SUS at Gigante Bay, Nicaragua

[IRideYellow]

Went to the Giants Foot Surf camp.  It is located in a little fishing village called Gigante which is about 2 hours from Managua.  Paid 1500 for a single room though it is all inclusive.  Pick up and return from airport, 3 boat rides a day, 4 meals a day and surf guides.  Accommodations have AC though they are pretty sparse.  It was right on the beach so I could grab my board and go practice tail turns whenever I wanted to.  It's amazing how energized you are in warm water.  Everyone at the camp was in the 20s-early 30s and I'm 50ish.  There are lots of other nice places to stay on the coast though many were not on the beach so you would have to drive to get on the boat.  Very little travel to breaks was done by car since it too 4-5 time as long to get to the break.

Fast beach breaks and much bigger reef breaks.  Boat takes you everywhere you want to go.  Colorados and Pango Drop are just across the Gigiante bay which is a 10 minute boat ride.  Most breaks had no more then 20 people and often 5-10  people.   Also, went to Playgrounds up north.  Again if you get caught inside you are going to take a pounding since often a big set will start breaking further out.  Rides are not very long.  I saw shortboarders getting 4-6 turns on the reef breaks.  On the beach breaks often they would popup and then have to bail.  Took real effort to get a couple of turns or go down the line for any distance.   I never surfed at Colorados so I have no idea how long the rides are though one guy got barreled and as a long time surfer he though Colorados was a very technical break

It is not really SUS friendly since there are no escape routes like I'm use to in Santa Cruz.  Everyone there rides shortboards except a few old timers at Colorados.  In fact, I never saw another SUP/SUS there. 

Great beaches, lovely water and excellent food.  The only reason to go to Gigante is to surf.  There are no touristy things to do in town or nearby.  As much as I liked it I cannot recommend it for SUS unless you have a high skill level.  Also you will need to pull yourself up on the boat.  They do not have a working ladder.  I eventually was able to slither over the transom.

[eastbound]

love the bar in gigante--they had weed brownies alongside the beer tap--tempted, but i stuck to alcohol

[surfcowboy]

Thanks for the 411.

What was the airfare like? And I'm guessing no longboarders either?

[IRideYellow]

Thanks for the 411.

What was the airfare like? And I'm guessing no longboarders either?

Airefare was 500 but I had to do American so it was another 300 for the boards.  There were lb everywhere but with smaller and less volume boards so they could get back out