Tamarindo's December Surf Contest Lets the Swell Pick the Date

"Surf is the vehicle for carrying a message about protecting coastal zones and marine ecosystems," Juan Roberto Arias Tyrell, cofounder of The Clean Wave, told Guananoticias this month. He was describing the second Pico Surf Series, a contest that does not have a date yet.

The Pico Surf Series is a December surf contest on Playa Tamarindo where the swell decides the day and every surfer who enters adds $10 to The Clean Wave's work on this coast. The bigger the field, the bigger the donation. That setup explains most of what Tamarindo residents need to know before the first week of December.

A window instead of a date

Dreamsea Surf Camp and Fundación The Clean Wave, the organizers, have set a window from December 1 to 15. They will watch the wave forecast through that stretch, choose the best day, and post it first on Instagram at @picosurfseries. The same account will list the artists and the brands in the local market once those are confirmed.

The first edition ran the same way. Last year's preview in Periódico Mensaje gave a window of December 4 to 14, 2025, with the exact day to be announced after the surf was assessed. This year's window is 15 days long, up from 11, so it starts three days earlier and ends one day later.

For anyone who lives within reach of the Tamarindo sand, the date will come at short notice from a phone, not from a printed calendar.

What the $10 entry does

Entry is free for surfers. Worldpackers, the international volunteering platform that is the event's principal sponsor, pays each athlete's $10 registration and donates that amount to The Clean Wave for environmental projects in Tamarindo. Guananoticias reported that all funds raised will go to the foundation's environmental projects.

Because the donation is counted per surfer, the field itself is the fundraiser. Last December's contest drew 58 surfers from Tamarindo and nearby communities. At $10 an entry, a field that size works out to $580, and every extra local surfer who signs up this year adds another $10.

The organizers have aimed the event wide enough to fill a bigger field. The 2026 contest will have junior, amateur and professional categories, and registration is open on Starticket.

Where the money goes

The Clean Wave has run beach and underwater cleanup projects since 2017, and the foundation turns 10 in July 2027. Over that time it has run campaigns against shell collecting, cleaned the seafloor, recovered microplastics and recycled, in Tamarindo and elsewhere in Guanacaste.

Some of the foundation's work goes beyond picking up litter:

• Diving program. Run in partnership with BA Divers, it certifies divers and then brings them into the underwater cleanups.
• Microplastics. Arias told Periódico Mensaje last year that recovered microplastics are processed into an additive for cement.
• Cleanup pace. In the same interview he put the foundation at about 100 beach cleanups a year. He also named earlier work at Playa Grande, Avellanas and Potrero.

After the first edition, Arias told Guananoticias that the goal was "to generate much greater interest so that more people join us in the field work in 2026." So the contest does two jobs. It raises money through the entries, and it gathers people for cleanups that go on long after the heats are over. He said the number of spectators who came to ask about the foundation was part of what made the day a success.

The town that showed up last year

Local businesses carried the first edition. Besides Worldpackers, The Clean Wave and Dreamsea Surf Camp, Guananoticias listed these supporters of the 2025 Tamarindo Pico Surf Series:

• Cámara de Comercio y Turismo de Tamarindo and the Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Tamarindo
• Pico Bistro, Zolu Taco Bar, Bottega Tamarindo and Papagayo Brewing
• Cala Luna Hotel and Monkey Jungle Canopy Tour
• More Surf Shop, Pascual Ding Repair, Fix Ding and Tico Hook
• KT Costa Rica, Printlab CR, Caribbean & Pacific Medical and Tamarindo Car Rentals

Most of that list is Tamarindo's own commercial district, from the restaurants and a brewery to the shops that repair the boards. Those 58 surfers competed in open, amateur, longboard and groms divisions over a single day of heats.

The announced 2026 sponsors are Worldpackers, Sharkys Tamarindo, Nuevo Mundo and Buses Transporte Inteligente de Guanacaste. The local-brand market planned for contest day gives more of the town a way to take part beyond sponsorship.

Contest day on the sand

Arias put it simply: "It's not just surf." The day will include a beach cleanup, a market of local brands and live music from local artists. Guananoticias described the day as one for families, visitors and neighbors to enjoy Tamarindo while supporting the area's talent and businesses.

So even residents who never paddle out have reasons to keep an eye on the @picosurfseries announcement: the cleanup, the market and the music.

How the window fits the rest of the surf season

Several other contests fall around the Pico window, on the Santa Cruz coast and farther south.

The ACOS weekend at Avellanas, scheduled for November 14 and 15, was set to open the 14th edition of the association's junior series, with boys' and girls' divisions from Sub-18 down to mixed Sub-6. Lola's restaurant on Playa Avellanas offered to pay the entry fee for 10 children who needed the help. Across the series, ACOS is paying $1,800 in cash prizes. It is also awarding four spots in a World Surf League Qualifying Series event in Costa Rica in August 2027, two for boys and two for girls in the Sub-16 and Sub-18 divisions. ACOS president Carla Gallardo said the series aims to give children and young surfers chances to develop and to compete abroad.

Look at the calendar side by side and you can see how the Pico Series differs. The ACOS and NSSA stops run on fixed weekends, and both of those December weekends fall inside Tamarindo's window. Of the five, only the Pico Series waits for the forecast. It is also the only one where each entry goes straight to a local environmental foundation. A Tamarindo surfer who is also chasing junior points in Jacó, or a family with a child entered at Santa Teresa, will learn whether the dates clash only when @picosurfseries makes its call.

Coastal property in Tamarindo, Avellanas or anywhere on the Santa Cruz coast raises its own questions, from what an ocean-facing lot allows to how the area's seasons shape a year of ownership. If you would like a bilingual conversation about this stretch of Guanacaste, the team at Tropical Investments is glad to talk it through, whenever the swell decides the contest day.