May 25th, 2023

Somewhere in Nicaragua

A fellow photographer opted to protect himself from the sun to the maximum extent while subjecting himself to more heat from his layers of clothing. I bet he wished that he was inside of this mysto left barrel. In the shade and a few degrees cooler!

Lesther was savvy enough to find one of the few good barrels of this morning’s window. He knows how to stay cool and out of the sun during this time of the year when it gets sticky on the beach!

I guess our friend here with the red board opted to work on his sun tan as opposed to grabbing rail and tucking into the shade haha! The surfers heading out were probably confused by his decision. To be fair most of the waves this morning weren’t hollow and were much better for lip-smacks and airs.

Speaking of airs, one previously unidentified surfer from my prior reports, took to the sky once again today. I introduced myself in the water a couple of days back, and it turns out he is from Poland originally! His name is Max and I believe he is spending more time in Portugal as of late, hence his darker tanned skin and impressive surf skills. I’d be willing to speculate that Max is the best Polish surfer in the world haha!

I’ll go ahead and drop the rest of Max’s highlight reel from today. He definitely won the heat and likely had everyone combo’d! This air-reverse was super clean and he rode out of it smoothly. One thing I really enjoyed when reviewing Max’s photos from today is his tendency to point his index finger straight up toward the sky. He is subtly signaling that he is “Number 1” haha!

Here he is initiating a layback snap to slam this end section shut! Of course he’s got his fingers pointing straight up to maintain his signature style.

The waves are usually pretty good and consistent here at Colorados (and Panga Drops), so I am usually picky in the water and won’t even look at ripped up waves like this one. When I was surfing with Max in days prior I saw him actively search out these types of waves, with the purpose of projecting off the “coping” to execute more radical airs and tail slides. The way he buried his nose and rode out of this blow-tail reverse was super impressive. I don’t know if Max competes, but I bet he’d do fairly well on the ‘QS if the decided to partake.

My neighbor Yuji was likely inspired by Max’s massacre (of the waves), and decided to try his hand in flight himself. He’s higher out of the water than I ever get, but still has some work to do before riding out of these no-problemo like Max. I’ve been told that sucking your knees and feet close to your body while in the air helps keep the surfboard under your feet.

Yuji was the early bird of the two brothers this morning and nabbed a couple of “keeper” rides. Koji passed me on the way down to the water’s edge and made the smart move of getting out for a few quick waves in the morning, in case the wind got a little weird around lunch-time, which ended up happening today.

Lesther representing the local contingency in the line-up today. He did a good job showing Max that he’s not the only competent pilot out there!

Another local fella from Gigante was on a hot streak in the water this morning. Nose-low and tail-high, textbook form just like Lesther and Max demonstrated for us. The rights tend to bend more toward the beach here than the lefts do, which makes the rights more attractive for aerial maneuvers like these.

He was trying to do his friends in the lineup a solid by cooling them down with a large shower haha! I don’t think any of them were directly behind him here, so his efforts were in vain. If you’re in a wetsuit right now where you live and are looking to thaw out, then now is the perfect time to dart down here. It’s literally like a bathtub in the lineup this time of the year with the stronger sun, lighter wind, and higher humidity.

Well amigos, that’s all I’ve got for today! I saw a group of surfers in the lineup up the beach at Pangas. Luckily a nice set rolled through to our surfer in black here. Pangas can get really fun this time of the year when the wind is light in the mornings. It also tends to draw less of a crowd, so if you’re cool with less tubes and less heads then you know where to go. Tomorrow looks like it could be fairly mellow again, but we still have plenty of talented surfers out capitalizing on the conditions that each day brings. I hope you check back in tomorrow for more action and have a good one!