Recently I went on my annual Surf Trip to Central America with my buddies and we had a great time. When we arrived we were treated to some well-shaped giant surf breaking right in front of the condo we stayed in called "Casa Iguana". Randy Luce drove down from Novato to Riverside to join up with me and we both traveled together out of LAX. When we reached El Salvador we joined up with two other friends from the San Francisco area, Mark Aman and Dr. Marc Horrell. After landing in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, we headed to the coast stopping only for some weekly groceries and lunch in the old town of Granada. The water temp was 80 degrees, air temp was 80 degrees with plenty of warm sunshine. We set up a boat trip to a nice break up the coast called, "Lance's Lefts". We arrived to some perfectly formed left break waves in the 6-10 foot range. On the ride back home after a nice session there we stopped to check out a place called Outer Popoyo which was breaking in the 12-15 foot range. It was amazing to watch from the channel as local surfers were tackling this these giant waves. Check out the short video clip I took using my iPhone.
I have to say this was one of the best surf trips to Central America that I've taken, not to mention I love hangin' with my favorite "Surf Buds" (see below) Mark, Randy and Doc. Here are some pics of this great trip!
Team AARP
This break was right out in front of our condo....called "Ponga Drops".
"Doc" - MARC HORRELL
"Mad Dog" - MARK AMAN
If you look carefully on the right hand side of the photo above ( right center) you will see a black dot...that's Mark's head!
The 2 Mark's are riding together on this one...
Mr. Aman caught the next two waves.
"Chargin" - RANDY LUCE
Randy and Mark ride one together.
I feel sorry for the guy on the red board just going over the wave...look what's coming behing it. YIKES! Clean up time!
Ah....but in the end he was richly rewarded with a great wave and a great ride. Yes indeed!
The "smile" tells it all......
Doc (on left) shoots me "the Barrell" sign as Mark indicates the size of these waves.
Time for some "Flor de Cana'.....and Coke.
Or.....A cold "Tonia" and a comfy Hammock with a "front row seat" to the show.
A view of the "Outside" wave at Ponga Drops.....
A view of the "Inside" section of Ponga Drops....purrrfection!
To give you an idea of how powerful these waves were check out this picture. Both Mark and I noticed our surf leashes had "stretched" about 3-4 feet longer after our surf sessions that day. This is not normal. We were surprised that they didn't actually snap due to the enormous pressure from those waves. Randy's actually broke earlier in the week during one of his sessions out there.
A local kid named "Alejandro" came by in the afternoon to see if we wanted to buy some of his fresh Lobster catch for the day.
Take your pick!
I'll take these "Bad Boyz".....yum.
We paid $30. for all eleven of them. What a deal!
I named this one "Larry the Lobster" which lasted about an hour before we ate him with a side of butterd rice. Soooooooooo Fresh!
We could smell those "langostas" beginnig to boil...... (Randy & Jamie)
"King James"...or at least I felt that way.
Jamie and the two "Marks".
"Life is Good"
"Knee Deep In The Water Somewhere"
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