Kooking It UP!: Love.

The crew @ El Paz, the "inside wave" in La Libertad, El Salvador.

The word "Love" gets tossed around a lot now days. I over hear the word love being used to describe "I love this day", "I love it when you buy me chocolate" or when my wife tells me "I would love for you to wash the dishes and toss the trash." I really love when she throws that order out.

But I like the way John Mayer put it in his new album, "Love ain't a thing, Love is a verb". Love in action is why we all took this trip to El Salvador. Our Love for the Pacific and the waves she shares with us day in and day out. But most importantly, Love that was triumphant, crossing thousands of miles, crossing borders and nationalities and bureaucracy and the bullshit that life throws at us. We came to be part of the union between not one of, but the best man I know, and one of my dearest friends, Manav and his beautiful wife, Ruth's wedding. When you witness love come together like we did, you know it exists and it is out there for every one of us.

All teary eyed and heart felt, lets get back to surfing!


The town of El Tunco in El Salvador. Town is epic, go there!

We stayed in this small town called El Tunco. This place is what's Central America surfing is all about. Beach bum locals, stray dogs, warm water, black sand beaches, cheap food, Fanta, cheap beer and epic surf. By the end of the fourth day I knew a handful locals. Tono, who I will referring to a lot, even called me B.D. on my last day in good ol' El Tunco.

Ton-G and Bird Dogger Furry chillin' at our lounge in Qi-x.

We stayed at Qi-x surf camp, a five minute walk from the point break "La Bocana" and a lovely ten minute walk from Sanzul, a famous El Salvador right. $10 a night, simple and earthy, Qi-x was perfect for us surfers.

Sanzul

We mostly surfed Sanzul. It is a pretty fun wave that breaks about 200 yards from shore. The first few days, it topped out at around 6 feet. On the last few days it topped out at around 15 feet. I would like to to say that I surfed it when it got to be "apartment building" size, but I didn't. I know my limits and this was way beyond it. I actually surfed it during the first morning (on a second attempt of paddling out) and caught some rides of my life! This was all motivated by my boy Kush telling me "We gotta go out there and earn our breakfast". Food is always a good motivation for the B.D. Panama Red was also bugging me all morning to go out, and he was pretty convincing. It was about 6'-10'. But on the following evening and day, I didn't surf. As good ol' local Tono said "I Love to surf, but I Love my life!"

Ton-G, Johnny and The "Japanese Charger" heading out to the epic surf @ La Paz in La Libertad that I chose to sit out on. Via Con Dios brothers...

On Saturday before the wedding we headed out to La Libertad, the home of the epic El Salvadorian point break, Punta Roca. Shit was big, really big. Furry got out the cab with a worried face and said "Shit dude, I don't know if I can do this". Furry, Kush and I tried to paddle out at La Paz, but we couldn't even make past the beach break (the inside wave in La Libertad which was suppose to be "fun" but was more like "deadly"). Ton-G, Johnny, the Japanese Charger, Crazy E and Dee paddled out and charged, much respect to those fellas! On both days, whenever an apartment size wave sped towards my head, I thought of my wife. That motivated me to live, which I am proud to say I did.

My weapon of choice, 6' x 19 flyer.

Good story: On the first morning of the epic swell, Kush and I were on the outside at Sanzul waiting for waves. Kush is pretty new to surfing and I was teaching him how to paddle hard to the right to make the huge sets coming in. We made it past a few humongous sets, but during an extra large set I yelled at Kush "Paddle hard man, paddle as hard as you can!" But as the waves approached I yelled "Kush!" Kush looked back at me and I said sadly before I held my breath, "We're fucked :(" and we both got tossed for our lives. Good times. Happy ending. We survived.


Little hermit crab hiding away like me from the big waves.

Kush and Furry chilling with me watching the power of the Pacific.

Toro.

I really connected with this local named Toro in La Libertad. Dude is a homeless surfer who lives for waves. He told me a great story of how he was in jail in Las Vegas and an ASP event at Punta Roca came on T.V. He told me he almost had to kick some peoples asses to keep them from changing the channel. He said he yelled "Viva El Salvador" every time a local killed it on his home break.


Some dude charging Punta Roca.

I walked over with the Japanese Charger to Punta Roca, the most famous wave in El Salvador. We saw locals just charging triple over head, barreling waves. I could feel the ground rumble as sets came through. It was pretty awesome. Pictures say a thousand words. Check it!

Punta Roca - September 1, 2012. from Kookingitup on Vimeo.

Charging like a mutha!

Here is a video I made from this trip, full of great memories:

Tunco Es Liso from Kookingitup on Vimeo.

I've been to other destination weddings, but this trip was hands down, one of the best trips I have ever been on and the BEST wedding that I have ever been part of. But it wasn't just the country, the town or the surf. It was the people that I shared it with. All the folks that made the trip are the most warmest, good hearted people that I have ever met. And the the folks that I do know (Furry, Panama Red, Crazy E, Ton-G and Manav = A.K.A Kiwi Hippies) have already been spoken for and are Ohana for life. But being the friends of Manav, we are just a reflection of his goodness and love. And that's what it's all about. Love.