Surfing in Costa Rica

Every surfing spot has a unique feeling and attitude. Although I surfed in three different spots and checked out five, thats really just a small small sample of what Costa Rica has to offer. Just a few observations:
Playa Guiones
This was our home away from home for most of the trip. Although we had pretty decent swell for most of our stay, Guionnes actually works better with ever so slightly smaller waves. The larger swells tend to make close-out conditions and the gradual sandbar makes paddling more of a workout.
Still, Guiones is where I did most of my surfing, and I caught some of my funnest waves there. Also as an added bonus, the gradual sand shelf makes the inside section a lot more appealing to beginners, and for this trip Amy mastered some of her ages-old fear of the crashing waves, got into it for a few days and by the end of our trip was standing on my little fish board and riding the whitewater like a pro!
South of Nosara
Playa Samara and south
We took a one day drive south along the incredible hilly coastal rode. For this drive a 4wd vehicle was mandatory, as we crossed several low rivers (water up to the bumper, and this was dry season!). Samara has a reputation for a beautiful beach, and it certainly didn't disappoint, but for surfing it was definitely beginners only, with hardly any waves coming through on the same day the Guiones was fun and head high. This could be due to the swell direction, but the overall vibe I got was more about the festive party atmosphere, bars and hotels right along the edge of the sand, and laid-back mellow people. On our shuttle bus over to the coast early in our trip from La Fortuna, there were three couples of all ages headed to Samara, none surfers, then Amy and I and one other surfer guy going to Nosara.
South of Samara things start to get more interesting from a surf perspective. There are dozens of lonely kilometers from Samara, down through the beautiful small hamlet of Punta Islita with its contemporary open air art museum, all the way to Santa Teresa and the excellent powerful rock reefs and surf of Mal Pais. We didn't make it all the way to Mal Pais this trip. By the end of that one day Amy and I were both pretty rattled-out from our bouncy, dusty day.
North of Nosara
Amy, Dan and I took an overnight trip north, to scout out for Leatherback Turtles and surf. Here's what we found:
Playa Negra
Beautiful beach, beautiful people, very rude, local and aggressive surfers who definitely put the bad juju vibes on "outsiders", in stark contrast to the few local Tico surfers who still just radiated Pura Vida, although in a more subdued way. This little spot seems to be permanently staked out by a strong South American contingent from Brazil, Argentina, Chile maybe. Hot people on the beach, hot, fiery latin blood in the water made for a couple of interesting days. The surf there is absolutely unbelievable- picture perfect reef-break with huge barreling waves across a shallow rock reef. Totally make-able and incredibly exhilarating, but the take-off or launch spot is small, as on most reefs, which is why the locals can be so dominating- they have the place wired.
Our first day there, driving up the coast, Dan and I each scored some waves before the "pressure on the boil" (the attitude out in the water) made us come in (well, actually I got massively worked on the inside by a set and just decided to come in- always the prudent one!). We revisited on our way down, waited until a little bit later in the day with a less favorable wind and tide, and Dan and his friend Sundance scored it pretty near flawless.
In summary: this is the model beach- amazing model wave, model perfect people slinking around- I would go back and stay for a couple of nights, hoping to score the wave early, then Amy and I would lounge by the pool and look beautiful... we'll need much smaller bathing suits though...
Playa Grande
We tried unsuccessfully to jump in on a Leatherback Turtle tour- Playa Grande is one of the most well-known areas for seeing these massive creatures laying their eggs on shore. It's no wonder that numbers of female turtles have been declining- Grande is just a short water taxi or a slightly longer drive up from Tamarindo, an exploding tourist destination with huge, fancy resorts, lots of action and general craziness. It's one of the "famous" beach towns, and so many tourists go there for at least part of their trip. Of the handful of these tourists who then came to Nosara, all of them sadly regretted staying in Tamarindo, and instead recommended just a pass-through to check it out, and stay up north at Grande.
The perfect swell that we caught at Playa Negra was also hitting Grande- with it's deep shelf, the waves were beach-break, shifting peaks with tons of power, hitting up and down the beach. I loved Playa Grande and caught lots of great waves there. Also there is something to the energy of that beach- maybe fantasy on my part, but knowing that these incredible turtles return from miles and miles away to lay their eggs in a trance-like state on the beach made it a powerful place for me. Walking along the sand in the early morning Amy pointed out where she found old turtle eggs, where someone (likely a ranger or one of the many volunteers who come to help protect the turtles) had marked an active next with sticks to keep people from walking on it, and where eggs had hatched we could see the marks in the sand made by the baby turtles as they made their way to the sea. Incredible! On our next trip down, doing the turtle tour will be a priority.
Another day driving back to Nosara, we surfed Grande in the am, then made our way back to Negra to meet Dan and Sundance in another car. They surfed Playa Avellones as well before meeting us at Negra. Afterwards we all drove home, happy, dusty and tired.
Burke