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Central America's largest country, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south, with 215 miles of west-facing Pacific Ocean coastline and nearly 300 miles of coastline along the Caribbean Sea. While a small number of surf explorers passed through coastal Nicaragua in the '70s and early '80s, including California kneerider George Greenough and fabled 

 magazine travel correspondents Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson, the country's civil war encouraged most wave-hunters to keep their visits short. 

When Brazilian surfer Adrian Kojin rode a motorcycle from California to deep South America in 1987, virtually nothing was known about the Nicaraguan surf. Kojin discovered beautifully groomed five-foot beach- and pointbreak surf, and said he'd been "made to feel welcome every place I went." 

Democratic elections were held in Nicaragua in early 1990, bringing an end to the civil war, and Southern California–launched surf expeditions soon followed, including a well-publicized one-week visit in 1992 by pro surfers Matt Archbold and Brock Little.

Surfing in Nicaragua is practiced for the most part in the country's dry and dusty southwestern corner, near the town of San Juan del Sur. Altogether, more than 50 surf spots have been mapped out along the mountainous and largely inaccessible southwest- facing Pacific coast—including a number of high quality beachbreaks—including Colorado's, a powerful, consistently hollow wave that was home to the 2012 ISA World Masters Championships—as well as a few moody reef-and pointbreaks—with dozens more either undiscovered or being kept secret. 

Four to six- foot surf regularly hits the Nicaraguan Pacific coast from February to October; air and water temperatures are both around 80 all year, and the prevailing wind is blissfully offshore. Much of Nicaragua's wet, low-lying, rain-forested Caribbean shore is inaccessible by land, the prevailing wind is onshore, and portions of the coast are all but waveless due to barrier reefs or extended shoaling. 

But late summer/early fall Caribbean hurricanes can send waves toward Nicaragua, and it's likely that good surf will be discovered in the near future, perhaps near the Honduran or Costa Rican border areas, or among the country's scattered offshore islands.

By 2012, Nicaragua was home to hundreds of native surfers and a few lightly stocked surf shops (in Managua, León, San Juan del Sur, and in the gated resort community of Hacienda Iguana). Surf charter boat trips along the Nicaraguan Pacific coast began in 1997, and dozens of small surf resorts and rental houses catering to surfers have opened just north of San Juan del Sur. 

The Nicaraguan surf has been featured in a small number of surf videos, including 

Nicaragua

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews