Charlie´s point.

Hello hello hello. Its Monday morning. The swell is going down now. My body is aching. I got a massage yesterday by a local dude who offers this kind of service to unknowing people with back pains. Ju also got one a few days ago and had told me it was all dandy, so if it wasn´t for me – and it wasn´t – then thats gotta have to do with some gender preference. Who would blame him. Bless--- and anyway i am hurting because of something much more significant than a stupid massage.

After literally weeks of waiting for good surf, we were blessed by a weekend of sheer bliss at the legendary Charlies Point. I might have mentioned. Coppola and all. Its a wave that - if a.) "pushing high-tide" (about to reach peak waterlevel) coincides with b.) medium sized swell from some far away taifun and c.) offshore wind - breaks on the sandy banks of the big slow river that meets the sea about three kilometers down the beach from our house. The river carries sand and pebbles etc. And when it meets the surf, it just sheds it all by the side of the mouth, leaving a bank that reaches out into the sea, thus creating a natural obstacle for the waves that would otherwise just break in big wide rolls onto the beach. It makes the rolls roll. You know? It looks like this:

... the doode thats about to get the wave on his head is Jukka, half Philippino, half Finnish (!!!), who, with some friends, has a house (read: "amazing wood, bamboo and palmleave built, spacious chillout platform without walls, on two levels, pillows, hammocks, overlooking the point" (read:"a place to spend some hours of relaxation between the surfing, that makes you wonder about your worthyness in the face of the creator") there. They also have an arsenal of longboards waiting in a nearby shack (read: "rich kids", ... but so are Ju and I here..). So, to cut a long story short, we had a big weekend (even though the photos are not exactly proof, i admit), and both Ju and I had a revelation: Mine was that using a longboard is maybe more fun even than i have had with my shortie so far, and for Julia´s, i should start a new sentence. Julia stunned the world on Sunday the 22.8., at about 16:20 pm. Or if not the world, than at least all the four or so people that were able to witness what she did. I actually had the best angle on the wonder, as i was just paddling back out (after my 200^thst ride, or something). The sets at charlies break quite predictably from right to left, so the take-off point for the average "big" sets is quite defined, and thats obviously where the crowd (Sunday crowded day with eight in the water) is. Ju was not too up for competing with the better surfers (Sunday international day, throughout the day there were people from Hawaii, California and Australia, apart from the locals and Ju and myself, and our constantly confusing mix of national identities..) so she kept kind of on the outer side of the peak doing that Ju-thing (enjoying the view, recite poetry, bite her toenails, anything but watch the incoming surf), only to scoop the wave of the day, and be in the right position for it, too! It is a scary sight sometimes to see her drop into the medium sized waves at the beach in front of our house in Baler, beacuse she still doesnt quite have the paddle power that she might need to catch the wave early and really control her ride, ..its more like, she paddles, she keeps paddling but still the wave almost passes underneath her, and then she reaches the top, and then the wave is starting to break, and then she either goes out over the back beacuse there is no more drive left in her arms, or she vertically drops into the breaking wave kamikaze style, grinning from ear to ear, narrowly esacping the immediately collapsing wall behind her. Thats pretty much how she did it on Sunday as well, only this time the wave was of serious size (read: "seriously getting ground onto the shallow bank of pebbles") and of stunningly georgeous perfection. So the image i have guarded in my minds eye is: of my girl, radically late-dropping into a big sucking wall of clear sunlit water, carving her elbow into it, feet in the air, shooting out behind her a spiral shaped wake, up into the roof of the wave, lying in perfect position, just in front of the oval barrel (that sacred space, moodily illuminated through the brutally revolving masses of water with green liquid light, of course.... as usual....) smiling an unearthy smile, suspended in time, just picking up more and more speed and staying in the wall,.. only to then top it off by a clean escape from the pebble-washdown, over the lip, out, away, grinning...

Hmm. Those who know her know the smile i was talking about..

Thats it from the surfside of things for today. They say a new taifun is coming this way from the south, heading for Japan.. I think i can feel it right now, the offshore wind has really picked up.... that might mean we dont get a lot of waves from it..but lets see. Ah. I hope i didnt bore you today, ..dont feel to inspired... anyway, I am out, here are some pictures from the premiere of the first edit of the BUHAY NA TUBIG-movie, also last week, during the town fiesta. That should be dealt with in more depth, ..next time. Much love to yall, hope yall good, hope the world is okay, too, we havent had Newspaper of TV for weeks and weeks. Apart from wars and parties, and other general civilisation, anythig happening on the other side of the mountains? Imagine we come back to our normal lifes and none of it is left. Hmmm... well, it would be nice if you could tell us if thats the case, .... we could start a farm together.....rice maybe... or ..errr, maybe... carrots? .. or ... waterbuffalo .... yeah thats cool.... or....hmmmm... er....

M