Summary of Nicaragua Trip

These are my 10 favorite photos from the trip.

I have decided that unless you are surfing at least once a week, you don't need to go on a surf trip for more than 10 days. Seven to eight days is probably best. You body just can't take the punishment if the waves have any size. It would be like running a marathon when you only ran a few miles once a month.

Even with the setbacks of busted ribs and food poisoning, I had an amazing trip. I really feel like I need to do a return trip because the waves were that good and consistent. I had read a lot about the winds blowing off-shore all day and it was completely true. Playa Colorado picks up so much swell from the south/southwest.

Nicaragua was a safe country to travel in and people were friendly and helpful. Everyone kept talking about Nicaragua being like Costa Rica 10 years ago before it was built up with houses and resorts. Seeing the Hacienda Iguana community and amount of empty lots, I can't imagine it with 200 houses build on all the lots available. The line-up will be so crowded and it will turn into Huntington Beach, CA.

If you are planning on traveling to Playa Colorado or nearby beaches (Gigante, Santana, etc) I would suggest communicating with Zach (http://zacksnicaraguatours.com) or Mateo (nicatime.com). They were much cheaper than NSR with airport transfer and boat trips. NSR was extremely helpful but paid twice as much for the airport transfer and 50% more for boat trips. You can reserve the same houses or condos through many agencies (Mateo, Zach, or NSR).

The wildlife was everywhere. I saw howler monkeys, iguanas, sea turtles, hundreds of crabs, tarantulas, pigs, horses, bulls, and fish.

Playa Colorado is a great place to take a wife or girlfriend. There are fun walks up and down the beach and infinity pools at several of the houses, including the Playa Colorado private beach club. All of the other surf travelers in the lineup and at the bar/restaurant were good people. Even the Brazilians, who have a reputation for being agressive in the lineup, were hooting for people in the lineup.

Make sure to bring small bills and I would recommend exchanging for the local currency (cordobas). Everyone takes American dollars, but it was more of a inconvenience to figure out the exchange rate every time.

Day 15: Last day in Nica

Safety first (kids got mom's helmet on

Ready for home

Last morning reflection

Nica to El Savador

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I woke up early to check the surf. The tide was already getting a little low and waves were starting to close out. There were still some lined up waves coming through but not nearly frequent enough for me to want to paddle out and get destroyed by the 10 foot bombs on the outside. Instead, I had a relaxing morning and packed my board bag and checked in to my flight online. My body had taken enough punishment on this trip and I was glad to return with all three boards that took on the trip. One of the guys from LA last night said he broke 2 boards yesterday.

Day 14 of Nica

John Haan and I got the boat to Manzanillo for the second day in a row. The lineup was crowded and full of beginner surfers. It was difficult to navigate the lineup because guys were always in the waves down the line. Many of them ditching boards to go under waves instead of duckdiving. All of them were nice so it was hard to get mad at them. I got several good set waves and got another good barrel on the second ledge. After the surf session, we got a ride to Gigante and swam in to get lobster lunch. The lobster was amazing (again) and we swam back to the boat. The boat driver ask if I would sell him my Xcel rash guard. I told him that if he watched our boards while we got lobster, he could have it. Good trade. When the boat dropped us off at Playa Colorado, the waves were pumping. The fisrt wave that came through a guy got a long left barrel on a 6-8 foot wave. I took off on the shoulder of one of the medium ones and decided to kick out and get one of the set waves. I saw a few more guys get some long barrels and also saw a huge right come in down the beach where John Haan was. No one was on the right and it had a tube section that was 100 meters. I ended up getting a decent size set wave a few feet overhead and was happy to make the bottom turn considering I was riding my smallest board (6'0" CI Whip) that I had for the mellow shoulders of Manzanillo. John Haan got snaked on his wave in.

Two guys from Cali asked if I got a few shots of them the previous day and told them to come see what I had on my camera. I ended up having some great barrel sequence shots and a video of them. We gave them some of our Tona that we weren't going to finish by the next day (departure) and emailed them the photos. One went to USC and the other San Francisco St. All of us walked to Don Elroy's to get some pizza and fries. The bar was packed, busiest I had seen it in the last two weeks. A good mix of girls and guys. It was a fun night for the last night in Nicaragua.

Day 13 in Nica

Checking the swells for Playa Colorado and Manzanillo

Outer reef with a nice right lined up. The front wave is at least 8 foot.

Today was a good day for surfing. John Haan and I slept in due to low tide in the morning. We ate breakfast and then set up our boat trip to Manzanillo. The waves have been overhead and the paddle out to the boat from Playa Colorado was difficult. I managed to squeeze through a channel and made it to the boat quickly. John Haan got stuck to the north of me and took a few waves on the head before he made it out. Our boat driver, Milton, was a good guy and spoke zero english. The boat ride out to Manzanillo was bumpy but the winds were good when we got to the spot. There were two other fishing/surf boats and one sailboat already there. The crowd in the water was not bad (12 guys) and the waves were really good. The sets were a few feet overhead and there was more push than last time I rode the break with Larry and Matt. I duck dove a set and got thrown to the bottom,; my feet hit the rocks probably 8-10 feet down. There was some serious power in some of the sets today. At the end of the 3 hour session, I got cleaned up by a few huge set waves. I was way out the back of the lineup and still got caught inside. The first wave pushed me back 50 meters in and towards the rocks, the second wave pushed me another 30 meters in and the third wave pushed me out into the harbor. I paddled back out and was sitting far out and had the exact same thing happen again before I could get a wave. It was time to call it a day. I ended up with one barrel and a few really long rides with some good turns. When the boat dropped us off at Playa Colorado the waves were huge lefts breaking double overhead. I took one of the smaller waves in and then sat by the pool with John Haan watching guys pulling into big left barrels.

A big thunder and lightening storm blew through and lasted 30 minutes. We watched the show from the balcony and got some video footage of the lightening.

For dinner, we walked to Gigante to get lobster dinner at Buena Vista. We had to time the tides and daylight to get there. By the time we got to Buena Vista the sky was dark, except for a few lightening strikes off in the distance. There was also no more lobster left. We settled for filet red snapper. Not as good as the lobster, but still very good. Lenny walked with us to the Hostel because he said there was another party and we were going to try to get a ride back from someone there. There was no party and no ride. The ONE taxi in Gigante did not show up and we ended up walking home over the rocks and on the beach. Lenny was creeping out John Haan. He kept asking John for a dollar and then $10 later before we separated at the rocks on the north side of Gigante bay. The hostel is an interesting place; at $10 a night it is a cheep place to stay, but the drugs associated in and around it is not fun. We made it back to the condo in one piece and without incident.

Day 12: Big swell shows

Chippa wafting

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Unidentified on a clean left at Playa Colorado

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John Haan snaps one at Playa Colorado

I think I lost 10 pounds in 2 days from the food poisoning. I am finally starting to be able to eat food again. I had toast for lunch and pancakes for dinner. The swell showed up around this afternoon and NIcaragua finally showed John Haan its glory. Some pros also showed up just in time for the big waves. Andrew Doheny, Chippa Wilson, Mason Ho, and Matt Wilko with Chippas video crew. They have video guy, water photog, and land photog. They are staying in the condo next to us. I heard one of the local kids say they are taking a boat to outer reef tomorrow in Popoyo. John Haan and I booked a boat trip to Manzanillo tomorrow afternoon. The tide is mid-tide later morning and early evening. Hopefully we will score some good waves. We are taking the boat with a guy named Mateo I met on the beach today. He is an American that lives in Gigante. I didn't surf today because my stomach still wasn't right. As the sun was going down we saw a wave break on an outer reef at Playa Colorado. I didn't have my camera, but there should be similar waves if it gets bigger tomorrow as the reports are saying.

Day 10.5 and 11: Food poisoning

It wouldn't be a trip to Central America without someone getting sick. In Costa Rica in 2005, John Haan and I were surfing together and he was the one to get food poisoning. I guess it was my turn for this trip. I think it was either the left over pasta meat sauce or the orange juice. Either way, I was up all night vomiting and going to the bathroom. Vomiting with hurts ribs is not the most pleasant experience. I was up all night and still had issues in the morning. I had a fever and muscle aches. By late afternoon, I was able to drink water and gatorade and stop the dehydration effects on my body. I hope everything is better by tomorrow when the swell hits.

Day 10 (8/10/11)

John Haan Jr arrived and brought a fresh load of groceries. We surfed Playa Colorado with a side wind. The waves were shoulder high and mostly walled. It was dropping to low tide but I managed to get a good right and a few good lefts. The waves were good for doing floaters. The surf forecast is projecting over head to double overhead Friday-Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing how Playa Colorado handles that much swell. I heard from other guys that come here a lot that it is the best place when it gets big.

Day 9 -Day of Rest

I woke up at 5:30 AM to check the surf and it was really small. Matt was leaving that morning so we just cooked breakfast and hung out at the condo. After Matt got picked up, I think I took several naps that probably added up to 5 hours of sleep. Two week trips are tough on the body when you haven't been surfing everyday. I think the ideal trip is 10 days. My skin is pealing on my nose and my lips blistered. I have a hurt rib and yet I am only half way through my trip.

Day 8

Larry's last day. We surfed shoulder high surf out front at Playa Colorado in the morning. Larry's taxi he set up with Ariel was 40 minutes late. We were lucky to cancel the other taxi that we had called from the NSR surf shop. It was a good thing Larry planned to leave way early. I went and looked at some of the lots for sale with Carl, NRS real estate. There was a huge lot for $250k that was bundled with a second row lot right behind it. The lot was right in front of Panga Drops. It will be interesting to see how fast Hacienda Iguana develops. The cost of building is $60 -$100 per square foot depending on the quality. Matt and I surfed blown-out surf when the sun was going down. It was the first day all week that the wind blew onshore.

Day 7 in NICA

8/7/11

The surf out front at Playa Colorado was pumping. Sets were over head, winds offhore (again), and barreling. I saw more barrels in one session than I had ever seen before. There was one guy from Miami that was getting long barrels on the rights every wave. I didn't see him not make out of the barrel. My ribs were still hurting and it was a little intimidating to drop into the sets. I took a few medium size waves and and when I jumped off the wave at the end, the white water tossed me around, shooting pain into my ribs.

In the afternoon we walked back to Gigante to get Lobster lunch at Lenny's parent's restaurant. It is definitely was better to walk than get a taxi. The restaurant was on the top of the cliff and called Buena Vista. It cast 220 cordoba ($10) for a plate of 4 lobster tails, rice, beans, salad, and fried plantains. It was one of the best meals I have ever had.

We thanked Lenny and his parents and walked back to playa colorado and got ready for surf session #2. My ribs were starting to feel better. We walked up the beach to Panga Drops and surfed head high waves. Panga Drops is rock reef break that breaks farther out. It usually has more size than colorado, but the shoulder much more mellow. It is more of a long board cruising wave. I didn't really want to paddle that much and the waves didn't break in the same spot each time. I have heard that is getts really fun there with the right swell and tide. I got two waves and walked up to surf Playa Colorado until dark.

At night we went back to Don Elroy's for pizza and Tonas. Matt had not done the long walk because we got rides last time. We saw three tarantulas on the walk there and back.

Day 6 of Nica

We booked a boat trip ($90) to Manzanillo. Manzanillo is a left point about 20 minutes from Playa Colorado. The boats leave from Gigante and come pick you up in front of your beach. We woke up at 5:00 AM and cooked a good breakfast to last the long surf session. Larry triple ziplock bagged his camera and we paddled out to the boat. The cliffs just south of Gigante have some amazing homes. We are talking million doller homes in Nicaragua. The boat driver told us they belonged to Americans. Upon getting to Manzanillo, we did not see any waves. It was high tide and we thought it might start breaking as the tide lowers. The boat driver said to wait 30 minutes and sure enough, he was right. The wave stated firing off the side of the cliffs. The break is a rock bottom point that is a little tricky as the tide lowers. Matt didn't see the rock head jumping out of the water when the wave sucked up. He started paddling and didn;t even know it was there. I yelled at him, "no, no, no!!!" but he thought I was saying, "go, go, go!!!" Matt saw the rocks at the last minute and pulled out right before dropping in.

It was much better at high tide. I got some really good waves all the way to the beach and two little barrels. We surfed for 6 hours and my ribs were feeling a little better. We all got a lot of sun and the backs of my legs were really fried. Great wave and I am going to go again when John Haan gets here and there is bigger swell.

In the afternoon we ate burgers and hot dogs at the Playa Colorado grill. I found out that the tax and tip are included in every bill at 25%. Larry and Matt had several beers and had to sober up before going out to surf later.

There was a killer sunset that night, I ran to the beach to take some photos. I missed the best time by about 5 mintes.

We heard that there was going to be a party with a DJ at Gigante later that night. We arranged a taxi for $40 round trip. Our driver, Ariel, was awesome! He played some great Nica music in the car the whole way. The trip was 30-40 minutes even though the town was maybe 3 miles away. The roads go way inland and over before it cuts back to the beach. The roads are also dirt and have huge potholes. If it wasn't dark, the walk is way better. At Gigante we went to a restaurant and had Burritos Grande, but they ended up being more like chicken tacos. Still, very good. We met a local kid named Lenny and he knew about the party and took us there. We ended up hanging the whole night and learned his family owned the restaurant on the cliff and served lobster meals. I found a local little shop with an open window that sold odd and ends stuff. Our friends we were with bought a bottle of rum and I saw the hot sauce I like that we ran out of. I bought the hot sauce for $1 from a guy wearing a towel around his waste. The party was at a hostle and there were maybe 75 people there. It was a good time except for the two guys trying to sell us cocaine all night. We got the same awesome ride back from Ariel around 11:00 PM. Larry made oatmeal and peanut butter pancakes when we got back to our condo. Best pancakes I ever ate.

Day 5 in Nica

Larry's patented backside bottom turn

Mysto Left doing what it does. Looks enticing.

My ribs were still really hurting and I didn't surf. I took photos of Larry and Matt. Got some really good shots. Matt was having a tough time getting into the surf. His hangover was not helping. Larry managed to get some massive rights and we all decided after viewing the photos that Larry has perfected the backside bottom turn. The waves were way overhead and barreling. We walked to the NSR surfshop to arrange the ride to the clinic for my ribs. I was offered the moto by the assistant in the office. It was tempting but I had no idea were it was and the last thing I needed to do was fall on a motorcylce in Nicaragua. I also heard Matt's infamous story "you guys want to see something amazing story." I ended up getting a ride to a clinic and and got some muscle relaxer and pain killers. It was $40 to get a ride and $25 for the clinic and pills. For dinner we ate pasta and then watched surf videos. We booked a boat trip to Manzanillo the next morning and were getting up at 5:00 AM. Matt shaved his facial hair into a fu man chu and asked Larry and I if he should keep it. That was a dumb question because he already knew that were we going to make him keep it. The night then led to a fu man chu photo session for the facebook album titled "fu man chu series." We played around with slow shutter speeds on my camera (Canon 7D and tokina fisheye lens) and got some awesome shots of the fu man chu. See Larry's facebook for the 20 photo portfolio.

Day 4

Me on my one wave. Good snap with hurt ribs.

Slept in again due to high tide. My ribs were hurting really bad. I tried to paddle out and at about halfway through the lineup I didn't think I was going to make it out. I finally made it to the outside. I caught one wave did a few turns and rode it to the beach and called it a day. I ended up taking photos all day.

Larry, Matt, and I walked to the south to check out the waves around the point. We had heard that there was a right that broke on high tide. We walked around the point to Playa Amarillo and saw another point to walk to. On the walk we got sunburned despite the 50 spf sunblock we had on. We saw a flat fish (sole fish?) stuck in the sand on low tide. Larry used his sandles to get it back to the water. Around the other point was Playa Gigante, a small fishing town.

Larry and Matt walked to Panga Drops, a reef wave north of Playa Colorado. I needed a nap and couldn't surf because of my ribs.

Later on in the afternoon I took photos of the surf at playa colorado. The light was perfect and waves were getting better. There were two guys from Florida were sitting on the beach and I offered them both cold beers, it made their day and I told them to pass it on and give a stranger a cold beer in the near future.

Night time came and we were fired up to go to Don Elroy's, the pizza place. About two minutes into the walk we saw a tarantula and I tried to take a picture. The problem was that I left the battery for my camera in the charger. Larry and Matt said there was a two shot penalty for turning back, but I had to have the camera to document the night. The lucky part about going back was we found a ride and were able to avoid the muddy walk all together. At the bar we met Jim, he owned a lot of property in Hacienda Iguana. He helped develop many of the properties. On the way back after a long and eventful night, we got a ride from some brazilians. The guys from Florida had two bikes and we holding on to the back of the truck. No one got hurt and I got some good pictures.

Nica day 3

Woke up before daylight to check the surf. Larry's roster alarm went off and I thought I was in Hawaii. We didn't have internet so we had no idea about the tides. The tide in the morning was a 10 foot high and was breaking over the river sandbar. We went back to sleep and needed it. When we woke up, we decided to walk to the surf shop to exchange Larry's board from a short board to a long board. Larry went the wrong way around a puddle and stepped into ankle deep mud. Once we got to the shop we were lucky that there was a guy there even though it was closed. Larry forgot his credit card and couldn't check a long board out because it required a larger deposit on his credit card.
It turned out to be a good thing because the waves were not good for long boarding. The wave were head high and blowing strong offshore. There were so many barrels in the lineup. I pulled into a few rights backside and got worked. I should have ridden my bigger board to get into waves earlier. I tweaked my ribs on one wipeout. I can see how Nicaragua is so good with offshore winds all day.
The internet came back up and we caught up with emails. In the afternoon we went out and caught some good waves in front of the tree stump. One of the local kids (Miguel, I learned later), Snaked me on a good wave. I called out to him that I had it and he looked back and dropped in on me anyway. I kept going and had to catch him from running into my board. He was so upset that he cussed me out and told me "this is my country!" He proceeded to snake me on the next way I took and told me to meet him on the beach. A 19 year kid that spoke no English was so pissed. I think most of the aggression was to show off for his friends. I surfed for another hour and Miguel met me on the beach to confront me. I told him that I had " no problema" and he slapped my board and pushed my shoulder. I just kept walking to out beach club and ignored the aggression. I explained the incident to the locals at our bar and I think one of them told the boys to come over and make amends. We talked it out with a translator and I bought the 3 local teenagers hotdogs and everything was good. I am glad we worked it out. 2 weeks with locals hating you is no bueno.
Matt Rhorer showed up at 4:00 PM with no sleep for 26 hours. Let the party start!!! Matt caught some immediate waves as Larry body surfed the shore break at high tide. I took photos of Larry bodysurfing and the sunset.

Dinner was the best ever... Chicken and pasta with rum cocktails. We had a bet about how tall Laird Hamilton was and Larry bet a shot of rum (we were watching a surf video with Laird Hamilton tow-in surfing at Jaws). I won the bet and Larry ended up falling while trying to sit down later that night.

Day Two

NICA: Day 2

We were in the water by 6:00AM at Playa Colorado. We surfed 30 minutes by ourselves in perfect head high surf. After the session, we cooked eggs/chorizo burritos with toast and orange juice that tasted like tang. After breakfast, we surfed again at low tide and took turns taking some photos. The waves were barreling and really fast. We have learned that with the quick and drastic tidal changes, along with the changing sand bottom, the waves can turn epic for 20 minutes and then turn off just as fast.

For lunch we made peanut butter and jelly and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I made a triple layer sandwich with 3 pieces of bread.

In the afternoon, we decided to walk to the far north point and see the other beach properties. The north point is called Punta perros. The tide was still low and the rocks were exposed and very slippery. There were many tidal pools and lots of sea life crawling and swimming around. The point is a surfable right but it wasn't big enough to breaking. On the walk it started to rain, typical afternoon thunder shower.

The last surf session was in the afternoon on high tide. The waves were slow and there was a good shore break going. I took one wave all the way to the shore break and tried to pull out at the very end and still ended up slamming on the sand pretty hard. Larry went and got his fins and went bodysurfing in the shore break. I met a couple taking pictures everyday. Alexis, from Brazil, and her husband showed me some my pictures from the first day. The pictures were decent, but expensive. I told them I might be interested at the end of two week if I didn't get good pictures with my camera. It is hard to convince surfers to take turns taking photos when the waves are really good. Most of our pictures are in afternoon sessions when the waves are not as good.

Dinner was amazing. Our new friend Zach brought his wife by and they cooked lobster, fish, rice, and beans. It was so good. Another big group, Larry, and I enjoyed the delicious food. There was tons of food and everyone enjoyed the night with Tona and Flor de Cana. The local dogs were hanging around and begging for scraps.

In the beginning there was NICA

Day 1: Nicaragua (8/1/11)

Larry and I arrived in Managua airport with little incident, paid the $10 tax to enter the country that has waves with off-shore winds 300 days a year. After getting our bags, I was engulfed by the warmth of hospitality of Nicaragua. From the Customs table to our chauffeur, I had to tip $1 to three different individuals helping me with my board bag. I looked to our driver, Edwin, for help and he just shrugged his shoulders and tightened the board to the roof of his Toyota 4 Runner. Edwin was quick to let us know that he only spoke 40% English and we needed to speak slow. That was good because Larry and I spoke 10% Spanish.

Edwin proceeded to take us to La Union supermarket ( I am pretty sure owned by Walmart). The prices were higher than expected and I convinced Larry that we needed the 18 year old Flor de Cana Rum instead of the 7 year old bottle. We decided to get both. The store was surprisingly clean and peanut butter was the most expensive item compared to US markets. We loaded up on some cold Tonas (local beer that taste like Miller Lite). After finishing a few Tonas, we needed to make a few pit stops to empty the bladder. Each stop greeted us with a different set of unique individuals asking for money. Edwin asked if he could make a quick stop to take care of something. No problem... at least until we stopped in a strange ally with an older caucasian guy circling our 4 runner. It seemed shady until Edwin brought back two bags of fresh vegetables.

On the road to Hacienda Iguana (16 km of bumpy dirt and mud roads) we ran into the occasional ox and carriage, stray dogs, and pigs. Students dressed in Catholic school clothes lined the street. Edwin informed us that school is in the morning and afternoon. Kids go to school twice a day in Nicaragua. There was a group in a small rental car that was on the side of the road deciding if they could cross the huge mud puddle that consumed the whole road and was about .5 meters deep (I make the measurement in meters becuase the is the unit of measurement everywhere but the US). A 4-wheel drive (cuartro por cuatro) is a must in Nica during the rainy season.

Finally to Hacienda Iguana, a gated/armed guarded community with a golf course. It seemed more rural than we anticipated, but figured that was better for less surfers in the water. We got to our condo on the 4th floor and it was amazing. Great view of the waves (see picture above) and very spacious. Larry and I paddled out for an hour or two and got some good waves. We were told that the morning with a lower tide will be much better (we will see). There were sea lice in the water that we couldn't see and they kept stinging us. Not too painful, more annoying.

The walk to the pizza restaurant and bar was quite eventful. There was thunder and lightening, but no rain on the way. We used our iPhone's flashlight app to help guide the way. There are huge puddles on the dirt roads and without lights it would have been impossible to get to the pizza bar. We saw tons of fireflies on the way, so amazing. At the bar, there was a large crew of guys and girls from Oxnard and Ventura. There was good conversation and the Pizza and fries were delicious. The walk home was more eventful, with the rain pouring down and the Oxnard crew got their golf cart stuck in a mud puddle. We helped them out and proceeded to the condo. The night ended with a surf video to get ready for the next day of surfing and a blind taste test of the Flor de Cana 18 vs 7 years rum. Larry chose 7 and I chose 18.

Looking forward to good waves and clean conditions tomorrow morning.