Wednesday afternoon through Friday afternoon, I found myself in a completely foreign state in both a literal and figurative sense. The literal? I was spending my first visit to Texas. After hearing so much about it and having plenty of pals that hail from the Lone Star state, I was eager to see what the deal fully was. I was lucky to travel here for work, but more on that later. We would arrive and just from the airport drive alone, it was pretty much everything I had imagined. It loosely reminded me of a town close to home, but an even more to the extreme of rural. Tons of flat land, excruciating heat, and strange smells were aplenty.

We would be staying in Austin, in two super luxe houses that always had the AC cranking. From the grocery stores to the streets, there were a large amount of characters very different than our group of ~10 Californians. Wednesday night I reached Texas nirvana, indulging in by far the best BBQ food I’ve ever eaten. We arrived to Terry Blacks BBQ in Austin and hit dinner line ASAP, as all of us hadn’t eaten much since our 7 o clock LAX flight. The only thing holding our stomachs over was Chick-fil-a nuggets and waffle fries. I would select some green beans and corn bread, for my sides, along with a whole avocado showing my true inner Californian. When we got the the main meats, I had to have a sample platter. I was dead set on brisket, and got some jalapeno cheese sausage and a pork ribs to switch it up. The brisket required no knife, and was so juicy and smooth. I hadn’t ever tasted meat like that.

Fast forward after some Chappelle stand up post BBQ pig out, and we find the sun barely rising over the horizon as we drove in our sprinter van. We were making the commute from the city of Austin to the rural town of Waco, which happened to house one of the latest and greatest wave pools in America. To say I was stoked would be an understatement. The commute was pretty desolate and lacked any real beauty aside from a blood orange sunrise. We did happen to stop at this place Buc-ees, which had every weird nic-nac, texas gear (I think they even sold guns?), and some gas station breakfast burritos plus coffee. The coffee was so bad we chucked 5 full cups into the garbage and drove through the nearest Starbucks. In a mere 45 minutes we would arrive at our destination.

It’s a little tough to put words to what was going on all Thursday. This is where the figurative foreign state of mind comes into play mentioned earlier. Never would I think of going on a trip to Texas to surf, and not only surf but also surf fun waves with a full BYOB set up in piss warm water and one hundred degree weather. What the hell? We would have the pool from eight to eight, and had some stoked surf shop workers who sold Hurley product all summer to reap the benefits of this trip. Everyone had a smile on his or her face. From the beginner surfers learning their way around the waves, to Yadin Nichol and Brett Simpson tearing the place to bits. When it was all said and done, no one really had any words left to describe the day. If anyone wasn’t stoked, it was on him or her. I surfed through lunchtime and survived off half of a Bucceys breakfast burrito and some fruit and trail mix. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. No bad days out here in Waco. I hope to return soon.

While we didn’t get to really see Austin, I was unbothered. We had both Wednesday and Thursday night to explore the town and nightlife, but neither night materialized. Wednesday we had all woken up at 4AM and were beyond cooked after running errands all day. Thursday, after again having an early morning and at least 5 hours of surfing under our belts, no one had the excess energy to burn. Don’t worry, plenty of Lone Stars, Modelos, and White Claws were crushed from sun up to sun down. And then some. While I’ve heard so many good things about the Austin nightlife and the scene in the city of Music, I will have to wait until next time. If there is one (which I think there will be).

Friday we would wrap up the trip. After checking out of both places of stay and having a mellow morning with coffees and classic breaky foods, we would make our way to the airport. Austin has a really nice airport, complete with nice water refill stations, decent food and coffees, and even bathrooms strictly for pups. I walked past those and was kind of tripping. Texas now has a strange place in my heart after this trip. To think within 12 hours I went from eating some of the country’s best-prepared BBQ to getting tubes and a perfect punt section in the middle of nowhere. Talk about a trip. Thanks Terry Blacks, BSR, and Hurley for a couple fun days in the office.