Puerto Rico Surf 2020/2021 -Review


PR 20/21 Year in Review
It went by so fast. Many say it was the most crowded season ever. PR got discovered as a vacay destination by the ‘People of Wal-Mart’… It was a season of badly behaved tourists and banging early season surf. Only 1 real massive swell and a couple Tres days in the 8-12ft range. Here are my fave pics from the season.

Bridges in September during Teddy.

October: All eyes on PR this week. Photo: Darren Muschett.

November: Poor Nica and Honduras got hit by back to back hurricanes. NW PR got a west swell from it.

December had Indy good every day. One local called it ‘el anyo de 4 pies’- the season of 4ft… fine with me,,, Hollywood is the nicest guy. At 60 he loves to surf everyday and remember the Pink Floyd concerts from the 70’s. He is super generous and gives away so many waves but once in awhile he catches 1 like this.


January: New year and new board- I just got a new board from Bat in Hawaii it was a Friday night and the swell was pumping at Indy and a lot of guys were ripping. This pushed me to go hard and I had my best sesh of the entire winter, felt 45 again and totally in sync with the ocean ๐Ÿ™‚ Drone shot by Ted.

Our 1 Tres day, legit 25ft… Miguel Canals- Sunday am 1/19 in NW PR. Next update tomorrow…
Photo: M-Dub


February got us some shots on Surfline. Hector Santamaria- Photo: Julieta Bliss.


March Madness- Alexis Engstrom was nervous paddling out. She did great, caught the wave of the day.


April- discovering the perfect wave… in Aguada. Friday April 16th, 2021 Table Rock…


That’s a wrap -here’s hoping the summer in not too flat and we don’t get hit by a hurricane.

info@aurasurf.com

Action cams tend to make small waves look tiny. This one is waist high I swear ๐Ÿ™‚
photo: M-Dub.

Rainy season started early and everything is green and lush.


Caribbean Blogger: I hope you guys don’t mind me posting pics of the waves in PR(everyone else is posting pics of other places). We are in a positive pattern right now and this is the time of year when it’s easy to score, score every day. I surf by myself every day either at *** *** ** *******. I love surfing. I’m so stoked on it. I love PR, so stoked on this island. When I surf good waves by myself it causes me to wonder out loud why no-one else from Florida moves here… I do think to move here for waves would be a mistake, you need a deeper reason for such a life change. I surf by myself bc all my surf buddies are mired in construction projects right now, I know how that goes. I just finished one and now I have freedom to surf whenever I want to and there are waves so it’s nice to get in that routine. I have good boards thanks to bat and chili, something for every situation. My cars are almost dead- anyone want to sell a mini van? Lets do some PR pros and cons(disclaimer- these are just my opinions)– Pros: Less stress than the US, lower cost of living, great WX except for hurricanes(I believe it’s cooler than Florida in the summer, sometimes by almost 10 degrees ie: 87 here and 95 in central Florida. Year round trunks, clean ocean water, very few sharks, great waves, friendly people, fresh fruit and a healthy from the earth diet. Cons- The locals can be quite obnoxious with the constant blasting of urban music from their low rider car parades and they throw their trash on the ground. Besides that there are earthquakes and hurricanes, occ power and water outages but besides that it’s great. A lot of Americans are moving here now but still the coastline is not getting developed bc it’s either a reserve or the Electric Authority owns it. I miss Florida, feel like I went thru a divorce with Florida but I came out ok, feels better to get that off my chest….

31 thoughts on “Puerto Rico Surf 2020/2021 -Review

  1. TubeTtime

    Thank you Slow Poke Rodriguez! This morning I had to load most of my quiver into the car before work. I bought a new board and think my kids are going to meet me at the beach for the afternoon. So, I’ve got a 9’0 and 9’6 hanging out the back of my SUV ( 2 other SBs inside). Boards are all loaded…just need to grab my work stuff and hit the road. As soon as I step in side it’s coming down pretty good and now I’ve misplaced my keys (hanging in the tailgate). Running around for a minute or two, through a blanket over the boards to thwart some of the water on my 15-20 minute commute. The storm had a good jump on me and thought I would be swamped the whole ride. Suprisingly, I caught up to the storm within the first 1.5 miles and rode the rest of the way drive hopeful for green lights. Had plenty of time to dry up the car and bring the boards into the office. I don’t think I’ve ever been so lucky!

  2. Pat

    Man eastside is looking beautifully calm on the live feeds. Just waiting for the gulfside to pickup this afternoon. Its gonna be good…reeeeeallyyyy good

  3. Ericito

    Caught a great great sesh this afternoon. TI shoulder high reeling and clean. Solo for 2 hours ! Scored! How is that even possible????

  4. Fuggin

    Ericito, I have surfed alone more this winter more than any other, unprecedented as my local spot is usually stacked with people. This afternoon I caught it alone again except for the spring breakers on their booger boards wondering where these waves came from out of nowhere lol. Lifeguards on full alert as the chest high sets pummeled a few tourists and the high tide had them slamming right on the shore. I found a couple sandbars that worked for me and had a blast. I’m hoping for at least a lil LB wave in the am. Side note… 59 days until hurricane season, can we be spoiled again like the great summer of 2020?

  5. Nelson

    Fun evening last night with my wife and child playing on the beach. Chest high sets might be a slight exaggerated where I was but it had an outside bar that was breaking clean peelers over waist high all the way in on the longboard. Oh and another solo session like the guys above.

  6. Fuggin

    Pretty fun on the shoal this am. Thigh+ clean North angled runners and kinda chilly for April as it was in the 40s at dawn. You could see a bigger swell on the horizon marching south, I can imagine Captiva going off this am if its hitting down there.

    1. admin Post author

      dang great reports guy!!! calooosas pics were rad!my report i surfed indy yesterday waist to chest every 10 mins… 14 second swell little free fall drops crazy fun!

  7. Fuggin

    So is anyone concerned about this 800,000,000 gallons of fertilizer waste about to wash into the bay? Heartboken here, hoping the mitigation is successful but I don’t have my hopes up. If only the Army Corp of Engineers would have paid attention to this crap instead of renourishing the barrier islands FML. I’m over FL at this point. Sorry for the negativity but this is hitting me hard. #redtide4ever

  8. B low

    Born and raised here Super sad man hopes are high but east coast surf and fishing looking more permanent

  9. Pat

    South swell is comin boys! WE’RE SCREWED HAHAHA OH MANNN this is a recipe for disaster. Coldfronts blow that skank out and away from us but this next southy might just be the death of our coastlines. I was really looking forward to another clean round of mysto swell like last week.

  10. Ericito

    I was talking about the same thing. South swell will push this right up into pinellas. Add in how south’s kind of give us that big high tide that last for days, it wont be good if that water is nasty. “If” . Red tide is also out and about already!!! Wth!

    On another note, I love BATs! I also went to shs and my first 3 boards were 2md hand bats. Love em! Ive got an oldie hanging on the wall that ill never give up! Shout out BTudor!

  11. Leonard Skinner

    Man, the oil spill a few years ago. sewage spills because of overbuilding, Okeechobee crap draining into FL waters, now Piney Point. What’s next FL offshore drilling? Makes me mad! Might have to wear the Haz-Mat wetsuit.

  12. Rob

    Micah – I just watched The Weather Channel and heads up – it looks like there might be surf soon. Not sure though … I’ll drive out to the beach and check it several times just to make sure. Haha.

    That’s how we use to have to do it. Crazy how far technology has come, but I’m with you…. I am not a fan of the new model format. I like windy’s new model though.

    1. admin Post author

      yes tune into the weather channel for local on the 9’s. they had the marine forecast right there, like 1989…

      windy has a great angle for the Atl basin but the wind and waves are not easy to read for me- i prefer the old school wind barbs and red arrows for wave direction.

  13. Fuggin

    I think the data is still the same for the ww3 but the way they depict it in the graphics is different. Ill take a look around the weather nerd sites and see if I can find any alternatives. Back in the day in VA Beach we used to call the 17th St Surfshop surf report every 10 min lol and don’t forget dial-a-buoy!

  14. Leonard Skinner

    I called Bill @ Manadalay Surf Shop and Rob’s report @ MadBeach Surf Shop whenever there was a hint of waves.

    1. admin Post author

      Rob used to do the funniest imitation of the guy at West Coast, called that report a million times dieing to surf…

  15. RUSS-D

    976-SURF changed everything. Once we figured out they charged by the minute and learned the menu codes we would push buttons as fast as possible, hear the report and hang the F up before we got charged a fortune LOL. Ahh, the good old 976 days.

  16. DW

    Roy Leep chief m-logist on Ch. 13, when we only got four stations incl. 44 (Dr Paul Bearer!) for those who can remember that far back, 70’s maybe early 80’s. ๐Ÿ™‚

  17. Ericito

    Its been on at my local secret spot! Looks thigh high across the water but rib chest + thumping and cupping where I was at! Call it conservatively at waist high consistently with standout sets every 5 or 10! Surfed with the suncoast crew this morning and it was FUN!

  18. Fuggin

    I managed a 2hr session Monday afternoon and it was pretty fun. High tide made for some soft but clean 3-4 footers crumbling on the outside then standing up and dumping on the inside. A repeat this weekend would be welcomed ?

  19. Pat

    The forecast looks more organized today. The next couple days could have a few fun small windows and then wednesday looks solid. GFS is now showing a proper coldfront next weekend for all the weekend warriors. Small south swell nugs saturday and plenty leftovers sunday. Too good to be true? Absolutely, but we could see consistent waste to chest+ high grinders next sunday.

  20. hd

    the fetch and direction on this south swell is decent. could be a growerโ€”no sse, se tease.

  21. Ericito

    Yesterday AM was FIRING for a couple hours! Some solid chest high wave banginng outta deep water! Getting out there again this morning!

  22. Fuggin

    I found some fun choppy waves Sunday pm, missed out yesterday but had my eyes on the buoys all day and night. DP today(Tue) was pretty fun, the 3ft@8 was really standing up on the shoal this morning for some waist high and bigger sets rolling through. The inside was dumping and unfortunately I have to report a lot of the poopy/stringy algae that likes to preclude red tide around the shorebreak. Waves were fun but I’ll be packing dial antibacterial soap and h2o2 if I get in the water again.

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