What's Your Next Surf Trip Going to Be?

We’ve got a family friend who has relatives in Mullahmor and they own that big hotel right near there, overlooking the beach. It’s attached to a big name surf group I cannot at the moment think of, but he was all over me to get a trip together and he’d make all the calls and connections. It would definitely be a solo trip though as daughter and wife don’t like cold/wet weather. I’m gonna go to LaJolla area and CR before I head out there though... I need some polishing up before I go play in that stuff. I gotta say though, that simple trip to Gilgo with BassMon did the trick for me; I’m really looking forward to new places to surf.

 

My buddy Skinny Vinnie, he's 80 years old at least,used to be a lifeguard there in Gilgo and Tobay. He said alot of his buddies got out of WW2 and became surf bums and ocean guards. He was a sniper, he finally told me, after decades of sharing drink and story.

Here's a link to a story, and an old photo of those crusty barnacles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/nyregion/saving-swimmers-well-into-senior-years.html

 

Now that’s some awesome stuff Brother. Good share

 

So I went to El Salvador this past summer for about eight days. I think my next trip will definitely be back there. Waves were glassy and consistently head high to slightly overhead every morning. Surfed Sunzal mostly and while it was somewhat crowded, there are plenty of waves to go around. Food is good, locals are friendly, and enjoyed practicing my Spanish while there.

 

DP.... little late but thanks for the comment about the wedding. We too did everything ourselves. Were going to do a 2 year engagement but got excited and did it all in a year and a week. Our extended family and friends keep contacting our parents saying they did a beautiful job and our parents are like "we didn't do a single thing. It was all bassmon and wifey". Very rewarding on top of the beautiful day.

And sisurfdogg.... that is super cool. Don't want to give to much info on spots but let's just say i know both extremely well and write about them both here. He still on LI? I have alot of family/friends who are 50-60+ who grew up surfing these beaches.... wondering if they ever crossed paths.

 

Just got back from another surf. Relaxing with sponger coffe. Time for another trip update.

So i left off surf wise on thursday morning i think. Spent the rest of that day relaxing, hanging out on the beach, i think i took a nap. Went for another surf for the afternoon high tide. I wrote about it in the whos been surfing thread. Wifey woke my ass up knowing i wanted to surf. Winds went onshore but it still was looking fun. Lefts and rights. Chest high, some shoulder sets. Wrote about the stand out waves in the other thread so I'll spare you those details. Even with ehh conditions it's a great wave. The rights go on forever. The left's get a little soft and short at times but there are good ones. I actually caught my first left of the trip this sesh. Leg is ok. Hurts but I'm working through it. After the sesh we had some dinner, drinks, then called it a night.

Yesterday we had a full day planned. Still got a quick session in before heading out. At first look it looked maybe stomach/chest. Ran to grab the board and not even 10 minutes later it was much bigger. Shoulder/HH. Offshore. Tides full enough in the morning now. Best conditions of the trip and caught my best wave. Absolutley perfect A frames with rights that went for 100+ yards. Again, wrote about it in the other thread but this time I'll share it again. I got this place figured out now. This HH right came my way, almost didn't get into it causing a late takeoff right under the lip for a quick barrel, then it just went on and on and on. I don't remember the rest of the wave. I was in that pure flow state where the body just takes over. I do know however that i took that right to the very end.

After the sesh we did an adventure tour. Jose picked us up and drove us about 2 hours to this waterfall near a valcano. He spoke very good english but i refuse to default to english. He was a super cool guy and appreciated our efforts to only speak Spanish. He pointed out some cool things about the country on the way. Sugar cane fields and stuff like that and the logistics of how it all works harvesting wise. The waterfall was very pretty. Then he brought us to the adventure park. First we did ziplining through the canopy. It was fun. We had 4 other girls with us who were quite annoying. Super scared. I found it alittle boring honestly. Fun, beautiful views, but just didn't get a adrenaline rush from it. After that we did "tubing". This is funny. So the options were white water rafting or tubing. The wife isn't into tough stuff and thought "white water rafting" sounded to extreme. She would rather lay in a tube and float down a lazy river....i was on board with that. Well turns out it's "white water tubing". They warned us that the river was shallow and not the best for tubing. But thinking it's a lazy river thing we didn't care. We would of been much better off on a raft haha. Going down waterfalls and bouncing off rocks in a tube was tough and you had very little control. I flipped backwards down one waterfall. It was actually really fun, but tough. Hurt my leg a bit and smashed into quite a few rocks. We're planning on doing horseback riding after but i said no to that. Body was in pain. Id rather save it for surfing. So we had lunch, very good. Jose liked us so he brought us some beer. Then we did a mud bath and hot springs to relax. On the way back jose stopped at a bar in his town and we shared a few just talking. He said alot of people he drives don't like to stop in the local town bars for whatever reason. We told him how we think everyone is very nice and welcoming and enjoying spending time with the locals.

Once back to the room we rested then got dinner. Manny was sneaking margaritas over to our table for himself. He got pretty drunk. We got to talking about live music. He offered to take us out tonight to a local bar to listen to life music and dance. Not sure if we will. I really want to, but it's our last night, want to get a surf in before catching our flight. Plus he doesn't get off till 9-930 and we've been passing out by 8. We will see.

Woke up this AM for another surf. Got more great rights. Chest-HH. Offshore. Got a few really really fun rights. Only surfed for an hour. Surfing here tires me out not like at home we're i can go for 3 hours. My mantra here is not to over do it with the leg. I got the place down so i was able to catch multiple quality rights in a short time. Leg was beginning to hurt so i called it. Still can't get over how great this wave is. And now that i have the wave dialed in enough i no longer feel like i need more volume. The 5'8 flyer is working good for me. Now im just relaxing, don't know what today will bring. But we will see. Not looking forward to leaving tomorrow. It's unreal down here.

Will be back to tell you guys about this last day and a half. Somthing tells me surfing will be involved

 

Ended up just hanging out the rest of the day Saturday. Afternoon sesh was chest high and crumbly but still quality long rides. Went to the bar to go out with a bang. Manny wasn't around because he wasn't feeling good. Talked to tinco all night. Tinco helped us write a note to manny thanking him for the good memories. Manny really added somthing special to the trip by taking us in and showing us hospitality. Before the night was over we thanked tinco as well and took a picture with him. He too was a blast to be around and was very kind. I told him id see him in the water in the morning and went to bed.

Yesterday morning waves were still fun, but the worst of the trip. Chest high but still shoulder/HH sets every so often. Lined up super nice but had a little wonk to it from the backwash at high tide. Saw tinco and shared some waves. Once out of the water he gave me some surf stickers with a note. The note was very kind. Wished me and the wife a long happy marriage, made a few inside jokes. It made us both happy. Such a great trip.

 

I couldn't see the trip going any better. Will touch on a few things for anyone planning on heading down there.

1) this is the wet season. I think it was a good choice. Prices are cheaper supposedly. But there were some afternoon clouds/rain at times. Mornings were beautiful. The positive for me though was everything was green. Beautiful scenery. Talking with manny and tinco they say the dry season is more crowded and all the trees are brown. I guess it's a matter of opinion, but when i go back id want to go during the wet season again.

2) I didn't rent a car. It was ok though. Definitely would of had more options with one. But if your on a budget or just don't want to, you don't NEED one. If this wasn't a honeymoon and was a pure surf trip i would of gotten one however.

3) Tamarindo vs grande. I didn't go to tamarindo. But i could see it from the beach and it is definitely more built up than grande. It seems alot more tourists head that way, non surfers included. After being in grande i don't have a desire to see tamarindo. Grande felt secluded and "rugged" in a way. No ATMs. A couple surf shops, couple hotels and restaurants, and that's about it. This again is opinion. If i wanted to venture out and do diffrent things tamarindo might be better. But we wanted to just relax and enjoy the place... grande seemed better for that.

3) the wave at grande is awesome. Could of been the sand or swell but like i mentioned, first few days it was a challenge to adapt to the line up. Well worth it though. However it is shallow, if you catch a set on the peak it seemed deep, but as you went along you'd see the sand being sucked up the face. If surfing a outgoing mid tide it can go from fun to kinda sketchy quick. The tide swings are big, conditions can change rapidly. At least much quicker than im used to at home with a 3ft tide swing.

4) the rip jack inn was great. Restaurant there is really good! We only ate elsewhere once or twice. Surf, grab breakfast, relax, surf again, grab dinner/drinks, sleep, repeat. It's literally right in front of the main peak at grande. From the room to the water...2 minute walk. If you went and were bringing kids/wife it's perfect. You could surf or check the waves while they hang in the pool or whatever. The rooms are pretty basic. Bed, AC, tv, bathroom, little patio. The lesser rooms seemed similar, just smaller. Not luxury, but had the essentials.

5) Everyone was friendly. Honestly in the water there wasn't a good vibe, but it wasn't bad either. People seemed to just do their thing. No one hassled, didn't see one drop in or bad etiquette. A smile and hello goes a long way. I tended to sit just off the main peak and caught the rights that swung a little wide. Let the locals have their peak, although i did venture over from time to time. On land everyone was nice. I had no second thoughts what so ever about the lady sitting alone on the beach.

6) lastly, "americanized". I guess this comes down to how you define americanized. I was under the impression that servers/bartenders/ drivers would speak better english. Some spoke better than others. But i always spoke Spanish for as much of a conversation as i could. And even when i couldn't, i didn't fall back on pure english. Id try to work it out and ask how to say somthing if i had to. My Spanish is enough to get by, but weak. And i do need to work on it. I wouldn't suggest coming down knowing no Spanish. You don't need to be fluent, but a solid foundation is important i think. Might be diffrent in tamarindo. Couldn't tell you. Either way, all the locals seemed to appreciate us trying our best to use their language and even taught us a ton.

Amazing trip, beautiful country, incredible people, I'd highly suggest it to anyone looking for a fun fairly cheap surf trip. If anyones got questions feel free to ask. I only have a week experience down there but feel i got a good "lay of the land".

 

t minus 60 days!!

 

So true, I was digging this stuff out from under my toenails and a cut on my foot for a couples weeks afterwards

 

anyone been to the Azores?

 

that's on my top 3 list. hoping next year once i save up

 

37 days til Costa

 

Headed back to N/NW PR in a few weeks. Love that island.

 

Major trips are Dominican in Jan with wife (so who knows how much surfing I'll get in), and then PR in mid-Feb.

 

Im set go Nov 5-12. Amping for that west coast juice.

 

it's looking like Puerto Rico in mid February. cheap flights out to escape the winter cold

 

France in Feb, staying 2 days in Hossegor, hopefully don't get skunked (rest of the time cosuming baguettes and vino with the wife in Paris)
Mexico in May and Nicaragua in August.

Anyone have experience surfing the Taghazout, Morocco? Putting together a trip in Jan'20. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Probably Rincon in late January. Nothing booked yet. Did Rincon in January of last year and had a blast. It was still recovering from Maria from a few months before that, but it was in pretty decent shape and things were mostly back up and running there. Excited to see it this January.

Would love to do Oahu or maybe even Costa or Nica for those 4-5 days I have off, but it's too much time wasted travelling when I only have 4 or 5 days. Costa and Nica would be suite if the flights out of the New Jersey/New York area weren't red eyes, which would cause me to waste at least a day of my vacation waiting to leave, as I usually am not finished with work until the AM hours some nights.

I am going to California early next month on business, and I always get together with friends out there and do some surfing in both Nor Cal and So Cal.