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No words can describe how incredible my weekend was.  But I'll try nonetheless.  Friday was Cheusok, Korean Thanksgiving.  It's not as big as TG in the States, but it is heavily marketed in stores as they break out large boxes of packaged goods including liquor, spam and oil, pears, grapes and the list goes on and on.  Our Hagwon only gave us Friday off, while the public schools all had between 2-5 days vacation.  I was a little upset about our lack of vacation, but I think I made up for it very well. 
     Friday morning started out with a bang; literally.  Bryan was knocking on my door before 9am, wanting to do a little snorkeling.  I was resistant at first, just because I was groggy, but he finally talked me into it.  We drove down to this spot in Bomok, 2 towns east where I ride my bike.  It's kind of a peninsula that reaches out towards Seopsom, one of the islands where I dive.  We geared up, and went in near the little boat launch area.  The water was stirred close to shore, but the farther we go, the clearer it became.  Visibility was 20m plus, and the snorkeling was amazing.  We were diving down to reefs, looking under overhangs and finding tons of fish.  There were more of these minnow-sized amazing neon blue fish than I'd ever seen before.  Schools and schools of sardines and other small fish continuously surrounded us and moved on.  There was so much to see, that we kept our swim going about 400-500m, all the way to the island, where we met up with Tanja and some of Big Blue 33's divers for the day.  Bryan and I walked around the island a little bit just to relax, snuck a little fresh water from the dive crew, and then headed back. 
     Seogwipo and been getting rain for a few days at this point, and Friday was one of the first sunny and crystal clear days in awhile.  I'd been to Eongtto Falls once previously, and it had not been falling.  On a hunch, I decided to head out there.  I ran into Rob, Marian and Brett, who decided to join Bryan and myself on the trip.  After a short 10 minute drive up the mountain and west, we arrived at the parking lot which was full of cars.  This had to be a good sign.  And it was.  Eongtto was falling with a good force.  We climbed around taking pictures, and even made it into the cave where we encountered a couple bats.  After we'd taken enough pictures, we scrambled over the fence, across the rocks and to the edge of the pool at the base of the falls.  It was such a nice day that we really had no choice.  We had to swim. 
The swim was incredibly relaxing, and so inviting, that a Korean man decided to jump in and join as.  We even had our own cameraman.  There was some man from a Korean website that was taking picture of foreigners enjoying Jeju.  He hit the jackpot when he ran into us and must have taken 100 pictures.  After Eongtto, I headed home, showered, cleaned up, made dinner and prepared for the next adventure;  climbing Halla-san (the tallest mountain in Korea) at 2am, to get to the top by 6, in order to watch the sunrise. 
     Hiking the volcano at night is highly frowned upon, and not allowed at all by Koreans.  I knew that a few of my friends had already made the ascent, so I figured we'd give it a try.  Justin (who was maybe even more into the idea than I was), Rob, Marian and myself, after much debate, decided to leave our building by 1:45am.  We arrived at Songpannak, the longest trail around 2:15 and started the trek.  <CLICK ON THE TINY 'READ MORE' BELOW TO CONTINUE>
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Quick picture before we embarked.
 
Training Grounds 06/03/2009
 
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I got a little dawn patrol surf session this morning.  Woke up about 4:45 (insomnia pays off sometimes) and texted Paul till he woke up.  We hit the road shortly after 5:00 and were in the water around 5:30am.  We surfed near the point at Jungmun with 3 South Africans that are great surfers and pretty nice guys.  The break we were surfing was in about 3 feet of water over top of reef and lava rock.  It's a little sketchy surfing in shallow water, knowing that if you mess up, you could have a rough landing, but it was worth it.  99% of the waves coming in were lefts, and I'm not too confident going in that direction, so it was definitely a good chance for me to improve my abilities.  I only had a couple wipe-outs, that weren't too bad.  One wave, I got close to sneaking into a mini-barrel because I had a late take-off, but the lip just threw over me quickly, and I kept going outside.   I also had one of my best lefts ever.  It ran for about 75 meters, shoulder high, making a connection onto another wave that was curling around the point and the entire time I could see through the wave to the grey/white/black coral and stone beneath.  It was really gorgeous, and I feel so fortunate to be able to surf at such a beautiful spot with a good crowd.  I watched the sunrise over the architecturally-stunning convention center, saw the haze burn off of the neighboring cliffs and Oreums (mini-volcanoes that dot the island) and surfed in crystal blue water.   Does it get much better than that?
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Jungmun before sunrise
 
Surfing 03/22/2009
 

It's about time.  I waited forever to get my new beloved blue van.  Yes, I'm now a van guy.  I purchased a used Kia (it was either a Kia, Daewoo or Hyundai) van for about $1000US so that I could tour the island, and most importantly; haul my boards to the beach.  Paul and Stephen and I headed down to Jungmun Saturday, hoping for some swell based on the wind data, but we were sorely disappointed.  The day wasn't a total bust though, we ended up exploring a little more to the west and seeing stunning Sangbang-san with a possible break in front of it.  (Picture of Sangbang-san included on this page)  I even ventured down a random road (thanks Stephen) that was about 6 inches wider than my van.  Everytime I was thinking about attempting a turnaround in a driveway, I kept being urged on.  So I continued to drive, branches scraping the side of the van, tangerines within arms-reach.  We finally poked out onto a major road, much to my relief.  So after the adventure, we ended up at Gecko's for a burger and fries to make as feel a little better after being denied surf.
Today was a different story.  We decided to give it another shot and drive down to Jungmun around 11am and pray for surf.  Upon arriving, our hearts were collectively pounding.  We'd seen white-water in the harbor, so we knew that there should be some chop building at the beach.  Paul and Stephen jumped out of the van and sprinted to the overlook.  As I parked and got out of the car, I could see them hi-fiving and jumping up and down.  It could only mean one thing; it was time to surf.  They ran back up to the Beast, and we got the boards out, put the fins on, waxed up and climbed into the cold weather gear.  Paul is from Australia, and Stephen has been living in Hawai'i for the past 10 years, so they're both a little spoiled.  The water was a realtively nice 59-60 degrees.  I wore my fullsuit with no booties or gloves and was comfortable the whole time.  Paul definitely got a little chilly towards the end of the session and Stephen didn't stop complaining about it.  I have to give Paul props; it was probably the coldest water he's ever surfed in, and he was only wearing a spring suit.  Stephen on the otherhand is orginially from New York, so he should have known what was going to be coming. 
  Anyway, the surf was running about shoulder high with occasionally larger sets.  The winds were howling offshore, and even in our semi-protected cove, the spray coming off the lip could be blinding.  At Jungmun, the waves break in pretty deep water.  It's super clear here, and I definitely couldn't make out any semblance or resemblance of the bottom.  It was a ridiculously long paddle (Assateague like...) and I actually had to get out, and go closer to the rock point and use the rip to get me out to where I could paddle back into the bowl where the waves were actually hitting.  It was a pretty decent day, although I'm so far from paddle-shape it's embarassing.  We all looked a little rusty out there, but held our own.  The first time I stood up, was like my first time all over again.  I was nervous, I was over-thinking where I was planting my feet, which way I should go on the wave, if I was popping up to early or late, and if I was going to make it.  I made it, and road it for a little bit till it just died on me and I basically walked into the water off my board.  I only got about 5 waves all day because every time a huge set came in, it seemed to be forming further and further out.   It was also pretty draining to paddle for 20 minutes to get out there, and I had little energy to actually paddle for a wave. 
All-in-all it was a good day.  Today was actually the first time I've even touched water in the Pacific (even though this is the where the Yellow Sea and the East Sea meet, it's still part of the Pacific).  It felt so good to get in there, to stand up on a few waves, make a couple turns on the slow waves, and look at the beauty of the basalt cliffs we were facing.  It was probably the most gorgeous surf spot I've ever been in, especially when the little waterfall started flowing from near the Hyatt.  There's another smaller more secluded cove about 400m West of where we surf, but I don't think it breaks as well as our beach.  It is stunning though.  I sit here now, typing, and my heart is racing all over again thinking about surfing.  I know I'll be sore tomorrow, but right now, I'm just ecstatic. 

Today was finally another one of those days that make me so happy to be on Jeju, even though I'd like to have the GOG out here for the surf sessions. 

 
 
All photos taken by Muggs are not to be copied, borrowed, printed or stolen without his permission. Any text is not to be copied or repeated without permission.