Skateboarding

Our friends Patrick and Cheri Hasburgh built a skate park in their front yard for their son. It is really amazing and they even brought in graffiti artists from Guadalajara to add some amazing color.   Being the generous and great people that they are, other children are welcome to enjoy the park as well and Cheri has even enlisted a local skateboarder and surfer, Carlos, to come in and teach the kids to skate.  

Alex has really taken to skateboarding and actually loves it.  She has improved greatly, is very brave and has huge determination and focus while she is skating.  I don't know if she notices but she is the only girl there.  We love it because it is a safe environment, everyone there cheers each other on and encourages and is supportive of each other.  The other day Alex graduated to the "BIG" ramp.  Being her first time she fell and as you can imagine it did not feel too well.  She stood there trying very hard to hide her tears as she held her arm that she fell on.  After about 10 seconds and encouragement from Carlos she composed herself and with her skateboard she got back in line to try again.  Everyone there erupted in cheers, applauds and encouragement for her.  You could see her smile break through her tears.

Our view

The other day as we were coming back from a beach in a different town Ozzy pulled out the GoPro camera to have fun with in the car.  Trace was in the front with me so we started goofing around taking self portraits.  I thought it would be fun to take pictures of what we see every day driving home through Sayulita.  There are beautiful, artistic, colorful, amazing pictures out there of Sayulita but I wanted to show the view from inside of our truck through a dirty, broken windshield.  Our Sayulita and our way home.

Remember, this was just through the front windshield. It is a trip, a treat, and a view of  many other worlds coming together as you look through the other nine windows.  

This Thing Called "Surfing"

One of my goals during this "Adventure" was to try and learn to surf. I had tried on a number of trips down here and a few on the Oregon coast without much success and never was all that good at it. It frustrated the hell out of me. My buddy John says that he is "addicted" to surfing. More specifically, addicted to SUP or Stand Up Paddle surfing. He is pretty damn good at it which motivated me to learn even more. Why couldn't I get the hang of this or even like it all that much? Having lived and skied all my life on "frozen water", my growing up and adult life certainly did NOT prepare me for this thing called "Surfing". Moving water? WTF? Waves, breaks, sets, close outs, rights, lefts...? Mumbo jumbo for sure. Well, we came to Mexico with our new shiny new oZoboards and for the first few months I got in the water once in a while. There were other things to do, work to be done and the ocean still didn't have my attention yet other than a place to let the kids burn up some energy.

When January came around, Ashley was back from working the holidays in the States. This was a good excuse to go out on the water together while the kids were at school and really try something new. She wanted to paddle for exercise and I wanted to surf to try and accomplish my pre-adventure goal. I got some advice and went out on the small waves. A big board, paddle and no brakes! Sayulita is great for learning since it has soft sand when things get shallow and a wave that grows progressively larger from one end of the bay to the main break where the "real" surfers go. I spent my time at what I called the "Kiddie Pool". Shallow, small waves and fewer people to run over. A place for real beginners like myself.

Day after day I paddled back and forth, going in and out, getting knocked down, getting beat up, going straight, learning to turn right and then left. I was a beginner again. I began to meet other beginners in the water and would see these people out each morning. Some of them were only here for a few days and others were like me, living down here for the winter season and learning something new. All we could do was to try hard, cheer each other on and laugh at ourselves. I slowly began to build some skills and that's when Ashley started to take notice. She saw how much fun I was having riding waves so she also started to spend time in the surf rather than out touring around on the flat water. We hardly spoke to each other while out trying to find the next wave but we would both be looking for the other like little kids after catching a good one. As if to say, "Hey, did you see me"?, "Did you see what I did"?. Fists pumping into the air applauding.

I always kept an eye on the main break to pickup visual cues from some of the fantastic local surfing talent but I knew where I belonged...in the "Kiddie Pool", practicing. Slowly I move farther and farther along the surf to finally I started to really look at the main break, especially when the conditions were not all that great and the local surfers may have decided to take a day off. Fortunately, by this time, I knew a lot of faces in the lineup. Welcome smiles and a shout of "Ozzy!!" from some friends in the water helped ease my anxiety.

Before coming down here, I read and heard less than great things about being in the Sayulita main break. Yelling, arguing, bullying, fighting are all things that I was ready to face. As I spent more and more time in the main break I saw these things happen. How have I fared in the main break thus far? I never have tried to necessarily be "liked" in the main break. Only wanting to be recognized as someone who is not passing through and has some skill. Hopefully, with that comes a small amount of respect. I try to play by the rules to be sure myself and others stay safe. I don't try to catch every wave I can and let good waves go by to other surfers since a SUP surfer has a small advantage at times. I always look for faster surfers coming down the line that have right away and get out of the way.. I almost always give a local the right to the wave if we are both paddling for it. Vision. You have to have vision. I've seen people who can surf but only see what's in front of them and don't see others around them who have the right to the wave. Then they wonder why they get yelled at. I don't think it is because of someone missing the wave so much as the increased probability of getting really creamed when someone who should be getting out of the way doesn't. Since Sayulita has a huge number of folks new to surfing they are very often in the lineup when they shouldn't be and that doesn't make people comfortable. I spent months working on my skills before I came even close to the main break and some show up after a few days on vacation. Not a good way to be welcome in any break. I stay clear of the main break on days where conditions are above my skill level. If the surf is too big...don't be there. If you can't turn both ways...don't be there. If you can't get out of the way... don't be there. Some may not agree with how I've decided to handle being out there but I know I am an outsider and new surfer and I believe this is a process developing skills on my SUP and acceptance to be out paddling with some of Mexico's best SUP and surf talent.

Mother Nature. What really is surfing when you get down to it? I feel it's a very temporary agreement between you and Mother Nature. You don't really control anything about surfing. Mother Nature only lets you tag along until your ride is over or until she changes the rules and sends you crashing into the ocean. Every single ride is different as tide, wind, currents change by the second. In skiing I could ski the same run over and over and it would be the virtually the same condition every time. Never the case with surfing. One is constantly adapting from one wave the next as the element around you continues to morph.

So, now what? Can I surf? Am I good at it? Hmmmm. I'll just say that I am always learning and have a long ways to go to feel really good out there but from the passer by it probably looks like I can surf. I've recently upgraded my "tabla" to a real surf model from Starboard SUP and am enjoying that now as I learn to adapt learned skills to new equipment. I try to stick my nose into more aggressive spots to catch waves where they should be caught and ridden vs catching things a bit outside and grabbing waves that come my way. Traveling to different surf breaks has been fun so I visit a number of breaks that are close by for a change of pace once in a while. Let me just say that finding surfing this past year has been a blast. See you out there.

Christmas 2012

Another year, another Christmas. The holiday season started off with a Christmas Festival at Escuela Del Mundo where the three groups of grades had a performance. Trace's class sang songs,

Alex's class read and demonstrated how four different countries celebrate Christmas and the older class danced.

I, of course, had to fly out that day so I missed the festival and Christmas Day and New Years Eve and all of the fun in between.
Though, before I left we gave Alex and Trace each a wonderful gift from the three sets of grandparents and us. They have been wonderful so far and thank you grandparents very much! I also want to thank my friend Carrie for working so hard day after day to find and purchase these gifts that were pretty hard to get a hold of, as well as the accessories and then to bring all of it down to us in Mexico. If it wasn't for Carrie it never would have happened.

Christmas day arrived and Ozzy and the kids opened gifts.

What began as an exciting morning quickly turned bad. We didn't get the kids much because they don't need anything and they said they didn't really want anything. Plus they each received a really nice gift from the grandparents. Since we do not have a TV here the kids are not saturated with commercials and commercialism so they do not know all of the latest and greatest toys that are out. Trace pretty much got clothes, which he needed, as well as Alex. We kind of forgot about the whole Santa thing

and got totally busted by Trace. The few gifts they got were wrapped in the same paper and there really wasn't anything fun to open.

So, we screwed up!! and I felt horrible. I forgot that the excitement for the kids is opening new toys. Ozzy realized that all Trace wanted was just one new toy that he could play with physically, and I completely understand, he is a five year old boy. Of course all of this information is being communicated through email and I am not able to talk to the kids. After a while Trace forgot about it, thank goodness. They headed off to Christmas dinner at a friends house which they were excited about, in their new clothes.

It is hard to plan Christmas because I am usually not around for the entire holiday season so I have no Christmas, I miss the parties, the school activities, opening of gifts, excitement of the children, etc. Christmas for me is just another day at work. I have only been home once in the last 17 years for Christmas so I have forgotten what all the excitement is about. My kids should not suffer because of that. We usually do Christmas on a different day just before or after the 25th but since I wasn't home for the last half of the month it wasn't possible this year. They are used to me being gone for almost every important event and holiday. We just do it another day. That is the life of an airline kid. They have never known anything else. It is a give and take life for them. They are able to fly anywhere in the world for free and are able to live in cool places like Mexico, but they spend holidays without their mom. Right now they would rather have mom around but one day they will be more than happy to take those free rides and hopefully they will be able to appreciate my job.

When I came home we did the usual stock the pantry run. My Christmas guilt was weighing on me so I told the kids to pick out something that they wanted since Santa was such a slacker this year. Trace picked out a $3.00 sword that makes noise and lights up. He was sooo excited and said that it was the best toy ever.

Alex picked out some headbands even though she was very happy with her Christmas stash since it was all about clothes and hearts.

So the day ended for the Ostrowski's without too much drama. We learned a big lesson and will do better next year. Also, in our defense, going back to the commercialism, if it wasn't for decorations down here we would never know that it was Christmas. It just isn't thrown in our faces unless we go into a large store, like Walmart, which is about an hour away. Think about it, we have no TV or radio and the temperature is in the 80 to 90 range. You just kind of forget about the season.


Even though I was working I at least got good trips for the holidays. With the exception of five days "slummin it" flying domestic.

Quick stop in Jamaica

Spent Christmas day hiking six miles round trip on the mountain behind our hotel in Santiago, Chile. The trail was super busy with hikers and bikers and cars all going to pay a visit the the Statue of Immaculate Conception. It is summer there so the weather was beautiful. It had just snowed in the Andes so the mountain tops were snow capped. Made me realize that I miss hiking, but not enough to move back. The Chileans celebrate Christmas at midnight and into the wee hours of Christmas morning.

Washington DC

Spent New Years Eve in Lima, Peru. Had a great day getting a 1 1/2 hour long facial. Stoping by the beach checking out the surfers wishing I was out there with them, shopping at the Indian Market buying Alpaca blankets to bring back, since it is so cold here in Mexico, and ending the day in the crew van headed to the airport to work back to Atlanta with what seemed like the entire city of Lima setting off fireworks from about 11:45 until after midnight to welcome the new year. I felt like I was back in Salt Lake City watching the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics and silently cringing because you know how I feel about fireworks.

It was all good though I would much rather be home with my precious babies. At least I was able to practice my Spanish on my trips.

Happy Happy 2013!!!

Trace!

That's our boy! From the GoPro "dashboard cam" driving through town from a day on the beach near Punta Mita, Mexico.