August 12th, 2010

Somewhere in Nicaragua

Jeremy, “Cali bud”, droppin’ in on a steep one.  Grab that rail and hold on buddy, you’re about to get slotted!

This is Jimmy “fitness” from VA.  Another one of the guys that are here for our community development project.  Jimmy is one of the older dudes in his crew and he surfs more than all the kids!

That’s Frankie from Cali, cruising down a glassy left.  I didn’t get any shots of him yesterday (he got shacked too) so I made sure to get him a little coverage today.

Those are my boss’, Pancho and Queso Sanchez.  They are super nice people and I’m stoked to be staying here with them.  They’ve showed me an awesome time, and some sick waves!  Thanks again guys.

Here’s Kim, another Californian.  Kim and his wife, Tammy, live on this beach for about half the year.  You can bet he’s seen some epic waves!

Check out this lone right.  It looks so glassy and perfect.

It was so hot out today that this guy just couldn’t wear his trunks anymore.  Free as can be.  His motto is, “surf naked”!

This is Will Jr. holdin’ it down for Virginia Beach!  After this surf session, Will and crew were headed up north to finish up the baseball field and then get a game going with the local team from Astillero.

Here’s some of the guys who are donating their time and hard work. From left to right, Jimmy fitness, Marc, and Shep.

Alex!  The man knows what’s up.  California mon sittin’ in the shade!  Nice tube maje!

After a morning surf, we headed out for the final day of our community service project.  Today we put the final touches on the backstop, cleaned up and challenged the local team to a Baseball game!  Not all of us are baseball players, but luckily we had a few ringers on our team.  Here’s the pregame pep talk.

I think the coolest thing was watching everybody play ball together.  Our side was overloaded with pitchers so we ended up splitting up the sides and sharing players with the local team.  It’s hard to describe the feeling I got watching two groups from such opposite backgrounds and languages find common ground through baseball.  I think everybody came away from the game with a respect for their fellow man.  Here’s a great shot of Jack pitching against Andy.  Jack had previously shelled one of Andy’s fastballs for a long homer and Andy was determined to get it back.  He ended up throwing his bat at the third baseman on this one.

It was an Amazing afternoon and the whole town of Astillero came out to support the project.  I’m not kidding about this – we had a baseball game a soccer game and a marching band!  Here you can see the kids, checking out the game through the fencing of the new backstop (which worked great by the way).

Not to be shown up by the gringos, the Astillero team brought out the big guns – this is Juan Carlos who throws close to 90mph.  Yes, he pitched barefoot!

And this is Jimmy, who not only showed up to help out during the last week, he also pitched, caught and hit…barefoot!  After seeing the heart and potential in the local players, the group of students offered to box up and send down a bunch of baseball gear.  Awesome guys!  I know it will get put to good use!

Amistad means friendship in Spanish and we certainly made a lot of friends this week.  The whole project was a success and we want to give a huge thanks to everybody involved including:  The Cape Henry High School from VA Bch, Willy, Jimmy and Marc, Reggie Suarez, Junior and the community of Astillero and Jeff Soderlind and Heather Tittle for organizing the project.  That was awesome guys!