Rincon Surf School (Rincon Surf & Board)

The folks at Rincon Surf School (also known as Rincon Surf & Board) were my tutors and guides for my first two days of surfing.  Their focus is on safety, fun, and learning.  It was the best money I could have spent!  Not only did they help me improve my surfing, they took care of transportation to and from the beach, the surfboard, and the selection of the best beach for each day.  Beach selection, it turns out, is critical because there are dozens of surf breaks around Rincon.

Me after two great days of lessons at Rincon Surf School.  

By the end of the second day I was able to consistently stand on the board and ride the face of a breaking wave to the beach.  I'm still having trouble with turning and catching larger waves.  Not bad after a 30+ year interruption in my surfing!



This week the swell at most of the best known places was anywhere from 6 to 20 feet!  That’s great if you are a professional surfer or a spectator, but completely unsafe for anyone else to be in the water.

Brian runs the place with the assistance of Alexandra.  In additional to Brian, two other instructors James and Edna took care of my group of 10 to 12 students.  The students ranged from a family of five with no surfing experience to a few people with a bit of experience.

A random surfer on Maria Beach, Rincon

Tuesday Notes

Another breakfast at La Punta Bakery.

Surfing lessons day 2 - back to Aquadilla.

Lunch at a hole in the wall cafe in downtown Aquadilla: yellow rice with peas and stewed "pulpa" or octopus. It was delicious!

After surfing I took a shower and a short nap, then headed up the hill to take some sunset photos.

Dinner at the Shipwreck Bar & Grill in Rincon for some excellent fish kabobs and draft beer.

Back at Tamboo for a beer and some blogging on the deck (where I am writing this). The warm moist breeze feels amazing! I don't want to go inside!

Giant waves are crashing on the beach - almost sounds like the roar of thunder. The waxing moon is bright in the sky. The full moon is coming on New Years Eve - a "blue moon" because it's the second full moon of the month.

This is my last night at Beside the Point. Tomorrow I go to the Bamboo Tree house where I'll stay for the next two nights (including New Years Eve).


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Sent from my smart phone

Beside the Point & “The Tamboo”

For the first three nights I am staying at “Beside the Point".  It is a small hotel / Inn associated with the Tamboo bar and  restaurant.   I ate lunch there when I arrived and the shrimp wrap was excellent!  This evening they had a traditional Puerto Rican band playing until about 9:00 PM. 



The Tamboo is an open air bar with a large deck that overhangs the beach.  It’s a surfer’s beach and the waves today were between 3’ and 6’.  It was inspiring to sit on the deck and watch the surfers catching the waves.  Later I spoke to someone at a local surf shop down the road and he said they are expecting VERY BIG surf for the next few days.



Tomorrow my surfing lessons begin with Rincon Surf School. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I’m really excited to finally be getting the chance.

A look back at surfing in Costa Rica in 1977

I learned to surf during my teen years in Costa Rica. In the mid-1970's Costa Rica was an undiscovered surfing mecca. The only people who surfed were a handful of local "gringo" kids and a few adventurous surfers who made their way down from California. The beaches and the waves were empty. There were no surf shops or surfing schools. Surfboard wax was impossible to find; the only supply was shipped in or carried back from the States by friends and relatives.

Some of the Costa Rican beaches we surfed at in the mid-1970's were:

• Dona Ana near Punta Arenas. We would take the the train down from San Jose with our surfboards and backpacks and stay in cabanas right on the beach for a few dollars a day.
• Playa Jaco - now a huge tourist and surfing town. Back then Jaco was a sleepy fishing village. I went there with my family once for a week and was the only surfer on the beach the entire time.
• Manual Antonio - now a national park. We had friends from Arizona (the Bergeron family) who had a built a home home a few feet from the high water mark at the end of the 3rd beach. When Costs Rica turned the area into a National Park the government evicted them and they returned to the States. We used to camp on the beach for days on end, sleeping in hammocks strung between palm trees. When it rained we'd move our hammocks to the open-air thatched shelter the Bergerons had for guests.

I wonder where the Bergerons are today?

Why Rincon?

When planning this trip I wanted the destination to:

• Warm, sunny & on the water.
• Options for peace and quiet and activities, depending on my mood.
• A location in Latin America – I enjoy the food and the culture, and I wanted an opportunity to brush up on my Spanish.
• Low to moderate cost for the trip.

I began with the thought of going to Vieques or Culebra, but they are harder to get to and have fewer options for  activities.

In my research led me to Rincon on the western tip of the island, and the more I learned the more I liked.  In the end, my decision to go to Rincon, Puerto Rico for a surfing vacation was based on:

1. Ease of access: reasonably priced direct flights from JFK Airport in New York into Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, only about 20 miles from Rincon.  I’ll catch a morning flight from JFK and I’ll be having lunch in Rincon!
2. Accommodations: even though it is one of the busiest weeks of the year I was able to find accommodations for about $100 per night.  Keep in mind I am going on one of the busiest weeks of the season (the week after Christmas) and with only a few days notice.  If I was traveling any other time I could have easily found nice places to stay with lower rates.
3. Variety of Beaches: Rincon is the western tip of Puerto Rico with the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other.  The north side (Atlantic) is known for it’s consistent waves.  The south side (Caribbean) is generally calmer.
4. Lots of Activities: On days that I don’t surf there are plenty of other things to do like fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling.  Unlike some of the more secluded options, there’s a vibrant night life and many places to eat.  I’ll be spending New Year’s Eve there and would like the option of going out and partying.