To El Salvador

A boat load…

As with every surf trip, sometimes your timing is just off. For once we found ourselves praying for the swell to drop. After surfing a mushy, or in Rosary’s words ‘a fat lump of a wave’, crowded left hand point (the only option on a bigger swell), we decided to take on the beachbreak…just to get a feel for it. The tide was too low, and swell too big for it, but Rosary coaxed me in. I can safely say it was one of the ugliest waves I have ever paddled out in. Super heavy and exploding off the shallow sandbanks, the onshores made it shifty and unpredictable. Rosary took it all in her stride and I made her day by getting £@$&ing nailed by one of the sets! Stealing a little section on the shoulder (that was enough for me), I paddled in, proud I had given it a go, and then spent the evening icing my swollen fin chopped foot.  With the swell building we decided to move on from North Nicaragua rather than wait it out for the smaller conditions needed for the beachbreak. Onward north to El Salvador…

Pairing up with another group of surfers, we made our way to Potosi where we commandeered a local fishing boat to take us across to East El Salvador. The crossing only took 2 hours and was a much more attractive option than half a day on buses through Honduras.  Arriving in La Union, El Salvador we spent 2 sweaty hours sorting visas and transport to East El Salvadors right hand point breaks. By transport we mean one pickup truck…for six surfers, six boardbags and the rest! At least it was cheap. Ditching the rent a crowd…we made our excuses and ventured into the forest to find our homestay, five minutes walk from a super fun right hand point!

A painfully hot night in Potosi made bearable by these little dudes.

The final checkpoint…

The short cut to El Salvador! Photo: Rosary Walsh

La Union, El Salvador. Photo: Rosary Walsh

El Capitán. Photo: Rosary Walsh