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Title: The Surfer's Guide to Costa Rica & SW Nicaragua
ISBN: 0967910005
Author:
Mike Parise
Publicate Date: 2006-05-01
Publish: 2006-05-01
List Price: $21.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $15.95
Amazon Merchant Price: $21.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Surfer's Guide
This book definitely made our trip to Costa Rica much easier. The good thing about it is that he lists surf spots without telling you too much about them so you still have the element of exploration in your trip. And you still get to discover your own. I would recommend reading this before you go and Costa Rica is an amazing place to surf!
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2: Read This BEFORE You Plan Your Trip
I've been surfing Costa Rica for 9 years and bought one of the earliest published versions of this book. While growth was slow and things weren't changing quickly, the book was very good. Now, the book gets outdated almost as soon as it goes to print.
The book gives accurate information on all of the major breaks in CR, even though it does leave out some of the out of the way places. (I gave the book an extra star for that.)
If you are looking for information on places to stay at the different breaks, the book is marginal, due to the changing conditions, but if you use it to plan your trips to different breaks, it's worth the price.
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3: Waste of money.
Yea, sounds harsh but it's true. Just got back from my first trip to CR (incredible place by the way,-Go!.) The inaccuracies in this book are far too numerous to list. Of course hotel prices increase, new places open up, old ones close, that's all to be expected. But the author seems to have picked, choose, and recommended some places that were overpriced ( way overpriced for what they offered ) while ignoring some really cool places that are cheap. He presents his lists of places to stay as the only options and this is certainly not the case. He definitly seems to have favorites and weaves them into his discussion of surf spots. Makes me wonder if he's getting kick-backs from certain proprietors.
His discriptions of the surf spots ( at least the 8 or so that I checked out ) were not that accurate. And lots of really useful info could have been added with very little additional text.
The author makes no mention of the many businesses in Costa Rica that attempt to make a sustainable & environmentally ethical living other than to refer to them as "turtle-loving ecoids". WTF !!!
The guide isn't really professionally published either. He liberally adds attempts at humor that are just stupid, the kind of stuff that makes you embarassed for him. A professional editor/proofreader would have pointed this out and rectified it. I was planning on selling my copy as soon as I returned to the U.S. but it pretty much disintegrated on it's own in the Costa Rican humidity & sweat. How fitting.
Look, if your looking for good info on surfing CR, search the web. It's out there and not hard to find. My best resource (besides just getting there and asking around) was a water-proof map that had high-yield surf info on the opposite side. I'd name it but I don't want to sound like I'm promoting it. Easy to find.
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4: Necessary for any surfer going to Costa Rica
This book was a lifesaver. You gotta read it BEFORE you go out, because at one spot we hit, turned out to be alligator infested.
But this book is essential and tells spots that would normally be a mystery. Breaks on and off the beaten path.
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5: Nothing New!!
I am returning to costa rica for the third time, and bought this book thinking there would be some deep researched information that may reveal hidden secrets that I had not yet explored. I was wrong. The book provides little information that a travelling surfer (one that really surfs) doesn't already know, or really needs. If you like for your entire trip to be scheduled before hand this book will provide you the information to do so. Good only for the first time surfer Costa Traveller without an internet connection or hasn't discovered google.
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