We arrived on Wednesday afternoon to a nice sunny day with side shore winds about 15-18mph. The kites were flying up at Kite Beach, but we had just arrived and the sun was setting fast so no water time that day.
Next morning the surfcamp truck left at 6AM for Encuentro to find nice clean head high surf. Antonio drove the truck as he had done the year before then opened up the surf shack at Encuentro to start the beginner lessons. I quickly suited up and paddled out to the point to join 4 or 5 other surfers. The rights were peeling nicely off the reef and I was fortunate enough to ride a few of them. As the sun rose higher, more and more people paddled out. It was a gorgeous day that quickly got crowded. I think everyone must have been a little surf-starved from the days prior.
The truck left Encuentro at about 10:30 with a large crew of campers and headed back to Ali's for breakfast. We chowed down on pancakes and fried eggs to re-fuel for the afternoon. The breakfast at the surfcamp restaurant is mui excellente. Los pancakes son mi favorita.
Soon after breakfast, I hauled my kiteboard and bag for about 3 miles along the beach from Ali's up to Kite Club. It was getting hotter and the wind was light. Once at Kite Club I paid two 13 year old local kids, Daniel and Juan 100 pecos each to help me rig my 12M. We got the kite in the air, but the wind was light. "Biento es no fuerte". We waited 30-45 minutes for the wind to build and for another kiter to hit the water so that we'd be sure we had enough wind. Once that happened, Daniel launched my kite and I was off.
I made it into the water early, but the sky soon filled with more kites over the next hour. The wind strengthened to somewhere around 18-25mph side onshore with some gusts. It was a great session, but extremely crowded. Jim got some great video footage (see gallery). About 3 hours later I was headed into the beach to wrap things up for the day but got lazy and tangled my kite with a beginner who was taking a lesson near shore. Not good. We looked at each other and I couldn't offer any advice on how to get out of the mess since I'd never been in that situation. Before we could do anything else, all four of my kite lines snapped and my kite gracefully rolled through the air before settling on the beach. Some nice person turned my kite over in the sand where it sat until I could wrap the remains of my lines and exit the water. Not the best way to end a session, but it could have been worse. At least I was close to shore and my kite landed safely.
That night Jim, Jen, Rox and I had a dinner on the beach at the place with the big white comfy couch pillows. We ate, then headed back to camp to get some sleep.
The next morning we headed back to Encuentro on the 6AM truck. The waves had dropped slightly in size but were still very fun. Familiar looking line up from the day before, but slighly fewer people.
The afternoon brought scattered showers and no wind. We headed over to Vela to have some coffee and to scope out their restaurant/cafe to get design ideas for The Spot. Very cool place. In between rain squalls, we rented some standup paddle boards and surfed a small little reef wave about 200 meters from shore. This day marked my first attempt at riding waves on a SUP. Granted it was only an ankle high wave, but it was still awesome. Lots of potential for Hampton Beach in the summertime.
By Saturday morning the swell had built to clean overhead waves at Encuentro. We spent the entire morning at the beach enjoying the clearing skies and the building swell. That afternoon I headed back to Kite Club to wait for the wind that never developed. By 3:30 it was clear that kiting wasn't an option so I headed back to the surfcamp to catch the 4:00 truck to Encuentro. The swell had continued building over the course of the day and when the truck pulled up to Encuentro we were staring at big beautiful clean 7-9 foot waves under blue skys. I quickly hit the water and made the long paddle out to the top of the channel. I watched a goofy-footer riding across the face of the longest wave I'd ever seen at Encuentro. High backside lines from the top of the point all the way into the channel. Based on how high he was positioned on the face, it was clear that the sets were getting huge. It was fun to see waves that big and to watch the excitement in the line up when the sets rolled through. I caught a few nice rights before getting extremely fatigued and heading in.
The last afternoon in Cabarete was a fitting end to the trip and it was time to head home. Its always hard to leave places like Cabarete because its clear that every day of the year offers wind and wave water opportunities and 5 days is such a short visit. Next time we go down there its gotta be longer.
Mahalo for reading.
Russ
