I really enjoyed Chicama. Compared to the Gulf of “America”, its super organized ground swell. It gives you the ability to treat waves as lefts and rights. When it gets head high and bigger, you start having the opportunity to ride smaller foils in more critical sections. We rarely have a chance at anything comparable. in Texas. Heck, we get excited about 10s periods here.
When I started foiling in the surf, I loved mushy slow waves. Now I like going fast…
I’ll add, that I’d go back to foil Chicama long before going back to Namotu, but I have little interest in fighting currents in Fiji to surf.
If you live inland it makes total sense to travel to get more time in on ‘longer’ period waves, even if our swiss lakes do get epic for downwinding quite regularly. But airtravel with foil gear gets out of hands quickly. Am just packing for an Andalusia trip. 60l foilboard, two surf shortboards, mast + two foils +fuses+ tails, screws+ tools, 3wings (would prefer to take 4 but can’t, hope none explodes), 3 parawings(hope they will eventually substitute the wings at least for travel), 2 wetsuits + booties, small travel pump, inflatable boogies for the kids..all in one 32kg boardbag and one big 21kg duffle.. clothes all in handluggage..every weight budget is maxed and there’s still a lot of stuff left at home..bloody first world problems haha..
I feel the notion that foiling spots won’t get crowded is wishful thinking and only applies to ocean downwinding, but even there i have my doubts..as if we could foresee the actual future, the magician’s apprentice couldn’t get rid of the ghosts he had called neither..like would you have been able to predict today’s amount of surfers in the 50ies? ..although i absolutely love the open mindedness of the foiling community, in good ol’ surfer fashion i’ll keep my righthand point semisecrets to myself and just vow for wategoes;)
How much time are you going to be there? I’m sure there’s tons of people that live there and go into the water everyday and have way less gear than you’re bringing just for vacation!