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Okay, okay, you saw The Endless Summer II. You know that you have to paddle through a Cayman-infested estuary to get to the beach; you know that the offshores can hold up the perfect, thin-lipped tubes for about as long as your legs'll stand it. You've practiced your Pat O'Connell skips down the beach 'til your feet were fried, and you've got the poster hanging over your bed. But nothing -- well, almost nothing -- can beat the sheer, unbridled fun you can have when Playa Naranjo turns on. This isn't Black's or Ocean Beach or even Hossegor -- it's easy, playful-as-hell beachbreak, and you'll be glad you're a surfer once you stand up, offshore sting in your eyes, and start pumping down the line.
The wave itself is caused by that same estuary, which deposits sand on an otherwise fairly flat sandbar, creating lefts and rights that wall up for days. There are other peaks along its two- to three-mile white sand stretch, but they're not as perfectly shaped as the ones found in the lee of the rock.
There are a couple ways to get to Witches: One involves a very trusty 4WD, ALL supplies (extra-strength mosquito net), and driving in through the Santa Rosa National Park, down eight miles of some of the worst roads in Costa Rica -- in rainy season, fugghetaboutit. Many the luckless soul has attempted to push his rental car to its RAV maximum, only to get hopelessly bogged down in mud (and did we mention mosquitoes?). The other, saner, safer way involves getting a boat taxi from nearby Playas de Coco, which you can easily organize from surf shops in Tamarindo, including Iguana Surf (ph: 653-0148; www.tamarindo.com/iguana ); Mariesas (ph: 653-0224), just down the road, and the High Tide Surf Shop (ph: 653-0108), a block or so east of town's main T-junction. Also, check out www.witchesrocksurfcamp.com on your way into Tamarindo. Or, you can hook up with www.costaricasurfcharters.com and stay overnight offshore at the break, which allows for a lonely dawn patrol with just you and whomever else you brought along on the boat.
-- Marcus Sanders
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Medium high. Low tide walls up too much.
S-SW
Shoulder-high to double overhead
NE
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Sand
Beginner to advanced
Favorite small-wave beachbreak board
Winter is best for offshores, but summer is best for swell.
Hell drive in, or cushy boat taxi -- take your ($$) pick.
Hell, yeah -- it's not uncommon to see 30 guys jockeying for the peak when it's pumping.
No locals per se, but some expat Tamarindo guys have it wired.
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3. They're only little ones...
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If you're camping, you brought in all your food, right? If you're taxiing, boats usually provide something to munch on. (See also "Places to Eat: Tamarindo.")
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Camping's cheap on the pocketbook, hard on the body, and easy on the soul. Most folks stay in Tamarindo. (See "Places to Stay: Tamarindo.")
Or try
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Get into a howling contest with the local monkeys, count pretty birds, swat mosquitoes, or read your book.
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Nope. Go back to Tamarindo for that.
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