One more travel story;

Getting back to Montréal from Mexico, I was walking out of the airport alone as Jes and Steph had gone to get a cab home.

Linda was coming to pick me up so I walked over to the “arrivals car pickup zone” but she wasn’t there yet; so I stood around with my bags and surfboard under the awning waiting for her to show.

They have these “traffic cops” there who are supposed to make sure no one parks for more than 3 minutes; the guys who tell you to keep circling in your car if the person you’re meeting isn’t there yet. Generally they are grumpy and rude.

One of these guys is standing in front of me doing his job; keeps looking over at my board bag and asks where I had been. The guys is older (40-50), french and very Québecois. He then starts asking some very specific questions about what kind of board I had in my bag, what kind of waves we found, etc. He’s getting more and more stoked as we chat.

In the end he tells me he’s surfed around the world for years when he can, and now mainly surf’s the same Northeastern spots we do. He hasn’t met to many other Montréalers who surf. He gives me the high five and when Linda shows up he blocks all the other traffic for us as we get the board strapped to the car. Nicest airport guy ever.

Great end to my trip — sharing the stoke with the most unlikely person.