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[All photos and vid by Ryan Valasek]
Not all strike missions are home runs, or even base hits. Some are strikeouts. No hitters. During a recent surf trip to Nicaragua, longtime Californian travel buddies and Xcel team members Christian “Cram” Ramirez and Ryan “Snacks” Valasek weren’t exactly batting a thousand from the start. But they were determined to at least stay in the game.
What was supposed to be a carefree, easy-peasy surf surfari ended up being tainted by an emergency mad dash to Texas to expedite a passport renewal, all the usual and a few unusual diverted flights and, oh yeah, an overzealous drug dog. “There were so many setbacks to actually getting into Nicaragua, I feel like it took years off my life,” said Cram. “It almost got to the point where I was expecting things to go wrong.”
Despite all the hiccups, the duo made it. And what they found was worth all the hoops they had to jump through along the way.
Snacks: “This trip was a big stepping stone for Cram and me. We’d had trips in the works for a while, but everything got put on the back burner with COVID, so we just surfed locally as we waited for some travel restrictions to lift. I was camping with spotty service up in Bend, Oregon, when I randomly received this text from Christian: ‘We’re going to Nicaragua next week. I just bought a plane ticket.’ I’d had all these other plans but just canceled them, bought my ticket to Nica and flew home to California to pack. We left three days later.”
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Cram: “I knew I needed to renew my passport to travel, but the only available slot in the entire country was in El Paso, Texas. I learned this 48 hours before leaving for Nicaragua. So, after packing my rig with all the gear I needed for the trip, I drove from SLO (San Luis Obispo) to Santa Ana, then did a 36-hour passport mission to El Paso. Two days after leaving my house in SLO, I finally met up with Snacks in Rancho.”
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Cram: “Six hours before our flight, I got an email from the Nicaraguan government saying we were denied access into the country. Without hesitation, we booked new flights to Costa Rica, which were an hour later than our original flights to Nica. We landed in Costa Rica, got through customs, and then this drug dog started going nuts on my bag. After two hours of questioning while having my bags ripped apart — and resisting multiple bribe opportunities, knowing I had nothing illegal on me — I was finally free to go.”
Snacks: “For this trip, I brought the camera quiver that’s been my go-to for a few years now: a Sony A7riii, a few prime lenses, one surf lens, and a water housing with one small lens port. I paired that up with some of my favorite film cameras — a Yashica-D medium format and a Contax T2 point and shoot.”
Cram: “I really only got one window at the outer reef, but it was firing. I had it all to myself, which was a little spooky to figure out on my own. The wave had an insane slingshot off a boil on the takeoff. Once I figured it out, it was game on. I’d surfed for two hours, caught six waves, and was ready for a marathon session when a storm rolled through. It started raining so hard sideways, I could barely see land. It was just pissing rain. That was the end of my dream session, but I have my eyes on that wave for future strikes. There’s some unfinished business!”
READ MORE: Nicaragua Travel & Surf Guide
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