La Ventana is the place to go in winter for Californians. Seems like everyone migrates down there for a few months or at least a couple weeks of vacation every winter while we wait for March to come around for the Bay Area season.
Any more updates on SAL Santa Maria? Places to stay.
No great tips for places to stay, I am afraid. I stayed at Angulo house and I absolutely do not recommend staying there in spite of how awesome the staff were during my visit. Owner just not setting them or the business up for success. PM me if you want more info. A friend stayed in some apartments right out the east end of town. Price was much better, facilities decent, long walk into town but fairly close to the intermediate/advanced wing spot. Feral dogs keeping them up some nights was the main complaint from their stay.
We paid to store our gear at Angulo Beach, this opened up more options for accomodations as don’t have to carry gear around. However, most mornings I went for an early walk on the beach and the security we were supposedly paying for to watch our gear was rarely actually there. Nothing went missing during our stay, full credit to the locals, but it is a completely open facility that anyone could just walk into. The Ion Club had consistent security, but they have no water for rinsing off gear, which matters if you don’t have a full carbon setup. If I went back I’d probably aim to stay in one of the apartments within a block or so of the Ponta Leme launch spot and just keep my gear in the apartment.
As an intermediate winger, the place was awesome but wind was definitely much better in January then December the year I was there. Was a bit of a wierd year though, we got 4-5 days of rain in place that usually gets rain once a year. The intermediate spot is on the East side of town, the Ponta Leme beach right in front of Angulo Beach and Columbus Restaurant. Wind is cross off so you have to be able to stay upwind. Ion Club has a boat and everyone keeps an eye out for people in trouble and heading over the horizon, but a couple guys had a long paddle home after damaging their wing all the same. Wind at the launch is very gusty and up and down as it is coming over a bunch of buildings, ML is a good board choice here. Generally not much beach break, but sometimes you get swell coming up out of the South with a pretty long period and long sets, so you gotta keep your eyes open and head up coming in and out of the beach. Flat water in the lee of the point is great for practicing whatever moves you want, waves get bigger as you get towards and past the point. Again, as an intermediate winger focused on waves, this was a perfect spot to progress at. If you stay out further, you can do DW loops across the bay, could be pretty nice for parawinging too. Just beware that you are well out of easy visual range of the Ion (and occasional Angulo) boat at that point. I took my phone in a dry bag and had the numbers for both places in case I got into trouble out there.
*Big caveat to this spot is that a new resort is under construction right out at the point and when done, the wind inside the point is going to mangled, making the launch spot at Ponta Leme borderline unusable. Many locals worried about what it will mean for the wind sports business. I don’t know how far construction has come in the last couple of years, maybe others can chime in with newer info.
Did a downwinder down the west side of the island, was fun but a bit sketchy if anything went seriously wrong as it was cross off the whole way. Reportedly, east side of the island has some wind lulls due to upwind wind shadow from some hills closer in and the waves get really crossed up until you get a few km offshore, likely due to the bottom contours shelving pretty abruptly.
There are supposed to be some prone spots on the NE side of Kite Beach, but never went or tried. Quite shallow through that whole area.
The main beginner spot is more towards the west side of town, in front of the Robinson resort. Wind is more sideshore here, but even more gusty and unstable as it is coming across the entire town and a good chunk of the island. More beach break as the swell from the NE trades wraps around into the bay and hits this area pretty straight on. I’d rather recommend lessons at Ponta Leme with a boat for beginners and overall would not recommend Sal as a beginner destination.
Hope this is useful for someone, at sometime. Definitely appreciate the info others shared that helped make that trip happen.
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