July 4th, 2017

Somewhere in Nicaragua

Today started out with a lot of rain. Not just a few drizzles here and there, but a full on downpour all morning. By late morning, I started to ponder as to how or what I was going to be able to shoot for you guys since the rain didn’t seem to want to let up anytime soon.

So, obviously what does one photographer do in a time of need when he doesn’t wish for his camera gear to get all wet but still needs to deliver the goods?

That’s right. I opted for the swim.

Ironically, just as soon as I got my gear all set up for some water action, the sky’s cleared and out came this magical lighting with crystal clear, perfection-like conditions. So typical here in Nica-Land. No weather app or person can predict the weather here; so we have all learned to just roll with it. Even though the sky cleared, this guy was insistent on giving me a proper downpour with this backside hack attack.

See what I was saying about the perfection-like conditions. This chica is all smiles laying into this bottom turn after waiting out the rains.

Lesther works hard through any kind of condition. He’s one heck of a dedicated human, that’s for sure!

Peaks, ramp sections, barrels, when our surf is on the small side, we have a smorgasbord of thing on offer here. Choose your secret sauce.

Pristine greenery as our backdrops, with crystal blue barrels for your driving experience. Need I say more..?

This guy was either about to crush that lip, or pull in… either way I didn’t want to take another frame to find out being that my water housing setup weighs in roughly around 15 lbs. Getting smacked in the eyeball wasn’t how I wanted to spend my 4th of July.

Freedom barrels for everyone today who were fortunate to wait out the rainy weather. Like they say at IHOP, come hungry, leave happy!

When you think of 4th of July, what’s that first thing that usually pops into your mind, when thinking of the grand old holiday??? Fireworks, right? Well, for one, it was daytime, so there was no way I could have provided that for you guys, BUT I improvised and captured Jackson Obando flaring off the hook, blowing his own fireworks, blasting a huge one off the backside of this wave!!! BOOOOM – POWWWWW – CRACKLE – SPARKLE!!!!! The crowd goes NUTS!

Like any good Holiday, the party isn’t over half way through the day. I returned a little later to see what we still had on offer for waves and patriotic crowd surf factor.

When the tide was going out (trust me when I say I found a few of the new sandbars when I was out there swimming earlier – I had a few good doughnuts) these low tide drainers were pretty much below sea level and mega shallow. Just be careful on this next swell we have coming in when it goes low tide.

As beautiful as it looks, these very same waves saw a very different time period when freedom wasn’t so fortunate at a time. Thankfully, these waves are now free for sharing and riding.

Just as I thought.. still plenty good out there with waves and people were firing off them fireworks with plenty of spectators to witness the show!

This guy’s happiness for this barrel just resonates with ripples of pride for freedom and love of wave riding! Can you tell??

And of course, how can we not represent and be proud of the Red, White and Blue on a day like today.

Its the small things in life we should never cease to forgot or appreciate, EVER! Freedom should never be taken for granted no matter where you choose to live.

Thank you to everyone who took time from whatever it was that you were doing today to stop and look at what we enjoy sharing with you, especially for this 4th of July special edition of the Nicaragua Surf Report . I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday and took a moment to reflect on how special it is that we are free to do what it is that we do. Ser agradecido, ser humilde, ser feliz! ~ Chao