October 19th, 2017

Somewhere in Nicaragua

Ok, so this morning was a little smaller than Tuesday and Wednesday…Those two days were epic here!! Now, we have fun leftovers.

If you’ve been to the Tola area of Nicaragua, you probably know Ryan and Alex. These two like to take a break from their shop in New Hampshire (Summer Sessions) and come hang out for a couple of weeks. You’ll know it’s Ryan by a friendly vibe with long locks in the line up.

I have to be honest: I had high expectations for the surf this morning. Yesterday was unreal because Josh (pictured here) and I traded off barrels for two hours. This morning (so it seemed) looked like it was going to be just turns.

Sets weren’t bad though. What is that? Like shoulder or possibly head high? Or is it a perfect screaming right?

Missing a wave is the worst feeling, right? This surfer made up for it later in this report…

Today marks two weeks out from Tropical Storm Nate. Hacienda Iguana is completely back to normal and operational. Some locals deep in the woods and by the rivers are still recovering (and will be for a while). Locals around here are resuming the daily routine and morning commute.

I knew the morning rush hour in Los Angeles is bad but I didn’t think Rio de Janeiro was worse.

Otherwise, plenty of fun waves came through. Handfuls of a frames ran down the bar and everybody was stoked!

Mitch, the owner of Becker Surf in Malibu, was enjoying his last day. Good to see you down here again and bring Sean, the groms, and Muzzy back next time!! Safe travels hombre.

I saw this ship pass by and I thought: what’s going on in San Juan del Sur this weekend?! Lots of people are probably heading that way so maybe we should cruise down there for a night or two…

I’ll be honest, I was sort of bummed on the morning session. I was watching it since first light and I didn’t see anything epic coming through. Remember, we get spoiled and all I wanted was head high barrels again. Unfortunately, I found mostly rippable waves. So, I was packing up my camera gear and thinking about scrambled eggs and pancakes or an omelet until this came through.

And another!! Wait.. what… how… where?!?! Time to post back up and capture some shots (and rethink if I should surf or not).

Ryan, always in position, scoring on a gorgeous right.

The. Set. Kept. Coming. And. The. Waves. Did. Not. Stop.

I think this was the 5th or 6th wave of the set? Remember how the guy in green baggies missed the right earlier in the report? Redemption is a beautiful thing.

Not a bad wave and not a bad way to end it!

The wives were rather unimpressed by the set but all the husbands who were surfing were very impressed.

So the main peak had a solid set come through and then I saw lines marching into the northern peak!!!

Our Spanish amigos fromRio Dulcewere in the right spot and the right time. Not to mention, their trip was perfectly planned: they are surfing this week and then traveling the country next week (when the surf deteriorates).

Pablo is one of Rafa’s friends and he’s been rocking the “tubos para desayunar” shirt. Mission accomplished, verdad primo?!

And that was that. It’s funny how I wasn’t much for an hour and then one epic set came through and nothing else for 30 minutes. I guess that’s the name of the game with beach breaks and leftovers (side note: the eggs, pancakes, bacon, and pineapple were delicious too). Stay tuned to see what Neptune sends us and thank you guys for checking out the shots today!