surf spots

Punta Colorada

Punta Colorada is a seldom visited, pristine beach around the point at the far end of Bacocho Beach. It consistently offers perfect tubes, A-frame little peaks everywhere. But because the water here is shallow, it is not ideal for regular surfing, but it is a bodyboarder´s dream. This first Bodyboard Contest Pro-Am could help establish Puerto Escondido as a mecca for this sport nationally and internationally, a status it now enjoys in the world of stand up surfing. Punta Colorada has been pretty much kept under wraps. The land is owned by the state of Oaxaca, which has floated various tourist development projects in the past, but its present status is undetermined.

 

 

Quality: famous A-frame shore break
Experience Required: experienced bodyboarders
Frequency: whenever Zicatela is big

Wave
Type: A-framed shorebreak, misto reef when really big
Power: hollow, fast, boxed, and bowled
Length Normal Day: shorebreak
Length Good Day: Misto reef to shorebreak, 50 to 150m
Bottom: just sand

Tide & Swell
Swell Size: starts working at 1.0m-1.5m / 3ft-5ft and holds up to 5m / 16ft and way over
Direction: picks up everything
Tides: can be good at any tide
Wind: always offshore in the mornings, sometimes when the rain comes in the evening, offshore may come again

Access & Info
Distance: 5 min from Puerto
Directions: Access to Punta Colorada is by a dirt road at the state tourist office, at the second entrance to Bacocho
and by the road immediately opposite the airport entrance.

Crowd: Crowd?
Hazards: riptides and stingrays
Locals: bring respect and aloha spirit. Don't even think about dropping in on any local, even if they ask for it.
Boards: Bodyboard, fins and finstraps

Tips
Cuidado: If you don't feel comfortable in the water, watch out for bigger days. This is riptide land, so just take it slow. A riptide looks like a brown river going out to sea. If you get pulled out in one, let it take you out then just swim parallel to shore to get out of it.
Locals: bring respect and a smile
Stingrays: Not something to be scared of but accidents happen. On colder days stingrays hang out closer to shore. To avoid stepping on one make it a habit to shuffle your feet as you walk out to the line up.