Believe it or not, Costa Rica has one of the best surf teams in the world. Last year, their team won the title at the 2015 World Surfing Games, and this year, the event was hosted at Playa Jaco, only a water taxi ride away from our properties in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. One of the surfers on the team is even from Santa Teresa! The Pacific coast of the country is one of the most well known havens for surfers. Due to the amazing waves and the surfing culture brought to Costa Rica from other countries, a passion for the sport has grown quickly in the country.
When people think of surfing locales and the best surfers in the world, they think of Hawaii and California. Costa Rica is more seen as a tropical getaway with great beaches and rain forests, which it is, but it is also getting more recognition for its surf culture. Surfing was brought to the Central American country from the US, but the Pura Vida concept has been alive in Costa Rica for a long time, and it matches with the lifestyle of the sport perfectly. It’s all about living a relaxed, clean, happy life, and many surfers live this way too. Although Costa Rica is different from surfing’s birthplace of Hawaii, the cultures match up beautifully and the sport has done really well in the country in a relatively short amount of time.
Now, Costa Rica is producing some of the world’s best surfers and is hosting big surf competitions, making it a new surf capital of the world. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will have surfing competitions for the first time, so look out for an impressive Costa Rica team! And if you want to get into the sport, the tropical, inviting waves in Costa Rica, more specifically in Santa Teresa, is a perfect place to start!
