Photo Blogging The New Year From Costa Rica With Tom
Dugan Words and photos by Tom Dugan
Each year before
heading down to Costa Rica, I invite friends to come and enjoy the sun and surf
that is so prevalent this time of year during the country’s high season. I ran
into South Carolina surfboard shaper Kelly Richards at a recent NSSA contest
and told him he should come down and bring his sons, Cole and Cam. A few months
later, I got an e-mail from Kelly saying they had booked their tickets and teamrider
Luke Gordon and his dad Tom would also be on board. To my surprise, he brought
along the said surfers plus three more friends from their home state of South
Carolina. That brought the grand total of surfers to eight, and if you have
ever traveled with that many friends, you know what a logistic hassle it is to
get everyone moving in the same direction, especially starting out at 6:00 a.m.
every morning.
Now if you know any
one from the South, you know they like to have fun. Surfing in hot sun on glassy
waves with a birthday celebration and beer for those over 21 thrown in are
about all that is required for a good time. In that sense, they came, they saw,
and they conquered. Older surfers Kelly Richards, Tom Gordon, Wally Krask,
Bentley Price, and Freeman Spence all had their fair share of good waves, but
what was cool is that they seemed to get more enjoyment out of watching the
young’uns surf. With every wave Luke, Cam, or Cole caught, the old guys would
hoot, holler, laugh, and make funny comments about how they rode each wave. It
was such a blast listening to the boys making funny remarks every time someone
blew a wave that I was literally laughing with each wipeout.
Now the young’uns
also put on a fine show with really high caliber surfing going down, so it
wasn’t heckling all the time. In fact, both the dads would coach their sons on
what they did right or wrong after every session. It became somewhat of a
training exercise for the boys. Luke caught the biggest wave one day that
had us all gasping at the drop and bottom turn into the tube. His dad even said
when he saw the photo of the wave size that his wife would probably kill him
for letting Luke go out in waves that size. But Luke just responded that it was
probably the biggest thrill of his life.
Every day that they
were there the waves were good, with size from two-foot to six-foot with a few
bigger sets thrown in. Glassy morning conditions gave all of the South Carolina
boys a chance to really get their surf on, and from Wally being the tallest
down to Luke at 4’8” being the smallest, there was some really good lines
drawn during each session. Check out the waves in the following photos and see
what my other friends missed by not joining me. Next time you get an invitation
to come to Costa Rica, I suggest you take it. The South Carolina boys sure are
glad they did. Pura Vida…
17th Annual Quiksilver King Of The Peak Set
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Nick McGregor; Captions by Dick “Mez” Meseroll READ MORE…
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STORMY WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY Cory Robbed, Gabe Bounced, Bobby Suspended, Damien And CJ Out, Kelly Swept Straight Into Round Four… What A Couple Of Days In New York
