SurfGirl – El Salvador: Land of the Rights
SurfGirl – El Salvador: Land of the Rights
Surfing’s not just about riding waves. Sure, we travel to chase swell – but in doing so, we get under the skin of new places, meet people and shift our perspective on the lives we lead.
A recent trip to El Salvador reminded me how surfing takes you to lesser travelled corners of the world – and also to places inside yourself you didn’t know you needed to visit. The resulting feature – printed in @surfgirlmag issue 82 – looks at the shifting culture and landscapes of El Salvador, with surfing leading the change.
Surf travellers started to share mesmerising images of El Salvador’s waves in the early 70’s, but a subsequent 12-year civil war pretty much brought tourism to a halt while the country battled drugs, gangs and poverty. Now, under President Bukele’s iron-fisted rule and his monumental investment in surfing as a catalyst for a brighter future, El Salvador is one of the world’s fastest growing surf destinations – and one of Latin America’s safest countries.