nieve en Nueva Jersey y olas en Puerto Rico

Just got off the phone with my Mom and Dad in Somers Point, NJ. And here is an updated report for ya. The snow started last night around 9:00pm. Gusting winds and heavy, wet snow has fallen for over 12 hours. My parents estimate they have about a foot of snow at their house. The generator on the street blew out at 6am this morning. My Mom, Dad and Zoe are in the kitchen with no heat or electricity. The stove is on, the oven is on and they hung a blanket up to keep the kitchen warm. They cannot grind their whole bean coffee nor use their electric coffee maker. They have NO COFFEE (seriously, we need our coffee). So they found a percolator deep in storage and my mom was on the porch smashing beans with a plastic bag and a piece of wood. So inventive! Hopefully soon they will relax, sip some coffee and talk about what they are going to do NEXT TIME to prepare better. As of right now it is the worst blizzard they have seen since living in Somers Point (well over 25 years). WOW. Lots and lots of snow. MY PARENTS LIVE ON PRINCETON ROAD SO IF YOU DO NOT HERE FROM THEM MAKE SURE THEY DIDN’T STRANGLE EACH OTHER IN THE KITCHEN. I kid. I kid. Hope all you guys up there enjoy the blizzard and BE SAFE.

Update it PR: we’re getting walloped with waves from the storm up north. It’s overhead (7ft waves) here and is building by the set. When nor’easters swing through the north it sends open ocean swell charging towards Puerto Rico (& other islands). It’s about 80 degrees and sunny (had to rub it in). I will definitely be taking some pictures of the waves. We will be sharing them with you alongside pictures of my parent’s blizzard pictures. Stay tuned!

p.s. we have a slew of jersey juice in town and we’re loving every moment of it! The days are flying by!!

frothing

zinski, tres 08

enda or irish at pools on the board i gave him

fun indicators

i'm at the house frothing to get wet. cora, john, and santi are out surfing head high perfect rincon and i'm home on baby duties. cora deserves to surf forever though cause the boys and i have went to middles yesterday and surfed from 10 a m till dark with a empanada de carne intermission. i'm stoked the boys and my girl are out gettting good ones right now. however, i just got sienna to sleep and all i can think about is bashing a lip or blasting an air. i'll be out there soon enough.

anyways i'm super stoked the fam is coming down this week. i can't wait to see everyone. hopefully, the waves are fun for everyone. i got a few spots were we should score empty good waves. keep your fingers crossed.

in the mean time i'm going to watch a surf vid and clean up the crib. good day to everyone.

quez

visitors

tres palmas...

WOW. We are so excited to have all these visitors coming down!! We have been kinda slacking on the blogs because we have been so busy (and loving every minute of it!) Between the early morning surf/beach adventures and housing all of our guests we have not gotten a chance to sit down and let it out. This past month (January) has been action packed. Between surf lessons, surf expeditions, entertaining (cooking, drinking, enjoying life) there just has not been time to sit down and write a good blog. We apologize for that. However, I love to have people down here enjoying our everyday life. So far we have had a slew of Jersey juice coming down and having a really good vacation. Correct me if I’m wrong but we have had Carter, Zinski, Jason, John, Birdlebee Jones, Santi, JB making the trip down to PR to experience the beauty of Rincon, Puerto Rico. AND we have figured out more than 13 people are going to be down here during this week. Shout outs to our future guests: Caesar, Frankie, Steph, Lily, Ava, Erin, Shawna, Foley, Bethany, Chad, Mom-Mom (quez’s madre), Boone and his girlfriend all contained in this little town. Jacques and I are finally getting to enjoy the “nightlife” of PR when Mom-Mom comes down to visit. Fun time to be ahead!! Can’t wait to get a break and blog about all these festivities. LET THE GAMES BEGIN! ENJOY THE SUNSHINE AND THE FRESH AIR. Can’t wait until my side of the family comes down to represent!!!

view from our house....

sunset from our house...

surf camp

buenes noche

hello to everyone. sorry, i haven't blogged in awhile but i've been busy with surf camp. bryan zinski flew in ten days ago, then jason and john two days later, and from there it was full surf camp mode when the waves were good. i had the boys up before dark on the good days and on the small days we surfed, snorkeled, ate, and had a steady supple of beer flowing. what else do you expect of surf camp at quez, cora, and sienna's crib?

here's some shots that zinski snapped before our first session at double overhead empty table rock.

these shots are from tres palmas. z shot these couple shots from the hill. it's amazing that we have these cause z was more amped to surf than a 15 yr old grom on his first tropical experience. he defenitaly held it down all day from surfing a slabby right to solid tres.

my homie, enda, from ireland gets the bravado award. he snapped his leash box the first session at tres and had to swim most the way in. after that we went to my house and he found an old gun on the bottom floor, spider webs, dust, and all. he cleaned it up and preceded to talk off on one of the gnarliest ones of the evening session. (except for the cleanup we took on the head). the thing was a mutant just thick, huge, and steep. the young irish lad didn't hesitate, he simply turned began paddling and took off on a solid twenty footer (face that is, ten foot back). when i saw him paddling i said outloud, "he's f ing nuts'', but he made the drop. he also went over the falls on a giant set earlier in the day that we tried to catch together.

the place is scary but one of the most beautiful places on earth. the water color, fifty foot depth, monster swells, and long paddle all add charachter to the mysto outer reef. i can't wait to surf it again.

quez

TRiTS!!!!!!

As we were finishing our delicious dinner Jacques made us we started talking about desserts. Which ALWAYS follow a great meal. We have some cookies-n-cream in our freezer...that will do. Our Irish lad Enda was saying he didn't have ice cream in a long time. And I asked him if they have chipwiches in Ireland. He replied "chickwiches?" nooooo "chip-switch?", noooo CHIPWICH! Two delicious chocolate chip cookies with a thick layer of creamy vanilla ice cream in between, not to be out done by the chocolate chip layer on the perimeter of the ice cream. Delicious. We have not found them in Puerto Rico, yet! I will definitely be on the prowl...gonna be doggin the ice cream man TOMORROW. Anyhoo, Enda is heading out to Costa Rica in March and we are trying to get him prepped for moving out there. (Jacques and I are "seasoned vets"). First thing you do when you get off the plane...go into a store and bee-line it to the freezer section and purchase a TRIT. It shits on the chipwich..trits eat chipwiches for breakfast. Ok, let me calm myself down because my heart rate goes up over these things. Details: the trit is similar to the chipwich but more like a delicious distant cousin. The cookies are a cross between a graham cracker and a sugar cookie. The ice cream is more of a sweet, sweet custard. And the three (or four) dollops of rich, gooey chocolate on the bottom are the icing on the cake. They are $1 (when Jacques and I were there) and I could eat them everyday, all day for the rest of my life. I would be 500lbs, but my big fat smile would never leave my face. Yum. I wish they had trits in Puerto Rico. Enda, eat as many trits as you can because you will miss them if and when you leave Costa.

did you know...

Baby powder removes sand ridiculously good?! Sprinkle a little on ANYplace you want the sand to be gone. I guess cause it's more fine than the sand... it buffs it right off. Quez and I use it everyday on Sienna. BONUS! It takes the moisture away and smells fresh too. Meaning less diaper rash and a happy, clean baby. That makes me happy :)

middles: isabela, PR

we took a little road trip to get outta Rincon for a day. Me, Jacques, Brian (our guest), Enda and Sienna all took the 45 minute drive to Isabela and the boys surfed while Sienna and I played on the beach. Waves were small but the boys were out solo until about 6 other people paddled out. My beach baby loved playing with her coconut and checking out the small planes flying directly over our heads. If I wanted to throw a coconut at them I could of, they were SO CLOSE. At the end of our day at the beach Jacques excitedly goes "what the hell...?" pointing into the water "what is that in the inside?" "it's a pufferfish!!!!!" and books it to this dead pufferfish, completely puffed out tumbling onto the shoreline. It was hilarious! It was bigger than a volleyball and looked really angry, eventhough it was dead. I wonder...did it die pissed off? Or did it die then expand? Something to think about...meanwhile, enjoy these photos!!