Costa Rica is known to have some of the most consistent waves in the world. With its diverse topography and coastal winds, there are waves for every surfer. Add to that the year round heat and warm ocean and there is never a bad time to pick up a board and head to the beach. The areas of Montezuma and nearby Mal Pais provide all sorts of breaks to choose from. Depending on your skill level, our instructors will bring you to the appropriate location. Generally each class will last 2 hours (Monday-Friday), but that may depend on your endurance as surfing is a rigorous and, often times, tiring, sport. Either way you’ll find 2 hours to be more than enough to be ripping in no time.
Beginner and Intermediate Surfers
On day one for beginners, you'll go over the safety and technical introduction on land. You'll spend the rest of your two hours in the water practicing your balance on the board, getting a feel for the waves and learning the basic techniques of how to stand up and paddle effectively. These lessons will introduce you to surfing and give you the tools for what often becomes a lifelong passion. For intermediates, you will have a chance to hone your skills on a relatively unknown and empty beach. Those of you from California know how much of a privilege that can be!
Our beginner/intermediate beach, Playa Grande, may be the best surf beach for learning in all of Costa Rica! There are two main reasons for this:
Main reason #1:
When much of the country is pounded by large and powerful
waves (exactly why the professionals like it!), those who don’t know how to
handle those waves can easily get hurt. Because of our unique geographical location, our beach is protected from
the open ocean and waves are generally a foot smaller than everywhere else (which
makes a bigger difference than you may realize). Check wetsand.com or similar websites for
current swell conditions and you will see the difference. At the same time, waves come as consistently
as they do in any beach in the world throughout the year.
Main reason #2:
Playa Grande is a 25 minute walk from the edge of
town so we recommend bringing the right shoes: hiking sandals or running
shoes work best. This walk is one of
the keys to making our surfing beach so good. No one wants to walk with a heavy surf board
out to the beach. Luckily for us, we
have a surfing cabina there, so you won’t have to either. What does this mean for you? There's no crowd. No one fights for waves. You don’t have to be embarrassed to fall
because hardly anyone but our students and instructors are watching. There are less people to crash into and hurt
yourself. To top it off, you have a
place to keep your valuables safe while surfing.
More reasons why Playa Grande may be the best beginner surf
beach in all of Costa Rica:
On other beaches which more commonly have deeper shore
lines, it may feel like you’re part of a wash cycle when you wipe out. When
you finally do come up for air, you’re pounded by another wave. Kind of sucks the fun out of it. Here, when you wipe out, the bottom is not
too deep, meaning you can easily find which way is up and pop right out of the
water.
There are no rocks, other than one boulder, way off shore
which provides nice right hand waves. No
hitting feet, knees, heads!, etc. on rocks when you fall. Our beach has a soft sandy bottom, keeping
you out of harm’s way.
The walk to Playa Grande takes you through an absolute nature reserve along the beach and through
shaded jungle passes. It’s a great
chance to see wildlife every day; families of howler and white faced monkeys,
neon orange and purple crabs (they don’t bite, don’t worry), beautiful birds,
etc. There’s not a single house or
building for most of the walk, but there is a small river with waterfalls and a
natural swimming pool on the beach along the way. It’s absolutely beautiful. If Costa Rica calls you because of its
natural beauty, it's here where you’ll find it.
One of the cooler features of our surf cabina is that it forms part of a complex aimed
at protecting endangered giant sea turtles. That means that part of your program fee, goes toward helping fund the project to save these amazing creatures. If you time it right, you may see baby
turtles hatching and racing out for their first swim!
At our cabina, you can choose from any of our 20 board
selection (max 15 students; 5 students per instructor). Ranging in
size from 7’2” to 12’, there’s a perfect board for everyone. As your balance gets better and you want to
carve more, you will move from larger to smaller boards.
There’s no better place to learn how to surf!!
Intermediate and Advanced Surfers:
Costa Rican Surfing Safari
In our intermediate and advanced level, Surfing Safari, Mauricio, is your guide for the best waves and conditions in the
area. Each day, he will take you by jeep (4x4) or speed boat to the
best break possible. He will mix it up for you or bring you back to a specific break, day after day, if you love it that much.
We have 5 surf spots in the area that are top notch. They include beach
breaks, point breaks and river mouths, lefts, rights, and great waves
for both bigger and smaller conditions. Incredibly, as much as Costa Rica has been in the limelight for surfing, our nearby beaches are still relatively unknown (aside from Mal Pais, of course)! That means world class waves and none of the hassle of a crowded beach.
Our breaks include Playa Grande (beach break; lefts; rights), Mal Pais/Santa Teresa (beach breaks; rights; lefts), and 3 secret locations so as to keep them uncrowded: Secret Break #1 (point break; left), Secret Break #2 (river mouth; right), Secret Break #3 (point break; right). Excuse the secrecy, but these are the gems of our surfing scene and we want them to stay that way!!
There is a maximum of 4 surfers for this special package and
requirements that you have previous surfing experience (at least an
intermediate level) and fairly strong swimming skills.
For intermediate and advanced surfers, this is the ultimate Costa Rican surfing experience!!
Our Costa Rican Surfing Safari is not compatible with Spanish or Poi lessons but may be combined with yoga for an additional $50 per week. Due to the exclusive nature of this program, classes are kept small and
are subject to availability. Please inquire before applying.
Classes involving yoga, poi and surfing, excluding combinations with Spanish or Scuba, can be taken beginning on almost any Sunday (see schedule for vacation dates). For combinations including Spanish or Scuba classes please see our "Rates and Dates" page for schedules.
Here's a look at what you can expect from our surfing or our surfing combination programs:
