Windsurfing with my girls on Lake Arenal

My wife and me sailing
on Lake Arenal - 2007

In 2007 I managed to visit Lake Arenal in Costa Rica. My wife and I stayed at Hotel Tiwala and walked down to the lake several times to have some great windsurfing sessions.

One of my favourite windsurfing pictures is this one from 2007 of my wife and me both sailing. We had so much fun in Costa Rica on that trip as a couple that we knew we'd have to come back someday with the kids.

When we won a week in a lovely Costa Rica treehouse at a charity auction, our planning for New Year's 2013 began. I wanted to add time again to our trip and stay at Hotel Tiwala so my son could skateboard at their park. But the hotel is changing management (it is no longer Volcano Brewing) so we wound up just planning a day long road trip to Arenal.

My daughter and me sailing on Lake Arenal - 2014

I arranged our rental equipment from Peter at Tico Wind and we drove up from Playa Negra on the morning of Jan 2nd.  The wind was light for Arenal, so I was on a 6.2 and a 120l board. The water and air were comfortable, a shorty wetsuit was perfect. Windsurfing is still more popular than kiting it seems, but with only a dozen of us windsurfing, it was far from crowded. Peter's gear had a pretty good selection of new North Sails and Fanatic boards with a few nice local kids acting as shop help and board caddies.

My daughter was the only one in the family that wanted to sail with me that day. While she didn't sail for long, she did go out and make it back - something she doubted she could do half way through her session! Now I have a great picture of me sailing on Lake Arenal with my other favourite girl.

Costa Rica seemed to be the global hotspot for high wind windsurfing on Lake Arenal in the late 1990's and through the first decade of the millennium. These days the surfing scene on the Pacific coast seems to be what Costa Rica is better known for. Here's the fun family photo after the surfing lessons we took at Witches Rock Surf camp.

The family that surfs together...?