Surfing Tamarindo: Ollie's Point

A group of us spent Thursday at Ollie's Point on The Northern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Included in the group were Joe, Larry, Valerie, Rafa and Ricardo from WRSC. And me of course.

We ended up driving to Playa Coco on the previous evening so we could get an early (5am) start. The only way to the break is to charter a boat. You're looking at about $300 divided by 6 people, so it's not so bad.

We arrived on the break at 7am and had the surf almost to ourselves for the first hour. Then a dozen boats came in and we were packed with 37 surfers for the next two hours.

However, the last two hours we had all to ourselves! Do the math and you'll realize we surfed for 5 hours!

Ollie's is best done on a low tide, but because there was a good swell, the waves lasted all day. Most waves were chest to head high with a perfect right roll. Occasionally we got overhead

waves and once in a while, the dreaded rogue wave rolled in.

Oh, did I mention we had perfect offshore winds? And Crystal clear water? (we did need spring suits though)

The rivermouth/pointbreak has to be one of the more enjoyable rights in the world, almost as good as a warm-water Rincon

Ollie's Point has to be a solid south swell to even show. The only practical way to get to Ollie's is by getting a boat taxi from nearby Playas de Coco, which you can easily organize from surf shops in Tamarindo such as WRSC

How did the break become named such? "Ollie's Point," was the favorite place for Oliver North's shipments to arrive on their way to Nicaragua during the war in the Eighties. Once you see the beach, it will all make sense. Supposidely there is a secret airfield around too...

Surf Quality


	wave quality	World Class
	experience	experienced surfers
	surf frequency	very consistent (150 day/year)

	Wave type	point-break
	direction	right
	bottom	flat rocks with sand
	power
	normal length	long (150 to 300 m)
	good day	very Long (300 to 500 m)
		Tide, Swell and Wind


	swell size	starts working at 1.5m-2m /5ft-6ft and holds up to 5m / 16 ft and over
	tide position	low and mid tide
	tide movement	rising and falling tides