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Costa Rica
Palm Trees, Sand, Waves and Beer.....what's not to love? While we've been over here we've made some great friends, and Fiona and I were lucky enough to be invited to a wedding of some of our new friends. As we all know, along with weddings come Buck's Parties, and one of the great things about living in Florida is that its a relatively short jump into the Carribbean and Central America. So, for this Buck's Party it was off to Costa Rica in Central America with 24 other blokes for a week long Buck's Party and surfing trip. If you're not sure where Costa Rica is, you're not Robinson Crusoe, I didn't have a real good idea until I checked it out on the map. It's a very mountainous country located between Nicaragua and Panama. Depending upon where you travel it is still relatively untouched by too much western influence - there are large hotels sprouting up, and the occassional fast food chains in the more touristy areas, but it is quite easy to escape this influence and get out into the countryside. We were trying to catch some good swell so we staying in a surfing hotel at a great beach break called 'Playa Hermosa'.
We flew into
Nice Fo-hawk
This is an example of the scenery throughout Costa - nice head too! the capital San Jose and rented a car for the 2 hour drive down through the mountains to Playa Hermosa. The drive was quite amazing - everything you would expect from a Central American Country; rugged steep mountains covered in deep green foliage, small pueblo's (villiages) teeming with stray dogs and kids kicking soccer balls, and random guys walking on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. The hotel we were staying in was very basic, just a couple of beds, a shower and no airconditioning, but it was right on one of the best breaks along the coast. Unfortunately for us we arrived after dark and were unable to hit the surf; so what else to do but hit the pub? We were pleasantly surprised by the local brew 'Imperial' which became our staple drink during our time there - it wasn't bad at all, a little sharp, but nothing a bit of lime couldn't fix. One of the hotels a short walk from ours had a restaurant and bar right on the beach so we settled in at 'Backyard' for a couple of beers and some minor frivolity. Unfortunately what happens on a bucks party
Playa Hermosa
This is Playa Hermosa (Hermosa Beach) in front of the hotel we stayed at. stays on the bucks party, so there will be no juicy gossip revealed......
Next morning we woke up (a little worse for wear) to some huge swell right outside our hotel. With our newly rented surfboards we geared up and hit the surf. If the residual alcohol from the night before hadn't been clouding our judgment, we probably would have realised that the surf was absolutely massive and we had no business being out there, but as they say in Hawaii 'Eddy would go', so in we went. After about 15 minutes of paddling and getting smashed by the waves without making it out passed the break we decided on a new approach - finding a rip to pull us out. This technique was quite successful, and with a few well time duck dives we managed to get out past the break and let the swell roll gently under us. When I was saying that these waves were big - I was not exaggerating, the average face height was about 10 feet with sets rolling in a little bigger........so we pretty much sat out there thinking 'now what?'
After about 40 mins of floating around we started to
Massive Swell
These waves were huge..... pluck up the courage to have a crack at a couple of waves, but as you got on the crest of a wave and looked down, it was like looking into the jaws of death - a cliff of water just waiting to dump you and your board. Needless to say there were some short steps being taken. After about an hour of this we were left wondering how the hell we were going to get back to the shore!! Eventually I plucked up enough courage to go for one of these giant bloody waves and with my bum puckering I paddled for one, dropped in and made it......until the white water washed me off my board, spun me around like I was in a washing machine and then unceremoniously dumped me on the beach! But that didn't matter, in my fleeting moment of surfing glory a photographer had taken my photo, and for the not so cheap cost of $15 I managed to secure my 3 secs of blind panic forever.
Sanity soon prevailed and we decided that enough was enough, and that we weren't quite ready to die that day. We walked back to the hotel and
About to get Crushed!
If you look at the base of the wave you will see one of our guys about to duck under it - it was pretty big. chatted to the hotel manager who told us their surfshop was working over time because there had been five rental boards snapped in the surf that morning alone! Fortunately for us the coast was quite rugged and we were able to drive to some more 'manageable' surf spots where we weren't risking our life every time we paddled out. Throughout the week we threw the boards on the roof of our 4WD and headed out looking for different spots. We found some amazing places...we followed some bumpy little dirt tracks heading to the ocean to find a beach lined with palm trees, squeaky clean black sand, surrounded by steep jungle covered mountains and not another soul to be seen. It was really amazing.
Fortunately the swell was fading throughout the week, so Hermosa became a little more manageable as time went on. Having been there for two days we decided it was time to tackle the beast again, so a couple of us paddled out. The swell was a little more manageable this time, although we were caught by one or two big sets that broke a lot deeper and gave us a pretty good pounding. One or two
WOAH!!!
This one is actually me about to get worked by a big wave.....what was I thinking? of them pinned us to the bottom for about 5 seconds before releasing their pressure and letting us make it back up to the surface by pulling ourselves by our leash to our boards. There's a good photo of one of the guys about to duck under a wave to give you an idea of just how big this surf was.
After a couple of days were were all feeling pretty tired and sore, so we decided it was time for a change of pace. Andy and I decided to do a canopy tour. This tour involved being fitted into a harness, driven up a mountain and then flying down the side of the mountain on a series of zip lines or flying foxes. It was pretty crazy - the guides basically hooked you on to the zip line with a pully, and gave you a glove to grab onto the zip line for a break and then gave you a big shove. The zip lines took you across the jungle canopy giving you a great few of the scenery and a pretty good rush as some of them were about 10 stories off the ground! They even managed
The Costa Coasta
The Coast was pretty rugged which made for great scenery wherever we drove. to convince us to do some of them hanging upside down.........not a good idea if you have your mobile phone in your pocket as one of the guys found out.
Unfortunately the week came to a close all to soon, however we were all pretty tired from so much surfing and no sleep, so the thought of coming home to a comfortable bed and air conditioning was pretty enticing. The 'Man Code' does not allow me to divulge any stories from the evening hours, but a good time was had by all without any dramas. Costa Rica was a great place to visit, it has a rough beauty that while not postcard material, in many ways is more attractive. Unfortunately it won't be too long until it becomes incredibly touristy and which will bring with it the negatives and dangers that always exist when money is poured into an impoverished area. So, if you get the chance to visit this neck of the woods I would recommend a stopover in Costa whether you are a surfer or not.
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Schurms
non-member comment
Wedge Head
Did the Wedge Head help on the big waves? Nice handlebars by the way.