Death of a Longboard

Costa Rica, Playa Hermosa, July 2000:

On the last day of our 7 day trip me and my 3 friends decided to go all out. Playa Hermosa is famous for it's consistentcy and size. It averages 360 days a year of at least chest high surf. What should be known as well is that the break is extremly close to the shore. This is a very powerful beach break. World Tour events are often held at a large single Banyan Tree that sits right at a paticularlly nice spot. Well we were staying at a hotel right on this beach. Now I was the only longboarder in the group. After hitting Boca Barranca (world famous mile long left longboard break) 2 days in a row, I wasn't real hip to borrowing one of my friends short boards. I didn't feel like paddling so hard, so I decides I would takle the break with my 10' performance longboard. Talk about your bad ideas!

That day it was breaking 4-6, occasionally 8+. I was commiting to some insane drops that day, had people on the shore really thinking I was completly out of my mind, and I WAS! After about 8 or 9 waves a really big bump showed up on the horizon, a solid 7-8'. Well if I haven't mentioned it before, the bigger it is there the hollower it is. I take off on this wave, drop right though the bowel, and am making the mad dash for the shoulder. It was then bad luck took over. As it would turn out the wave was doing the infamous horseshoe closeout routine. Before I could make it over the top the opposite lip caught the nose of my board and yanked it right out of my hands. I made a desperate grab at the leash, but it was no use. While I was heading toward the bottom, I heard it, BANG!!!! One of my friends on shore said he heard it and looked up just in time to see the front 4 feet of my board coming shooting up out of the water and nearly make it to shore, 20' away. Dust to dust, fiberglass to fiberglass......

I always heard there was a price to pay for hard charging, I just figured I was going to pay with my body, not my poor board. Despite shattering my board, missing the final evening session, and giving myself a reason to wreck the rental car, it still goes down as the greats surf trip ever. On that trip I made 2 new friends who will be with me for the rest of my days. I made memories and fulfilled a dream of taking a wave for over a mile. Surfing can involve as few risk a cuts and sprains to losing your life going after you big wave goals, but the greast risk invovled in surfing is not living long enough to catch the next great day. Life only comes by one, SOAK IT UP, CHARGE waves, do the impossible.

Mike "weaponx" Trzinski