For me and Bathsheba¿biblically named beauty of a beach town on Barbados's wild Atlantic coast¿it was love at first sight. A handful of homes hidden in the trees, a few modest guesthouses, a couple of bars, a little park of palms and grass, a ragged wind-chewed coast cupping a crescent of sand. Then sea to infinity. It was the world as I might've drawn it in my loose-leaf notebook back in high school when I was a surf-crazed kid with skinny legs and sun-bleached blond hair.

I'm writing this from the patio of Bajan Surf Bungalow, sipping a local Banks beer, still mesmerized by the sight of Soup Bowl, Barbados's most famous surf break. From here it's a cat's-eye swirl of blue and white¿dark blue swells, white foam and frothy rip current, all revolving with a point break's elemental symmetry. Framing the break are Bathsheba's colossal Lord of the Rings rock formations, green-topped and mushroom-shaped, more extravagant than anything I ever sketched.

For more, pick up the April 2004 issue of ISLANDS Magazine.