OLA Adventures

Ola-Adventures has new boards for its students! Last week I headed down to Manta a city south of Canoa, the small beach town I am living in. The reason for this latest adventure was to buy 2 new fun boards so OLA can run its surf school and continue teaching and having fun in the surf. Well it turned into a bit of a saga, but a fun one.

I was given rather rough directions by Franz the owner of the famous Coco Loco hostel in Canoa. These instructions where at best a little rough being a hand drawn map with many question marks, but I had a name to ask for - Rene.
Manta is fairly big with the biggest fishing fleet in Ecuador, its a working port city with a controversial US air-base and of course Rene, if you can find him! There is not much for the tourists to do or see but it is surrounded by many amazingly beautiful beaches, and in the right season has some of the best surf spots along the coast, not to mention whale watching.

I had already ordered the boards from my visit a week previous. The boards were being made of balsa wood rather the customary foam, this makes them a little heavier but ultimately makes for a beautiful looking and strong board, not to mention the positives for the environment by using bio-degradable and renewable source.

I turned up to find the boards being still being finished, as with everything here in Latin America its always a last minute thing. The boards were amazing, like pieces of art work, the balsa wood looked just great, and with the extra strength should last forever.

By the time the boards were done it was a little late to be heading the few hundred kms back to Canoa so I decided to spend the night in Manta. Seeing as we had a few hrs of light left, Rene and the surf guys said we should go off on a little surf mission. This ended up with 8 young guys & me and all the boards in or on the Land Cruiser.
The coast line south of Manta has an amazing amount of surf breaks, most of these are hidden gems along hard to find dirt roads but once there you have the waves to yourself (apart from the huge hump back whales just off shore). We surfed until the light held with some nice 2-3 foot waves rolling through. I have been told in the right months that it can get big and perfect along here - OLA will be back for some surf sessions. I have to say a big thanks to Rene for sharing his secret spots with me and I will make sure that these spots remain secret!

Im back in Canoa now and enjoying a 2hr session a day on the new OLA boards. If you fancy learning to surf contact us, or even better join us for a surf safari.