Captain Tico and the Journey to Witches Rock!

On the 20^th we had a chance to book a boat trip from Playa de Coco to Witches Rock and Ollie’s Point. Both of these world famous breaks were in Endless Summer II. The trip cost about 300 USD but we split it between the 4 of us. I can’t remember the boat driver or his son’s name but the trip there took about 2 hrs. In these two hours we held on tight while he throttled balls to the wall. The way back was a different story.

I will never forget pulling up to Ollie’s point seeing 6 boats parked waiting for their passengers to finish the surf session. 6x4 roughly means about 24 people on one peak. From a distance it appeared crowded as hell and only waist high. We debated going straight to Witches rock but the captain of our vessel suggested staying for a couple of hours because the tide was not correct. So we toughed it up and paddled into the lineup at Ollie’s point.

My first wave came in about stomach high and lined up forever. I did about 5 off the lips before I got tired and kicked out. Holly crap what a fun little wave. James, Ante and Scoot began catching theirs too. The sets would come in almost head high and peel forever. After about 2hrs it started to get really annoying dodging all the longboard obstacles in the water so we decided to leave and get to witches rock a bit early. This was a good call.

We were the second boat to arrive at Witches rock. The only other boat had 1 passenger who was out surfing far down the beach. Our captain suggested waiting for the tide an hour or so. We all starred at the huge out of place rock like kids in a candy store. To see it in person is breathtaking. The rock is a gigantic bolder in the middle of the ocean and it shimmers with gold. At the top it’s occupied by a crap load of birds. The picture will hardly do this justice. If given the chance you should see it for yourself.

While we wanted to take the captain’s advice we notices good size swell coming at the boat which obviously meant the conditions were somewhat ride able. Sorry captain we’re ready to rock and roll. We jumped out the boat one at a time while James took the world’s smallest pictures of us and a massive landmark. (Inside joke). After about a 5 min paddle we were in the lineup with only 1 other around. The swell came in head high but it wasn’t consistent. It got really good then really bad then ok to really good then to complete shit. By the time we were ready to leave the wind had begun to do what it does best here in Costa Rica- blow like hell after noon time. We decided we were gassed out so it would be smart to head back.

The trip back will linger in my memory for some time to come. Captain Tico decided to run it full throttle in hard onshore conditions which means the boats turns into a jackhammer. Just when we thought our asses couldn’t take any more the gigantic anchor pops off the bow and hits the water taking 30 feet of rope with it. The rope was ripping down my side not to mention tangled between Ante’s feet. Long story short if the captain didn’t decide to kill the engine I would be headless and Ante would have been drug out to sea for a while. He finally stops the boat and looks at his son and laughs for 5 mins or so. The son laughed so hard he was crying. We laughed on the outside but deep down we were like WTF just happened. The boat finally made it back to the beach and we spent the rest of the evening trying to find a working ATM to pay them. Was it worth all the hassle? Hell yes and I would do it over again if given the chance.