Surfing near Jaco hotel DoceLunas on Jaco beach, its pretty easy to get out into the lineup. The waves break fairly close to the shore so the paddle out is not a super big deal, although when they are at maximum size and walling out its definitely not a project for beginners. On some beaches, such as Esterillos Centro and Este to the south and Playa Bejuco south of them, the paddle out can be pretty epic. Beginning longboarders may find it easiest to turtle roll and conserve energy at first, but will eventually need to learn to take the hits on top of the board and keep paddling. We will talk about how to avoid losing ground while getting clobbered by whitewater another day. Today we are going to talk about an idea I just came up with last week – paddling downhill.

What do I mean by paddling downhill? Well, when you paddle out you may have to paddle up the face of green waves or may be able to punch through a little fading or incipient whitewater at the top of a wave. Then the wave passed under you and you go down the back face of the wave. If the wave is pretty steep when you paddle up the face, you can be paddling almost straight up. When you hit the top of the wave, you are in motionless spot with regard to gravity momentarily – no upward momentum or downward momentum, and then you begin to fall, sliding down the back face of the wave.

But unless you really work at it, you won’t harvest the downhill portion of your paddle to the lineup. Why? Because you were paddling straight up the face of the wave toward the sky almost. At the same point when you are at the top of your trip, lifted by the wave, and have the opportunity to charge down the backside of the wave to speed your trip to the lineup, you have almost no forward momentum – its all upward momentum that then turns into down instead of out.

To harness the potential energy of your elevated position in the wave, you need to create new forward momentum as soon as you crest the wave. Use a forward body position to bring the board into trim down the wave and take short strokes to accelerate. You will find yourself getting moving much faster if you establish this rhythm: longer strokes up the face of the wave followed by a quick flurry of short accelerating strokes down the back to re-create momentum when you that brief chance to paddle downhill. When the wave backs are three feet or so, you can really feel the difference. Give it a try!

n you will have a hard time getting waves; a lot of people are just floating out there like buoys. I have heard some other surfers refer to buoys with contempt, and it’s true that sometimes I wish there were a few less people do dodge, but

I think there is no shame in being a buoy.

Consider that a lot of surfers in Jaco are beginners and on the weekend, lots of people from San Jose who are just starting surfing and don’t get to practice every day are out there. They have paddled out to the lineup where they have a chance to catch a wave and where they can see up close what other surfers are doing and what works and what doesn’t. But they have enough sense to know they are not ready to charge in a crowd, so they are just sitting their floating and that’s fine by me. Better to be a buoy than a kook!

If you watch and wait, eventually you will find an opportunity where you are confident you can take off and get a good ride without endangering your fellow surfers. Pura Vida!

Official showtime is TBA but we are expecting around nine o clock doors. Stay tuned for further announcements.

Presale tickets are now available a the front desk at DoceLunas daily until 6pm. Prices are $25 for one night presale, $30 for one night at the gate, $65 for three nights. Join us for an incredible show at award winning Jaco hotel DoceLunas.

We are stoked he is coming back February 17th-19th 2012 with Oteil Burbridge of the Allman Brothers, Max Creek and two excellent openers.

This is the 2011 set list for songs Bill where played with Max Creek.

Thursday (set 2):
Franklin’s Tower
Don’t Do it
Blood Red Roses
You Let Me Down Again

Friday: (set 2)
Eyes Of The World
Truckin’
Cruel World
Ramble On Rose
Estimated Prophet
Turn On Your Lovelight
China Cat Sunflower
Bertha

Saturday (set 2)
space
Yellow Moon
The Other One
Chains Of Life
Bird Song
Polyanna
Thunder
Late In The Evening
Deep Elem Blues
You’re The Only One
Just A Rose

Come join us for Jungle Jam 2012 February 17-19th at Jaco hotel DoceLunas.

In a jungle garden. This is a show like no other.

Join us in paradise at Jaco hotel DoceLunas February 17-20th 2012. That’s just two weeks away! Meanwhile, here’s a video of Max Creek and Bill Kreutzmann playing Deep Elm Blues at the last Jungle Jam:

You can watch the watch Jaco local Carlos Munoz surf in the Pipeline Pro live here. Check it out!

Go Carlos!

DoceLunas also recevied a TCA for 11th best hotel overall in Central America and was one of very few four star hotels given a Traveler’s Choice Award for offering guests a bargain price.

We are proud of the efforts of our staff and the beautiful gardens and elegant and spacious rooms that helped us win these awards. Jaco is great base to sample the best of Costa Rica and DoceLunas is the perfect Jaco hotel to serve as your home away from home. We hope you will come join us in paradise at Jaco hotel DoceLunas.

I was watching for waves to surf on my stand up paddle board.

Wow was it something to see! We were far away, like 400 meters, but you still can’t help recognize the scale.

A huge cheer went up from the beach from all the people who were lucky enough to be looking in that direction. The cheering grew more widespread on the subsequent breeches as friends urgently grabbed one and other by the bicep to and pointed, speechless or stammering. I have only seen a whale in the bay here one other time, although off shore boat trips from the dominical area in August are a great option for Jaco hotel guests. I also saw a m onkey this morning hiking

on the mountain on the south end of the beach in the middle of the day. Usually the monkeys are gone by 11.

A friend of mine got a photo that will be putting up soon. (Its not zoomed in, so the whale is just a silhouette on the horizon, but you can see how far out it was and the flipper is extended.

The surf has been very small here, even for this time of year which is the smaller time of year. Ok for beginners, a major disappointment for experts, but then most experts don’t plan a short surf trip to Costa Rica in January because they know there is a possibility of a skunking and beginner conditions everywhere.

With the small swell, there is less churning of the near shore sand and consequently much better visibility, so I am sure divers are pretty stoked and the fish seem unsually attracted to Jaco bay as well.

The flat surface in the morning has allowed me to locate many large schools of fish as well as larger solitary predator fish and occasional instersections of the two, when the water starts to boil with activity and the fish start to fly around all over the place. I also saw a spotted eagle ray, which are seen in Hermosa down by Tulin fairly often but are quite rare in Jaco.