Surfing into the New Year under a full moon

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  Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Monday, January 1, 2007

The day after our partying in Flamingo, I got up on the early end, ate breakfast and chilled out on the hammock writing in my journal while I waited for the others to wake up.  The hotel (its really more a mix between a hotel, hostel, restaurant, bar, and surf school) has been playing really good music, lots of Sublime and Bob Marley.  Quite relaxing. 
Andrew, Alan and I headed out to surf.  We hit some decent sets, but it died about two hours later.  So we moved over to check out the waves where the beginners were.  The surf wasn't much better and there were beginners everywhere littering the waves.  We called it a day and hung out on the beach with the girls till sunset.  Surfing went quite well, I'm getting into the grove.
The plan was to rest up a bit in our room, have a few drinks there, then grab dinner and then see what would be going on in the town of Tamarindo.  We went to Mama's Deli (which is a restaurant, no idea whats up with the name), and toasted to dinner and the new year with some champagne.  For the turning of the year we went to Mambo Bar, which was packed.  They brought on these drummer guys that drummed for about 15 mins in the middle of the crowd.  It was basically a beach drum circle in the middle of this bar, it had an awesome beat.  The New Year came in fairly standard, the countdown, the shouting, the turning of the year, spraying of random liquids, and the hugs, cheek kisses and congrats. 
Right afterward we headed next door to the beach to join the masses of people already out there to hang out and watch some fireworks.  We went back into Mambo Bar after a bit and it was so packed, steamy, and sweaty that Alan and I decided we didn't want to put up with it.  Alan and I had talked about doing some night surfing, and it was nearly a perfect full moon, so we ditched everyone else to head to the beach.
By 1am Alan and I were out on the Tamarindo break under the full moon.  This is the nice break that is usually littered with the beginner surfers, but at 1am after the turning of the new year, there wasn't a soul out there except us.  The waves were perfect and the best we had during our entire time in Tamarindo.  Set after set of beautiful waves rolled in.  We could see nearly everything under the full moon and we could make out the waves by the moons reflection off of the ocean.  We rode so many waves and didn't have to compete for any of them and didn't have to worry about getting hit in the head by stray beginner boards.  We had the perfect break all to ourselves.  It honestly couldn't have been any better or more perfect in any way (well, although Alan is the man, I would have gladly traded him in for a brunette surfer chic, but thats the only way it could have been better).  It was so peaceful out there, only hearing the crashing of the waves and seeing random fireworks getting fired off way down the beach.  It was the perfect way to bring in the New Year.

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