Costa- Pre Trip Check List

Children's pool noodles at the $1 store- best rail and tip protector ever. 

Packing! 

We are guessing most surfers our age have done some traveling with their boards.  But we will still go on about what we are bringing for our 12 day, multi locale, surf trip to Costa Rica.  This Rip Curl bag has done some traveling!  John swears by it.  It's been to Costa Rica 3 times, California, Baja, Nicaragua, the Maldives all with John and to CR, Nica, and Puerto Rico on loan to other surfers. 

Spirit Air charges $100 each way for 2 boards- no size limit.  Did ya hear that?  No size limit, American Airlines! So for all that we scream about Spirit being rough- there is that. And our flight is 2 1/2 hours from Ft. Lauderdale so we can manage it. Another tip: those little alcohol bottles at the liquor store for $.99 can now go through the carry on.  Cutting prices again.Now we do have some purchased tail and nose guards too.  We are taking John's favorite 7'2"  fun shape- The Thumper, and my Surf Betty 7'6" NSP.  That's what I rented down in CR last time and when I got home I found one on EBay for $120 so I bought it for travel.  John is a little miffed he can't take his 6'11" gun for bigger waves but he uses The Thumper 90% of the time so I told him to suck it up.  He can rent one for a day if he needs it.  But I paid $100 in rental last year so he could bring 2 boards, so do the math! 

He placed my board first and then a yoga mat on top for protection plus that gives us 2 yoga mats while down there for stretching.  The Thumper also went into its board bag with a yoga mat inside, tight fit, but works and then on top of the NSP.
The fins, emergency surf repair stuff, duct tape, a first aid kit, towels, snacks, water shoes, trunks (4), bathing suits (4), rash guards (2 each), a soft Igloo brand bag to keep drinks etc. cool, and a small backpack that we'll use for our day surf trips - all going in too.  NOT going this trip is Rap Racks which are soft portable racks.  We took them to Baja where we rented a small sedan because the road to Cerritos is the bomb diggity now!  But in CR we get a 4 X 4 because the roads can be bad, especially in the lower Nicoya Peninsula.  We know Adobe is giving us a car that fits the boards inside.  Still these are handy.

Oh and don't forget the Surf Lock.  I wrote about this awesome thing last year.  We lock it to the car's undercarriage and then either of us can access the car for drinks, towels, etc during the surf day.  You can't leave even a towel on the beach in S.A. so we keep it locked up while we are in the water. I put a pair of reading glasses up to the open compartment so you could see what it holds- hotel key cards, credit card, keys.

OK... what's going on the plane with us?  The clothing we need in a backpack which counts as the one free thing you can take on for Spirit.  I have one largish Jansport backpack and I pack enough to wear everyday with no laundry. 4 T-shirt dresses rolled up, 4 sundresses rolled up, 4 T-shirts, 4 pairs shorts, 2 tank tops, undies, 1other bra, a T-shirt I sleep in, 2 pair flip flops, a short skirt, all the cords for the IPad/ IPhone/ the IPod, a blank zip drive, extra SD card for cameras (seriously folks you will NOT find this stuff in the CR surf type towns), hand sanitizer, toothbrush and paste, hair ties, vitamins, small hair brush, mascara, lip gloss, lip balm, razor, and travel size deodorant we will share.  John will carry less clothes- always- but he'll have the GoPro and the zoom lens for the camera along with a file with all our paperwork for our lawyers including copies of our passports to leave in the car 24/7  plus the IPad mini. The little purple frog purse on my back pack is where I'll put my smaller wallet, Iphone, Ipod and passport and I attach it to the backpack and they don't count it as a purse.  I don't take a purse.  Sorry ladies!  Travel leaner- you can do it. I like the "Froggie" purse too while we are out and about because it goes around my neck and shoulder and I can hug it to my chest. And my camera goes around my neck on the plane and also doesn't count as carryon by Spirit rules.  Wearing on the plane?  Both of us the only pair of long pants we are taking, a hat, t-shirt and a hoodie with Sanduks as our only closed toe shoe.  Flying out TONIGHT!

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