 |
|||
|
|
TRIP REPORT # 1 March 7 and 8, 2008 |
||
Here is a brief summary of our first run to Pavones. Surfline was calling for a 6-11 foot South swell so it seemed like conditions were finally right to launch our first trip from Nosara to Pavones via air. The cast included Monte (as most of you know from the daily surf reports), Coconut Steve and Barry from Cape Cod. |
|||
The crew loading up at aerodromo Nosara |
|||
The flight down was absoultely amazing. There was a solid South swell in the water so we got to see all the well known spots and lots of not so well known spots firing! From the air every wave looks perfect and makable but Playa Hermosa for example, looked great, but we know it was probably double overhead and punishing. Still there were so many mysto rivermouth and point breaks in the middle of nowhere. Obviously, those waves were completely empty.
Mysto rivermouth. Large crocs probably rule this break.
The little left at Quepos.
This is called the whale tail.
Mysto left point #2.
Rio Sierpe North of Drake's Bay.
Coconut Steve daydreaming about perfect left point breaks.
Mata Palo.....looking good.
Our first glimpse of Pavones.....oh yeah!!!!!
From a different angle.......lets land NOW! |
|||
Once we got on the ground it was all about getting to the water. From the air we could see that waves were clearly making from the just inside the point to the boat harbor. This has been measured at 1,800 meters. It wasn't quite hitting that length but it was going to be fun. The best part was there were only about a dozen people on it.
If you have seen photos of my dog, Bean you will agree with me that this dog must share the same bloodline.
So there we were. Monte, Coconut, Steve and Barry.
I ran over to the point, just long enough to shoot this photo of an empty head high set. The camera was going to have a rest day today. |
|||
Day 1 - Surf was head high, good shape and the crowd was pretty much non-existent. About an hour into the session, Barry exited the water after taking a little wave. We saw him walking down the beach away from the point but he looked fine so we kept surfing, assuming he would paddle back out shortly. After another 2 hours, no Barry. So we got out to find Barry and have some food. See below for the full story of Where's Barry? Day 1 - Second session. After a casado at La Cantina we paddled back out for more head high stuff but this time the three of us had the point to ourselves until the sun went down. Day 2 - Back to the point at 5:45 to find shoulder high waves with nobody out.
It was all smiles after 3 great, uncrowded sessions at Pavones. |
|||
Where's Barry???? Or it is Barri? Or maybe Berri???? So back to the middle of day 1. We got out of the water and figured Barry would be hanging out at La Cantina waiting for us. However, there was no sign of Barry. All we could do was start thinking of different scenarios. Maybe he pulled a muscle and went to get a massage? Maybe he loved the waves he caught so much that he was at a real estate office inking a contract for a house? Perhaps he got sick of Monte dropping in on him so he caught a boat to Mata Palo for some REALLY uncrowded waves? The theories were flying but since it had been several hours since we saw him we were getting slightly worried. The thing was, Pavones is such a small town that he couldn't have gone very far but he was nowhere to be found. So we hatched a plan to find Barry. We created a missing poster and began asking everyone in town if they had seen our friend but we were coming up with nothing. Finally, someone suggested we go to the house of this old woman that might know something. The old woman appeared to be of Carribean upbringing but spoke some strange mix of Spanish, Creole and some other language none of us had ever heard. So we show her the poster that we created and she immediately said yes, she knows Barry and dissapeared into her kitchen. When she came back out she had a bottle of ketchup, which we thought was strange, but then she smeared ketchup on the drawing, right above Barry's eye, and ran it down his body and arm. She then took the pen and drew X's on his eyes and began to speak in that language we couldn't understand, so we left. We had no idea what happened but began had to assume the ketchup represented blood and Barry must have obtained an injury of some kind.
Our missing poster with the ketchup smear. Weird!!!!!!!!!! Finally, when our taxi came to pick us up from the beach they told us that Barry took his board to the head, suffered a cut above his eye and was back at the hotel getting medicated with Imperials. So the mystery was solved but we still didn't understand why the old woman drew the X's over the eyes on our poster. Barry told us that when he got out of the water, his eyes were like that of a chameleon, i.e. pointing in different directions. So the old woman, knew that Barry was injured and that his eyes were not working together but the strange thing is that Barry doesn't remember seeing the woman, and we don't think that she actully saw Barry but somehow she knew what happened to him.
The board hit me right here.
Our plane touching down for the trip back to Nosara.
Incredible views on the flight home. How about this beach break? Not a road, or house, or surfer for miles.
There are private runways all over the country.
Mel's Gibson's private beach.
Rounding the horn of Punta Guiones.
Nice afternoon in Guiones. Almost home. |
|||
If you want to get in on some of this action, just shoot me an email and if there is swell coming, we will take a trip to surf the longest wave in Costa Rica. |
|||
|
The longest wave in Costa Rica! The shortest route from Nosara to Pavones.
|
||
All images copyrighted by Soul Arch Photo. Any commercial use must first be authorized by Soul Arch Photo. |
|||
