Zinka original

drive south of Salvador, Brazil. Set up for Christmas and January holdiay traffic, the town is ready to accommodate thousands of guests and make its numbers in one five-week party of excess every year. Otherwise, Itacare is as quiet and peaceful a surf town as you will find.

On June 13th, I found myself in Itacare with two close friends, Alex, a freshly minted ex-pat who had recently perfected his portuguese, the other, Ged, a recent grad in search of his first memorable surf safari. We arrived in Itacare to an olio of beachside accomodations from which to choose, but ultimately landed on a bungalow overlooking Tiririca beach, which featured a gorgeous, fast breaking right. After negotiating our room rate, we were ushered to an adjoining establishment to choose from a quiver of well-used surfboards preserved from eras past. Having had a chance to peruse the selection we ultimately landed on the best of the lot, a bright red longboard with a broken off center fin (for inside breaks and a hedge against a big day); and two colorful funboards, a yellow one that looked like it had some potential, and a blue that had the width of a fish. The bungalow host equipped us with boogie board leashes for the funboards, which was all she had. We kindly accepted. The most experienced rider of the group, I made sure to instruct Alex and Ged on surfing by emphasizing the fourth point - how to fall with their heads tucked in, arms over their heads.

We planned our next day's session from the hammock outside our bungalow, beneath a thatched roof offering sanctuary from an evening pelleting of warm rain. Morning excitement had me up at 5:30 the next morning to check out the swell and wake Alex, who, it turned out, must have thought I was kidding about that plan during the previous evening's discussion. We went back to bed until breakfast at 8, then hit the jungle trail to the day's surf break, a beach called Praihna. The path to Praihna is about 1.5-2k through the jungle, over three river crossings, past a couple small waterfalls, and up a couple tropical meadows - bearing a noticeable resemblance to those from which the Swiss Family Robinson fends off pirates in the original Disney movie - before tracking along a cliff with a loose rope guardrail for the final 200m (afternoon showers made the trail particularly adventurous for hiking in Havaianas). The beach is horseshoe bay filled in with squeaky white sand, lined by evenly spaced coconut trees. The surf was an unpredictable and shifting beach break, but still reliable enough to catch a big one every few minutes.

The breaks (inside and outside) were steep and fast, not truly meant for greenhorns. Yet Ged and Alex dove in and ended up catching heaps of waves, which was very exciting. Other than us, there were a couple locals riding aggressively in their sungas (speedoes, which are as popular in Brazilian beach culture as Zinka is to Californian life); otherwise, the beach was ours. After a good session we vegged out, taking up a quick game of beach soccer with a worn out ball we'd discovered, and quenching our thirst with a coconut we'd managed to pop loose from a palm and crack open on a surf fin we had lodged in a stump. Afterward, Alex and Ged sampled some bbbqed cheese a local entrepreneur was grilling on the beach, then we headed back toward our bungalow. On the path back, the memory of Praihna fresh in our heads, we were inspired by a separate break - Ribeira - we had passed on the initial hike, and dipped in for another surf of fast, walled-up rights with tenderizing endings. We once again found ourselves inspired by the same sunga-adorned locals from Praihna.

We do not have many pictures of the beach or hike as we were advised to leave valuables behind to avoid any trouble in the jungle or on the beach. Luckily, though, we ran into a Brazilian beachgoer with an SLR camera and a keen instinct for taking historic photos!

Check out Surfside Girl, Sam's Blog... where she talks about all of her surf adventures, gives great tips for learning to surf and of course her Favorite Sunscreen, Zinka!

http://www.surfsidegirls.com/Surfside/Sams_Blog/Entries/2011/8/9_Zinka!.html