I'm heading to CR in mid-July. My girl wants to check out the national park at Manuel Antonio while we're there and I'm wondering if that would be a worthwhile area to surf during that time of year? I'm a novice, so I don't need anything too crazy to have fun.. Willing to travel north or south from there too - but I'll probably be flying into San Jose either way due to the flight schedule and cost of tickets.
Good Idea Good spot to go with the women. There is surf and other things to do in the area as well. If your funds are decent you should check out the Costa Verde Hotel. Your girl will appreciate it.
Maneul antonio has a little beach break right near the park entrance. Beach has plenty of people thus safety is not an issue. If you rent a car pay one of the folks running the t-shirt stand to park and watch your car - best $5 deal in town. Quepos is another story. I do not recommend leaving your girl on the beach while surfing quepos town spots (harbor jetty). Drugged out crazy folk everywhere. Dominical to the south has plenty of surf plus is safe. Kind of a half funky, half cheesy beach scene down there. Prime surf season. There are lots of nuggets of good surf mixed in between but your gonna have to put in your own effort if you want to find out about those!
I was in that area a few weeks ago. We didn't check Manuel Antonio, but did check the Jetty in Quepos. I concur in the fact that the beach by the jetty in Quepos would likely not be an enjoyable spot for your lady to chill while you are surfing. The setup (left point) wasn't working all that great when we were there, but you could really see the potential. However the river drains into the spot, and I wouldn't surf there after much rain for that reason. From what I understand Manuel Antonio is nice, and provides some decent surf. Probably a good bet. We stayed in the Dominical area. To me, the beachbreak at Dominical was somewhat unremarkable. It's just a beachbreak. However, it picks up swell like a damn magnet. For 1/2 of our trip, it wasn't really surfable because it was too heavy. Not heavy in a good way, literally no one went out at the beachbreak during that stretch. It was at it's best when the swell was very faded; bigger than everywhere else and really fun. Can't explain it, it was heavy, yet fat and playful. I know that description makes little sense, but that's how it seemed. All the swell we got was around 15sec stuff, so the swell had juice. Only worked mid to high tide. In fact most spots in that area only worked well during mid to high tide. Dominicalito is a small beachbreak south of Dominical. I think it's mostly a closeout spot for beginners, but at the peak of the swell, it was head high and actually provided some racy long rides. Much less powerful than Dominical, and sheltered a little better from certain winds. I think that was a fluke though, because as the swell faded it looked prettty poor. Hermosa de Osa (not the main Hermosa but the one South of Dominical) is only 10 minutes from Dominical. Beachbreak that was quite fun when we were there. Again, mid to high tide. Less power than Dominical, but had punch, and at chest to head a tad plus was really fun. Some point breaks/reefbreaks in between that were really fun when the swell was on. This was my first time surfing this stretch of Costa. Wouldn't have been my first choice of places, kind of fell into the house rental which dictated the trip location, but it worked out pretty well. Although the drive wasn't too long from San Jose, it's annoying. If you're not bringing boards, I think you can hop a flight to Quepos on one of those tiny planes (Nature Air I think), and rent your car out of Quepos, which might be worth checking out. Roads from San Jose all the way to Dominical and beyond are paved now though. You may want to look at the rainy season info, because July is the middle of it. I think there is a weird phenomenon though where there is actually a little break to the season, but I'm not sure. Never went at that time myself. Have Fun!
Playa El Rey! It's between Dominical and Quepos (I call it Compost) Best to stay at The Cabinas Vista Hermosa or in Esta Rios.
We have surfed 2x in CR. Both great. One trip was actually in July in Manuel Antonio - but we went over to Dominical to surf. Surfed Dominicalito as well, which was really fun. The weather was great - I think they just say it is rainy season to have the country to themselves for awhile. The other trip was in springtime - to the west coast, just south of Playa Hermosa and it was great. We did surf at Quepos one day when it was too otherwise too big, but if I had known about the pollution, I would not have done it. Have a blast!
