Feel the Rush of
Surfing
Surfing in Nicaragua is like riding an exhilarating wave of adventure surrounded by natural bliss!
Nicaragua’s Pacific coast is a hidden gem for surfers seeking uncrowded waves, warm waters, and consistent swells year-round.
Playa Colorado
Lefts, Rights, Sand Bottom, Barreling Beach Break
Playa Colorado is the real deal. The isn’t your grandma’s beach break. Of all the Nicaragua surf breaks, Playa Colorado might just be the best in the entire country. You want to go out and score some barrels in an adrenaline inducing, sand churning, tube machine?
Playa Colorado is the real deal. The isn’t your grandma’s beach break. Of all the Nicaragua surf breaks, Playa Colorado might just be the best in the entire country. You want to go out and score some barrels in an adrenaline inducing, sand churning, tube machine?
Playa Manzanillo
Left Point/Reef, Barrels, Boat Access Only
Playa Manzanillo is a super fun left point/reef break. This is a wave anyone with intermediate skills and up can have a blast with. A nice easy take off with an open face for three or four solid carves and hacks before it hits the inside shelf and starts to hollow out for the barrel section. You can stall out, and backdoor right into the tube if you time it right. This wave has a little bit of everything. It’s a nice long ride, consistent, has rip-able faces, barrels, and works great on a variety of swells. It’s also a private access wave, so the boat is the way to go. Once it gets a foot or two overhead it does become a little more of a beast with slight risk factors, so heavy swells are probably more suitable for confident surfers. This wave is so fun, it also has our vote for one of the best waves in Nicaragua.
Panga Drops
Lefts, Rights, Deep Water Reef, Swell Magnet, Long rides
Panga Drops is a deep water reef that catches any swell, and magnifies it to sizes well above anything else in the region. When it’s knee high everywhere else, it’s head high at Panga. It can also hold any size swell that comes this way. It’s not uncommon to see people scratching their way into triple overhead freight trains at Panga when heavy swell hits our coastline.
Of the Nicaragua surf breaks in our local neighborhood, Panga isn’t one known for churning hollow barrels, though it can have sections that barrel from time to time. It is generally considered to be a “softer wave”, but because it’s a deep water wave it usually breaks on a slightly bigger scale than your average wave. This means wide open faces on long waves, with a ton of speed. Mellow Crowds, fun, reeling waves, catches any swell, and provides some of the most consistent surf in the country. Panga Drops might often be overlooked, but it’s more likely that it’s just underrated.
Playa Popoyo
Deep Reef, Rights, Lefts, Fun and rip-able, Swell Magnet
Of all the Nicaragua surf breaks we’ve mentioned, Popoyo is likely the most well known. Playa Popoyo is an iconic wave in our country, and is known to be one of the best waves in Nicaragua. A swell magnet, and an easily approachable wave (on most days), with long rides, steep faces, and open lines perfect for laying out some slashes… it’s no wonder this wave has become so popular. It holds pretty much any swell, features lefts, rights, and has a couple other waves that break on certain swells within eyesight. It does have a tendency to get a bit more crowded here than most other places, but because it works on almost any tide you can wait for the right time to score with less crowds.
Playa Maderas
Beach Break, Lefts, Rights, Rip-able, Swell Magnet
Playa Maderas is located on an isolated beach north of San Juan del Sur, and South of Gigante. It’s transformed into a bit of a backpackers destination, and the beach has a mellow party vibe. Most Nicaragua surf breaks are more on the advanced side of the wave spectrum, but Playa Maderas is generally pretty soft compared to most of the waves in Nicaragua. It can cater more to the novice surfer. Don’t be fooled though, Maderas has it’s days, and has some fun steep sections for the more advanced surfer too. It holds plenty of swell, and has a face perfect for slashing, and steep sections well suited for punting airs (or at least trying to). This sand bottom beach break dishes up super fun waves, and the beach provides some ideal vibes for chilling.
Playa Amarillo
Beach Break, Lefts, Rights, Mellow, fun for anyone
Nicaragua surf breaks like Playa Amarillo are exactly what makes Nicaragua so special. No crowds, nice waves, and untouched beaches. Playa Amarillo is a neighboring beach of Playa Gigante, and it’s just a short walk to the North of our beachfront surf lodge. The beach is as picturesque as it gets with no development of any kind. It’s just a beautiful untouched beach. As for the waves here… At the south end of Playa Amarillo you’ll find a few sand bottom peaks offering lefts, and rights, and a shallow reef break that wraps the point at the far south. The reef break barrels left, and right, but only functions on occasion with the ideal swell size, and direction. The beach break works much more consistently, and we consider it to be a pretty easy going beach break in comparison to the rest of the hollow waves on tap here in Nicaragua. Random sand bars do form periodically all up and down Playa Amarillo, and on some days it absolutely goes off…and with no crowd. It’s a decent beach break with little to no crowd that’s enjoyable for all ability levels.
Playa Santana
Beach Break, Wedge, Lefts, Rights, Barrels, Consistent
Playa Santana isn’t known as the best, or most popular wave in Nicaragua. This goes to show just that quality, and quantity of Nicaragua surf breaks are unbelievable. Playa Santana isn’t the most popular, but it’s high quality, and it might just be the most consistent surf break in the entire country. Playa Santana features fast wedging lefts and rights spread across numerous peaks up and down the beach. It’s a super fun wedgy wave with a steep take off, fast lines, and tight almond shaped barrels. Playa Santana deals well with smaller to mid-sized swells, so it’s great on smaller days. It’s a compact wave with good solid punch, and beautiful shape. It can deliver perfect little barrels even on small days, or grinding barrels on days with a little more swell in the water. Plus sized swells tend to overwhelm this spot. It’s tough not to have a blast at this surf spot.
Playgrounds
Cobble Stone Bottom, Mostly Lefts, Fully shred-able
Vera Cruz, also known as Playgrounds, is a wave that will get anyone stoked to surf. Take any of the Nicaragua surf breaks, and Playgrounds is Nicaragua’s version of Trestles. Breaking over cobble stone rocks, Playgrounds obtained it’s name because that’s just what it is…a playground. Yet another wave that breaks on nearly any swell that comes our way, and breaks excellent on big swells too. The lefts set you up for long rides on fast open faces with plenty of opportunity to shred to your heart’s content. As the wave progresses down the line you’ll find an inside section that has a tendency to barrel… the perfect finish to a long ride. There is also the occasional right that works here as well. Though not quite as consistent, or as long of a ride, the right is a hollowed out wave with barrels on the menu. Playgrounds has a little something for everyone.