Surfing is not only a sport, it is a culture, and for many it is a way of life.
Surf addicts travel around the world competing in international tournaments, chasing big waves, photographing and filming surfers, and surfing remote locations in search of unknown waves. This is how I arrived at the Colombian Pacific coast, at NuquÃ, a place that even today, in the 21st century, is only accessible by air. The pretext was the annual tournament of the Latin American Association of Professional Surfers.
And so we met in the city of MedellÃn, from where we flew to the municipality of NuquÃ, on the shores of the Pacific, at the confluence of the mouth of the Nuquà and Ancachà rivers. From here we boarded three boats at the dock to navigate the river for 40 minutes following the coast of the Gulf of Tribugá and we went down grouped according to the place where we were staying. In this tourist destination you will not find large hotels, but the ones that exist are rustic and ecological with excellent service, which also offer the infrastructure and equipment rental to carry out various activities such as diving, surfboards, kayaks and all the toys that need, so you don’t have to bring anything.
Gulf of Tribugá, Columbia.
The main tourist attractions of Nuquà are its beautiful beaches, its biological diversity, variety of fish and marine fauna, which is why it is also an ideal destination for diving.
Surfing in the jungle
Guillermo Gómez, owner of the Hotel Cantil, has been a great promoter of surfing inside and outside of Colombia; In the area he has dedicated himself to teaching local children to surf, who go out in search of waves every day. El Cantil offers courses, advice and rental of boards for beginners, and for experts boats to the best surf spots such as: Pela Pela, Juan Vidrio and El Derrumbe. Locals claim that Pico del Loro has the biggest waves.
Pico del Loro, Columbia.
The ritual of surfing begins with the first rays of the sun, the best waves rise in the morning. The Pico de Loro spot is spectacular: the waves form on the side of two large rocky islets covered in jungle, which gives it a wilder touch. Excited to see the waves, we prepare our boards, we smear them with wax so as not to slip, we adjust the leash straps to the ankle and we begin to swim out to sea. In the background you can only see the golden waves rising, then you swim past wave after wave until you reach the point where they begin to break.
Tips for standing on your board
Surfing is a sport that requires optimum physical condition, the part of the body you work with the most is the upper part, arms, back, chest and abdomen, you have to know how to swim very well.
Before surfing, observe the waves, locate where the tide is, the rocks, how the current moves. If you don’t know the terrain, don’t hesitate to ask other surfers for advice.
For beginners, the beaches with medium waves are recommended, where there is not much hangover. (If the sea pulls you to the bottom behind the swell, keep calm and wait for the same current to take you out, you can swim diagonally until you return to the swell area).
Start in small waves, before they start to break. Swim as hard as possible to keep up with her; once it starts to break in a quick motion, you straighten your arms and jump onto the board placing slightly more weight on the back. Don’t dip the nose of your board in the water because you will fall off the wave and get rolled over.
People surfing in the Colombian jungle.
Once you are standing on the board comes the part of the balance so as not to fall.
If you surf, don’t wait to get out of the sea when you’re already exhausted. The moment you feel cold or tired, get out of the water. It is better to surf several times for a short period of time than to spend many hours in a row in the water.
Once you are surfing, start making movements with your board such as turns and cuts hitting the tip of the waves.
Nomenclature
Waves are given different names depending on where they break. No two waves are the same, on each beach they break differently. The breaking of the waves presents, however, some patterns; generally the waves come grouped in sets, that is, they come in groups of four or five and then the swell calms down for a moment, and another set comes again, and so on.
Pointbreak: it is characterized by having a stone, sand or coral bottom. The waves are formed in only one direction, that is: right or left.
Marejada or swell: set of waves produced by a storm on the high seas and that will hit the coast for several days.
River Mouth: It has characteristics similar to the pointbreak, but it is located at the mouth of a river.
Beachbreak: the most common type of wave, they are the ones that break on sand bottoms and that present the best conditions to form tubes.
Reefbreak: it is a rock or coral formation, generally far from the coast, that generates strong and tubular waves.
