May 13th, 2023

Somewhere in Nicaragua

Most of the barrels came through as soon as I arrived at the beach. I shot pretty early today, so the water was a deeper shade of blue than the brighter turquoise we saw in the days prior. This is our homie from a couple days back who busted a big frontside air. He pumped through this mini-cave for a couple seconds, but unfortunately it gobbled him up. If you stick around to the end of the report you’ll get to see him mid-flight again 🙂

This fella in all black was sitting further south today, closer to our beach club here in Iguana. He ended tucking into this foamy, yet hollow right shortly after I arrived. He nailed this one! It was the best barrel I saw today.

Here is a shot from later in the sequence. He dropped his back knee forward quite low to the deck. Squeezing through the barrel as it runs down the beach. I really like how he placed his lead hand low (to the deck of his board) and pointed his fingers out where he wants to go. Earning some style points on this one amigo!

Most of the lefts were soft today, but our hero here managed to find a pretty throaty one! He took a big pump/drive across the face immediately after the takeoff. I was impressed at how much speed he was able to generate with just one pump. You can see all the water being displaced on our (spectator’s) side of his rail. That is a good indicator as to how fast he was moving through this one. Unfortunately it ran hot on him in the end, but I’m sure he enjoyed the tunnel-vision!

Here is the same gentleman on one of the last barrels I saw come through while shooting. The light to moderate off-shore winds have been grooming the waves perfectly the past few mornings. Today was no exception to our “mostly” off-shore days in Playa Colorado. I bet the guy going over the shoulder of this one wished he could trade places with our tube hunter!

I think a few of the early birds watching at Pili’s (the beach club) saw those few tubes roll through, then decided to try their luck out there. Go get ‘em fellas! The weather on the beach just after sun-rise was perfect this morning. It was sunny, but the breeze was cool so it was a good time to get some UV exposure before melting into a puddle!

I won’t keep you waiting any longer! Here is our aerial acrobat taking advantage of some lofty launchpads on today’s buffet of waves. He even managed to toss a cool “Halo” of spray up behind him as he rotated through the air further adding to the aesthetic of the move.

Now it’s hack time! Today was a good day for everyone to sharpen up on their rail game. I think the offshore breeze helped “puff” up everyone buckets that they were tossing.

This guy’s under-the-lip carve was my favorite turn of the day. He hooked through this turn so hard that I think I can see his trailing arm completely submerged in the wave face behind/beside his body. He really jammed on the breaks/toe-side rail on this one!

This fella paddled out while I was shooting and was quick to pick up on the fact that it was a longer wait between sets today. He surfed down south of everyone and stayed busy on the inside. I usually like to be picky and wait for the better waves when surfing, but this guy was still blasting some frothy lips on the inside.

A few clouds rolled overhead and the wind dropped for a brief a few minutes. Our goofy-foot friend managed to find a silky smooth left during this brief respite from the offshore breeze. These oily smooth faces are my favorite for roundhouse cutbacks. Good choice of maneuver here amigo!

Just as I was preparing to head out, a nice little set hit the northern sandbar. It was pretty quiet up there today, with more action in the middle of the lineup indicating that there was more south in the swell direction today. The northern sandbar gets really fun as the swell comes more and more from the west. Our backhand surfer did well to “tee-up” off the lip on this left even though it was only about stomach high.

Alrighty amigos, that’s all of today’s best action from the sun-rise session! Tomorrow is forecasted to be bigger with a new moderately sized swell filling in. I’m a little skeptical after how hard Surfline faded us the past few days hahaha. B-Scott will be back on the report tomorrow, so be sure to check back in and see if we manage to get a little more love from the incoming swell! Cheers guys and have a good one.