Nica Post: Video...Surf Returns at Santana
Playa Santana in Nicaragua lit up this morning after three days of onshore mush. Spat was there with the GoPro, whose propensity to fog leaves the curious viewer wondering...was that a giant barrel he just pulled into? Video after the jump...
The morning session: Exploratory paddle out in dead calm, just to shake off three days of shorebound rust. Is that a breeze I detect coming off the hills to the east? Indeed it is... Three guys out. The chest-high sets start standing up. The breeze picks up and those puppies are being groomed like they're in the final at Westminster. Bathwater warm. Bath tub clear. ...
Spat's game at this point is to paddle into as many waves as possible and just huck over the lip on the off chance it's *the* wave. This is mostly because wave selection at Playa Santana is a roll of the dice for me. Locals like Julio, Mario and Gustavo pick off the long ones. Wintering whities pick up the scraps.
But it's good. It's really really quite good. As the GoPro footage shows, we're getting into waves, finding lines, having fun. Twenty minutes in, the GoPro has fogged its casing. Whuuuuh? Yeah. Documentation of the session starts to feel Magruder-esque. I paddle into one and corner down the face. The lip pitches up in front of me and the wave mutates vertically. Right hand is contrailing along the face and I stomp the tail, stalling into a Gerry Lopez slouch under a big, petulant lip.
As far as you know. Check the last clip in the video.
Nicaragua, Surf Films, Surfing, Video, Video gear | tagged Gerry Lopez, GoPro, Nicaragua, Playa Santana, Spat Out in Glory | Feb 25, 2010 at 3:58 PM 
Reader Comments (6)
Speak English for cryin out loud!
Bath tub clear...
is there any more footage of the fishing trip please
I'm confused. Does the condensation have anything to do with the housing? I hope not. Also please see previous question yet to be answered about the telephoto. Is the Raynox the one that Mom shipped?
your stance is looking better!
Suze ... the condensation in the GoPro occurs because the little filming unit heats up when in use, and when it hits some temperature differential with the outside water, the moisture in the air in the housing forms droplets. So not a defect, but improvising with shampoo on the lens and tissue paper in the housing to deal with it. As to the Raynox, indeed, the very same did finally arrive in Nica, with only a little graft needed to get it from Managua to here. It's helpful. We've been burning through a lot of Super 8 last couple days on the off chance that the magic wave will appear, which explains the lack of video from shore of late. One more day after today. It's a long shot, barrelwise, at this point. But I suppose it always was, given the lack of athletic skills.