May 12th, 2023

Somewhere in Nicaragua

This was the best wave I saw while shooting. Unfortunately our hero didn’t find his feet and toe-side edge quick enough on the takeoff! I had a good laugh at this photo because you can see our oncoming challenger on the beach pointing out the empty tube, “Ah man he should’ve been there!”

I have to start off the report with one of my favorite people here in Iguana, Jamie Kocher a.k.a LEBRON JAMES. I was so stoked that Jamie went for this bigger right set and nailed the takeoff + PIGDOG. I think he’s been secretly studying my backside barrel riding form haha. Look at how late Jamie was on this drop. Nice one amigo. You can also spot his leading arm starting to swing open, so that the nose of his board comes around to point across the wave’s face.

Yeah Jamie! Getting that hand in the wave’s face to slow down and keeping your eyes focused down the line. Well executed. I am stoked you got this wave!

The boogie boarders were still out on patrol today. Our fella here looking to tuck into a nice cylinder. Trying to compete with LEBRON JAMES in the barrel, eh?

Paula must’ve seen a couple of those tubes roll through and decided to go try her hand at some rights. She’s loosening up for some big backside hacks, while the fella in yellow in the background gets “Access Denied” by the lip of the wave. I know amigo. I’m still praying there are some barrels later today when the tide drains.

Our grommie squad wasn’t going to let the silky smooth conditions go to waste this morning! Here is our goofy footed amigo from yesterday (I think). Nice roundhouse buddy! You’re pushing on the perfect part of your heel-side rail.

This dude in white is here with the grom-squad (I think). You can see his technique and precision are at least equal to that of the little guys, but his additional muscle mass helps him chuck a couple extra liters of water out the back.

Now this little guy here, camisa roja, took first place today in the rail to rail aspect of the heat today. He looks like he is about 9 years old, but I think he’s displacing more water than I do on my turns haha. Once again, the grom-squad is showing us what textbook form looks like.

Not only was he pushing water, he was sliding on it! This was my favorite turn of the day. He carried plenty of speed through his bottom turn and got a sick tail-slide all the way across this falling section of the lip. Literally perfect timing of the maneuver/rotation.

Team huddle for the grommies, post-shred today. I bet they are already planning ahead for their next session, likely at mid-tide a few hours from now. These guys are definitely capitalizing on their trip here by squeezing in multiple sessions per day.

Kev-dog had an interesting strategy today. He sat down closer to the rip away from from everyone else. It was really slow down there, but I saw this gem come his way and I knew he would tear it to pieces. Sure enough, Kevin tore it up. He can’t let the groms catch all the good ones!

To close the report from today I have a couple of nice hacks from some mystery rippers. This guy’s section was softer than the next gentleman’s, so it was good that he engaged his rail adequately in this turn.

The face of the wave was steeper for this guy’s section. He opted for a sharp tail-heavy turn to engage the fins and spin the board around quickly through the blast. Way to slap it mate!

Alright guys thanks for checking out the Friday surf report. I hope y’all have a good Friday. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow to see what the weekend brings. It looks like it will be slightly smaller tomorrow, but given the talented crew of surfers present there should be no shortage of action for us spectators.