"Dukes" Do Surfin'

Even though the "Duke Boys" reside on the west coast of Florida where the waves are mediocre at best, we thought we'd give a surfing festival and camping a try on the east coast. To begin with, we weren't sure if there was going to even be enough camping sites available since previous calls during the week proved less than enthusiastic, and our commute to the other side of the state was plagued with a horrible accident on one of the worst stretches of highway in the state causing major detour and delay. None the less, we made it to Jetty Park right next to the Cape Canaveral port terminals for many of the Disney, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival cruise ships and had a nice little camp site. Well those were our initial thoughts, but our only neighbors proved to be much more than just loud Puerto Rican nationals. Oh wait, they were loud Puerto Rican national a**holes that stayed up all night drinking (literally), had way too many tents for one camp site (3), really popular because they had several vehicles and visitors, and kept Luke and I up all night (They sounded like "Univision Telemundo" tv station left on all night).

The drive over was long, but still had fun.

Port Canaveral terminals.

Our first campsite.

Luke drinks and cooks food well... Ladies, he's single...

Statues at Ron Jon Surf Shop are bad ass.

Luke heads up, there's Kelly Slater!

We couldn't see anything standing in front of those lights, but well worth it.

Ron Jon had so much crap.

Despite getting two poor nights of sleep, we weren't about to let some loud mouths ruin our trip as we had surfing to get into, and let me tell you my friends that surfing is one tough workout. Making it out past the break is a test in of itself, let alone be good enough to ride a wave. Luke rented a larger board from (World Famous) Ron Jon Surf Shop, and let me play around on his shorter, more advanced surfboard. I know that I was an athlete in high school and I'm in somewhat decent shape, but holy shit is surfing hard. The people who are good make it look easy, Luke did a good job since he's been out a few times, but I struggled greatly and was proud that I got up for one pretty good run that no one seemed to see. One of the good things about surfing though is when you come out of the water you look absolutely shredded from the workout of almost nonstop paddling, kicking of legs like a duck, and abs on fire from trying to balance. Women seemed to be giving us quite the "eye f***" looks, but then again everyone has sunglasses on so maybe that's just my imagination.

Saw these guys, thought they were way cooler than regular seagulls.

Tide's out.

Center for our campground.

The Puerto Rican campsite.

Close encounters with wildlife.

Original campsite, not bad but the neighbors sucked.

Brothers of Surf.

As luck would have it we were fortunate enough to be able to relocate our campsite away from the Puerto Rican nightmare, and into a more secluded, quiet, and idealistic setting for camping. This enabled us to get some much needed rest from the abuse that surfing and sun can have on the human body. The following morning on our own accord, we both took walks on the beach on what was a beautiful Easter morning. Luke walked towards the loud speaker he was hearing on the beach, which was Sunday church right after sunset. As I was more thrilled with waking up to see the sunrise, and take a walk down the beach and pier. Cleaning up was a breeze and then it was back down the beach near the surfing festival that was being put on at Cocoa Beach, FL. Luke was man enough to surf pretty much all morning and into the early afternoon, but I was kind of a pussy and began to remember how exhausting surfing can be. Finally, we watched a few of the local competitors in the competition, and talked about how one day we might be cool enough to actually do some of those moves on the waves. The drive back was much more relaxing as we reflected on a lot of things from the weekend, and now we both have a better idea of how to surf and where to stay for a reasonable price. We certainly learned a great deal this weekend and there were a lot to remember, but more than anything try desperately to move camp sites anytime there are loud Spanish speaking guests staying next to you at a campground.

Sunrise, a little cloud cover.

That's better.

Easter Sunday church on the beach... Not bad.

Very few people on the beach when we got to our spot.

Luke Wertz ladies and gentlemen.

Who is that? Johnny Utah, Kelly Slater, or Matthew McConaughey?

Nope, it's Luke Wertz, now get him a cold beer for those gnarly shreds.