Nosara, like most of the coastline in Costa Rica, is a surfer’s paradise. We didn’t come here to surf, but we may be back to do just that. Surfing or not, the ocean is a marvelous toy, providing hours and hours of entertainment for kids big and small. Like a pool, only clean, fascinating, a world of discovery.

And Nosara’s beaches are incredible. I guess they are everywhere… even Key West beaches have their allure sans surf. But Nosara’s beaches were EMPTY – except for surfers. Here you feel alone with Mother Nature.

The boys rented boogie boards for  $5/day and had a blast. Riptides were a worry, at first. A couple of weeks ago, 3 high school students and their teacher drowned in riptides up the coast. So Miss Worst Case Scenario here and the other mothers with me were quite anxious about them. Fortunately we had Sonny to calm our fears.

Turns out Sonny knows everything about Brahman cows AND riptides. He is a handy guy to have around! As a kid, he and his buddies used to ride them out to sea, see how far they could go!!! A riptide is only dangerous when you panic. Otherwise, riptides can be fun. Hey, Sonny said it, not me. If you get caught in one, either ride it out or swim diagonally to the beach. Don’t fight it and try to swim to shore.

This knowledge relieves my anxiety somewhat. Remembering your choices of panic and die, or stay calm and go with the flow… seems like the right choice would stick in my kid’s minds. They are not the panicky types.

The last day we were there, Andy and Mo took a surfing lesson from Styx and D.D. who run a funky surf shop in Nosara. Forty dollars an hour for each and worth every cent. They both got up and rode a coupla waves… very cool. They LOVED it. I’m sorry we waited until the last day!

Actually, I considered giving it a go, taking a surfing lesson. Both boys got up and were riding the waves within the one hour lesson. How hard could this be? Unfortunately, said activity would require wearing a bathing suit. And getting wet. Neither of which appeals to me. But surfing! How often do you get to have a surfing lesson? Ok, next time, I’m in. There should be some pretty hilarious photos from that day at the beach…