Around The World In 80 Waves

I take another shuttle bus from San Juan del Sur out to a staggering bad road down to Playa Medera, which is supposed to be the best break around the town. this time I was travelling with Mario from Surf Nica Waves (www.surfnicawaves.com )

First impressions were that it was mobbed and even if there was plenty of eye candy knocking about looking fantastic in their swimwear there were certainly too many people in the water for the waves which are not as good as the ones I scored the day before at Hermosa. 

I travelled to the beach with a fun couple from Calgary in Canada called Gerald and Jenny and they are kind enough to keep a watchful eye on my stuff when I paddle out into the line up.

This picture is a great shot of me bursting through one of the waves and you can see the beach behind me which is lined with golden sand. 

My tan is sufficiently good now that I do not need to wear a rash vest to protect me from the sun so I am just in shorts for this session.

I dont know if it is for that reason but I am on fire today bagging the best rides that I saw caught by anybody in the water. I am getting whooped and hollered as I charge down the line of one. You can see me and my belly having fun in this shot, which was taken just before I nearly landed a floater of top of somebody. His duck dive was as good as it needed to be so no harm was done.

A great day and a fantastic surf for my last session in Nicaragua.

I even saw another suspiciously big fish in the water and you can see me trying to explain that I had seeen a Tiburon (Spanish for Shark) between us and the beach to one of the locals

From San Juan del Sur which is well appointed with surf shops and shuttle buses to nearby beaches I sign up with the Good Times Surf Shop to get a lift to Playa Hermosa.

Having seen the state of some of the coast roads the day before I didn’t want to risk the bug and the shuttle was only $10 for the return trip. A bouncy 15 minute ride there later I know it was the right move.

There is a small group of cabanas on the huge beach set up to provide drinks for the thirsty surfers, sun bathers and swimmers. We are dropped off and told to be ready for the return journey a few hours later.

I leave my stuff on the beach under the watchful eye of the American and Canadian girls who took the shuttle with me, whilst Guillem who is also from Canada paddles out into the sand bottomed beach break with me.

Guillem only has  a few days of surfing under his belt so finds the paddle out a bit challenging, but I am quickly into my game scoring two fantasticly long lefts as soon as I paddle out. This was the picture of the session

On the second of the waves I nearly fell off after being distracted by the fact that I surfed directly over the top of two rays heading the other way. The water is so clear I could easily make them out as I leant on my heels to make the bottom turn going left.

I caught a few more waves but the other big news for today was that I saw my first shark in the water. It was about twenty metres from me and wasn’t moving much so I didn’t feel too concerned by its presence, which surprised me as much as anybody.

It was curled up as though it might be eating something and I only got a good look at its tail which was swishing about above the water. (Later scrutiny of my shark playing cards would suggest that it was the King of Diamonds, a blue shark.)

It didn’t move towards me, and I alerted Guillem to its presence so the two of us stayed a wee bit closer to one and other for a while but it soon disappeared from sight, which is more unnerving that actual knowing where it is. However after a minute or two of scanning the area around us we just got on with surfing again.

Final note: 40 waves baby!!! Half way to my target. Woooooo-Hoooooo!

I wake up early in the morning and see a small wave breaking right in front of the Hotel Summer so grab my board and jump in the water.

It is a gutless beach break, which is a foot and a half at best and I dont stay in long after catching a couple of crap rides.

There were no pictures in the water because there wouldn’t have been anything worth taking.

I took this picture of a rather funkily coloured lighthouse which overlooks the break later in the morning though.

However I am happy to be so quickly of the mark in Nicaragua.

Las Flores is another fantastic right hand point break. However for me at least there is definitely a but to this particular break.

That but is the rocks which are just a handful of metres from the peak and then stay that way for the whole of the ride to the shore, which can be as long as 300m. One fall and you could be in a very bad place very quickly.

The international crew in the water here are certainly friendly enough though, and amongst others I spend a great deal of time chatting with the lovely Whitney who you can see behind me.

However if I am honest for the whole of the time I am in the water here I am not feeling that comfortable.

A good wave would usually sort out any nerves I have. However the set up of this break is such that in order to be sure of being the person that catches a wave you need to be paddling for it directly adjacent to the rocks sticking up out of the water at the very tip of the headland which you can see over my shoulder. Everybody knows this and the result of that is everybody pushing one another closer and closer to the rocks until people take off directly in front of them assuming they will make the turn. The natural breaking of the wave does indeed keep you far enough away from the rocks once you are riding, but such critical take offs are not really my cup of tea anymore. I have been to A&E too many times, and it is never fun!

Despite my better judgement I tried this once only to have picked one of the bigger waves of the day which then broke well before it got to me leaving me very much between a rock and a hard place, and was then lucky not to damage myself let alone my board. (One of the Brazilians here did something similar and landed on the rocks and put a two foot long gash in the base of his board ‘game over’-ing it earlier in the day!)

Regardless of all the above I have caught loads of long rides here though and this one shows the trees on the point a little too close for comfort behind me. This particular ride was about head high, but during it I also had to charge through a gap between two rocks which appeared sticking out of the water that was little wider than my board and just hope it was deep enough in the gap for my fins to get through. It was but more by luck than judgement and I dont think I will be doing that again.

Punta Roca is where the point break sequences for Big Wednesday were filmed and I simply had to surf the break where such great lines as ‘I said he aint a hodad squidlips, this is Matt Johnson and he needs to borrow your board’ and ‘That is Matt Johnson, THAT IS Matt Johnson!’ were coined. If you are not familiar with the film, it will make more sense if you watch this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xgBnGQhAUI

It is a perfect right hand point break and the scenes from the  movie have had me salivating for years, dreaming about such a perfect setup to enjoy. Without doubt a major contributory factor in me taking this trip. The area is somewhat more developed than when the scenes were filmed in 1976, and I was able to stike a deal with a restaurant overlooking the break that they would look after my car and I would enjoy a big feast after my session. 

I have been wanting to try to get some forward facing shots on the camera for a while, and because this wave is so predictable I thought it would be the ideal opportunity to try it out.

I attached it to the board the other way around which is just as easy using the mounts I have attached to my stick and paddled out into the glorious conditions you see here.

I was able to get some fantastic pictures of other people, but not the shot I wanted of the wave walling up in front of me as I charged down the line, which all surfers would recognise instantly. I think this is because the mount on my board is pointing directly forward and the board usually travels in the direction which is 45 degrees from the wave face, which results in a lot of shots of air pointing vaguely in the direction of the shore.

This meant that each of the peachy waves I had here, and it was a lot, will just be memories for me I’m afraid. The waves is so mellow and just goes on and on and on and on and on. Really chuffed to have bagged this break on my travels and even if I cant prove it I know I was grinning from ear to ear!

There have not been many waves which I have surfed twice on this trip, but because it is such a perfect right hand point break and I hadn’t really surfed that well the day before I had to go back for a second session. I’m so glad I did!

To protect the left hand side of my face which was still a little raw from the scorching it got the previous morning I waited until the afternoon allowing the other side to get cooked instead.

The waves are really big at the moment, and again I was a litle bit slow to get started.

I took a few more beatings in the inside section and had the fright of my life when scatching towards the horizon to try and get past one set. As I was about to start paddling up the face of the wave a huge ray with a four foot wingspan lept out of the water in front of me! I was more concerned with the several tonnes of water quickly moving my way so had no choice other than to keep paddling as fast as I could towards it.

Just as I was starting to get annoyed about my lack of waves a huge one set up beautifully for me. The waves are so fat at the moment it is hard to get in front of them, but after paddling like a man possessed I popped up, skipped forward and practically stamped on the front of my board to push it over the top. The picture above was taken with my GoPro, but there was also a professional photographer on the beach who got every second of this ride, as well as the others I caught soon afterwards because my confidence was up. Massive snaking rights, two of which I surfed from the very peak until I stepped off onto the sand in the shore. Rides nearly a minute long, all of which were so fast, just about outrunning the mountain of water chasing me.

Easily the best surf session of my trip so far. The photographer caught this picture of a very contented me racing back to see what my camera had captured. Also, very unusually for any surf trip, all the friends I have made here were on the beach and had seen each of the monsters I had caught.

Stoked doesn’t quite cover how happy I was feeling as I strolled back to the Surfers Inn. Try to think of me as happy as you have seen me and then square it. I was pactically bouncing I was so excited!

To top off a perfect day I made myself my favourite meal of bangers and mash with baked beans, washed down with an unhealthy amount of the local beer. I wish everyday could be this good.

I got up at 6am and started early by cleaning my board before treating it to a fresh coat of tropical surf wax. (Even the warm water wax there already was like plasticene on the top of my board due to the heat yesterday so it needed to be done.)

I love the smell of strawberry surf wax, it is one of my most favourite things in the world and I was looking forward to paddling out with it under my nose in the waves I could hear breaking just out of sight but through the trees.

First things first, it was quite big today. The picture you see here is me about to take another hammering of which there were many. I also suspect given all the white water around me I have only just come up from the last one!

There is a huge surf scene here in the town with surfers from all over the world in the water. Some of whom must know the break well because they were absolutely shredding the waves which were easily over head high.

It is a classic right hand point break here and I was dying to do well because I haven’t really been on fire on anything that should be well set up for my forehand surfing so far on this trip.

Sadly apart from one monster ride which this picture doesnt do justice to I spent an awful lot of time not catching what I wanted. There was a professional photographer on the beach who was taking picture of everybody’s waves so I will try to find him later to see if he got a better angle of me catching a bomb.

Good stuff. I like El Salvador already!

Having crossed the border I headed for the coast, and knew I was getting close to a wave when I started seeing signs like these everywhere.

I rounded the next headland on the coast road and saw a small crew of people surfing in the sunshine at the beach located at the mouth of Rio Miztapa. 

I very nervously made my way down an extremely long and rocky path, getting overtaken by walking children, snails, etc, because I was trying to ensure no more damage to the car, but was delighted to find this punchy little wave breaking over sand at the end.

The board was off the roof in no time at all and I was into a pair of board shorts and on my way. A local guy promised to look after my car, although he had disappeared with the $3 I had given him long before I had got out. 

I paddled out and chatted with the friendly dudes in the water about my trip and where they were staying, even meeting the owner of ‘The Last Resort’ surf camp who offered me a place to stay.

I bagged a few quick waves (as well as a particularly slappy face plant), but the lengthy border crossing had meant there was not much sun left or time for surfing. I was also keen to get further down the coast so that I could get straight into the morning glass at one of the breaks there rather than have to travel the next day, find a place to stay and then arrive at the beach as it was getting windy.

I thanked the owner for his offer but declined, and then made friends with the local kids by handing out some of my bag of blackcurrant and liquorice sweets before leaving. I.e. crawling back up the hill via the extremely rocky road in the car.

After my Mexican experience I was keen to get in the water as soon as possible upon crossing the border so the first thing I did this morning was drive to Tilapa on the Pacific coast passing loads of plantations on my way to the coastal fishing town.

Once there I hired a boat to ferry me to the beach, which entailed another trip through a mangrove swamp, but it was easily organised.

My boat captain got me to the beach quickly and promised to pick me up again in a couple of hours. He drops me off pointing at a path to the shore, and I hold back payment to make sure he comes back.

I walk down to the beach which is deserted despite being approximately 5 miles long. The waves look small but I dont care, so I get changed and walk towards the water.

In under five feet of walking on the sand which is like molten lava I run back to my stuff to stand on my board bag. I have actually burnt the underside of my feet! Great. I have to use my board bag as a sort of plank across stepping stones. Continually walking to one end and then spinning it around so I can walk further like something out of the Crystal Maze to get close to the damp sand..

I manage to get there and paddle out. I did have the Go Pro but was trying it facing fowards instead of towards me and didnt get anything worth publishing, so cant really show you what it was like. However what I thought was tiny turns out to be a four foot wave breaking really heavily and closing out all along the shore when it does. To spice things up further there is a powerful undertow dragging your legs out from under you towards the breaking waves. I battle through this nasty inside section and have a go.

I only manage three attempts at waves before being chased out by the sea which gave me a spanking. All of which entailed taking a very fast and vertical drop, then trying to turn (making only one!), the nose of the board jamming in the water, then getting absolutely hammered by the following wave. The undertow makes it really difficult to get back to your feet and I get rolled far more than is comfortable by the ocean. I ate quite a lot of sand during this process.

I did surf it though and am happy to have got off the mark early in Guatemala, so after more Crystal Maze manouevres back to the lagoon I meet my boat and am feeling quite pleased with myself for the journey back to the car.

As soon as we have sorted boards for Lisa and Steven we all paddle out into the water. There are two rock breakwaters at the entrance to the lagoon and the waves are breaking off them. Thankfully there is no sign of any of the local salt water crocodiles, who must be too busy fishing in the lagoon behind the beach. I had enough things to worry about already with just the angry fish!

Throughout a very weird session I only bag one right at the very start of the session, and then one left at the very end, both of which were nearly 30 seconds long.

This is my picture of the day on the left which is a fantastic shot as you can see, but the waves were very few and far between.

At times it was a bit over crowded on the little peak that was working because of the crowd of international surfers who are staying there or like us visiting for the day, which seems ridiculous when you see how big and empty the beach was. The was also a horrible backwash going out to sea off the beach that kept ruining the incoming waves by alternatively cancelling them out and doubling them in size, which made the waves really bumpy.

However we all have a fun session and are enjoying victory beers and some local seafood, when this little cherub turns up selling something he has caught, cooked and prepared.

It is an iguana he killed using a sling shot and a rock. Lisa buys some and insists we all try it, so because it was her birthday I dive in and take a big bite.

Apart from the bones, and in particular the spine which he hadn’t bothered to remove during the cooking process, it tasted really good in the sauce he had prepared and the meat was a bit like chicken. I am just hoping I dont end up with Iguana-rreah after eating it.

This wonderful meal, the earlier surf session and then a few more beers in the heat of the sun later is all a bit much for me so it is time for a nap.

Sweet Dreams! x