El Salvador

[Dekerwild]

Not sure yet so far I’ve been setting things up with Jorge but if you say Juan is good I’ll ask for him. I’m not leaving till July 8th so plenty of time

Jorge is the man! Took us to a few spots that were B- waves compared to Mango and Flores but didn’t care cause there was zero crowds. Hopefully he’s still banging the tiggle bitty mid-west hottie that was there for 3 months with him.

wake up before 4:30am, paddle in the dark to Mango and try to get some solid waves before the boats show up. Of the 12 days I was there, I only surfed 3 times in the afternoon due to the howling on shores and risk of ruining the morning session with tired arms.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

IMHO El Salvador is the best of the Centro spots for a Summer horror escape.

Last time I tried going overseas in sub-62 water I spent two weeks in Punta Hermosa in August wishing the Senoritas crowd size/hassle would mellow to First Peak Sebastian levels. South Africa is too far for a week, and Chile, unless you have a 4wd and know where you're going, it looks like you might as well just go get sections paddled down on you at Pavones (South) or Puerto (Atacama) so you don't have to deal with the same thing in a 3/2 or 4/3.

Mainland Mexico IMHO is still the king of Summer trips from the US, but the flight's longer + $$, the bus missions are longer, etc.

 

[ckupczynski1]

So as far as Punta Roca goes is it safe to say the power of this wave is just a cleaner uppers style wave. Looks like it to me watching the comp. Forecast is kinda showing and figuring it will start 4-6 occ 7 so is there any point bringing a step up for this wave or a HPSB and a couple twin fins? I know when uppers breaks at this height many guys at there still using fish or grovel boards

 

[potato-nator]

Senoritas breaks in the (their) summer.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

Senoritas breaks in the (their) summer.

I wish you told the 30 or so locals and 30 or so Brazilians! Would have really helped the vibe.
I spent three weeks there in January/February and it didn't get remotely close to as good as it was in August. Caballeros looked like garbage for two weeks in August but looked fun (minus the two to six Brazilians burning each other every wave) in January/February.

I didn't see much in the way of rivers in the desert so I'm not sure what the season would have to do with it. It's not like it only faces NW like spots up North, or is too angled SW like spots down towards the Chilean border. It looked to me like any chest high or better wall of water approaching would set up a left hander of varying quality. YMMV.

 

[grapedrink]

I wish you told the 30 or so locals and 30 or so Brazilians! Would have really helped the vibe.
I spent three weeks there in January/February and it didn't get remotely close to as good as it was in August. Caballeros looked like garbage for two weeks in August but looked fun (minus the two to six Brazilians burning each other every wave) in January/February.

I didn't see much in the way of rivers in the desert so I'm not sure what the season would have to do with it. It's not like it only faces NW like spots up North, or is too angled SW like spots down towards the Chilean border. It looked to me like any chest high or better wall of water approaching would set up a left hander of varying quality. YMMV.

Seems that northern Peru is the ticket, but haven't been yet

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

Seems that northern Peru is the ticket, but haven't been yet

The setups look good but even in the edited videos you can see infinity people trying to shut the door, and I don't know about counting on a NW to fire off. I guess a place more central that gets Souths like Pacasmayo or firing Chicama would spread it out.

 

[byoda]

Seems that northern Peru is the ticket, but haven't been yet

we caught pretty good lobitos in november more waves in northern peru than surfers

 

[potato-nator]

Chicama favors a westerly component.

 

[Ranga]

awesome I just booked there with a guide to mix it up on the afternoon sesh. They place looks legit and hopefully the guides can steer me in some fun less crowded waves.

Ask for Emilio as a guide -- he's a force in the water and will make sure you get waves.

 

[Ranga]

Do you know what guide you’re with? Juan is the man.

Juan (Juancho) is good too -- good surfer.

 

[Yewstreet]

Headed down friday to el zonte. Forecast looking fun. Any of you have any good guiding contacts? My gf and I would probably want to switch it up for a few days

 

[redrider]

Do you know what guide you’re with? Juan is the man.

Agreed, Juan made the trip for us. Got us into uncrowded waves the whole trip - we spent 4 days at Las Flores then 5 days in La Libertad. Good times!

 

[ReForest]

Timmy Reyes has Surf Missions that does guided tours. https://www.surfmissions.com/

I am going on his El Salvador Surf Missions trip this weekend. He said Las Flores is 6 hours from where we are staying. Punta Rocas on the cam does not look good at all. The swell for next week looks good, but i see lots of rain in the forecast?

Any other suggestions on spots? Also, i heard there are Mayan ruins to look at if the surf is not good.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

Timmy Reyes has Surf Missions that does guided tours. https://www.surfmissions.com/

I am going on his El Salvador Surf Missions trip this weekend. He said Las Flores is 6 hours from where we are staying. Punta Rocas on the cam does not look good at all. The swell for next week looks good, but i see lots of rain in the forecast?

Any other suggestions on spots? Also, i heard there are Mayan ruins to look at if the surf is not good.

I have always been told ~3hrs to Flores/Mango from La Libertad, and it takes like two to get from La Libertad to Acajutla, which is pretty close to Guatemala. It sounds like you will be up past Zonte.

Punta Roca wants a swell to really get good. K61 needs a swell to really work. Sunzal needs to push DOH to clear out some of the kooks and push the rest wide (fear of having to duck dive boomers).

If the period is 13 or under, or you get SSE windswell, or passing ESE, the beaches can get real fun. And there's not a parade of donkeys who can't make the drop, can't duck dive, but have mastered paddling three feet past people.

I generally have seen two kinds of storms. Storms that follow the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone track, coming "up" the coast from East to West. They'll put dogshit side warble on it, but if it's a tropical wave, the peak of the sideshore windswell x anything SoHemi can really turn the beachbreaks on - if it's not too windy and you're not too SoCal of a wind snob.

The other ones (the ones you want) form in the mountains and push to the coast for glass-off. Ideal.

It doesn't feel nearly as tide-sensitive as Nicaragua, in that the spot's windows are larger, and the outgoing doesn't totally kill it, but some spots are tide-sensitive, and it moves a lot.

Typical tourist schedule applies. If you see any hint of a crowd, you want to be paddling out at 5am sharp. Sometime around 11-noon it'll start to thin out, and the last hour and a half before sunset has a tendency to re-nightmare.

 

[CutnSnip]

Timmy Reyes has Surf Missions that does guided tours. https://www.surfmissions.com/

I am going on his El Salvador Surf Missions trip this weekend. He said Las Flores is 6 hours from where we are staying. Punta Rocas on the cam does not look good at all. The swell for next week looks good, but i see lots of rain in the forecast?

Any other suggestions on spots? Also, i heard there are Mayan ruins to look at if the surf is not good.

If you are 6 hours away from Flores you must be way up there, probably still at least a couple hours from Roca anyways.

Not sure whats up that way - theres another camp/break further north called Mizata.. is that where youre going to be? Met someone on the plane coming from there and he said it was cool but cant vouch for this guys opinion at all.

In general i think all the marque spots want a lower tide, low going mid, etc. and the longer the period the bette.r. Flores/ Mango are very tide and wind sensitive. Seemed like barely a puff of wind was enough to fuck it up when i was there.

 

[ReForest]

I am staying right in front of Sunzal. The forecast for this coming week is 8-12ft. I've been told that Sunzal could be really fun at that size. I had a friend just come back from K59 and his videos looked pretty darn sick!

 

[ReForest]

I have always been told ~3hrs to Flores/Mango from La Libertad, and it takes like two to get from La Libertad to Acajutla, which is pretty close to Guatemala. It sounds like you will be up past Zonte.

Punta Roca wants a swell to really get good. K61 needs a swell to really work. Sunzal needs to push DOH to clear out some of the kooks and push the rest wide (fear of having to duck dive boomers).

If the period is 13 or under, or you get SSE windswell, or passing ESE, the beaches can get real fun. And there's not a parade of donkeys who can't make the drop, can't duck dive, but have mastered paddling three feet past people.

I generally have seen two kinds of storms. Storms that follow the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone track, coming "up" the coast from East to West. They'll put dogshit side warble on it, but if it's a tropical wave, the peak of the sideshore windswell x anything SoHemi can really turn the beachbreaks on - if it's not too windy and you're not too SoCal of a wind snob.

The other ones (the ones you want) form in the mountains and push to the coast for glass-off. Ideal.

It doesn't feel nearly as tide-sensitive as Nicaragua, in that the spot's windows are larger, and the outgoing doesn't totally kill it, but some spots are tide-sensitive, and it moves a lot.

Typical tourist schedule applies. If you see any hint of a crowd, you want to be paddling out at 5am sharp. Sometime around 11-noon it'll start to thin out, and the last hour and a half before sunset has a tendency to re-nightmare.

Great information. Thank you.

 

[ReForest]

El Sal was mental!! Amazing place with waves all year around.

We surfed El Zonte, La Bocana, Punta Roca, K59 and Mizata.


Locals at El Zonte and Roca were kind of assholes. K59 and Mizata are where its at.

Stoked on the info from the doos here at the erBB

 

[ReForest]

Revo was the perfect board for K59. I rode it with the Von Sol stilleto quad and it was amazing!

Hydroshort for big Mizata and big Roca. Thruster with Futures P6 fin was the way to go.