So here I have snuck off with the family for my last RV trip here in Jalama beach(Duffster land), and I got only one night as it is booked solid. Put the wife in line at 4am the next morning to be number 1 on the list that doesnt get made until 6;30am, but she was a trooper. So now we have up to 2 weeks here and it has been glassy all day with some little/medium surf.

So on the news I hear a high surf advisory, but of course it is some Baja hurricane that is being totally blocked by the point here, so today was just some more beach break out front with 20 minute sets that hit a little sand bar and make a decent wave. About 8 guys at the north reef where it is more consistent, but I just opt with my long board to get a few alone, the water is as warm as I have ever had it here, about 68 and I'm trunking it.

So this old man paddles out on what look like a skim board with a bunch of 4 inch foam glued onto the nose and different spots on the deck. And he has the nerve to paddle out where I'm sitting on my longboard and I think, what a kook, he is never going to get a wave on that thing this far out, he needs to be inside where it is almost breaking on the sand. I give a wave and he waves back.

In the next 30 minutes he gets about 3 set waves, just happens to be right over the bar where waves jack up before falling back down to reform inside. But somehow he gets that piece of shit into the wave and connects to the inside, where all I see is rooster tails firing like a bump stock is shooting them.Needless to say, dude could surf.

So I paddle of and I comment about the foam being a bit of extra flotation for that potato chip he was riding, and he says yes and begins to tell me all about what he was playing with. I mean, this was some crude shit, foam all pot marked and just open to the water, and glued all over this skim board. But shit, he was surfing circles around me, so I asked if he was a local and had all these little sand bars wired. He said no, but he did have a house in SB,, so I chuckled and said he was as local as you can be for this spot(no one lives here or within 30 minutes)

SO we spend a couple hours out there, looks like his wife/girlfriend is out there too on a boogie board, she is very dark and has what seems to me to be a French accent. After about an hour a kid paddles out(older teenage) and he rips some inside sections with the two of us. He surfs one more in and I swear he goes 100yds down the beach with a wave that goes 50, must have done some hell of a floater and connected the unconnectable. I catch one in that is pretty good, but very unremarkable compared to what he was doing with that skim board and turns out he had his towel and umbrella right next to mine. The kid came out and it looked to be his, definitely took after the wife, but surfed like his dad.

The entire time I kept thinking I know this guy from somewhere, but just could not place it. I talked to him for a couple hours while he and I surfed, but we never exchanged names. Just after he left it hit me, and it hit me hard. There is a guy camping next to me that is a big time surf dude in his late 30's, and I told him this story and asked him if I was crazy to think what I was thinking. (what are you all thinking right now)

It hit me like a ton of bricks, I just did a 2 hour solo surf session with Tom fucking CURREN!!!! (and his kid, that apparently is quite the ripper) My neighbor confirmed that he does have a house in SB, and I had recalled that he had moved to France at some point, probably because of this lady he was with. He was not camping here, just in for the day, said he had some friends he was going to stay at. I surfed two hours with TOM CURREN!!

Anyway waves were shit, but somehow guys like him make it look great, and he was a very cool, but kind of kooky guy. My neighbor also told me he had heard about him experimenting all the time with different stuff like that, so it 99% has to have been him out there..

Thats all, I dont care about the surf the rest of the week here, got my MTB and running shoes. But if I see that little bar start to go off again, I will be on it like a barnacle. I know long story here, but the real surfers here will appreciate how cool this session was for me. When I was growing up surfing this is the guy that was winning world championships and everyone looked up too. Then he left the limelight and became a soul surfer, and is still at it. I know this because he was out on this completely marginal day in the middle of nowhere, and he was stoked about his home made board..TOM CURREN!!!

I don't know what the hell you just wrote but it's a pretty good read. Good luck with the surfing. //

I know this is the lavender room and perhaps you are not really a triathlete, but you can also go back in your youth and think of someone that you really looked up to and perhaps even idolized. A sports person, musician, teacher, whoever. The 40 years later you are in the middle of no where and you find yourself camping next to Dave Scott, or Paula Newby Frasier, or insert early childhood hero. For me all the triathletes would just be a reunion, but running into the Kelly Slater of surfing before there was a Kelly Slater, that was really fun for me. And as I think of it, only having Kelly Slater making it a threesome would have made that 2 hours more magical.


Been surfing until my arms are toast and cannot do one more pushup on the board, so that is good news. My ribs are sore as hell too, always a break in period when you trunk it, water has been 71 the past couple days, almost unheard of in these parts. I expect the shore fisherman to start catching Yellowtail anytime now..