A short trip to surf “the world’s second longest left”
Hey guys,
Well, reporting from Pavones, in southern Costa Rica, a very small village tucked down near the Panama border in Central America.
A swath of coastal rainforest, and waking to tropical birdsong, with balmy warm air all day and and balmy warm air all night. And dirt track roads and the endless hum of cicadas, and small basic restaurants and the tempos of the simple life.
You can get a very long bus ride to get down to Pavones, or with my short timeframe spend $120 to catch a twelve-seater plane and treat yourself to a stunning flight across the rainforest coastline. I wish I could bottle that feeling of excitement in the steep take-off and gliding arcing turns bending over the coastline…
To surfers, Pavones is famed as one of the world’s longest ‘lefts’, in our family first discovered by Keara (2008?) but in surfing lore the first arrivals of surfers was allegedly around the time this segment of the coast became a drug running stop in the 1970s.
In the water, the wave starts to break off a rocky point way around the corner from the main village beach area, with its wall, where everyone will gather towards the end of the day, watching the sun go down as surfers catch wave after wave until the orb has sunk behind the horizon.
The wave just runs and runs, and then steepens and then mellows, and then runs and rolls, for nearly a kilometre ‘leftwards’ from our perspective out in the water…
The Pavones people even made a sign to put light and color into the claim of being ‘the second long left’ in the world…
The longest left is generally regarded as Chicama, in Peru, that I got down to in 2021 (as I wrote here). And right up there in the debate as to the world’s longest lefts is Ahipara that I was lucky to visit in New Zealand last month, at the very top of New Zealand’s North Island (as I wrote here). But just like trying to compare great cities, we shouldn’t compare great waves! But enjoy trading notes on their unique nuances over beer, when you’re skin is still buzzing with the vibe of a great session.
Idling in the surf between hefty sized sets this week, I found myself counting the countries I’ve traveled in and surfed in.
It’s 42 countries with this trip….!
And it was cool to then tot up that I’ve now surfed in 19 of those, since my first ‘proper’ surf in June 1998 on the island of Jersey off France, with great Edinburgh University friends, all hosted by the wonderful Richard Swift aka ‘Swifty’ (and Life Notes reader…), whose grandfather had a home there. I can still picture that day, and so grateful for it, too.
In all those trips, it was cool to realize that I’ve been lucky to be in the water at four world championship tour spots: Jeffrey’s Bay in South Africa, Hossegor in France, Supertubos in Portugal and Mundaka in Spain (er…on small days, else I wouldn’t embarrass myself….well, except Mundaka where I took a fair hiding and floated all the way down the rivermouth in exhaustion on the morning of the competition, yep I should not have even been in the water…!).
On these trips you meet so many people who simply travel and surf and travel and surf, sewing life together with hospitality or other temporary work while they travel, or working remotely nowadays, or with having created some passive income that supports for a while. They’re rarely drop-outs, or irresponsible or total hedons (well, some…), but they simply live with different atunement to fulfillment than the city-life and structured life-tuning fork that I’ve tended to play back into.
The reason I jumped on the chance to come down here at short notice was a funny one…
I wrote to a friend from early SF days, around 2012-14, whose life and career evolved in a huge way and took him to New York, building a business working with management teams and leaders of mature start-ups on their performance and results. It’s a skill I’m really curious about in starting to plot and design my next phase of career. And so I’ve been getting in touch with everyone I know that’s in that line of work, to get a sense for the industry, what’s it’s really like, the bad days, different approaches, starting points.
Ed wrote back to my email right away with a beautiful alternative to the zoom idea…“Or, how about we catch up over waves for a week if there’s any chance you can make it down to Pavones in two weeks time…!?”
My hair stood on end, because I knew that for the first time in my life I could be one of those surfers that books a last-minute flight to hit a spot when life allows. I checked in with C on the idea – pledging cutting short to be back for her birthday weekend! – found cheap points flights, and had it all booked within 24 hours.
It was a magical week in the water, so much luck with conditions lining up for us nicely, and rich too in many long conversations, catching up on the arc of 10 years and with Ed opening up his head and experience to every question I had.
Costa Rica is…
Ever trying to shorten these trip notes, a bundle of observations jotted into a phone-note entitled ‘Costa Rica is…’
In ‘Mesoamerica’, which I first learnt about visiting Oaxaca last July. The term is historical and cultural rather than geographic, referring back to the pre-Columbian era of advanced civilizations that were trading freely across the region and developed architectural, mathematical and astronomical achievements. Agricultural development was sophisticated too, maize, beans and squash being domesticated for mass growing.
Colourful! A national culture of colour and good vibes and respect for nature is woven into so many symbols and attitudes in Costa Rican life. You can even see it in the money…
Abundant with the national slogan ‘La Pura Vida’, adopted in the 1960s meaning ‘the pure life’, a national philosophy of living life to the fullest through appreciating the simple things, and maintaining a positive, relaxed outlook, with a connection to nature.
…Where in Pavones you get a delicious morning soundtrack of the tropical birdlife having fun, waiting for your omelette ranchero. You can’t help feeling damn lucky to be alive and be a fellow species on planet earth when you inhale the morning air to that soundtrack, the cicada chorus building as the day goes on…
…Where tortillas are not flaps of smashed flour in a square plastic bag, but gorgeous doughy freshly made things, almost like a pancake. In the best eateries, like a lightly crisped pancake, with a little rise of air in the middle. Exquisite!
…Where coffee is central to the culture (and within exports Costa Rica focuses on the premium specialty market), but you don’t see this in the streets yet, of the capital, even. The posh espresso and barista culture that has swept the rest of the world has not yet been adopted in Pavones or the capital city downtown that I saw in my short trip. A good viscous espresso was impossible to find in an hour of strolling across the centre of the national capital San Jose on my last day. Cultures and commerce endlessly surprise, huh?
…Where native tribes are well protected, and live healthily compared with native reservations in many parts of the world. There is a large indigenous reservation up the hill behind Pavones, where the native tribe of the region lives relatively primitively on untitled community land assigned by the government. “They live in a completely different world, in a good way mostly”, a restaurant owner shared with me “and will just sit and stare for hours in between daily chores, with seemingly little on their minds”.
…Without a military since 1948, when a civil war after a disputed election saw the arrival to power of José Figueres Ferrer. There is of course a public security force, La Fuerza Publica.
From a good conversation with ChatGPT*, I learnt how much President Figueres was a prescient leader for his time, shaping national values that still have spine today. He came into politics from managing a coffee plantation in Costa Rica, through which Ferrer developed his political and economic views, and shaped approaches to agriculture, national governance and deep appreciation for Costa Rica’s natural resources and the importance of sustainable practices. Thus Costa Rica’s focus on conservation and eco-tourism that it’s so well known for today.
*Note: I can’t highly enough bringing your curiosities and questions in life to ChatGPT, where you can get into a conversation of curiosity, chatting with a computer instead of getting a list of ad-driven reading options in Google….
On the plane on the way down, I typed in “When was Costa Rica founded?” – a good starting point, non? – and ended up learning all kinds of things from the conversation that unfolded.
And, no it’s not necessarily perfect in the information sources, but who needs perfection to get a sense for a topic anyway…especially when it’s so fun
You just take the aspect of the answer your most curious about and write “tell me more about…”.
Tip: I’ve set my ChatGPT settings to answer everything in around 200 words unless I tell it to otherwise (and it will always conclude with “would you like my full answer” in any case).
I expect I’ll be saying ‘muchas gracias’ for days to come, in a slow transition back to San Francisco life and pace this weekend.
Have a great weekend!
Kevin
