Dominical

Many weekends I take a short bus trip just up the cost  to a little surf town called Dominical.  This is one of my favorite places to go because its ease of accessibility , laid back atmosphere, and good waves. It’s known in the surfing world as the Puerto Escondido of Costa Rica because its big, powerful, hollow, and great for tube riding.  

On one of my trips to Dominical back in May I found myself in a little bit of trouble. After arriving on friday afternoon, I threw my stuff down in my hostel, grabbed my board, and ran down to the beach to catch the last few hours of sunlight.  When I arrived I found the waves to be pretty big (the report said 7-10 foot and building throughout the night and next day).  Having surfed the beach quite a few times and feeling pretty confident out there, I didn’t even think twice about paddling out. However as soon as I got in the water I could tell it was much bigger than I thought. When I finally made my way through the heavy waves to the line up I noticed that the crowd was very small, only me, one other local, and a group of 5 or so lifeguards doing toe-ins on their rescue jet ski.  I spent the next few hours getting a number of good rides, pulling into a half dozen close-out barrels, and taking a few beatings in the process.  It was getting late and I decided to get one more.  I saw a solid over head wave coming my way and paddled for it, stood up and pulled into the barrel just like I’d been doing all afternoon.  This time, however, I didn’t get crushed by the falling lip and tossed around underwater, instead I got spit out into the shoulder, dry as a bone.  After having caught such an amazing ride a decided to paddle out for one more wave despite the late hour and being extremely fatigued.  Just as I arrived at the line up a HUGE set was peaking on the horizon, by far the biggest set of the day.   I paddled as hard as I could towards it, the wave growing bigger and bigger as I got closer.  I knew I had a chance at getting over it but it was going to be a close call.  Just as I got to the foot of the wave the lip started to curl over and I realized that it was going to land right in front of me.  I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get deep enough to duck dive it so I ditched my board and swam for the bottom.  I felt the wave explode above be so violently that I thought for sure my board was going to be in two pieces when I surfaced.  I was tossed around underwater for what seemed like an eternity.  The wave let up just enough to give me a chance to come up for a breath of air and a mouthful of foam before the next wave in the set exploded in-front of me.  I took 4 or five of these before the set let up just enough to allow me to get my bearings.  I noticed that my board was, thankfully, still in one piece.  I decided to call it a day so I jumped on and caught some white water for shore.  

I walked up the beach and sat down on a log to watch the lifeguards squeak in a few toe-in rides before nightfall.   I glanced down at my board and noticed how close it actually came to being snapped into two. There was a huge crease down the middle any small wipeout would surly break it.  Upset about the inevitable fate of my board, I didn’t even notice the on-duty lifeguard walking over to me.  When he stopped in front of me I thought he was going to tell me that he was worried he was going to have to rescue me from the huge set, but he actually came over to complement me on the barrel I had a few minutes prior.      

The waves that broke on me that day were, by far, the biggest and most powerful waves I’ve ever experienced.  Though they did give be a bit of a fright, they didn’t, scare me enough to want to leave my favorite little beach town.  

I’m still having a blast here in Costa Rica. Everyday is a new adventure.  Stay tuned for more tomorrow...