Last month I traveled in Costa Rica. After spending few days in capital San Jose I decided going to Tamarindo to surf and enjoy amazing, breathtaking sunsets.
I lived in San Jose, Costa Rica for 2 years during pandemic between 2020 and 2022. After spending 3 years in Bogota, Colombia -just before moving to Costa Rica- I found San Jose quite small, calm and annoying city. Pandemic was other reason of days going tedious. However when we have opportunity to travel in the country I quite enjoyed what I saw and visited. Costa Rica is naturally so beautiful. It hosts various species animals, and birds.
Tamarindo became one of my favorite spots in Costa during these trips. Visited couple of times. A small, endless summer town on the sea shore. Various restaurants, small shops, artisenal food and icecream stores let you enjoy the day and bars and clubs the night. Besides, a wide beach along the town with stunning sunsets at the end of every day. The sunsets still one of the best in my life even though I have been living in Tahiti past 2 years.
Essential reason I visited Tamarindo was developing my surfing skills. I started surfing last year in Tahiti which is a great spot to learn. Tahiti will even host Surfing competions in 2024 Olympics organized by France. During the season waves are immense in surf beaches. Big waves to me are great for self learners like me. Because they end and explode with a great energy which pushes the board strongly. This gives you enough time to take control of the board and popup on it, then enjoy your ride. Past few months I progressed this way and can comfortably popup on the board in foamy/white part of the sea after the wave explodes.
When I want to jump to next stage I realized being struggled. The same big waves were causing me problem while popup along the wave. It was not easy my level to deal with this amount of big waves. Every time I tried falling down quickly and I was literally being rolled around, hitting to the ground or clashing to the board. It was really frustrating. Besides, after being pushed towards the shore going back to wave catching point was also excrutiating.
Because I was sort of stuck in progress decided going to Tamarindo to see if I can overcome this. I believe that waves are smaller and more regular than in Tahiti. Also, there are much more surf shop gives opportunity trying different boards to find fitting one, discussing with other people and instrtucts would help me to improve my skills.
Finally I went to Tamarindo, and stayed there 8 full days surfing. It happened exactly like I excepted which is really a rare case in my life -I mean something planned/expected literally happened :)-. The waves were smooth in the mornings and late afternoon until sunsets. They were perfect for my level. First 3 days I continued surfing with soft longboard like in Tahiti. However they were much heavier than my board at home. Then I started trying hardboard which was more efficient to catch the waves. Sometimes I was literally rocking! 🙂
Furthermore, there are so many surf shops in town creates a competition helps us to reach surf boards in a reasonable range. Renting prices of a board was like $20 per 24 hours, or $5-$6 by 4 hours. I found these prices affordable because the town itself is quite expensive.
The time spent in Tamarindo was terrific. I had so much fun, I met amazing people. It was not only a surf trip also relaxing in a stunning environment, waking up everyday into the nature, ending the day with amazing sunsets and conversating witrh beautiful people. I am looking forward going back again as a progressed surfer.
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