Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Nica Heart

Traveling to Nicaragua was a lot to process, a sensory & emotional overload.  I have found that there is always something to learn from every experience, especially one so magnificent, however, my quest did not end with the return flight home- the journey continues as I revisit the adventure and begin to decipher the subtle nuances I felt but too quickly dismissed during the mad rush of the trip. 

One of the life lessons I've really been mulling over is the connection to/with other hearts.  Regardless of circumstances and perhaps other factors there are people you connect with, for whatever reason and I'm learning to honor and value that intrinsic reaction to someone.  

"You just sprayed that kid." Nate told me as I paddled back out. 
"I did?" I replied looking around the water.  I remembered seeing the dark skinned Nica boy paddling back out.  I made a cut back right in front of him, he was in the perfect position to be sprayed but that wasn't my intent, it was one of those situations where you either made a turn or ran the guy over.  Then I saw a group of Nicaraguan surfer boys pointing, laughing, and jeering at him from the line-up. 'Oh crap,' I thought to myself; the last thing I wanted to do was piss off a local Nicaraguan in the line-up. 

The kid saw me looking at him and shot me a bashful smile. 'Oh, thank goodness,' was all I could think, 'he was a nice kid, not agro.'

We ended up sitting next to each other in the water.
"Love." he said to me, reading the word I had spray painted in 6" hot pink block letters on my board.
"Yeah." I looked at him and smiled. "¿como se dice en espanol?"
"Amor." he said.
"Amor" I repeated thoughtfully, like French.
"You are beautiful." he interrupted my thoughtful silence.
"oh! muchas gracias!" I was a little shocked and gave him a look that I imagine read like, 'what did you just say?' but he just flashed a bright smile, I guess he knew what he was saying and then realized I did not know any compliments in Spanish.  I laughed out loud and delightedly asked, "¿como te llamas?"
"Antonio.  What is your name?" he answered.
"Kim. mucho...mucho...mucho...gusta...gusto...?" Traveling to Nicaragua knowing practically zero Spanish probably wasn't the smartest thing.
"Nice to meet you." he said. "You surf good.  Where are you from?"
"Hawaii.  Ah! your English is muy bien!" I probably blushed from embarrassment, reminiscing on the fact that I had just sprayed this kid in front of all of his friends.  I tried to ask him if he studied English in school; I will save myself the humiliation and not transcribe what I said in Spanglish. "¿quanto anos?" I asked, going back to the little Spanish I picked up in Nica.
"19. and you?" he replied.
"veintiseis." you should have seen the look he gave me, I guess I look good for my age.  I had to show him on my fingers that I was saying the correct number.

That was the extent of my conversational Spanish, the rest was up to Antonio to keep the conversation going, although, I was already thoroughly impressed. 
"Are you from Oahu?" he asked.
I tripped out, "YES!" I replied a little too excitedly.  This kid was amazing, I had to look-up Nicaragua before I went on this trip not knowing where the country was actually located and this kid knew the Hawaiian islands.  I admit I felt like a dummy but really happy that this conversation was happening. (I silently reprimanded myself for thinking myself better/more knowledgeable than this kid.  Seriously, who am I to act all high maka maka.)

We chatted between waves, I ended up sitting amongst Antonio and his friends at one of the three breaks at Playa Amarillo & made conversation with another kid, Maximo.  It was funny how I ended up with the kids- that day there were three breaks and three groups of people surfing- my friends; Bro Dave, Nate, and I had walked to the north end of Playa Gigante where we were staying the night and paddled around the point to get to Amarillo.  Bro Dave & Nate ended up at the northern most break farthest from the point while I ended up at the middle break with the kids and another group of gringos from Gigante paddled around and surfed the break closest to the point.  Another boy, Robbie who was staying at the same hostel as us was in the water too but he's another story. 

"Who is your favorite surfer?" I tried, not really sure if this conversation would go anywhere because of the language barrier.
"Clay Marzo." Antonio replied.
"CLAY MARZO???!! Really? not Kelly Slater?" Ok, maybe I AM a dummy for expecting him to name the most popular surfer on earth.  I couldn't really understand his response to that, something like either he liked Kelly when he was a kid or all the kids like Kelly Slater, pretty much all I picked up from his answer was the word "ninos"
"I like Clay Marzo too!" I was overjoyed, this kid was blowing my mind.  I think Clay is an AMAZING surfer. I think he's underrated because he's a freestyle surfer who doesn't win too many contests but his style is wicked, he's so talented, innovative and creative w/ his moves.  I am a big fan of Clay.

Anyway, after this conversation the Nica boys were going in and Dave, Nate, and I had to head back soon for dinner too.  Antonio caught a wave in and I sat alone in the line-up dumbfounded replaying the entire session in my head, thinking to myself, did that just happen?  Super cool kid from Nica absolutely shocked the hell out of me.

The next morning after a spontaneous dance party and zero hours of sleep I woke the guys up to catch a boat from Gigante to Playa Colorado.  As we boarded the boat, Antonio was on it w/ three of his friends.  He smiled, maybe a little shy because his three friends were there and my three friends were there.  We didn't talk much but I kept an eye on him in the water, saw him tucking in getting crazy barrels.

When it was finally time to leave Nicaragua and return home a week later the boys and I had been discussing the board situation we were trying to minimize luggage on the return flight, I ended up selling one of the boards and wanted to leave my other board the Brice aka LOVE board in Nica.  The only kid I wanted to give it to was Antonio, even if he gave it away because it was a girly board.  Bro Dave thought it would be better to give it to a kid who didn't have a surfboard but I hadn't met any other kids and I was set on Antonio, something was telling me I should at least try to give it to him first & pushed the issue.  He left an impact in my heart and memories of Nica & the surfing community there; a nice kid who welcomed me and took the time to talk to me, a strange foreign girl surfing his home breaks.
 
Thankfully, the towns in Nicaragua are small enough where everyone kind of knows everyone, so I left my board in Bro Dave's hands and hoped he could find Antonio and if finding him was not possible that the board would go to another kid; I didn't care who it went to if it didn't make it to my little surfer friend.  About a week after returning to Hawaii Bro Dave left me a Facebook wall post saying he found Juan Antonio and gave him my board.   Apparently, Juan had been borrowing a board from someone else and now he has his own board.  I was really really happy to hear that it made to him & that he could have a board to call his own.  I'm not sure how to describe how I felt when I read the news.  It was a cool feeling, a really good feeling, & hopefully he was stoked to get the board, as stoked as I was to give it to him.  I wanted to share something with him to thank him for being a beautiful person, for being kind.  Surfboards are our paint brushes an essential instrument where 'waves are our canvas'.  Shred on.

Weirdly yours,
-K



Ps: Thanks to Matty- http://www.solomish.com/ for the words of wisdom, always. Waves indeed are our canvas. I couldn't have completed my blog w/out you.



1 comment:

  1. Dang... Now THAT is a story - love it! I love the inspiration, the delivery, the connection, the whole 9! I think we need to revisit Juan when we go back - a special trip over to Gigante or maybe we'll see him in the water at Colorado. I wonder if there are other things, including surf stuff this kid and maybe his friends could use. Damn, I think I just added another check-in bag to my already expanding baggage.

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