Uncrowded beach breaks in El Salvador

With the advent of Google Earth and GPS technology most of the good right hand point breaks in El Salvador have become crowded. Fortunately, the beach breaks that have previously been neglected are finally being appreciated.
Local Jorge Dominguez gives Drift the run down on the new hotspots that offer crowd-free, long beach breaks with room for all.

“The most obvious one is the region of San Luis Talpa.” Jorge tells us. “It is only 15-20 kms away from the International Airport so literally a 20 minute drive.
On the journey you pass hundreds of sugar cane fields in a really short stretch until you hit a small mangrove river that runs almost parallel to the beach road. The three main breaks to look out for are El Pimental, La Zunganera, and Amatecampo.”

“Currently, the spots have absolutely no crowds, and because they are beach breaks the place will be able to handle hundreds of surfers without major wave disputes. That said it is probably not really a place to learn wave riding and would better suited for intermediate surfers who want to practice little tubes in fast short waves - about two to five feet. It can get bigger though, sometimes between five to eight feet. In these conditions the spots get heavy currents and is best suited for experts, if it gets any larger than this the waves tend to close out, so probably best to avoid.” Jorge added

[pullquote]The great thing is that these beach breaks never go flat, there are constant waves all year round[/pullquote]

“The great thing is that these beach breaks never go flat, there are constant waves all year round. The best surfing happens early morning, unfortunately after 10am the winds can make the waves really choppy and they can also turn onshore.”

I would say that the best equipment to use out here are shortboards in the five to six feet range, boogie boards are good and SUPs smaller than 8 feet work also. Longboards are not really ideal though.

The region has only one luxury hotel at the time: Hotel Rancho Estero y Mar. But more and more private homes are renting rooms, so you can grab some bargains also.

For more information contact Jorge Dominguez on [email protected]