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Crazy things happened around 4pm on Day 3 in San Juan. If surfing was a religion, then the Roxy girls have strong conviction. Here’s why:

The girls drove out in the rental car 15 miles up the coast into a town where there had been a drive by shooting 5 minutes earlier. The shooter went loco on his machine gun. All we heard was that there was one casualty and two others wounded.

Thankfully, there was another surf spot in Old San Juan, which meant turning around and driving there. No prob, right?

WRONG!

Apparently this beach had a 250 pound dead guy on it!
3 security guards watched over the body as babies frolicked in the water and local sunbathers kept partying on. Either Puerto Ricans take their Saturdays seriously or dead people are not good enough of a reason to pack your towels and go home.

That said, the girls were damned if they didn’t get their surf on. So they paddled out and caught some waves.

At least I had some good food on this trip, yes, I said GOOD FOOD from Pamela’s Restaurant.

Despite drive by shootings and dead people, Jen Smith was able to find peace at the end of the day.

jen shreds here
aguadilla, puerto rico

Going on a road trip in Puerto Rico without GPS is a shit throwing hellride. We rented a car in San Juan and headed 2 hours west to a beach town called, Isabela where we heard the surf was good.

Jennifer Smith tightening the straps that hold the boards in place.

After a few missed turns into the wrong direction we stumbled upon, Casa de Playa Surf & Snack in Aguadilla. The owner was nice enough to rent me a long board and give us a hand-drawn map of a hidden surfspot called, Surfer’s Beach.

not exactly your typical vast beach with half naked sluts, rather a simple barebones beach occupied by a pack of white scavenger dogs, red ants, rocks and reef.

A Happy Camper (pre surf)

A Happy Camper (post surf)

Unfortunately, as fate would have it, I stepped on this…

Heliocidaris Erythrogramma - A sea urchin.

Really felt good going straight into my big toe.

Stephanie is performing her own sea urchin surgery here.

Serenity at last! (Even though my toe is numb at this point)

Jennifer adjusts the boards so that we dont kill ourselves or anyone else on our way back to San Juan.

FYI: There is no lodging in Isabela, Aguadilla and Rincon on the Fourth of July.
We learned that the hard way on empty stomachs.

this is what our roxy pro surfer, jennifer smith thinks of
puerto rico

Q+A with Jennifer Smith, a roxy pro surfer who is about to head out to France to compete for World Championship July 11th-16th. We just flew from NYC to San Juan Puerto Rico to hang out for the Fourth of July.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
San Diego, California

WHERE DO YOU SURF THERE?
Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Oceanside

HOW COME YOU’RE SO DARK?
I’m lucky I have a little complexion- I am a quarter Mexican.

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO PUT ON MY FACE WHEN IM SURFING, ANY TIPS?
I use shiseido sun protection stick foundation SPF 35 on my face, for my body Coppertone Sport - SPF 15 and 30 goes on good and doesnt run and Soleo Organics all natural sunscreen which has no chemical UV absorbers or titanium dioxide.

HOW DID YOU GET SPONSERED BY ROXY?
Danielle Beck, the Director of Sports Marketing and Entertainment saw me at the Roxy Jam 2006 and asked if I wanted to ride for them. She thought I’d make Roxy look good.

WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION FOR WINNING THE WORLD TITLE?
So that I can go back to the ASP banquet and give a better speech than i did last year. Also so that I dont break my winning streak. Last year I got up on stage, all dressed up with every pro surfer in the audience and I just froze.

WHAT IS THE ASP BANQUET?
When they present all the world title winners, every pro surfer on tour goes and everyone is presented with their awards and trophies. All the amateur, long board and short board world champions. Its a big deal. And I gave the weakest speach ever. I was like, “aw thanks…uh..uh…see ya.”

WHAT TITLES HAVE YOU WON?
US National Longboard Title, The World Title, The Roxy Jam in Phillip Island, Austrailia and The Noosa Festival.

ANY RUMORS YOU’D LIKE TO CLEAR UP?
there was a rumor that i was pregnant back in may. that is not true.

WHO STARTED IT?
i think this old guy made it up. i didnt show up to his contest and i think someone said, “oh jen is pregnant”

HAVE YOU EVER GOOGLED YOURSELF?
Yes.

WHAT COMES UP?
Pictures from surfing contests and articles about surfing contests

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN HIT BY A TURD IN THE LINEUP?
No.

DO YOU USE THE OCEAN AS A TOILET?
We all pee in our wetsuits but nobody poops in the water unless youre a dog.

DO YOU KNOW ANY CELEBRITIES THAT SURF?
Yes this guy named Scott who surfs in Malibu but i dont know his last name. I wish i knew celebrity surfers so i could hang out with them and go surfing.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A “PRO-HO?”
A girl that goes to events to hook up with pro surfers and skaters. Im sure they have them in Basketball too.

HOW MUCH DO YOU TRAVEL?
This year i spent about 50% of my time spent on the road. I travel between Jan, Feb, March and then July, August, November and December.

IS THAT WHY YOUR SUITCASE IS AN EXPLOSION?
I carry three weeks of life in there one at a time. Its my entire wardrobe of Roxy clothes, Tasco binoculars, my Blockbuster card and Java Jones coffee house card- (They make the best chai.) I have all my bathing suits in a plastic blanket cover bag. I have pounds of FCS fins. I had to swap out my big bottles of shampoo for smaller Paul Mitchell ones. Sometimes I freak out and hate myself for being such a slob. Living out of a bag.