Last month my brother Chris and I went to Costa Rica for a photo-trip with Eastern Surf Magazine. ESM wanted to take a group of Northeast up and coming groms to Playa Grande to get photo's for a story in an up-coming issue. My brother and I along with 15 other kids from NY and NJ were stoked for a 10-day trip lead by Matt Keenan and Quiksilver team manager Matt Kechle.
We Arrived to Costa and after 3 hours on the sketchiest dirt roads we got to the infamous Playa Grande Inn owned by pro surfer John Logan. We started shooting photo's right away and did this everyday the whole trip. The waves werent amazing, but perfect for what we had to get done; get as many photo's as possible. We had the resource's to do just that with lens masters Mike Nelson and Rich Messerole from ESM.
I could write about each session but that wouldn't be fun to read because every session was basically the same: Huge air's and big turns by the whole crew, instead i'll talk about the things we did when we weren't surfing. Things like running with bulls, going to the local fiesta's, hanging out at the bars in Tamarindo playing fussball with random Rasta's, eating Trits (these ice cream bars that are soo amazing), trying to catch iguana's, playing ping-pong at the hotel, throwing groms in the pool and ductaping them to poles, listening to Kech (Matt Kechle) make the Funniest jokes, eating carne-asada, watching Costa Rican's beat eachother up, making freinds with everyone we meet, taking photos with our little digital cameras for myspace, trying to figure out how many calores (Costa Rican currency) in a dollar, getting ripped off by local bakery's and im pretty sure on the way to the airport we saw a dead guy on the side of the street. We didn't have that much time spent out of the water but when we did we wasted no time and went crazy in Tamarindo. Some things i probably shouldn't write down and alot of other things you had to be there for.
I've been to alot of sic destinations over the past year and had alot of great trips, but nothing topped my trip to costa this year. We had the rawest crew and everyone got along. The surfing level was so high when our crew paddled out and sitting in the water waiting between sets the whole crew made me feel pround to be from the Northeast.
The fun we had and the memories we made won't be forgotten. I just can't wait to see where we go next year.
For more photos and stories from the trip be sure to check out the next issue of ESM when it comes out.
