Run-D.M.C., Silversun Pickups, James Brown, AFI blasting on Witch’s Rock Pirate Radio in my house right now: http://loudcaster.com/channels/381-witch-s-rock-pirate-radio-surf

Ahhhhh……. finally back in Tamarindo and getting back into the groove of things. The town has gotten a lot busier these last couple of weeks. High season officially kicks off with the Christmas / New Years holidays, but even now the place is packed.  This gives me a little pressure because I want to be done with the major work projects for WRSC. With more tourists in town the surf camp needs even more focus on providing our quality services and products.  Never being complacent can be a tough job, but its in our DNA and we take pride in working hard.

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I was very happy to return to Costa Rica, even if it took forever to get back here.  What a contrast this place is to where we just were.  In Peru the waves are excellent and the people are nice, but everything is very raw.  Going to places like that makes one realize how lucky one is.  I guess that’s one of the reasons I keep going back.

I’m thinking that Nick “the Babysitter” Holt wins the mustache contest.  I just can’t compete with his photo, it just kills me it is so funny holy crap.  I still haven’t shaved my stash much to the dismay of my wife, let the 70s live on!

Here’s the old school surfboard I was surfing last week, dimensions: about as tall as me x not sure how wide x pretty damn thick.  It has the template of a thruster, but only 2 fins and no center fin.  The fins are huge, and set up like side fins on a shortboard.  Strange configuration that totally worked for the super-long walls we were surfing.

Of course, like every other trip, right before flying out we rolled the rest of the weed we had into a giant doobie, gave our hugs and our goodbyes, and returned from one fantasy to another.

I think its time I got some smaller pants.

Down a series of long, dusty tracks across an empty desert, nothing to look at but sand and rocks and the frequent empty left point breaks that scatter desolate coastal Peru. This was my 5th trip to this country.  No, I’ve never been to Machu Picchu.  Yes, I’ve been to Chicama, and a ton of other breaks as well.  This surf trip brought the best waves I’ve ever surfed in Peru.

The 2010 Peru crew:

Driving through Peru means having to bribe the police every hour or so.  People are driving aggressively, pedestrians walk in the street almost getting hit by cars, and tuk tuks weave in and out of traffic like this is some kind of video game.  Driving along the coast, one feels like they are on the movie set of Black Hawk Down or Mad Max. On our journey, we realize that tourism has yet to make it to most of these places. In a town of 50,000 people we are still the only “out-of-towners”.  The people are incredibly poor, yet so incredibly friendly.  It makes you feel like shit because you own an ipod and an iphone.

Once you make it a few hours north of Lima, you pull off of the main road and enter a town that looks like this.  You follow the road until it makes its way down to the water’s edge.  Miles from civilization, the only thing on the beach is this little fish camp.

and an empty point break…

With an empty break and dozens of surfboards, we had the opportunity to ride a different board every day.  Longboard, shortboard, fish board, retro thruster; it never gets old.

Here is Antonio, one of the first surfers from Peru and a good friend of mine.  He helped put this trip together for us.  Antonio has been charging these waves for the last 40 years.

On this trip I mainly surfed an old school twin fin thruster that Antonio has in his quiver. It was super thick and caught everything, and on the wave it would really tear it up.  Flash and Andres started calling me Joey Lopez on that board, which got me stoked, though Gerry Lopez doesn’t have the giant arms to deal with.  Wanting to give respect to the old school, the Peru crew held the annual mustache contest.  Please give us your feedback so we can decide the winner!

(left to right, starting with the top row)

Amish Chinstrap
Freebird
Frenchie
Bigote Chino
the Milk Man
the Babysitter
Ice Trucker
Got Meth?
Dirty Sanchez

At the edge of the earth, the road ends and it turns into sand.  You need a good crew to help push the bus when you get this far.  Fortunately we had a great group this year.  The trip was just awesome.  So sad to see it end, but I’m definitely excited to get home. It has been 3 weeks since I hung with my wife and boys, much longer than it ever should have been.  pura vida.

PS- The Peru trip for next year will be November 5-12, 2011.

I am without words.  I have been to Peru many times, but this trip is by far the best surf yet.

I fell in love with a surfboard yesterday, a 30 year old twin fin, 6ft retro thruster that was just dominating the perfect point break we’ve been sitting on these last few days…  I might have to shave a mustache out of pure respect.

More Peru pics and story to come tonight, once we get some reliable internet and a few hours of rest…

In 2008, Tamarindo had its Blue Flag taken away; the Blue flag status is an honorary recognition awarded by the Costa Rican department of water and sewage to the beaches that do not leak hazardous wastes into the land and the sea.  The ecological scandal blew out in the open when it was discovered that a rather large number of hotels were throwing their sewage water straight into the ocean. The sea was dangerously poluted and declared unsafe to swim in!

Since the year 2000, North America investors started to buy land and build property without any kind of restrictions or permits. Prices were still low and there was a lot of money to be made! The government looked the other way while the zoning laws along the coastlines were slack. Many took advantage of the situation, and while the building regulations here were never that stringent, it soon got out of hand! Condos and small shopping mall seemed to emerge overnight and grew like mushrooms, while there was little, or even no concern for the infrastructure or the environment. Many locals hated to see what what happening to their beautiful beach.

Now there is a decree protecting the beaches that have not yet been invaded by man. For places like Tamarindo, however, it came too late. Not a real town, yet not a pristine beach anymore, it stands in a twilight zone, without much identity or soul, a place that did not even exist 15 years ago, that grew too fast, without planning, or much thought to the catastrophic consequences inflicted on the flora and on  the fauna.

Playa Langosta lies to the South of Tamarindo. It is a lot quieter than Tamarindo and many tourists prefer to stay there while they have the choice to go to Tamarindo for dinning, shopping, and general entertainment. Langosta is also known for its great surf; Langosta’s coastline is quite rocky, in comparison with the sandy beach of Tamarindo.

Just North of Tamarindo, across the river, is Playa Grande and the famous National Park of Las Baulas, where various types of turtles come to nest, including the awesome, huge Leatherback. Playa Grande has very few hotels or places to stay and it is savagely protected. Playa  Grande is the Turtle beach, first!

For those who are new to Costa Rica these crazy developments may not seem particular, at first. What has been done cannot be undone,  it can never go back to what it should be, Tamarindo is here to stay. There are many small towns, by the sea, everywhere in the world, with charm, peace, and beautiful beaches. Tamarindo can be just that, so hopefully, instead of growing, it will concentrate on improving and become not just a place to visit, but a good place to live, and to love!