During my past few trips to Costa Rica, I've spent most of my time shared between a couple of great little towns, Esterillos Oeste and Bejuco. These are great surf spots in their own right, but they're also perfect central locations to use as a jumping point if the swell is better at any of the numerous spots within an hour drive to the north or south.

Just South of the Hermosa strip (about 15 minutes north of Oeste), there's a small surf shop that Aileen and I have seen grow a bit each year, and we always like to stop by to either rent some boards or buy a used one...and also talk with and get advice on surrounding surf spots from the owner, Nika. During our most recent trip, I decided to see if Nika would like me to build him a little website to give his shop some online exposure, show off some of the boards he shapes himself, and hopefully give some people who haven't been to the area a heads up about a great shop that offers board rentals, boards for sale, ding repair and surf lessons...as well as local knowledge of Central Pacific Costa Rican surf. I just started the site, but keep an eye on nikasurfboards.com as it gets fully developed in the near future.