Nosara - May 2006

There are four slideshow collections containing over 600 pictures from this year's trip:

Best Shots Surf Collection - blow-ups of selected pics from the other two surf collections (42 pics).
Surf Collection #1 - entire collection from May 30, 2006 (214 pics).
Surf Collection #2 - entire collection from May 26, 2006 (219 pics).
People and Places - people, plants, crabs, flowers, giant lizards, coconuts - whatever caught my eye (184 pics).

I shot the people and scenery pictures, and Matt Adame of Soul Arch Photography in Nosara shot the surfing pictures. Featured surfers in the Surf Collections include (top row - left to right) Timmy, Jon, Chris, Rylan; (bottom row - left to right) John Leaf, Blake, Mike, and Danny Cruden. There are also a few of us lesser known folks (like me) that made our way into the surfing lineup. The following is just a sample of our surfing lineup. We had 24 of us on the roster for this trip and plan go back again next year. Larger versions of all these shots and many more can be seen in the slideshow collections.

The surf was 4 to 6 feet plus for the entire 9 day trip. Early mornings had light offshore winds from 5:00 AM until around 8:30 AM when moderate onshore breezes kicked up and signaled it was time for breakfast. Then, in the late afternoon the wind would slack off, signaling it was time for the evening surf session. Below is Timmy on the left and John Leaf on the right ripping early morning glass.

Below top row - Mike on the left and Chris on the right. Bottom row - Danny on the left and Jon on the right. Jon buckled his 10 foot nose rider and switched to that red 8 footer for the last few days of the trip.

Below is a two-shot sequence of Rylan..

And now for some of us not so famous souls - that's Rosso the Ripper on the left and Kimmie Vee (aka: Surf Mom) on the right.

For this trip we stayed in the central Playa Guiones area at the Guilded Iguana. The Guilded Iguana has very reasonable rates, both open-air and air conditioned rooms, a nice pool, well landscaped grounds, and very good food. They definitely add new meaning to the term "cheeseburger in paradise" (and it costs less than $5.00 including the fries). We stayed in the open-air rooms this time, but I think air conditioning would have been very nice during the mid-day heat. Nights were comfortable under a ceiling fan.

It gets light around 4:45 AM and by 5:00 AM it is time to start thinking about the morning surf session. If you are the first one to walk down to the beach, the pathway is often covered with some very colorful creatures.

There are now three surf shops in Nosara. The newest addition, Panchos Surf Shop, features some very nice boards shaped by Steve Dunham. I ogled at his longboards at least 3 times during my short stay. The surf shop is on the hill up behind Panchos Grocery, Restaurant, and Hotel.

May is the beginning of the "green" season in Costa Rica, and this May opened with a torrent. The paved roads were full of pot holes and the dirt roads very bumpy. But we never had to engage the four-wheel drive. I may just go with two-wheel drive next time unless I plan to do some back country exploring.