Popoyo Nicaragua – Outer Reef Roars

Been trading photos with good friend Donald Stone lately. Knowing the waves were gonna be good this morning at Popoyo, I called Donald so we could link up and shoot photos. His girlfriend said that he had left for Popoyo 15 minutes ago. Perfect! I left the house and was on top of the hill overlooking Popoyo in less than 10 minutes. Here’s what I saw…

manuel, perfect positioning at Popoyo

shooting the outer reef (photo: Donald Stone)

Upon arriving, I saw Donald surfing the left on the inside of Outer Reef Popoyo.

donald driving through a tube

It was a little smaller than Popoyo but a lot less crowded. Popoyo was a little crowded and very good.
But the real unexpected treat today was the outer reef. The swell we’re currently experiencing is on its third phase. The first phase was similar in size and a little more south. The period was up around 18 seconds and really lit up the area’s reefs and pointbreaks, while the beachbreaks were a little stretched out and closed. The second phase was smaller, similar in direction, but a shorter period, more like a windswell. It really lit up the area’s beachbreaks with super consistent, wedgy peaks. Today, the swell bumped up a bit and had that “magic angle” (loose lips sink ships, but that angle is somewhere between 180 and 230 ).

popoyo nicaragua-perfectly angled swell hitting the outer reef

Manuel, his brother Cabezon, and Jimmy from Surfari Charters were all catching some sick lefts.

popoyo nicaragua - manuel's brother, cabezon, charging backside

I saw a couple guys cross the rivermouth and approach the paddle out spot of Popoyo. They were carrying a couple sub 6 foot retro shapes. I wrote them off as just a couple of international beginner surfers. All of a sudden, they wereout the back taking off on some bombs!

Popoyo Nicaragua - two dudes from OZ paddled out on 5'8s. Sweet As!

Outer Reef is normally surfed at high tide, due to a couple areas of the reef which actually suck dry at lower tides. The angle was so perfect today that these guys surfed it all the way to dead low tide.

popoyo nicaragua - hiked into a little valley today to get a new angle of the reef. Hard to tell, but this wave is double overhead.