SAN DIEGO SESSION

In December I hit up San Diego and met up with some good friends to do some surfing and eat some good food. Met up and surfed with my good friend Dave Rampton. Here are a few pics of the sunset surf session and beautiful sunset in La Jolla.

Love that I have great parents who allow me to stay at their place in SD and get my my monthly surfing fix.

MiCa

Check them out they are dope http://micamove.com

AZ ADVENTURES LATELY

So it's been about two months since I have been here in AZ. Starting to get acclimated and starting to go looking for adventures. This weekend turned out to be a good one. Started off on Friday night with some good friends going out to Schnepf Farms. Cool place and fall carnival atmosphere. IT was nice to have some cooler weather and be out in the corn fields and with friends. Really started feel like fall around here. Ended up at The Devil's Pizza Factory near ASU around 11:30 PM and had one of the largest most delicious pizzas. Totally taken by surprise when that thing showed up. Had no idea that a 24" pizza was that large. Definitely a great late night pizza spot that I will be frequenting again.

24" The Devil's Five

The next day my buddy Dave and I headed off to Florence Junction to do some rock crawling in his Jeep. I had no idea that a Jeep could do the things we did. We went over some incredible stuff. And blazed some cool trails that led to some really cool views of the desert.

Then after blazing through the desert, I grabbed some dinner at Joe's Farm Grill. That place is mucho good. I had an Ahi Tuna Sandwich, onion rings, and a super good pumpkin pie milkshake. So stinking good. After that, got in to costume as Clark Kent for Halloween and hit a few parties. Good times all around. Arizona is great!

APATHY AND GOALS

Last year I achieved my Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the amazing program at USC. After that, I went on to specialize in orthopedics, again at USC. Then, I went to surf incredible waves in Nicaragua. #humblebrag I don't say this to toot my own horn or to brag, but merely to set up what I would like to write about and some of the things I have been thinking about the last week. In addition, circumstances were such that I had to leave

THIS

FOR THIS

For the last 4 years I have called southern California home. I fell in love with LA, with the weather, the sights, smells, the beach, my ward, and surfing. I have constantly been working towards something for pretty much my entire life. It was first finish high school, next was serve a mission, after that was get a bachelor's and get in to grad school, moving on was finish grad school, do a residency, and finally get a job. I was constantly moving forward and focused on something that was obtainable. I since have completed all of those things, but during the course of that journey I found myself needing to move, away from the life I had cultivated and loved in southern CA, back to Mesa, AZ. A place where I really haven't lived for the better part of 11 years.

I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands and no real urgency or pressing things to accomplish. I had accomplished everything up to this point that I had set out to do. I have thought about what I wanted to accomplish professionally but in the broad strokes and I am just starting a career so I hadn't really thought about much else other than landing a job that was going to pay me close to what I wanted. Check. I started to realize that I was watching a lot more movies, sleeping a lot more, losing motivation, and starting to slip in to apathy. I felt completely lost, like a ship on the water rudderless, being tossed to and fro. I had always wanted more time to do what I wanted to do, but when I finally got it I didn't know what to do with it. Perhaps the biggest realization was that I wasn't happy.

I've been thinking a lot about what I needed in my life and after I got over the self pity I decided that I need goals and direction. This weekend helped me see that. I had the opportunity to watch my cousin achieve her goal of getting her 3rd degree black belt in Kajukenbo, I worked on a building a fence with my bro-in-law and in the process learned how to weld.

I thought how amazing it would be to accomplish what she had, not to mention the skill I would have. I was happy and felt a sense of satisfaction and purpose after working with my bro-in-law. There are still so many things that I need to work on about myself, books to read, skills to learn, and life to enjoy. The possibilities are endless. There is so much good in the world to accomplish; so much service to give. Today in sacrament meeting and in sunday school I made a plan and set some goals. Made a schedule for the week and ways to accomplish those goals. Today I felt happier than I have in a long time. I feel like there is a direction to my life again, and I am excited to for the adventure I am about to embark on.

NICARAGUA 2011

I recently completed my residency in orthopedics and figured that some serious vacation time was needed since the last long vacation I took was about 4 years ago, I figured I was due. So when Dave "Rumpie" Rampton proposed that we do a surf trip to Nicaragua I was in. When the time had come only three brave souls had committed to make the journey in search of waves and adventure.

ME

DAVE RAMPTON

AND

DAVE JACKSON

We all had agreed to meet up in Managua, Nicaragua because we all were coming from other places: Jackson - San Francisco, Rampton - Belize, and I was coming from Panama. I had an 18.5 hour layover in Panama City, Panama so I decided to go out and see the city and some of the nightlife. It was a lot of fun. Met up with some other American and his Colombian wife and we hung out at this Disco and danced. Lots of fun. Great people. Great city. The next day I boarded a plane leaving Panama City behind to meet up with Jackson, get the rental car, and wait for Rampton to get in later that night.

PANAMA CITY FROM THE PLANE

(Left to Right) ME, PASSPORT, ST. CHRISTOPHER (patron saint of surfers), PANAMA

So Rampton finally arrived, and the next day we hit up church at the Ciudad Jardin Ward in Managua. We weren't sure if we were going to get lost so we left really early. We arrived about an hour early only to find Eric this little deacon sitting out front waiting for the bishop. He had been baptized a few months ago as the only member of his family. He was there an hour early to assist the bishop in getting the building ready and pass the sacrament. You could tell how excited he was to hold the priesthood of God and to be united with the saints. Church was such a great experience. So much love was there and the Spirit abounded. The members in Nicaragua are stalwart and extremely welcoming.

After church it was off to Popoyo to get checked into the house and rest up for the big week of surfing ahead of us. There were so many adventures, stories, inside jokes, and experiences that made this trip an amazing memory for a lifetime. We surfed big waves in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Schedule consisted of wake up at 5:15 and surf, nap, eat...repeat

3-4x/day. I will add a few pictures but the week was too long and too much happened to write the whole story down here. But here are some photos. Enjoy.

DRIVE FROM MANAGUA

PICKUP BASEBALL IN THE JUNGLE

RIVER THAT SWEPT A CAR AWAY EARLIER (WE CHARGED IT)

CASA DE SURFIAR

PRE-GAME

PERFECT WAVES

ALL TUCKERED OUT AFTER A SESSION

MONKEY ON A LEASH

DOWNTOWN POPOYO

BOAT TRIP TO DAIRY QUEEN'S (SURF SPOT)

DRANK A LOT OF FRESCA

CRAB WRANGLING ON THE FRONT PORCH

ICE CREAM IN SAN JUAN DEL SUR

BEST FISH TACOS IN NICARAGUA

TRECKING THROUGH THE JUNGLE IN SEARCH OF WAVES

POPOYO SUNSET EVERY NIGHT

This was definitely a fun and amazing trip. Nothing in southern California will ever be too big again. I will be returning to Nicaragua to surf again. EPIC!

SAN ONOFRE.....GOOD FRIENDS, GOOD FOOD, GOOD SURF

This past weekend was a great one. I am really really close to being done with my residency and in a push to get ready for Nicaragua and to spend some much needed R&R with some of my favorite people in LA before I have to leave we loaded up and made the trek down to San Onofre in north San Diego County for a weekend of surfing. I met up with my good friend Leanne "Northwestern Girls Do It Better" Burnett.

We then headed down to Huntington to pick up the ever lovely Lisa Ward.

and two really good friends Corey "Kamikaze" Seibart and

Jeff "Big Kahuna" Hick, M.D.

Where we had dinner and picked up last minute supplies for our journey and camping trip. We ate and then got back on the road to meet up with Sam "What Would Bear Grylls Do" Osborn and Dave "I'll do any thing for Left" Rampton

Needless to say it was a great weekend. The waves were pumping, there was good food, good company, and a few sing alongs. I'm pretty sure we could do a great recording of "The Next To Be With You". Overall a great weekend. I really am going to miss LA and these amazing people. You really can't beat this place.