of people running out of the water. “I think they’re helping someone out of the water” I pointed out to my wife. It soon became clear that this person wasn’t being helped out of the water, he was being carried and dragged out. This guys was in trouble.
What do you do when something like this happens right in front of you? How do you react? Do you run to the rescue or run for cover? I’m not an EMT or a lifeguard, I’m just your average dad who likes to surf and watch some Netflix. I’ve fantasized about being the hero in bad situations. Like roundhouse kicking a robber, tackling a terrorist on a plane, or otherwise saving the day. But when something happens in real life — right in front of you — it’s very different. I passively decided that the crowd around this guy was growing and that I might just get in the way and be more harm than help. So I stayed put and out of the way, but my curiosity still wanted to see what was happening. There’s a delicate balance between wanting to know what’s going on and being a distraction to those actually trying to help.
My wife called 911 (the emergency number in Costa Rica also happens to be 911), and people began administering CPR. To be clear, I was sure this guy was going to survive. I’ve seen enough movies to know that if someone gets rescued from the water, they get rescued. CPR works. Chest compressions, mouth-to-mouth, then the person coughs up water and everyone cheers. I was ready to cheer.
When someone isn’t breathing, every minute counts. And as the minutes went by, my certainty devolved into uncertainty. When the ambulance pulled up on the beach 15 minutes later and people were still performing CPR, I knew it was too late. The medics gave a final CPR attempt and proclaimed him dead. We were frozen on our cute little beach blanket with our kids and beach toys, ignoring the spectacular sunset we’d come or. It was a heavy event to witness. In total, about 20 minutes had passed. We sat in the car in silence for a bit. What do you do after witnessing something like that? What does an ER doctor do when they lose a patient? I guess they take a few deep breaths, curse under their breath, and move on. And that’s what we did. We drove home, cooked dinner for the kids, and carried on. I felt like we should be doing something else, acting differently, doing anything other than just going back to our regularly scheduled programming of life.
In the end, I don’t know what actually happened to that man. I don’t know if he hit his head on a rock, if he just couldn’t swim, if he was drinking — I have no idea and it doesn’t even matter. The riptides are strong at this beach and even when the water is calm it can still suck you out with force. When you are witness to something like this you immediately think, “I surf here by myself, I take my kids in the water here. What if something like that happened to me?” It propelled us to act.
When we came back to the states shortly after the accident, my wife and I signed up to get CPR certified in Jacksonville. It takes half a day, isn’t very expensive, and my instructor made the class entertaining and fun. Now I feel ready and equipped to be a rescuer, not a bystander, if something like this happens again. In fact, I can’t believe I’ve been a surfer this long without knowing how to perform CPR. It was years before I even put a first aid kit in my car. When I was chatting with the instructor after my class, he told me 99% of his clients are medical professionals or teachers who are required to be CPR certified. There are very few people like me who come to his class just because they think it’s an important skill to have, which is a shame.
About a month has passed since that day and we are now living full time in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, another Pacific coastal beach town. Living in the Costa Rican jungle, you can’t count on first responders to be right around the corner waiting for your call. You have to be able to help yourself and be able to help others.
If you surf, enjoy the water in any capacity, or just want to be able to help if someone is in need, take a CPR class. I don’t think the guy I watched drown could have been saved but these situations happen and people can be saved if you have the skills and knowledge to help. It’s unfortunate that I waited for something bad to happen before I acted, but you don’t have to (and shouldn’t).
It’s that time of the year again, when the studious folk at WSL HQ comb through the hundreds of entries and drop their shortlist for the least coveted prize in surfing; The Wipeout Of The Year.
As the standard of big wave surfing climbs ever higher, the wipeouts just get worse and worse and this years list certainly features offerings as horrendous as ever.
Our very own Andrew Cotton kicks thing off with his back shattering Nazare bouncy ball impression, then Kemper gets eviscerated by a Jaws lip, Coco Nogales suffers a nasty Peuerto hang up, Eli Olson performs a few weightless cartwheels down the face at Jaws and finally, Owen Shultz and a one footed ride gone wrong at Nazare.
Inside Liz Clark"s new book, "Swell," which documents her decade-long surf trip on a sailboat
Southern California native Liz Clark lived on a sailboat for over a decade. She set off from the Santa Barbara harbor in 2005, and for the next 12 years traversed oceans on “Swell,” her 40-foot sailboat, looking for remote waves in Mexico, Central America, the Galapagos, French Polynesia and beyond.
On paper, Clark’s adventure seems like one of those badass trips you daydream of at your cubicle every Monday morning. But in her recently-released book, “Swell,” Clark paints a much more realistic picture of what a 12-year, transoceanic swell chase really looks like.
From the high points (scoring remote reef breaks with no one out) to the low (almost getting struck by lightning, having to repair a broken engine, getting a rare fungal infection, etc,), the experiences laid out in Clark’s autobiography are worth the read. We called up Captian Clark last week, while she was driving from one book tour stop to the next:
Besides wanting to share your experience of living on a sailboat for over a decade, what made you want to write this book?
I definitely wanted to inspire other people to go out and live their own journey, whatever it may be. I think my dream is pretty out there for some people, but I think this story just shows that when you really want to do what you truly love and desire, everything will work out in the end. That and wanting to share all the things I learned and the fun experiences I"ve had.
Did you always know you were going to going to sail around the world?
My parents always had a sailboat and we did all our family weekends and trips on the boat. Sailing was our way to get out in nature. When I was nine, they actually took my siblings and I out of school and we sailed to and around Mexico for about nine months in total. We spent that time exploring and fishing and meeting people and learning something different than what I knew living in North County San Diego. It totally got me out of my Southern California bubble, and even as a kid, it had a really deep impression on me.
Then I read a book by a woman named Tanya Ebby who sailed around the world when she was 19 and that opened my mind to the fact I could do that too. I hung onto that dream all through junior and high school. When I realized my sailing dream and my surfing passion could collide into this big adventure to go search for remote waves and get out there and see the world and discover the world through surfing, it reinvigorated my dream of sailing around the world.
How’d you develop the skills to sail and be completely self-sufficient?
I sailed a nine-foot sailing dingy growing up and that definitely helped me, but I would say a lot was trial and error and I had to figure out a lot when I left. When we [Liz and her old professor, who gave her the boat] were repairing the boat and getting it ready to sail, I didn"t have a ton of time to practice before we left. It wasn’t like we were going out every afternoon and sailing or anything. I had to just get out there and figure it all out on that boat. It was once I got out into the trade winds that I really learned how to sail. It was a learning curve for sure, and I"m still learning. I"m not the best sailor.
Photo by McKenna
Most people wouldn’t embark on such a grand adventure without feeling 100 percent sure they could do it. Where did that confidence come from?
The confidence came a lot from my dad. Even when I was in my teens and I was just talking about doing this trip, when we would go out and do family trips to Catalina, he would let me run the boat and handle everything. Then when I was in college, in my final semester at UCSB, he let me bring our family sailboat up to Santa Barbara so I could live on it in the harbor. He"d let me take my friends out to the Channel Islands or up to The Ranch on surf trips. Having my dad’s confidence in me made me believe in myself so much more than I think I would have if I didn"t have that support. He never made me feel like because I was girl there was a gender discrepancy between what me and my brother could do.
In the first chapter of your book, you mention that, despite your confidence, there were still doubts and fears that crept into your thoughts. Did those ever go away?
I would say those fears of screwing up or hitting the reef or losing the boat-those fears never went away entirely for me. I think to some degree they actually kept me safe. It"s very serious out there and you can lose everything in a heartbeat, so you don"t want to get too comfortable or cocky--because every time I did the ocean would remind me that I had to be on my shit and to not take anything for granted.
At first glance, someone might think that you had a lot of time to just sit back and write and surf, but from reading the book it sounds like a lot of time was taken up by repairing and maintaining the boat, finding food and all that stuff.
Time felt scarce most of the time. There was always so much to do. During the first couple years, I made a practice of journaling--even if I just wrote one sentence about what happened that day. Especially when I was alone-it was almost like that was my way of telling someone what happened that day.
You had friends who joined you for certain segments of your journey but were you ever lonely when you sailed solo for extended periods of time?
Definitely. Sometimes it was sparked by something physical that I had to do on my own that would"ve been so easy with four hands but it took me four times as long to do. Then sometimes being out in the ocean when I had rough weather--during those times I was just like, "Can I be anywhere other than here right now? Please teleport me!" [Laughs] I did end up sailing with a boyfriend for a significant time towards the end of the book. It made everything so much easier and safer.
When you were deciding where to visit were you basing your decisions on where the best surf will be?
Yeah, that was my guiding principle. All of the other cool stuff I saw along the way was the result of going to the place I thought I was going to be able to get waves.
I was interested in the part of your book when you were in Panama, when you were working on your broken engine and you mentioned that you hadn"t been in the water for two months. I imagine times like that were frustrating when the goal of the trip was to score waves.
It was super frustrating. At that time I was still such a frothing surfer-I couldn"t stand being out of the water. This trip taught me a lot of patience because there were definitely times when I didn"t get to surf for two months. But in that specific case, when I sailed out of Panama, my friends and I scored for a month straight. Everywhere we went we got beautiful waves with just us or a few other people out. So there were a lot of high highs and low lows. It was not always easy and I had to work really hard to get to these places, but when I did, everything felt worth it. But yea, you"d probably surf a lot more in Southern California just driving to places in your car. [Laughs]
Photo by Lazarus
Were you nervous paddling out alone in certain places?
You think that"s it"s the ultimate dream to be completely alone at a perfect break on a perfect island, but you have to be so careful in remote places because if you get hurt, there’s no one to help you. So it definitely changed my view of looking at surfing. It was cool to be alone, but I couldn"t push myself the same way I could if I were in a crowd or close to medical services. [But I could almost look at surfing in a different way because my ego was removed--no one was looking at me and it didn"t matter and I could just look back and watch the wave break, and feel my board. It was a beautiful time of falling in love with almost the spiritual side of surfing.]
You were also pretty honest in some parts of the book--letting the reader know your fears and anxieties as a woman, dealing with bouts of depression and having an abortion. Were you nervous putting such personal things in your book?
Definitely, but I spent three years writing this book and if I"m not going to be honest and share what the true story was, then to me, it doesn"t really hold a place in the world. I did it so it could help other people in those same situations who have fears or anxieties about following their dream. Of course putting the abortion in there was totally scary for me. It was one of my deepest, darkest secrets, but the political climate we are in and the way that everything is going in the world right now, other women need to hear that they"re not alone. I think a lot of people idolized me and put me up on a pedestal throughout this trip, but I want to make sure people understand that I am just a normal person who had this big dream and went for it. I had a very human story and I"m not some superhero.
You’re pretty vocal about environmental issues on social. Did you come to any realizations about the health of our oceans on your trip that maybe us land-chained people don"t see?
I thought I was going to be able to sail to all these remote places that would be unaffected by human impact. What I realized out there is there is really no sailing away from the environmental problems we are facing--especially when it comes to climate change. I saw plastic on almost every beach I sailed to (which is also a huge problem.) But the climate change issue really hit home because I spent a lot of time in tiny, atoll nations where the islands are only six feet above water and the coral is so dependant on the ocean staying at a cooler temperature and all of those places are at risk right now. There were several places where the coconut trees were dying because the water line is higher and there’s more salidity in the soil. I had a Namatou grandmother look at me and say, "When the coconut trees go, we have to go too." That makes me cry every time I think about it. Those people took me in like family and here they are with so little impact on the environment. Thinking about them losing their land is hard to swallow.
What are your plans now? Well, I have this book tour going on. After all the book stuff settles, I don"t really have a plan but I know that I"d like to keep sailing, but I"d also like to have a land base. After living on the boat for 12 years, I"m ready to have a washing machine and have a place to do yoga that doesn"t move around [laughs.] The one thing I really know is I want to dedicate more time to activism and philanthropy and I feel like I"ll be more productive if I have that base to go back and worth from and not always be so nomadic.
Entre os dias 6 e 8 de abril, a praia de Jericoacoara, localizada no extremo oeste do litoral cearense, transformou-se na capital nacional dos pranchões com a realização da primeira etapa do Circuito Brasileiro de Longboard, o Pena apresenta IV Jericoacoara Cultura Longboard Festival.
Foram três dias de pura celebração da cultura do esporte dos reis havaianos com muita música, palestras, exposição de arte e um show de surfe protagonizado pelos melhores atletas do longboard brasileiro como Carlos Bahia, Jeferson Silva, Chloé Calmon, Atalanta Batista, dentre outros.
Um dos principais destaques ficou por conta do show de surfe protagonizado pela carioca Chloé Calmon, que finalizou a Profissional cravando duas notas na casa de 9.50 para faturar a principal categoria da competição entre as meninas. Foi dela também o maior somatório do evento, 19.67 de 20 pontos possíveis, com direito a duas notas 10, uma na primeira fase e outra na semifinal.
Carioca é carregada até o pódio em Jericoacoara. “Pra mim foi um grande prazer vir para Jeri participar do evento. Esse lugar é fantástico e a qualidade das ondas é incrível. Sem sombra de dúvidas, um pico internacional para a prática de longboard. E a hospitalidade do povo cearense é algo sem igual. Com certeza, voltarei para pegar ondas aqui em um dia com swell”, declara a campeã.
Em segundo lugar da categoria ficou a pernambucana Atalanta Batista, que também surfou muito durante toda competição, colocando pressão na campeã durante a bateria final. Em terceiro ficou a potiguar Eliana Andrade com a atleta da nova geração, Jasmim Avelino, terminando na quarta colocação.
Na Profissional Masculino, destaque para o surfista local de Jericoacoara, Antonio Victor, que não tomou conhecimento dos grandes nomes que compunham a mais importante bateria do evento, mostrando muito conhecimento do pico e refinada técnica para colocar a bandeira cearense no lugar mais alto do pódio, deixando o paulista Jefson Silva, na segunda colocação, o carioca Jeferson Silva em terceiro e o atual campeão brasileiro Carlos Bahia na quarta colocação.
Local de Jericoacoara, Antonio Victor surpreende e fatura Profissional Masculino. Os profissionais dividiram R$ 8 mil em dinheiro como premiação sendo R$ 5 mil para a categoria Masculino e R$ 3 mil para a Feminino.
Na principal categoria entre os amadores, a Open, entre os homens o grande destaque ficou por conta da atuação do carioca Jeferson Silva, que mostrou toda a sua versatilidade para arrancar as melhores notas dos árbitros e faturar um longboard Flora novinho. Os ceaernses Antônio Victor e Adryan Pardo ficaram respectivamente com a segunda e terceira colocações, com o paraibano Thiago Lucas completando o pódio na quarta colocação.
Entre as mulheres, melhor para a potiguar Marina Carbonel, que soube aproveitar melhor as pequenas, mas longas, ondas de Jeri, para faturar o troféu de campeã e de quebra levar para o Rio Grande do Norte um pranchão novinho como premiação.
Festa local no Ceará. Na categoria Master o grande campeão foi o surfista residente de Jeri, pioneiro do longboard, Carlos Clécio, que usou toda a sua experiência para superar os adversários e também faturar um longboard zerinho. Robson Fraga ficou em segundo, com Roberto Lagoinha em terceiro e o maranhense Vinícius Cabocão em quarto.
Na Sênior quem se deu melhor foi o carioca Jeferson Silva, seguido pelo pernambucano Reginaldo Nascimento em segundo, o paulista Wenderson Biludo em terceiro e André Martins em quarto.
Na categoria Legend quem conquistou o topo do pódio foi Marcelo Bibita, que apesar de todo o trabalho para a realização do evento (Bibita foi o organizador do campeonato), ainda teve espírito para superar o carioca Maurício Raul, o paulista Carlos Pereria e o italiano radicado no Ceará, Luca Capponera, respectivamente, segundo, terceiro e quarto colocados.
Galera prestigia o IV Jericoacoara Cultura Longboard Festival. Na Super Legend o grande destaque ficou por conta da participação do pioneiro do surfe brasileiro, Daniel Friedmann, do Rio de Janeiro, que também enfatizou a surpresa com a excelente qualidade das ondas de Jeri. Daniel Acabou terminando com a segunda colocação, na categoria vencida pelo também carioca, Ricardo Phebo. Na terceira colocação ficou Henrique Steindorfer, com o paulista Carlos Pereira em quarto e o local de Jeri, Celsinho, na quinta colocação.
“Um evento como esse serve pra mostrar que surfista, quando passa dos 50 anos não entra pra terceira Idade. Ele vira Super Legend”, brinca Carlos Pereira.
Na categoria Open Local o grande campeão foi José Arteiro, com Mateus Silva em segundo, Gabriel Ralen em terceiro e Carlos Augusto na quarta colocação. Na categoria Rei e Rainha de Jeri os campeões foram Adryan Pardo e Carol Lina, respectivamente.
Marcelo Bibita e Raimundo Pena, organizadores do evento histórico em Jericoacoara. Na categoria Escolinha Masculino em primeiro lugar ficou José Arteiro, com Matheus Silva, Pedro da Silva e Carlos Augusto em segundo, terceiro e quarto colocados, respectivamente. Na Escolinha Feminino a grande campeã foi Thais Maria, com Yhorana Gomes terminando com a segunda colocação, Evelyn Albuquerque em terceiro e Maria Elem em quarto.
Pela primeira vez sediando a abertura do Circuito Brasileiro de Longboard, Jericoacoara provou ser um excelente pico para longboard. Nas palavras de Daniel Friedmann, Carlos Bahia, Chloé Calmon, dentre osutros, Jeri é um lugar de ondas de qualidade internacional para o longboard.
Pódio da categoria Profissional Feminino. A atraente premiação de R$ 20 mil, sendo R$ 8 mil em dinheiro para os Profissionais também foi muito importante para que os melhores atletas do Brasil estivesse presentes, garantindo o show de manobras em acirradas disputas para saber quem largaria na frente do Circuito Brasileiro de Longboard 2018.
Além das competições, várias ações culturais, ambientais e sociais também fizeram parte do evento. “Estou muito feliz e satisfeito por tudo ter corrido como o esperado. Desde a primeira vez que surfei em Jeri eu percebi seu potencial para sediar grandes evento, não somente por ser um lugar paradisíaco, mas também pela qualidade das ondas para a prática do longboard. Mas, foi somente quando estive na Austrália, no ano passado, para participar do maior festival de longboard do planeta, que pude comprovar que poderíamos fazer algo tão grande quanto tudo aquilo que eu estava vendo. E hoje, após o término do evento, vendo que aquele sonho se tornou realidade, a sensação é de dever cumprido. E vamos com tudo para fazer um festival ainda maior no próximo ano”, declara Marcelo Bibita, organizador do evento.
Pódio da categoria Profissional Feminino. Apresentado por Pena Surfwear, o IV Jericoacoara Cultura Longboard Festival teve apoio do Governo do Estado do Ceará, através da Secretaria de Turismo e da Coordenadoria Especial de Políticas Públicas de Juventude, Prefeitura de Jijoca, através da Secretarias de Esportes e da Secretaria de Turismo, ICMBio, Pranchão, D’Cofibras, Pousada Casa do Ângelo, Flora Surfboards, Associação EU AMO JERI, Club Ventos, Vila Kalango, Tico Wind Jeri, Hurricane Jeri, Café Jeri, Pousada Surfing Jeri, Pimenta Verde, Jeri Aquasports, Pousada do Véi, Restaurante Dona Amélia, Fu Wax, Cajú Pratas, Pousada Maria Bonita, Xavi Surf School, Blocos Teccel, Pousada Bela Jeri, Pousada Jericó, Restaurante Sapão, Naturalmente Creperia, Santa Batata, Restaurante Cururu, Lilás de Lila Pizzas, Aconchego Residencial Jeri, Aldeia Jericoacoara, Galoo, Chalé dos Ventos, Casa de Pedra, MaxItália, Solar da Malhada, Pousada Juventude Familiar, Restaurante Granola, Sorveteria Gelato e Grano, Loja Coral Negro Jeri, Restaurante Arara, Jeri Férias, Rumbora Turismo, Chico Bento Transfers. Evento chancelado e homologado pela CBSurf (Confederação Brasileira de Surf) e FSEC (Federação de Surf do Ceará). Realização: Auêra-Auára Produções.
Resultados
Profissional Masculino
1 Antônio Victor (CE) 2 Jefson Silva (SP) 3 Jeferson Silva (RJ) 4 Carlos Bahia (SP)
