Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

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hankj
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Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by hankj »

PART 1

It can be difficult to find balance between a vacation to keep your family happy and one that will also find you touring the inside of more than a few warm blue cylinders. So to meet those competing demands, for this trip I chose to focus on surfing Costa Rica’s Guanacaste coast around the resort town of Tamarindo. Mainly this choice was a matter of travel convenience, of relative safety and comfort for my wife and girl, and because this area of Costa Rica is the most open to the North Pacific swell window. Turns out that the surf during my visit was generated from the more reliable and better shaped Southern Hemi direction, but it was nice to know that getting skunked wasn’t likely because of this area’s wide swell window. Tamarindo is convenient to the Liberia Airport, only a short hour by car as opposed to five hours from Costa Rica’s capitol San Jose. Direct flights from many different departure cities in the US land in Liberia regularly, and airfares are reasonable. My family paid just under $400 round trip from Seattle through LAX on Alaska for one ticket, about $200 for the next as a companion fare, and the third was 30k frequent flier miles. Quite the deal for flying nearly to the equator!

Let's be clear though: although an exotic landscape, Costa Rica's hosted a gringo or million before you. Many have stayed, and many of the trapping of the western good life have followed. Mostly I didn't hate that:

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The area in and around Tamarindo is chock full of surf breaks, and also chock full of surfers. The town was essentially established in the 1970’s by ex-pat surfers, and nowadays you’ll share most line ups with scores of ex pats, local surfers, kids, wives, girlfriends and visitors from far and wide. There are some advantages to this. The surf infrastructure is first rate, and while the seemingly thousands of boards in the 20 or so surf shops in the area won’t help a kneelo much, I was able to buy flipper socks and replace a broken fin even at the outlying Playa Negra break and be back in the water in 20 minutes. You can easily search up most of the info you need on where to surf, and there’s no shortage of people willing to set you up with tours, photos, or just chat about the details of various spots. The downside is that it can be crowded, and while the Ticos are pretty decent, some of the expats seem to have chips on their shoulders, and worse, some minority of the visitors from California import their local attitude from Sunset Cliffs or Oxnard and generally act like angry, entitled jerks in the line-up. Tico culture is anti-conflict to a fault (really - this shying from conflict is so pronounced it actually produces its own set of social issues), so there is a bit of a power vacuum in the water that jaded, entitled Californians used to bullying line ups at home are happy enough to fill (let me repeat these guys are the minority of Californians down there). Another bummer is the presence of packs of Brazilians who ruthlessly take over line ups with basically zero concept of giving space or taking turns or flowing a little priority in the pecking order to the locals. Fortunately they were far between because the Brazilian economy is tanking and so are foreign vacations for Brazilian surfers. Once or twice on this trip though I found myself pining for the order of something like Black-Shorts Hawaii, even if that meant some spots might be altogether off limits.

And yet apparently I was still able to get my share of waves:

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But that’s the minority experience for sure. Generally speaking people – and Tico natives in particular - were cool and positive in the water. I’ve never surfed in a place more stoked to see a kneeboarder. Life is surf down there. The locals were well aware of what a kneeboard was and, like bird-watchers who’d never caught glimpse of a rare species, thrilled a little at first contact. There were positive affirmations, fist bumps, smiles after good waves. Ticos are generally reserved, and that culture persists in the line ups, but they also tend to respond well to friendliness and are easy enough to engage positively in the water between sets, and they tend to repay coolness with coolness. Even the crowded line ups are competitive but fair, and, to be certain, you get far more waves of a given quality even at max-pack in Costa Rica than you would in similar conditions in San Diego or Santa Cruz.

Sequence: exercising a little elbow room in 84 degree water

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hankj
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Re: Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by hankj »

Part 2

You can beat the crowds in a number of ways. The first is to be on it early. There seems to be a rolling system of entry into the water: 1) 5:30am break of dawn East Coast US low-intermediate visitors who are up anyway because of the time change. Costa Rica, by the way, is a fantastic destination for East Coast surfers, the flight from Newark being actually shorter than from LAX and the time change from back east favorable for early sessions. 2) Could have paddled 45 minutes earlier West Coast visitors. 3) Ex Pats. 4) We paddle at 8:15am Ticos. Crack it early for a softer crowd and respite from the blazing sun.

Sunset over Tamarindo Bay. Come morning and high tide you could be surfing over that lava reef:

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Pico Pequeno reels in between the dope, surf lessons, or anything in between beach boys who've set up shop for the day:

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Another thing to consider is staying near a break that others tend to drive to. My family enjoyed staying in Tamarindo, a disorganized tourist town/surf ghetto with many good restaurants, cigar-hawkers, mariachis and totally-numb-to-yet-another-gringo locals at every turn. We stayed at the B-level resort Hotel Diria where my wife and little girl loved the huge, shady, lagoon-shaped walk-in pool and fresh-fruit stacked free breakfast buffet. We ate three fantastic dinners at the spot-on authentic Argentine restaurant across the street from the Diria, feasting on $19 twin medallions of grass-fed, dry-aged, perfectly-prepared filet mignon. We had good sushi, great burgers and shakes, listened to good live music, combed tide pools full of crazy hermit crabs, collected shells, saw big iguanas, monkeys, exotic birds. My wife worked out in the decent hotel gym, booked well-run tours with reliable local operators, napped in the comfortable air conditioned room, shopped for souvenirs ranging from cheesy to boutique. They had fun.

Happy wife ...

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1st grader clocks a little air time:

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Kept wandering back to this amazing Argentine steak place for dinner when I was stick-a-fork-in-me done from 6 hours of surfing:

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There are some very good surf spots in town in Tamarindo too. Pico Pequeno is a right directly out in front of the Diria. I’d describe as set up like a mirror image of Big Rock but half as shelfy and pushing onto a sandbar once you clear the hookier reef section. It’s tailor-made for kneeboarding. The rivermouth is right there too and is a fun, fast wave, as is the shallow beach break peak at Casitas just a quick paddle across the river. Over-all Tamarindo made a happy base for a family vacation wherein I got to do a ton of surfing.

Massive sea-side buffet breakfast after 3 hour morning session right out in front of the hotel at Pico Pequeno:

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And every time I looked up from it I kinda wished I'd stayed out and waited for lunch. Pico Pequeno throws another solid head high barrel:

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hankj
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Re: Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by hankj »

PART 3

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But if I go to the same area again, Pinilla would be my choice of where to stay. Pinilla is a 15 minute drive south of Tamarindo, and faces the least crowded major break I encountered the entire trip, and one of the best, Little Hawaii. Little Hawaii is a sliding right reef that breaks into deep water. It’s a wave-magnet that attract more size than anything in the area except Playa Negra (we’ll get to Negra), and it’s an easy wave – easy paddle in a channel, easy take off, easy to surf. It’s the wave equivalent of “hero snow,” easy to get rad and make maneuvers with a lot of pop and style, tends to let you decide what to do whenever you feel like it. I found myself getting playful on this wave even at several feet overhead: “no, instead of hooking three snapback outs front, this time I’ll float the crumble and then come really straight up then go roundhouse in the flat spot.” Sort of like Trestles, it’s a real Etch-a-Sketch of a wave that stands up plenty (it will occasionally throw a little almond-shaped high-line barrel over you) but lets you surf to your maximum potential. It’s a solid mile walk from the closest public access point, but straight off the beach-club at the gated Pinilla community (I tried to con my way in one morning and the gateman was not having it). As such the locals who are out tend to be older, civil, second home gringos, and not too many of them. There is one HB kneelo who owns a place at Pinilla, comes out 5 or 6 times a year, nice dude and competent surfer, not on the forum but hi and thanks if you’ve joined. From Pinilla you’re five minutes’ walk to the Avellanes rivermouth, a wide, fun, left and right cluster of reef that pushed peaks onto the adjacent sandbars. A set of tighter beach break peaks follow south down the beach, and after that a left reef in front of the supremely cool and laid back Lola’s beach bar and restaurant (that’s where the general public accesses the area).

The real Pinilla, the one not behind the gate. It's nice that you can easily find your happy own happy zone in Costa Rica, from 5 stars to hammock with the chickens:

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Avellanes - it's a surfy surfy scene down there:

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Pinilla is also a quick drive to Playa Negra, giving you a jump on the Tamarindo-based surfers in the morning. Many surfers stay right at Negra, and many aren’t really interested in surfing anywhere else. Understandable as this is a primo reef break, a big-time swell magnet lava reef that stands up tall then ledges and squats low and hard, rifling round barrels that eventually closeout on an even bonier reef way inside(there’s an easy get out before surfing into that fin-breaking zone). It’s busy, and the locals have it wired, and it’s not at all an easy wave (though it look easy from the beach). But there are rocking fun, critical tubes to thread, occasional sections to venture a quick snap, plenty of company to hoot for. Even staying there you won’t catch it uncrowded probably but a fair contingent of surfers have no other desire on their visit to Guanacaste than to fling themselves into the Negra vortex with the hope of getting spit out smiling. From Pinilla you can at least go check it without wasting a whole hour round trip from Tamarindo if it’s not happening.

Sequence - Seattle man seeks shade at Playa Negra:

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From Pinilla you can drive up to Playa Grande about as fast as from Tamarindo too, faster if Tamarindo traffic is bad. Playa Grande is the beach break only about two mile north of Tamarindo but about a 25 minute drive due to circuitous roads. It reminded me of Ocean Beach or even Westport because of its peaky, punchy swirliness. Something’s up here more than just the nice SW exposure – the place funnels power and the surf is hollow, shifty and quick. And supremely fickle – It blows out early and can look junky even with good winds when everything else is groomed and perfect. I caught it pretty good one day though, and can see its potential to be epic. Staying here though might be a mistake. The town is an earthy, quiet, soulful little corner, but you’d be the longest possible drive from the rest of the area’s spots, and you’d need to explore plenty given Grande’s fickleness.

For a final tip about managing crowds note this – breaks in Costa Rica are quite sensitive to tides, and the tides down there push and pull through a lot of volume of water. A small shift is 6 feet and the big swings can be over 11 feet of change. It’s like the Northwest in that respect. The reef or sand bar you need to be surfing over can be completely sticking out of the water when the tide’s too low, or, more rarely, too deep to break when too high. Probably more than anything you need to plan your trip around tides. Most breaks like a mid tide pushing toward high. If your trip is scheduled around morning and evening low tides you can be effectively skunked regardless of how good the swell and winds are. Watch those tides and plan accordingly to coincide with morning and evening pushes to high! But – and here’s where the crowd management part kicks in – also understand that nearly everyone down there, including the locals, slavishly adhere to conventional wisdom about tides. They wait out lower tides instead of going to have a look. But the degree of sensitivity to lower tides varies by break and swell size (and your comfort level surfing over chunky rocks). Pico Pequeño, for instance, is said to be a high tide break, but I got it completely to myself really good a couple of mornings after it had juuuuust filled in enough to get a few ugly rocks under the surface – about 2.5 or 3 feet of tide. One had to be picky, but the right waves were really fun, and I got 3 or 4 solid sucking bowls before anyone noticed that it was working (and then 5 guys paddled out in a hurry). Same goes for Playa Negra (but buyer beware – you can get concussed and/or shredded across the lava cheese grater out there at low tide). Be picky and be careful and you can get some tubey screamers all to your lonesome.
hankj
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Re: Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by hankj »

PART 4

If you're looking for the goods you're gonna want wheels:

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With the fickle nature of the breaks and how spread out they are driving is a necessary evil. Costa Rica, apparently, has a relatively high highway death rate, and one can see why. Awful roads, aggressive drivers, blind passing, cars with no headlights at night, animals in the road, people in the road, toddlers wobbling up shoulderless open highways on broken down bikes – the whole place is a recipe for a driver’s ed. gore video up close and personal. Personally, I lost a friend to car wreck in Costa Rica in the 1990’s – it sucked. But there’s almost no option to not driving, so when you do drive try to do the following: a) rent a car that crashes well and that handles bad roads well (the Toyota Land Cruiser we piloted was worth every penny for the upgrade from an off-brand small SUV), and b) drive super defensively, with the attitude that absolutely anything can happen at any moment for no reason whatsoever (because it will). Our Land Cruiser had a radio, but in over 1000 miles on the road in 10 days I never once turned it on. The headlights though were on every second it was running – every little bit helps in discouraging that frustrated trucker from blind passing with the understanding that on coming traffic might or might not live through a 60mph visit to the shoulder. Watch out for people and animals too – driving a little agro at times ingratiates you to the flow of things, but pedestrians et al. seem to have unreasonable faith that you’re looking out for them too, so they are surprisingly careless. A head’s up co-pilot is a great asset too. Being able to tour around is a great adventure, just drive with your head in the game and mind your stuff in the car as leaving it there is about as good as donating it.

This diesel Toyota made Swiss cheese roads smooth as fondue:

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There is a good non-driving option actually if you plan your trip around Witches Rock Surf Camp in Tamarindo. Book a stay there right on the beach and you also get a good number of panga drops at all of the good breaks around the area, not just Witches Rock and Ollie’s Point. The place is a little saturated with bro-brah’s of every stripe, but highly professional and tuned in to the whens and wheres of surfing in the area. Personally I skipped the boat trip to Witches. Although fairly dying to surf it, it’s an all day trip and the sun down there near the equator is just brutal, significantly harsher than Hawaii even. My pale Seattle ass felt like it was frying already at 9:30am, and the notion that the only place to seek shade from the red-hot laser called noon would be a rocking 20 foot open boat with a tarp strung up seemed like a bad idea for me given issues with seasickness – puking or blistering sunburn seemed like a bad set of choices. But if you stay at Witches Rock camp for a week you get this trip to the epic beach break of fame included (more than once), plus free breakfast and the opportunity to gaze upon Robert August as he tries to eat a cheeseburger in peace. They’ll point you toward solid surf from day one, so no worries about suffering through a few initial shitty sessions as you struggle to catch onto the flow of the place on your own. It’s a surfy good time, and not a bad option if you aren’t an itinerate misanthropic loner (ahem). They also have a webcam sweeping the Rivermouth surf break during daylight hours http://witchsrocksurfcamp.com/tamarindo-live-surf-cam, a great way to daydream the hours away at work.
Last edited by hankj on Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:23 pm, edited 5 times in total.
hankj
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Re: Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by hankj »

PART 5

There’s a lot more to Costa Rica than just the coast and surfing. The Coast is pretty but the mountains are amazingly beautiful. Plan at least a few days to recuperate in the middle of your trip with a breather out on a volcano on the spine of the continental divide. We chose the earthy, low traffic Rio Celeste area, and could not recommend a better place to decompress than the cool beyond description La Carolina organic farm/ranch/eco-resort. It’s run by a surfer ex-pat and his awesome Dutch wife, and allows you to crack the barrier between being a tourist and knowing what it’s like to live in the place. I could go on (and on, and on) about it but ping Tripadvisor for the low down and make your reservation early in the busy season. http://cms.lacarolinalodge.com

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This kitchen pumped out 3 fantastic home-cooked meals a day. That milk was in the cow 20 minutes ago:

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Sky Blue waterfall along Rio Celeste:

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My hot tub session was shared with a Parisian dude, unfortunately not his beautiful girlfriend as I'd hoped:

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Breakfast, lunch and dinner courtesy of the farm's tractor:

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We visited Guanacaste in the height of the arid, hot dry season. If I go back it will be in the wet season, probably September. It will rain every afternoon probably, but will be cooler, have only half as many people in the line ups compared to March, is markedly cheaper in a place that’s not a budget travel destination (bring your wallet and resolve to opening it early and often to have a great time), and averages 9 out of 10 days head high or bigger. I’ll swat more mosquitos (didn’t see even one this entire dry season trip) but also deal with more chill, decompressed locals more often.

Finally if you do go down to Guanacaste and want some good photos hit up Emiliano. He happened to be shooting from the beach at Negra one really fun day and did me the favor of snapping some sweet sequences. Prices were completely reasonable and trusting him with cash he delivered the product as agreed. Emiliano shoots from the water too, and is a really nice dude, so consider hiring him to tag along and document if you take a boat trip or drive somewhere interesting. Contact is here at Instagram, also some great photos of Playa Negra.
https://www.instagram.com/emilianoeye/

And final finally thanks to my shaper Gaelen Fletcher for getting me a board quickly for this trip, Casey at Cove Pad for sending me a pad quickly, and the guys at Urban Surf in Seattle for providing some small items that made surfing down there better. Much appreciated.
Lefty
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Re: Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by Lefty »

great trip report and photos. looks you (and the family) had a good time.

my gf saw the pics and asked where it was...turns out a friend has a holiday house a couple of hours south of tamarindo that we can use.
it's a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll
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southpeakbrad
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Re: Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by southpeakbrad »

Henry, what a great trip you had. This is a great read packed full of useful information. I felt like I was traveling along with you and your family 8)
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Re: Trip Report: Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica

Post by knee-rider »

Great Reading and dreaming
Well written -- almost went there this past February but the inquiries I did on Hotels of Surf Camps ended up a bit too expensive
in that same area.
But hopefully one day i'll get my board out there
it's all about the ride
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