December 20th, 2023

Somewhere in Nicaragua

When I first got down to the beach, a few other challengers were out trying their hands at the conditions. One of the Rancho instructors taking a quick break to find some shade. Someone’s gotta do it!

An unknown surfer got a sick finale wave all the way to the shore after I arrived. His body mechanics were near perfect and I was impressed with how smooth his turns were despite the lump on the face from the wind.

And so begins John’s reign of dominance for the rest of the report. I feel that it’s pretty hard to compete with soft-tops at Pangas. You get early entries and so much speed, that you end up surfing ten times better than you would’ve on a shortboard. Pangas just isn’t the wave for shorter gear.

You may have thought that Wavestorms don’t go on rail, but John’s bottom turn here pokes a hole in that fictitious claim.

In 20 minutes, John likely combo’d every other person who surfed this morning haha. He even gets a cover up here.

The moment of rejection from the wave. When it engulfs you instead of giving you the clean exit.

That didn’t stop John though. It’s a make!

I guess one cover up wasn’t enough… The perfect section thrown his way.

After another brief shampoo rinse, he whipped out some Andy Irons style with a long lip-line floater.

Good mechanics John. We have to practice what we teach! Good sequence of rotation.

The wind was rather vicious blowing into the rights from Gigante’s direction. This created a rare situation where the lefts were actually better and cleaner than the rights.

John laid it all on the line for his finale wave (and maneuver) of the session. A high speed ends-section smack!

Look out below! Although John was strong today, he wasn’t stronger than the wind XD Even a great surfer can still be challenged by wild wind and some back-wash bounce. Falling on big moves is pretty fun though, at least you get a taste of victory before getting dunked under.

Well amigos, that’s all I’ve got for today’s action. I had to release Weapon X to hard-carry the surf report haha. Tomorrow’s forecast is looking pretty similar to today, so the size should be decent but the wind will be the tricky element. Regardless of the conditions, I’ll have some good content coming your way. Thanks for stopping by and have a good one.