Surf 101
Costa Ballena offers you the best surfing conditions: Sunshine almost every day, big waves and a laid-back atmosphere and lifestyle. Especially Dominical has developed to a real surfers' paradise - visit us and immerse yourself into Pura Vida!
For first time surfers, Punta Uvita/Playa Chaman has great waves to help you learn and get up on the board for the first time. For intermediate surfers, Playa Hermosa has great waves and for the more advanced surfer, Punta Achiote and Playa Dominical provide consistent waves and are locals’ favorite surf spots.
Dominical is the gateway and the first beach of Costa Ballena. It has a relaxed atmosphere, and it is well known in the surfing world, a real surfer’s paradise. If you are new to the sport, there are schools that give classes for enthusiasts.
Costa Rica: a destination for all budgets, Free Travel Guide #98
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The organizing team behind our community's World Ocean Day celebration shares insights into this significant event, now in its fourth year.
Surf Board Shapers
Surf Board Shapers
~ by Trevor Brown
Thousands of people coming from all regions of the country for contests and events have made surfing one of Costa Rica’s most popular sports. However, surfing is much more than a sport; it’s also one of the greatest forms of self-expression.
Just as in music, dance, and other arts, there are no rules in surfing.
You have a wave, a board, and how you choose to ride one with the other. Self-expression in surfing is often found via board design.
Modifying the boards’ dimensions, shape, thickness, fin placement, and other small factors can change how a board performs custom to the style it is surfed.
In Costa Ballena, two local surfers have taken their expression to a new level by hand-shaping boards for themselves and their friends. Matu López of La Casita Pizzeria in Dominical started shaping boards by disassembling broken longboards and reshaping them into retro-style short boards.
His creativity and craftsmanship quickly grabbed the interests of his peers, which resulted in several requests to make similar custom board.
Now with more experience and a more refined skill, Matu continues to make boards for local Dominical surfers.
Esneyder of Uvita works on his own masterpieces. He has been hand-shaping boards for years now, and has made everything from performance short boards to classic longboard shapes.
When you surf in Playa Hermosa, look for locals riding his boards labeled Colo Tico.
Each shaper expresses their love for surfing through creative board design.
Living in Dominical, I’ve been fortunate enough to ride Matu’s shapes, and I’ve watched dozens of his boards being ridden by his friends. Each board draws a different line on the wave, and is surfed differently. Watching a stylish surfer on a hand-shaped board will always have more appeal than watching contest tricks.
This creative self-expression has propelled surfboard design and innovation since the beginning.
INFO: Trevor Brown – crsurfrealty@gmail.com
Why surfers are so cool?
Why surfers are so cool?
~by Trevor Brown
One of surfing’s greatest legends Andy Irons said it best “I surf because I’m always a better person when I come in.”
If you were to describe a surfer, you’d notice a few commonalities. First, most surfers are fit, tanned, and are usually calm, confident and have a positive outlook on life. This isn’t because surfing draws this particular type of person; it’s because of the numerous health benefits that change one’s body and mind as a result of the sport. The combination of fitness, chemical, and psychological impacts of surfing results in an overall healthy and happy well-being.
The chemical make-up of the elements involved in surfing has their health benefits. The ultra-violet rays of direct sunlight allow your body’s activation in naturally producing Vitamin D. The composition of seawater contains numerous vitamins, mineral salts, amino acids, and living microorganisms that reportedly produce antibiotic and antibacterial effects boosting your immune system. Also, minerals in seawater open the pores in your skin allowing your body to absorb other sea minerals, and at the same time, release toxins, and disease from your body.
Surfing is a mood enhancer full of positive feelings and a general reduction of negative emotions. In surfing, it’s just you, your board, and the ocean. The individual struggle with the elements allows for much self-accomplishment; it is very therapeutic. Floating in the saltwater watching pelicans pass over as you breathe in the fresh salty air to admire the beautiful backdrop of the jungle behind brings much inner-peace.
Surfers are so cool, Pura Vida!
Surfing Life
Surfing Life
by Perry Gladstone Photo A surfer Dream
Driving down the Costanera in Costa Ballena, South Pacific Costa Rica (#34 road), a young spider monkey ran out in front of the car. He barely made it across then leaped onto a nearby tree where another juvenile monkey was anxiously waiting. I saw the two of them clinging to the small trunk, totally engrossed in the moment. I am certain one was saying to the other, “Whoa dude that was close!”
Surfing life
I couldn’t help but think of the last surf trip I took with my pals. The waves were huge and at one point I got hammered by a giant wall of white water and dragged towards the rocks. I barely made it. Back on shore my friends were quick to tell me how lucky I was. It’s not a coincidence that our experiences and those of the rest of the world are similar.
We share the same planet, air, and life force, regardless of where we believe it comes from. Bottom line: we are all in the soup together. Those that surf are quick to extol its virtues. Part sport, part meditation, technical yet totally organic, surfing is a unique blend of freedom, creativity, adventure and skill.
Of course the wave has its own course and so the surfer must both navigate and negotiate the relationship at every moment. Life too, has its course and it’s up to us to choose our path in each moment. Like me and the monkey, some of our choices will be close calls. Other times they might be precious, tragic or forgotten.
It’s all part of the adventure as we surf on through.
