Rip Curl Pro Somewhere in Mexico – III

The place where I was staying was amazing! At
first, I stayed in Las Brisas, the seed hotel for the event. It was an
amazing labyrinth of small villages Estrellas, Mar, Montanas. To get to
your room, restaurant, beach, swimming pool or reception you had to
take a shuttle through the jungle of wild pink, red or yellow flowers
and birds of various sizes and colors.

The place where I was staying was amazing! At
first, I stayed in Las Brisas, the seed hotel for the event. It was an
amazing labyrinth of small villages Estrellas, Mar, Montanas. To get to
your room, restaurant, beach, swimming pool or reception you had to
take a shuttle through the jungle of wild pink, red or yellow flowers
and birds of various sizes and colors.

Great romantic place. Not practical for people in a rush though. Lucky
Rip Curl decided to move me and Astrid to Barcelo what ended up as "The
Place". I had such a great time over there. Even though all we wanted
every day when we got back from the site was a bed and a good night
sleep, the food and drinks that were waiting for us kept us awake and
full of new energy for while. Another 5 stars hotel, but here it was
all included – tasty Mexican and international buffet style breakfast,
lunch, dinner all day (OK, there was nothing from 6 to 7 pm and from
midnight to 7 am) and all alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks till
midnight. And because they knew that we have to leave the hotel early
in the morning every day, they even let me come to the restaurant every
morning at 6 am and pick some fruits, bread, and pastry to go. This is
what you need if you are working (surfing) all day long. It's so great
when you don't have to worry about where, when and what you're going to
have for dinner when you get back to the hotel room at 10 pm, exhausted
from the day. There were always quesadillas, tacos, guacamole, shrimp
soup, rice, potato, pasta, fifty different sauces and sixty salads
waiting for you. Not to mention beers, vine or agua de Jamaica with
chocolate cake or fruit salad. Just close your eyes and pamper
yourself… Late night swimming at the pool, drinking margaritas and pina
coladas with your new friends, watching world cup with a cold beer in
your hand all the time of the game. Or have your champagne after you
won the contest. Barcelo is specially convenient for families with or babies like Parko and CJ Hobgood.

As the waves were so good on the first few days, the contest that
started on Tuesday was over on Friday the same week. They did the
fourth round, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of Rip curl pro
search in one day. Perfect waves, perfect surf, what could you wish
more? Yes, a party. It so happened that no one remembered what my name
was (except the ones who heard about Bob Marley's song Kaya), so I was
introducing to everyone Miss Kaya Papaya. It was a joke on Ana Banana.
And easy to remember. The funniest thing was that we had the final
party in a discotheque Papaya's. All tired from a week work out on the
sun that was even stronger because of the brightest sand. And we didn't
have any real shade, no palapas with hammock. No real Mexican siesta
paradise. So, we got back, eat our dinner, I haven't even finished my
pasta with shrimps and avocado salad, when Andy already opened the
first bottle of champagne in the lobby. All I could hear was "Bravo,
Andy! Congratulations!". Just a glass of champagne, two beers or
margaritas and we were all getting to catch a ride to Papaya's. Wow,
have u ever seen a surf movie drunk? No? If u have a week stomach,
don't do it. Australian waves closing out on Mick's head in his Me,
myself and Eugenie seemed like whirlpool taking us somewhere deep into
the blue. It seemed like eternity. We all jumped into the ocean, swam
slowly. I don't remember even one sequence of a movie, just waves,
waves, waves… awesome. Luckily the movie was short and music woke us up
from hallucinated underwater world. Time to dance. We were all spinning
around the dance floor and bar, dancing on raggaeton, disco from
80ties, house, techno, hip-hop, .. whatever. Sol (beer) girls were
dancing in their yellow bikinis up on a stage, all the girls (including
Andy and Bede's girlfriends) were dancing like no one is watching, like
there is no tomorrow. Some of them were even twisting and turning on a
bar. Don't know how they managed to do that with there perfect
supermodel bodies hardly able to walk not dance!). Sharp was rocking
with his big Mexican sombrero, a birthday present oh his b-day. Even
the elderly people, judges, ASP workers, photographers, camera guys,
Rip curl employees and all the volunteers (including this crazy hippy
chicks from Germany that felt better on the sandy beach than under the
roof) were taking pleasure in this fiesta. People were drinking all
kind of cocktails (have u ever had a deep purple, green and white
cocktail? Pooh! Don't ask about the ingredients.), eating snacks,
fooling around, talking, stumbling, and yelling at each other. Full of
demonic energy as if this is the last night as if something wants to
rip us to pieces. Some girls were throwing themselves at those hot
guys; others were engaging into some kind of serious conversation, not
to mention those one's who were trying to dance but ended up on the
floor. Not to worry, boys were more then happy to help. All kinds of
music, mixed with all kind of lights, voices, languages, moves. A
rainbow of people enjoying the moment. It was a blast. No one knows how
the night ended, no one knows how he got back, and all we know about is
the next day's hangover. Even if u were not drinking! Most of the
surfers have a healthy lifestyle and even if they drink beers or
cocktails, they carry a big bottle of water with them in the bar to
lower the level of alcohol in their blood. Smart guys and all of them
showed up. Well, most of them. While Andy did, Kelly didn't come. And
when I asked him why, he said… ah, I went to bed at nine, I was
exhausted. Hm, maybe he is just getting old. Or…I can kind of
understand, because the next time we went out and I was explaining to
everyone how Monday night is the night to go out in Puerto Escondido
and I thought no one will go out, we ended up in the middle of
interview for sixty-five different TV stations. Terrible. Cameras
everywhere. I don't know a person who would want that, especially
listening about all those lies the next day. Like being in a damn
showbiz not a sports world. For sure surfers are good looking,
they have some muscles to show and some of them are pretty good paid
for surfing (and they get to travel a lot!), but come on. They just
want to have fun, doing what they like to do – surf. Dance on the
waves, dance on the dance floor. Dancing. Spirit. The unconscious.

Kind of hard to wake up to a new day, new life.. even more difficult
to come home to back here in Slovenia, where I am wasting my days in an
air-conditioned office, staring at the computer screen and waiting for
that Friday afternoon to spend two days in a more natural environment.

Wish I could turn back time.