By Daisy Morales, Staff Writer
Imagine being invited to a warm tropical paradise where your only worries are online school and surfing. Not everyone can be so lucky, but sophomore Chloe Weinert, could not turn this invite down.
Early February, Weinert’s friend Bri Young, who runs a surf camp in Puerto Rico, invited her to come visit and of course Weinert gladly accepted.
“I had never been to Puerto Rico and to be with my friends was awesome,” Weinert said.
Weinert explained that it was very unplanned and as a result, she flew by herself for the first time.
“I flew to Puerto Rico without my mom, which was kind of scary, but I got it done,” Weinert said.
However, before setting off for Puerto Rico, Weinert’s trip had already started as she was already in Florida for the USA Prime surfing competition.
“It was a USA Prime, so they were priority heats instead of regular amateur competition heats and I had a blast,” Weinert added. “I didn´t advance to the finals, but I’m excited for the next USA Prime, so maybe I can have a better result.”
Throughout her week-long trip to both Florida and Puerto Rico, Weinert had many opportunities to surf. Getting pushed out of her comfort zone to surf larger waves on these trips, Weinert says helped her to improve her surfing skills.
However, Weinert’s trip wouldn’t be complete without some fun adventures. From surfing and eating to paradise views and coconut picking, and even animal naming, Weinert couldn’t have had a better adventure.
“I didn’t realize how cool it was gonna be, there’s a bunch of food trucks and all the food trucks are so good,” Weinert said.
With so many food trucks, Weinert discovered a new favorite dish of hers called poke.
“Poke it´s pronounced poke-ay and I love it,” Weinert said. “It’s raw tuna usually with a rice base, spicy sauce, and veggies on top.”
Weinert even recalls that her friends made her muscle and clam pasta, and that it was delicious. While the food was delicious, it isn’t the only thing Weinert says was awesome about the trip.
“We saw some cool sunsets and the waves were really fun the entire time I was there,” Weinert said.
Weinert added that a special rainbow came out while she and her friends paddled out.
“There was a giant rainbow that came out, it was the most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen,” Weinert said. “It was only there for like two minutes, but it was the most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen. It was crazy.”
Weinert also had an abundance of coconuts on her tropical getaway.
“We went to a somewhat secluded beach and found a bunch of trees full of coconuts,” Weinert said. “So we picked them and went back to our houses and drained the coconut water, peeled out the meat, and it was so good.”
On top of the food, surfing, and views, the trip also included exotic animals that can’t be found at home.
“I met a lot of iguanas and I named them all. We went diving and we saw a turtle named Julia. I saw a cow and I named it, Tabitha,” Weinert said with a laugh. “And there was a horse that I tried to pet and it tried to bite me. It was really funny.”
Although her trip was fun Weinert eventually returned home. Weinert says it was fun and that she is thankful for her friends that invited her, she added that she will truly consider this a memorable experience.
“I love the OBX though, I don’t think I would ever want to move from here,” Weinert said. “But I do love traveling, especially with friends, they’ll show me a lot of places.”
Sophomore Daisy Morales Bravo can be reached at 23moralesda04@daretolearn.org.
