I am going to costa next week, but am not sure whether to go to the Grande area (north) or Hermosa (central) Its looking like north will be clean where as central will be semi choppy. I plan to fly into san jose, so i prefer to go central since its only a 2 hour drive. does any one here have any experience surfing costa with 5-10 MPH onshore winds? also, can i get a plane from san jose to somewhere close to grande? Thanks in advance
Central seems to be glassy every morning for about 3 hours before the sea breeze. I think the drive is much faster than 2 hours now with the super Chinese highway.
You can fly from Pavas in San Jo to Tamarindo and rent a 4 wheel drive to get to Playa Grande. Check Nature Air (natureair.com) or Sansa (flysansa.com). Good luck!
Its a pretty easy walk from Tamarindo to Grande if you don't have the $$ to drop on a 4wd. You can just hop on a bus from san jose to tamarindo for like $15
All depends on how much time you have, but Central is where the power is at. I just got back from CR two weeks ago and I found that you can get more quality breaks in and around the central coast all within a short drive. The super Chinese highway is partially open (rock slides), but you'll still have to drive around through Atenas. Its south swell season so you should be surfing south facing breaks and points. Get a boat out of Herradura for $15 and try Playa Escondida on low rising to mid-tide. Nice punchy lefts. Have fun.
im actually in costa right now and staying at hermosa. first 3 days i was here it was around 4 feet and really good but the past few days its been 6-7ft really heavy,closing out and crazy currents everywhere. i would say bail on hermosa and head up north. it will definitely be worth the longer trip
Guanacaste should be fun with solid swell and light winds in the mornings. Try Playa Negra. There's actually a nice left on a south swell, even though the spot's known for it's right.
Been To Costa Twice, I thought Tamarindo was the best bet. It offers 5 or six solid breaks such as In town @ tamarindo near the river mouth, Avelleas, Grande, Lagnosta, Negra within half an hour and witches is within an hour. Town has a lot to do at night and Negra was insane, its always going off. The further south you go the clearer the water gets. Hermosa was bad ass but it closed out a lot and it holds you under and might scare you a little bit when it’s big. Jaco was dirty and wasn’t nearly as nice as Tamarindo, but it was cheaper. If you hit negra nice, you'll never want to leave
I just came back from NW Costa Rica (Tamarindo, Grande, Brasilito, Negra, Avellanas, etc). Its worth the drive up to these spots, especially if Central is choppy. I was going to go out in Grande one day and it was way too choppy and rough for me, but a 10 min drive up the coast to Brasilito proved to be great surf. There are so many different breaks and spots that you can find a perfect spot every day. As for cheap airfare, try Nature Air. I had friends fly into San Jose and take a flight on Nature Air to Tamarindo for $80. Wayyyy worth the time and money. Have fun!
The new Costa Rica highway is a engineered road with modern bridges and overpasses. The mostly straight stretch of modern highway and fresh pavement includes lane reflectors, adequate signage and toll booths. The cost of the tolls for a trip from san Jose to the Coast is about five US dollars, well worth it for those used to modern roads in North America and other developed nations. The new highway goes through upscale suburbs of San Jose, Costa Rica like Escazu, Santa Ana, La Sabana, and ends in Puntarenas on the Central Pacific Coast. basically it shaves like 40 min off the drive to jaco/hermosa/esterillos area book your winter trips now! 10 discount for swellinfo members! rvb@surfcosta.com
Thanks for the responses and advice. How is it in costa with 10mph onshores? is it like here where it starts closing out? Next week is the only week I cango, I'm notsure if its worth it if its gonna be choppy...also, do I need to booka hotel in advance or can I rely on there being vacancies?
as mentioned before, best bet is to hit it early before onshores get it. thats pretty much the standard in CR. you might get some evening glass offs, but hit it early. and you want a higher tide. summer you should have no problem finding a place to stay. if you do plan to stay in hermosa area we certainly have vacancy (3 houses for rent - smallest being a studio, biggest sleeps up to 8). the surfcosta compound is 10 min south of Hermosa. pura vida rvb@surfcosta.com
onshores I just got back from guanacaste yesterday, i took the ollie's/witche's boat ride on sunday. In the early morning we showed up at ollie's with offshore winds, head to slightly overhead sets and like the longest sweetest rights i've ever ridden. But around 9:30-10 the winds came onshore, which it does about every day there, but ollie's is pretty sheltered so it didn't make a huge difference. When we went to witche's around mid-high tide i was really hoping for something hollow, but the winds going sw at 5-10 blew that chance. However the waves were still super fun. We surfed south of the rock a ways and there was a sick left coming in with fun shreddable walls, as well as some rights. Strangely it was a smaller than ollies at chest-shoulder, which is wierd cause ollie's has a smaller swell window etc. Anyway the point is guanacaste was still pretty sweet with light onshores.
Yeah I think that spot to the south is called Donkeys. When its good at Witches and every pro and bro is out... you can get super fun waves at Donkeys just a ways down the beach to yourself. I think it is just as good as the peak at Witches but to be safe I'll call it super fun.
