labarra
 

First and foremost I would like to thank Juan and Marcos, our AST guides, for the absolutely, phenomenal job they did taking care of us. These two guys are 24 carat gold and turned what would have been a good/great trip into an over the top fantastic experience. They did everything within their power to make sure we wanted for nothing and anticipated our every need. I consider both Juan and Marcos to be good friends now after only knowing them for 8 days. They consistently did everything within their power to find us the best waves available, spoke excellent English, collectively had a great sense of humor and even rescued us from A Saltwater crocodile and a rabid pack of Brazilians. Read Robert’s log below if you want to hear the whole story.

juan Juan and Carlos were the best guides you could ever hope for.
Ask for them specifically if you head down to Nicaragua![/caption]

Before you read the daily log of Robert Cisneros below, I just want to throw in my 2 cents about the Nicaraguan/AST experience as a whole.

The native people: The “Nicas” that we intermingled with on the trip were very down to earth and accepted us into their community with open arms. Although the majority of the population is extremely impoverished, the locals that we spent time with seemed to live in a bubble of content. Everyone is smiling, happy, and in the small town of Puerto Sandino, there was a tremendous sense of community and well being. Everyone knew everyone else, and there were seemingly no worries. It was great to watch the kids laughing and playing in the streets. It seemed so innocent and real, it felt as if we had been transported into a different time. A pre digital era, when things were more simplistic and tweets were only heard from the birds. It was nice to slow down, smell the roses, and regain a little perspective. If you’re ever running from the mob…rest assured, they’ll never find you here.

md nic drop


The Surf: While there were a few spots that were user friendly, most of the places we surfed were in the intermediate to expert level, and the piper was paid in full by all of our crew at one time or another. We didn’t get an absolutely pumping swell throughout the entirety of our trip, but got a couple of nearly double overhead days and the surf never dropped below shoulder high. The reefs have a few trap doors, so tread lightly until you know, or at least have an inkling of an idea, what the wave will do, before you go balls to the walls. On one morning, my crew and I all got slammed into a shallow reef on what deceivingly looked to be makeable barrel sections. I was so determined to make it out of one of those dredgers that I got drilled into the shallows 3 times. Reef 3 – MD 0. The best day we got was at a Beach break that we named the South Pole. We took the liberty of naming it since we spotted it and the guides said no one had ever surfed this particular stretch of sand. It was a top to bottom, heavy wave with a perfect left barrel, (of course, we had no camera on the DOH day).

nica4 1

The Crowd: If you go with the AST tour the crowd is optional. We took an AST Panga out every morning but the last one, and surfed by ourselves to our hearts content. There are some other surf camps lining the cliffs, so if you surf out front you may encounter a couple of other heads, but for the most part it was wide open for us. The best morning, we surfed consistent 10-12 foot face barrels with only our crew out and not another soul in site. It was one of those sessions that was almost surreal and a memory that none of us will soon forget.

The Food: Can you say, “No Mas Por Favor?”. At AST you are guaranteed a light breakfast in the morning, a real breakfast upon returning from the surf, a huge lunch, and a mountainous dinner. We were all like, “Wait, we had breakfast at noon, lunch at 4:30, what are they doing in the kitchen again? We were absolutely stuffed the whole time. Our Mantra became, Uno mas cervesa y pass the Franks, (hot sauce), tambien.

The Fishing: Not quite as good as I had hoped, but the potential is there. We just fished after our surfs, so it wasn’t a focal point, but there was plenty of bait around and we caught enough game fish for a couple of meals. You can tell that when the pelagic’s, (migratory school fish), move through, the bite will surely be wide open. I didn’t even contemplate going offshore to hunt Billfish, Tuna or Dorado, we were there to surf.

nica3

Location: The “Rasta House” is located atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. The view is awesome and the layout very communal. There are two stories, both featuring panoramic ocean view decks with hammocks. There is no centralized AC, so if it’s cooking outside you’ll need to retreat to your room to cool down. Bring a good book and one of those neoprene beer cooler sleeves, (Cerveza Fria is a fleeting moment in the tropics). This place is way off the beaten path, (although there is a major road under construction). It’s about 2 1/2 hours from the airport, and once you get there, there’s only the small town of Puerto Sandino, (15 minutes away by car), or the more modernized city of Leon, which is about an hours drive away. Leon is a cool little town that had been colonized by the Spanish in the 1700’s, so there is some noteworthy, historic architecture, and once again, the people were very nice to us Gringo’s.

nic1

Summary: Overall, I would give La Barra a thumbs up. We were treated like royalty, scored some unreal barrels, were well fed and had numerous memorable adventures. Dave Hall runs a class operation and his staff, as I mentioned earlier, is of the finest caliber. Just know, that if you go, you will be in for some challenging surf and starring in your own, “Want to get away?” commercial. In all seriousness, if you surround yourself with good people, you’ll have a blast. Bring a couple movies or board games, definitely a couple good books and be ready to pull in. The good thing is, unlike at El Porto, you have a high percentage chance of coming out of the barrel.

Thanks to my crew who tagged along for the ride. I think everyone had a great time and came back with a few barrels and adventures under their belt.

Review by MD

Map of Nicaragua

La Barra, Nicaragua Daily Log – by Robert Cisneros

Surfers: Mike Durand , Razza Samia, Dave Dehnert, Robert Cisneros

AST Guides: Juan & Marcos

25 April 2011 Monday

Got to the airport about 11:20 pm for our 1:40 am flight to El Salvador and on to Managua. Met up with Mike and Razza as they were checking in, but it looks like Dave is a no show so far. Mike and Razza are both totally ripped and had little volume control while we waited in the airport for our flight…uh oh, I could be in for some big trouble if Dave doesn’t show up, there’s NO WAY I can keep up with these guys party pace. We grabbed a beer before last call in the bar before our flight to El Salvador.

Slept the entire flight to El Sal, with Terri’s neck pillow and eye beanie, it might look lame but it was totally awesome, slept till about 15 minutes before landing. Got on the ground in El Salvador, and got off the plane a little disoriented, but found some coffee and waited for the next flight to Managua, Nicaragua. Short hop in a smaller Jet took about 45 minutes and got through customs pretty quickly, exchanged $200 US into Cordobas (exchange rate online was about 22 Cordobas to $1 US, but we only got about 19.85 Cordobas for a dollar). The money exchange shack in the baggage claim area gives a better exchange rate than the one just before Immigration, wait to exchange money there next time. Got our luggage but it looks like our boards didn’t make the connection to Managua :o(

nica4

The Trip to AST

After our long red-eye flight we met Juan from AST outside the airport and two other US surfers that are staying at AST, Jon and Cliff. Still don’t know what happened to Dave, if he just missed the flight or has blown us off completely. Juan gave the TACA baggage handler our contact information so he could deliver the boards hopefully later in the day or the next day and assured us that there are boards at the camp that we can use until ours are delivered. We loaded up the SUV and trailer with the luggage and surfboard bags and headed off to Puerto Sandino in the province of Managua. After about an 1 ½ hours of driving on the inland paved road along Lake Managua, we turned off onto a dirt road towards the coast and Puerto Sandino. After almost an hour on the dirt road our guide Juan looks in the rear view mirror to see the trailer freewheeling down the dirt road unattached. We’re less than 5K away from the AST surf camp when the trailer hitch on the SUV has broken right off. We unloaded the luggage and Jon and Cliff’s board bags and got everything packed into the SUV and finished the trip to the camp only to find onshore winds and small blown out surf, so much for the all day offshore winds!

Not a great start to our surf adventure, we ate lunch and slept in hammocks, ate dinner, read my book and called Terri to let her know that we got there alive. In bed by 9:30 pm.

26 April 2011 Tuesday

The rooms all have A/C so Mike set it down to -20 below 0 (Centigrade) and the A/C delivered. At some point during the night I got so cold that I had to put on my long sleeved hoodie and use my beach towel as a blanket to survive the big chill.

Another day draws to an end.
Another day draws to an end.

Finding Surf

Today we woke up at 5:15 am to find small waves out front at Chicken Bowls so we drove in the SUV to Puerto Sandino and on the dirt road had a flat tire along the way. Juan gets on it quickly and we help change the tire with a jack that was missing the proper handle. Got it fixed as quickly as possible and we preceded to Puerto Sandino to get a boat out to a surf spot north of Puerto Sandino. As we passed the break at the mouth of the harbor I counted 15 Brazilians out at the main peak which was really discouraging. Out of the boards available to borrow at AST (our boards DID NOT arrive last night) I got a 6’ thruster that was about 2 ½” thick, way too small to really paddle for me but that’s what I ended up with. The spot we pulled up to was a beach break that was blowing offshore pretty strongly and was a few feet overhead on sets, but not great shape. Got a couple waves on the chippy little thruster but it didn’t paddle very well. Mike pulled into a barrel on about his 4th wave and snapped the board he borrowed clean in half (the owner’s board apparently), Juan paddled over to Mike without any hesitation and gave him the board he was riding to surf the rest of the session. After a couple hours of surfing with just the 5 of us, we got back into the boat and went back to the camp.

At the camp they had breakfast waiting for us and afterwards I ended up paddling out at Chicken Bowls for a few blown out sections, it was pretty lame but something to do at the time. Spent some time reading and sleeping, still no boards or word that they’re on the way.

Later in the afternoon Dave finally showed up, he apparently had a family issue with his daughter on Monday and couldn’t leave as scheduled but hopped on the same flight the next day. We had lunch and shortly after that our boards showed up. :o) I got my 6’3” Rounded pin together and Dave and Mike both wanted to surf Miramar so we paddled over from our side of the beach and surfed the outside mushy wave for about an hour and caught some fun blown out surf (I think the inside was a better call though). Conditions are looking good for tomorrow.

27 April Wednesday

Woke up again at around 5:00 am at first light and got some coffee right away. Today the boat captain pulled the boat right up onto the sand in front of the camp to give us beachfront service. We’re heading south to a spot that’s about 45 minutes away called Gran Pacifica a left point right in front of a really nice hotel and golf course. We got to the spot after what seemed like quite a long trek to find a pretty well defined left point that had some shelfy sections that sucked out pretty good on the set waves with offshore winds but very tricky takeoffs. The inside was pretty rocky and it would suck out so you had to really watch it as the wave formed up in front of you. Mike, Dave, Razza and I surfed for about 2 ½ hours, but Cliff and Jon only surfed for about an hour and a half and were kind of bummed out on the break. It seemed like we made the boat trip back to the camp quicker than to the spot in the morning maybe because we got some surf and we weren’t so anxious by then. We ate and hung out while the wind turned onshore and blew out the surf. Cliff and Jon decided that AST in La Barra wasn’t what they were looking for in Nicaragua so they made plans to leave for Colorado’s in Southern Nicaragua.

We had breakfast of eggs, bacon and fruit and read my book and napped in the Hammocks the rest of the day since the surf was so blown out while Mike and Dave went into Puerto Sandino to find an internet connection (apparently the “internet café” was in a woman’s house and only had 1 line and you had to use your own computer). It was about 90 degrees in the lady’s house and her young son made repeated attempts to peck their keyboards. It was a full service cafe though as the Lady walked to the corner store and bought them a cold 6 pack of beer.

The food has been pretty good, there’s certainly plenty of it, you definitely won’t go hungry here and it seems like our hosts are preparing food for us all day long. Probably won’t lose any weight on this trip. Beautiful sunset tonight, then we watched Inception on the big screen TV.

28 April Thursday

Today it’s just the four of us Dave, Mike, Razza and I since Jon and Cliff split early this morning for Colorado’s (after inflicting a SERIOUS dent in the beer and Rum that WE purchased, thanks guys!). Juan drove us to Puerto Sandino and we grabbed Max our boat captain and we headed out to check out the break at the mouth of Puerto Sandino. It didn’t look very good, but at least there wasn’t 15 Brazilians out (why is it that they ALWAYS travel in packs?).

We took the boat north again towards Salinas Grande and found a PUMPING beach break about ¾ mile up the beach. Today’s surf session was at a hard breaking hollow sand bar with a fairly strong current pulling north up the beach at about 8’-10’ faces with bigger sets. Reminds me a lot of Puerto Escondido power wise, but the shape was way better. We lined up just South of a power pole that was South of two large logs on the beach. Everyone got some KILLER waves with Mike getting a few incredible stand-up tubes in full view of everyone. With just the 4 of us out there we surfed for about 4 hours then paddled back to the boat for some water and to rest. The wind switched to onshore around 11:00 and it was over. We named the spot “South Pole” for where we were lined up on the beach to stay on the peak south of the power pole. It was one of those magical surf moments where the winds, tide and swell sync together, and the only thing that made it more special was that it was just a small group of friends sharing the moment. We returned to the camp in a euphoric state. The beer seemed just a little bit colder, the food tasted a little better and all was right in the world for a fleeting moment. After the adrenaline glands calmed down, we ate, read, and slept for a little while as the onshore’s blew the afternoon surf to bits.

The Street Scene

In the late afternoon we all drove into Puerto Sandino, Dave and Mike wanted to go back to the internet café to do some work and check in back home, so after dropping the guys off at the internet cafe, our guide Juan took Razza and I down the street and around the corner to a neighborhood store and bar. Juan greeted the owner and she brought out some chairs for us and we sat outside on the street and enjoyed a few beers as the day cooled off into the evening while kids from the neighborhood played soccer and volleyball and other people came to buy things at the store. We were introduced to a young Nica from the neighborhood named Alexis who was about 23 years old and works as an equipment operator in Puerto Sandino who hung out with us and chatted. Over several beers as the sun went down we met several other people from the neighborhood, but we were getting really attacked by mosquitoes. The store owner came out to us with a can of bug spray and proceeded to not only give us the bug spray, but to even apply it to our legs, arms and unprotected skin for us.

After more beers I started to wonder about Mike and Dave and if they might be done yet (it was almost 2 hours by this time since we left them there to do work), so I went down to get them. We walked back to the store where, by this time, Razza and Juan were having a good time playing volleyball with the kids. It wasn’t too long after Mike and Dave got back that we started giving away the things we brought with us to our new friends and sharing stories (along with a little Rum). It was really fun to hang out with our guides who were really more like our friends at this point and the warm, friendly people of Nicaragua in their own neighborhood. Politics’ aside, most everyplace you go people are people, friendly, happy and just trying to enjoy life.29 April Friday

Got up today at 5:00 am and after a quick breakfast and coffee, we headed back to Puerto Sandino to have Max take us back to “South Pole”. Today I’ve decided to take my 6’8” for a little extra paddle and to get in a bit early since yesterday I felt a little under-gunned. We were at the break and in the water by 7:15. Today was smaller but there were still some really good waves with sets coming in at about 8’ faces. Today Juan shot stills, too bad we didn’t have him shoot yesterday when the waves were bigger and better, oh well! Shape was still good, but not as good as yesterday. Winds were blowing sideshore/offshore and after a while Mike split back to the boat to fish for a while. He had Max take him out to the reef to try to snag a few fish and was gone for about an hour before coming back for us. Ended up surfing about 3 ½ hours today and caught a lot of really fun waves. Mike did end up catching a fish that gave him a pretty good fight for it’s size. I think it was some kind of Jack, so now all is right with the world, good surf and fishing!

Winds stayed offshore today till about 2:00 pm then went onshore again. We went back to the camp and hung out, ate lunch, read, slept and watched TV for the rest of the afternoon. The photo’s that Juan took turned out really good, but the waves were so much better the day before. Today was a great day overall!

30 April Saturday

Got up at 5:15 am to find smaller surf out front so Juan suggested that we go try El Transito, a spot we haven’t surfed yet. We took about a 20 minute boat ride to get there after Max picked us up at the beach in front of the camp. El Transito is a small fishing village with fishing boats going in and out through the surf line and it had waves about head high on sets and chest high in between but it was a lot slower and softer than what weave been surfing the last few days. There was 1 other local surfer that paddled out and it’s the first time weave surfed with anyone that wasn’t in our group, it wasn’t too bad, but it was kind inconsistent so after a little while we headed back to the boat to head back to the AST camp. On the way back in the boat Mike set up the two fishing poles to troll and put Dave and Razza on them. Razza got hit on his line and reeled in about a 5 lb Sierra, his first fish EVER. Mike got a pic as proof. We got back to the camp and ate breakfast then Mike and Dave went into town to get online while Razza and I stayed at La Barra. Turns out that today we had internet access at the camp today and a fairly consistent wireless signal. I was able to look up Terri to check her status at Wildflower (half-Ironman) and after refreshing a few times I found out that she placed 8th in her age, Way To Go Honey! We had fish for dinner and the Sierra was really good.

1 May Sunday
Got up at 5:30 am today and everyone else slept in today since our guides went out partying last night at a local fiesta. We rallied the troops and Max showed up with the boat and we headed north to South Pole. Surf was still about head high on sets and hollow with some decent push. Got a bunch of waves and today there were rights and lefts instead of primarily lefts. We surfed for about 3 ½ hours and the wind stayed offshore the entire time. Trolled all the way back to the camp and came up empty. Had breakfast of eggs and bacon with hash browns and tortillas then hung out at the camp for the rest of the day. There were two NBA playoff games on TV today to pass the time so of course we watched them both. The surf really dropped a lot from the previous day so no surf out front to speak of, but the offshore’s blew till about 4:00 pm then turned onshore for a little while before turning back offshore till the sun went down. Razza went with Juan to get more beer and Rum for the evening (…but we only have 2 days left!).

Don’t Drive at Night

While we were out surfing this morning and Juan was still in the boat with Max he got a phone call that the night before our neighbors from the next surf camp over, PSSR, had gone out the night before to Leon and on the drive back at night they swerved at the last minute to miss a motorcyclist who was riding without a headlight and ended up driving right into a big rock. Luckily, no one died, but two people went to the hospital with serious injuries, the driver got all cut up by hitting the windshield. The passenger was wearing a seatbelt and didn’t get hurt and the motorcyclist got away without a scratch.

2 May Monday
Got up today at 5:00 am and Max was coming at 6:00 am to pick us up on the beach. We had coffee and dry cereal for pre-surf breakfast. Surf looks about the same or maybe a bit smaller than yesterday :o( Today we were in the water by 6:30 to find chest high surf with slightly larger sets. After about 1 ½ hours of surfing Mike got kind of bored and headed to the boat for some quality fishing time with Max, Juan and Marcos. About an hour later after trolling and not having any luck fishing, they just ended up throwing out the anchor, drinking some beers and talking.

Close Encounters with Large Reptiles

After a bit Mike apparently had to relieve himself so he jumped in the water and was floating around. Suddenly the guys in the boat were yelling for Mike to get in the boat….LIKE NOW! Sensing something might be seriously wrong, Mike scrambled into the boat while Max pulled up the anchor quickly. The guys told Mike that they saw what initially looked like a log, but turned out to be about a 14’ Salt Water Crocodile not very far from where Mike was floating. When Mike got in the boat the guys saw the Croc swimming with it’s mouth open towards the three of us still surfing out in the water. When Max started the boat engine apparently the Croc submerged still swimming towards us out in the line up. When I saw the boat motoring towards us and the guys waving at us, I figured that it was time to come in and call it a session, so I started paddling out towards the boat. It was only when the boat got closer that I noticed that the guys in the boat were not waving us towards the boat but were telling us to go to the shore. I figured that something was wrong and that maybe they had seen a shark, being the furthest one outside I luckily saw there was a wave coming so I spun around and caught it and surfed to the shore. Razza decided to belly board in the same wave and Dave caught one shortly after that. We still didn’t really know what was going on, but as the boat pulled into the surf Juan, Marcos and Mike told us what they saw. I initially thought the guys were just joking about the Croc, but after taking to them a little while I took them more seriously. Juan said that the when Max started the boat the Croc was about 25’ from us even though we never saw it.

Max took us back to AST and pulled right up to the sand. We ate breakfast and hung out for a little while before Dave and I went for a walk over to the Miramar point since it was still blowing offshore and the conditions looked really good. As we walked over to the point the surf seemed to get more consistent and actually looked really good on the inside, so we scrambled back to the camp to get boards for another surf. On the way back we saw Mike and Razza and they didn’t take much time to beeline back to get boards too. Mike and I paddled out first into about 5 guys all sitting on the outside break. We saw that the good waves were lining up on the inside reef and were hollow and zipping down the reef so that’s where we paddled to. Right off the bat Mike got a decent little barrel then I got one and we just kept catching the inside hollow waves where no one wanted to sit. About that time, Dave and Razza paddled out to where we were surfing and it was literally the 4 of us trading off riding the inside waves that were hollow and really fun. It was still offshore and we surfed for about an hour and a half before it switched to onshore and blew out. Everyone had a really fun session.

The City of Leon.
The City of Leon.

We had talked about heading into Leon for our last evening in Nicaragua to check it out and hang out a little bit, so we went back to the house, cleaned up and drove into Leon to check out the city and so Dave could get a little work done online again. We drove around the city and Juan showed us a bunch of very elaborate catholic churches built in the 1700s. We parked near the center square just off of the main church in Leon. Mike, Marcos, Razza and I sat at an outdoor café and had a couple beers waiting for Juan and Dave to finish up their work online. When they arrived Juan took us to another restaurant and bar named Barbosa where they were having drink specials on beers and Rum shots. We kept ordering buckets of beers (turns out that they were only like 0.65 each!) and then Rum shots. On the way out the door someone had the bright idea of ordering beers to go….oh no! I was already seriously hurt since I hadn’t eaten anything for dinner so once we got home I went right to sleep.

Old Spanish Architecture in the City of Leon
Old Spanish Architecture in the City of Leon


3 May Tuesday

If you want to play, you’ve got to PAY! Last night we had a blast in Leon, but this morning I dearly paid. The boys all got up and went surfing at Miramar point and I decided that more sleep sounded better than a low tide surf session over a shallow reef. I was still pretty wrecked till around 9:00 am and the guys were still out surfing Miramar on the low tide which was apparently pretty sketchy on the take-offs. About that time Mike came running up the steps to the camp from the beach yelling for help. Apparently, he had gotten into an altercation out at the point earlier in the morning where some kook had hit him with his board and then the guy got pissed off when Mike sounded him over it. The guy apparently got so upset that he went up to the Miramar resort to get some help and had some guy paddled out to tell Mike to paddle in to the beach. When Mike looked on the beach there were a few guys waiting for him with sticks or clubs so instead of paddling into the beach and getting jumped, Mike paddled around the point back to the beach in front of the AST camp. After checking to insure the coast was clear, as he was paddling in, Mike saw some guy sprinting up the beach with something that looked very much like a weapon in his hand so he sprinted up to the house yelling for help. Once again our guides Juan and Marcos were on it immediately and went down on the beach to talk with the Brazilian owner of the Miramar camp who was chasing Mike and they smoothed things over.

* Here’s my take on the Miramar incident as was told to the owner of AST tours.

Hey Dave,

As for the Brazilians… I was surfing that shelfing left at inside Miramar and was hit by some kook who ditched his board. I sounded him for being dangerous. The very next morning we were surfing out there again, and another kook from the same camp pulled a blatant clown move and hit me again. Not just love taps either, these were painful, blunt force trauma shots, and could have easily sent me off to the nearest hospital, (which was at least a couple hours away, down a hot, dusty, bumpy, unpaved road). As I’m sure you know, the bottom drops out of that wave in the blink of an eye when it hits the reef, and it’s really only to be ridden by high intermediate to advanced surfers. I told the guy to get the f%#k away from me too, and it wasn’t a good place to learn to ride waves. He gave me the, “you’re the A-Hole from yesterday diatribe”, and paddled in to tell on me, (seek some second hand revenge from the Brazilian Militia), and then watch the spectacle unfold from the safety of the Miramar Surf Camp’s cliff side deck.

I am usually very quiet in the water, but when someone repeatedly comes close to decapitating me, I tend to get a little defensive and mean spirited… wouldn’t you?

The next thing I know, this other guy is paddling out at me in an uncontrollable rage and telling me, in no uncertain terms, that it’s his beach and he and his cronies were going to f%#k me up. He ordered me to paddle in to the beach where he and his buddies were planning to beat the f#%k out of me, (there were 3 of them waiting to get me). Luckily I out paddled the initial assassin, at which point, I power stroked, about a ¼ mile, from Miramar back to the Rasta House, (where we were staying), and after an elongated, careful onshore observation, decided I could make safe passage to the homestead and belly boarded one into shore. It looked like I was in the clear, then all of a sudden this guy comes sprinting full speed, out of nowhere with something that looked to be a weapon in his hand. I barely beat him to the Casa steps, and ran up the stairs and into the house yelling for assistance while I looked for some sort of a weapon to defend myself with. Our guides, Juan, Marcos and Carlos went down onto the beach, confronted him, and straightened him out after about 20 plus minutes of dialogue, (no blows were exchanged).

I used to love a good brawl when I was younger, (one on one style), but that lynch mob mentality had me pretty rattled. Luckily that was our final day and I am a very fast runner.

The bottom line from an editorial, and first person perspective is that you should avoid Miramar Surf camp at all costs. Who needs a place filled with kooks and angry Brazilians when you go on vacation? I can get that at El Porto almost any day of the week, (no shot on Brazilians, with the exception of this particular group). BTW, as for the douche bag owner who wanted my head on a platter… you chased the wrong guy down the beach my friend. You may have been able to beat me up with a club, but you won’t wrestle the keyboard out of my hands in El Segundo anytime soon, A-Hole ! BAD BUSINESS BRO! If you spent that kind of energy teaching your guests how to surf or even a crash course on surf etiquette you would be much better off. Better yet, put them in a position to succeed by matching their ability and guiding them into a more user friendly surf spot. Thus the term, “Surf Guide”