Day 4, 12/24/2010

Today was a typical beach day. Woke up at 7, made coffee, checked out the waves, walked to breakfast with my parents and brother, then went surfing. Still strong off-shore winds this morning, but they shifted on-shore by noon or 1 o'clock. The waves also picked up a little bit. There were some nice chest to head-high sets, but still mostly in the waist to stomach hight.

As I was walking off the beach, a guy had gotten stung on the toe by a stingray. When my brother and I were at lunch, he walked in to the restaurant to soak his foot in hot water which is really the only remedy for the stings down there. He sat down with Sam and I and we got to talking. Nick (that's his name) is from Finland but now lives in the US. He's here on vacation with his girlfriend, and today was his first time surfing. What a story he has now. He took the sting very well. We've seen 6'2" 200 pound guys crying on the beach from getting stung. Our waitress brought him out a shot of tequila and said "The water's the first part of the medicine, here's the second!" Nick was a good sport, and he and his friends thought my reaction to his sting while we were on the beach (which was a sympathetic, "Hey did you get stung by a ray? That sucks.") was hilarious. Fortunately in the 6 vacations we've been here, none of us have gotten stung. I stepped on a ray the other day though (it's unmistakable when you feel it wiggle out from under your foot) but didn't get stung.