You know you're arriving in Costa Rica's coolest surf resort long before you actually see any waves. With their branded bermudas pulled to the pelvis, their concave tummies and their sandy tans, all the young dudes slope round the sandy streets at the same pace as the local sloths; their girlfriends -- who become foes when out on the waves -- are generally blonde, subtly toned, loudly tattooed and, yes, beautiful. Signposts on the road into town point to the beer shacks where these hip young things socialize -- Funky This, Freaky That -- as well as places hiring out motorbikes and quads or offering Spanish lessons.
It all looks pretty primitive, but there's everything you could ever need for a week of bliss -- or several months of it, as is the case with many of the twenty-somethings there. The surfing scene in the Nicoya peninsula on Costa Rica's west coast is dominated by Americans, especially Californians, with Israelis, Argentinians, Colombians, Brazilians and even a few Costa Ricans filling the gaps.
But the lingua franca is Stateside surfspeak and it's useful to know what "gnarly," "stoked" and "brah" mean before you go for a bottle of chilled beer at one of the bars.
It's also good to know that this isn't Cornwall. On my first outing off Santa Teresa, the swell was forcing the lip -- or crest -- of the wave a meter or more above head height, far larger than the usual 1m or 2m waves in southwest England. It was just about manageable for a semi-novice, and there were even a few bodyboarders riding in on fast-flowing waves.
Costa Ricans sometimes refer to the Nicoya surf beaches as the "Hawaii of Latin America." Seasoned surfers love the consistent, mellow waves, the fact that there's a beach somewhere on the pensinsula for every level, and the range of reef, point and beach breaks. A British surfer told me that an American had remarked to him that "it's like California used to be."
But there are plenty of other reasons why even those who live on Long Beach come down to Costa Rica to surf. The water temperature on the Pacific Coast hovers around 27℃, so shorts are all you need, and the sea is perfect for swimming, scuba diving, jetskiing or playing around in. The road only recently got metalled down here, so the houses and hotels are mostly in the "tropical untidy" style and the jungle is in very good shape still. Here at the foot of the Nicoya peninsula, the inland view from the beach is extraordinarily beautiful, with coconut palms, ferns and countless evergreen species tumbling on to the wide strip of sand and a heavy spray from the big swell softening the light and making for superbly mellow sunsets.
The mud streets of Santa Teresa remind you that this is a new resort. Formerly a small fishing village, it has grown rapidly, and the three miles of dirt road are lined with lots where Internet cafes and cool little burger joints are sprouting up between the more traditional sodas (snack bars selling Costa Rican staples), pizzerias and small supermarkets. Between the road and the beach, the strip of jungle throws shade on to the dozen or so hotels, which range from upscale US-style accommodation such as Flor Blanca to earthier places like the Surf Camp Hammock Hotel. Full-on boarders rent their own cabins along the beach, with, as one told me "a tiny bedroom and the living room outside, under the stars."
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