To the person who asked for info regarding Witch's Rock Surf Camp, I just got back, here's the report:

Dates: Nov 23-30, 2002

Location: Playa Tamarindo and Playas Del Coco, Costa Rica

Breaks surfed: Playa Grande, Playa Langosta, Tamarindo Rivermouth, Playa Negra,  Avellanes, Witch's Rock, Ollie's Point

Boards used: 6'8 Shane Smith

Water temp: I trunked it, and so did everyone else

Air temp: So warm that the weather around here when I got back seems to suck worse than normal...what's up, its not even winter yet!?!?

Cost: $480 round trip air JFK-San Jose on Lacsa; 140 round trip San Jose-Tamarindo on NatureAir (not recommended); 720 camp fee, which includes room, breakfasts, transfers, and guided surf tours for a week including 2 Ollies/witches boat trips...total $1,340 plus lunches, dinners, and cervezas.

You could save a hundred by taking the bus from San Jose to Tamarindo and back, but it's 5 hours each way, so you'd potentially miss 2 surf sessions. Dinners and lunches can be had for around 5-7 bucks a meal if you're on a budget.

The Report
We got really good surf the first half of the week; it was head high to a couple feet overhead, clean, offshore, and fun....the 2nd half of the week was much smaller, flat to chest high mush.

This was my third time to Costa Rica, but my first time to the Tamarindo area. Costs, scenery, accomodations, and local people were similar to the other places I've been to in CR...the waves, however, were a little different. For the most part, the waves I found around Tamarindo are some of the most fun and forgiving I've surfed anywhere, and are good for short board, longboard, whatever...in the early part of the week when the swell had some size, I was amazed that the waves, especially at Playa Grande, could be so hollow that the barrels were nearly round (as wide as they were tall), yet they really didn't punish you for mistakes...no hold downs, no broken boards or broken leashes even when you could get barreled standing almost fully upright. There are some sections of reef to watch out for at some of the breaks, especially since the tide swing is around 8 feet, and I did grind my face on the sand bottom at Langosta once, but in general the waves look much juicier than they feel when you screw up. The guide who took us to Playa
Grande on Tuesday morning claims he got barreled 10 times (I saw about 5 of them, so I believe him) during  that one session and said it was his best session in the month he had been in CR. I got a nice barrel that day too, easily the best one of my life so I was psyched. Also, it gave me something to think about later in the week when it went flat and I was fishing... I'm not a very accomplished surfer, any ripper would've been getting barreled over and over (and they were).

Witch's rock was a cool place to see, but was breaking like any other beach break the 2 times I was there..the second time it was really small (knee to waist). I was fishing using a handreel from our boat, which was the only boat there at the time, until a nice cabin cruiser pulled alongside our boat and the guys waved hi to us before unpacking their longboards to go for a
surf...it turned out to be Robert August, Wingnut, and a few friends/customers....Wingnut was doing headstands while surfing, surfing on 1 foot, and in general having a blast on waves that had me fishing (maybe I should've brought my longboard!)...obviously, we didn't catch it that good,
but it was still cool to see Wingnut rip it up anyway. Robert August surfs smoooooooooth, as I suppose he should after 40 years of practice.

Ollie's is another story; that wave is a long right point break that is REALLY fun...it requires a boat to access, which helps with the crowds... we went there twice; the first time it was overhead and firing, with very strong offshores and a bump in the water but clean faces. I watched "Endless Summer II" when I got back, and we caught Ollie's just like it looks in the
movie...it took me awhile to get used to the wave, cuz if you take off in the "obvious" spot, you won't make the 1st section...you need to paddle off to the side of the approaching swell and catch it when it jacks up over another hidden section of reef...when you catch it from that spot you can ride a fast, sweet, rippable perfect right until your legs are tired. I got some of the best rides of my life there, for sure, and it seems like on each good wave at Ollie's you get as many turns as in a whole session in New England. As the tide gets lower, an inside section starts to work that is a little smaller than the outside, but still overhead and machine-like consistent.

Unfortunately, the 2nd time we went to Ollie's (the Wingnut day) it was so small that I caught a few weak waist high waves, then fished and hiked to the top of the ridge overlooking the break...I was watching my step though, because there was nothing man-made for as far as the eye can see, and there are all kinds of snakes, caimen, and cats...the bottom third of the climb was jungle growth that was so thick I could barely bull my way through it, and the top two-thirds was lava rock with knee high grasses..not a good combo with sandals and snakes...also, a guy from Rhode Island said that last year his brother walked over the sandbar towards the river to take a leak and ended up getting stuck in quicksand (right where the gators hang out!) for an hour and a half. Yikes.

Joe and Holly, who own/run Witches Rock surf camp, are very cool people, and so are the people they have working for them; its a fairly young crowd, and the place rocks every night, but the cabina we had was far enough away to provide escape, if desired...the camp is pretty much as advertised on their website. Our cabina had a horribly loud air conditioner (sometimes it would
hum quietly, sometimes it sounded kind of like a freight train with the whistle going) and no hot water, but I think thats kinda standard stuff for CR, so I'm not complaining, and I didn't even mention it to the management. The camp has a good surf school for beginners, from what I observed. I give the camp a thumbs up rating, and would be psyched to surf with Joe and/or his guides any time.

Here's the bad news...around Tamarindo, in the water, it's crowded... REALLY crowded...I had to scrap for pretty much every single wave I caught the whole week, and have 2 puncture wounds in my rib cage to prove it, from the noses of shortboards of guys snaking me and then bailing (I'm not making this up); I barely avoided the potentially worst incident when a kid tried to back off
and accidently fired his longboard at my head while I was riding a wave... I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and I think I must have used the "paint the fence" move from The Karate Kid to deflect it and luckily timed it just right, or else that longboard might still be in my ear. One time, just for laughs, when I was paddling back out after a ride at Langosta, I counted 8 guys catching and standing up on a single peak...it WAS breaking both right and left, but, c'mon!...to make matters worse, there is a language barrier in the water, as there are Ticos, English-only Gringos, and lots of people who don't speak either Spanish or English, especially a large contingent of
aggro Italians that are living in the area. No matter how many waves you "give," there's no chance that all the other peoople looking at the next waves are gonna give one back. Lineup behavior is purely survival of the fittest. I saw no fights, but if constantly scrapping for waves bums you out, you might wanna try somewhere else...I probably will. I really hate to not give a
glowing recommendation to Joe and Holly's camp, cuz I really like them and think they are doing a good job, but its just too crowded in the water around Tamarindo for my tastes...I asked if the crowds were due to Thanksgiving week, but as I said, it wasn't all Americans, and I was told the crowds would actually get worse between now and April...I also was told that Delta will soon be flying into Liberia airport, potentially worsening the crowds in Tamarindo even more.  I'd be interested to hear if anyone has experienced lesser crowds during the rainy season.

So, for my next visit to Costa Rica, I'll try to hit Ollie's again, and arrange it thru Joe, but I'll skip Tamarindo. Its too bad, because the waves there are SWEET, but as I read in a report before I went...."It ain't no secret spot!"

Aloha
Gary