Here’s a look at Playas de Nosara (Playa Guiones, Playa Pelada & Playa Nosara) from above & also from the ground. The waves are at Main Beach in front of the lifeguard tower, & the main street intersection of Ruta 160 & Calle Modelo at Coconut Harry’s Surf, Food, Music & Drinks & Organico Bakery
On August 6th 1999 Costa Rica changed my life.
If there’s a Holy Ghost (& I think there is, probably just a bit different than what I was taught in Sunday School), then I felt IT that first morning.
The colors were brighter, people were happier & healthier & all kinds of people, both Ticos & expats from all different kinds of socioeconomic status, were quick to smile & laugh. I learned ‘Pura Vida’ is actually a real way of life & not just a tourist tattoo. This level of happiness & acceptance for challenges in life was extremely interesting to me.
Each day from August 6th of 1999 till the day I moved here full time April 1, 2009 I dedicated my time and energy to finding a way to live here & raise my family in Costa Rica.
I watched The Endless Summer 2 every single night to go to sleep & saw the Costa Rica part with Marco Pacheco, Robert, August, Wingnut, Pat, O’Connell, and dedicated my life to pulling off Robert August’s famous quote about “Living in Costa Rica forever, or until I die… Whichever comes first.”
So I worked as hard as I could starting in 1999, and doing well financially until the great crash happened 2008 or so and eliminated everything I had worked for. I lost hope & thought it was all over & was devastated for months about not living in Costa Rica & fell into a strong depression. I felt like a failure, and wish I had spent our money more on luxurious things because investing & living frugally for so many years did not pay off. I depleted my savings and my credit trying to honor bills and had no idea how bad things truly were getting in the world. I was working inside mortgages and lending and real estate and financial services and was prepared for a 25% market downturn or a ‘storm shower’ per se, but I was not prepared for a tsunami. My portfolio dropped 72% in value & was destroyed.
Then the phone rang… It was Erik Antonson from Surfing Nosara starting a Vacation Rental division and the job was mine, but I needed to commit quickly because many people wanted the job. For years, Erik had been trying to get me to come down and work with him and his wife Sarah on both community issue initiatives and find a way to make a living in Nosara, Costa Rica.
But I was trying to make enough money to be the expat who came down to live on his own terms (most of my rental & real estate clients now)… I did not know I was going to end up becoming The Grateful Gringo the hardest way possible, by losing everything and restarting with nothing.
Now that I look back on it, I am grateful because the hard work created who I am today & the relationships I enjoy. If I had moved down here with money, I would have been like so many other folks who enjoy this place but don’t know it at the core, human level. Now I know what it’s actually like to live here, completely poor, everyone doubting you, many people being upset with you because you’re another Gringo & mistakenly thinking you have money when you literally have nothing and are putting it all on the line.
People sometimes don’t understand not every gringo has money. Some of us have very little, but work our asses off just to make it by day to day.
I’m a Grateful Gringo not just for my daily life, filled with surf and adventure and the challenges of competition in a tiny little town that’s extremely popular… I’m a Grateful Gringo because the challenges of making it in Costa Rica have taught me not to avoid problems or think that money can solve your problems…
My current thought process is: Success in life is choosing the problems you want to face, then facing & overcoming them with joy, knowing that the journey is the fun adventure. This being said…
Authenticity is my goal & I want to be clear on my mission: I’m a Grateful Gringo who likes surfing, music & community & sells real estate so I can community, music & surf my entire life & help others enjoy this place like I do
Rich
Each Saturday, Coconut Harrys Surf and Music hosts Board Swap Saturdays at Playa Guiones, Nosara. People can bring boards they just have laying around the house or they could just try something different.
‘Try stuff before you buy stuff’ is the theme. Frequently, we are learning that people have boards laying around that for someone else might be a real treasure and expand their quiver. So instead of dropping a bunch of money on something you might not like, you may as well at least try out the sizes and shapes and get a feel for it. Or just find somebody you can trade direct to. 
For this Board Swap Saturday, Rich takes out of Robert August mini longboard version of the famous What I Ride model and a Storm Equipment Surfboards finless custom finless board. The surf is a little better than we had expected on this day, but it’s by no means epic.
No voice over on this one! January has been an adventure! We have a TON of content heading your way soon. For now, we’re kicking off 2026 TWIN season with epidsode 85 which is full of Xmas/NYW warm water and clean lines. Cows in the fields, Bomberos on a snake call, board swaps, life inside and outside of Coconut Harry’s.
This Week in Nosara Vlog 84 is up! Enjoy early December’s stunning scenery, surf, real life Nosara lifestyle scenes & community updates in under 5 minutes. The TWIN episodes show what weather & waves look like week to week so you can see what this place is like each part of the year plus give a glimpse into ‘real life’ Nosara with our ups and downs as well as a sample of important community items such as water safety, nature, helping people & so many other things as you will see. Thanks for checking these out & let us know what more you would like to see. The music is homemade generally the After Surf Band but occasionally it’s Rich playing with someone else around here. This episode features a jam session with Alejandro from the Nosara Music Academy & is the first song they ever played together.
Welcome to a special episode of the Nosara Podcast with Longboard Andy! A surfer whose story begins in the fishing town of Garza, growing up around the ocean, learning to fish with his parents and hitching rides into Nosara just to surf.
We start with what Andy’s up to now competing in tournaments and working in his surf company then we get into the surf rules he lives by and we should all follow in the water, his favorite spots to surf in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and how the so-called “secret spots” aren’t really secret anymore.
From there, Andy shares how he got into longboarding, who pulled him toward logging, and how longboard culture continues to evolve in Nosara. We talk boards, shapes, style, and the rhythm that makes long boarding cool now.
And of course, one of the best parts of the episode: Andy’s favorite philosophy of “being weird in the water.” It’s honestly one of the most memorable quotes ever said on the show a great reminder to stay playful and fully yourself in every session and in life.
I hope you enjoy this conversation how a local sees Nosara’s line up, hopes for more opportunities to compete, the challenges and the joys of living a surf life and the joy of longboarding with Andy.
Welcome to TWINosara 83 — a jam-packed week in Nosara with festive traditional Costa Rican Mascaradas, rain-soaked surf, sneak peek at Coconut Harry’s, our local community Trunk or Treat, and the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa deluge of rain with the community stepping up and taking care of each other.
Here’s what life looks like in Nosara in the water and around the town in October 2025. All kinds of fun scenes in this episode and we hope you enjoy it.
Hope you enjoy this footage from all around Nosara in September 2025 and Music from the After Surf Band with guest Taku.
This Week in Nosara 79 is awesome! If you’re interested in waves north & south of the Nosara area, give this one a look. For the surf section, we take a journey up to Marbella and a journey down south to Barrigonia.  some solid wipeouts here in this episode as well as some really nice tubes. For the lifestyle section we visit EQ Surf’s Surf Movie & Music Jam which was awesome, plus we see shortboard Esteban & his dog Zoomie journey to farmers market & meet some of the vendors there. For community section we get updates from WCA on water quality & lifeguards at the beach.
Edit: Brayan & rich
Music: After Surf Band w/guest Taku
Another beautiful episode for you to enjoy.
Some stunning imagery, some great surfing, plus community updates and what life is like down here in and around Nosara, in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
Edit is by Brayan. Music is Rich for the first song solo and then Rich and the After Surf Band for the second.
