Matanchén

Matanchén Bay curves beside San Blas, an old colonial port on the Pacific coast of Nayarit. The bay is celebrated among surfers for producing what has been recorded as one of the longest rideable waves on Earth, a soft, seemingly endless right that peels over a rivermouth sandbar toward the town.

On the right long-period south swell, the wave at the point known as Las Islitas can reel for well over a kilometre, giving surfers rides so long that leg fatigue, not the wave itself, tends to end them. The wave is slow, mellow and forgiving in character, which makes this famous spot surprisingly well suited to intermediate longboarders rather than experts. The wave is so long and so slow that surfers routinely paddle only part of it, then walk back up the beach to ride it again.

Such a long wave needs a big swell, so the truly marquee days are rare and greatly prized, while smaller swells still offer gentle, cruisy surf in the sheltered bay. The lush tropical setting comes with mangroves, jungle and, notably, the biting jejenes sand flies that are legendary at dawn and dusk, so strong repellent is genuinely essential.

The season falls in the southern-hemisphere winter, roughly April to October, when south swells reach the bay; the water is warm year-round. Access is a short drive from San Blas, a historic town with a hilltop Spanish fort and famously rich birdlife in the surrounding wetlands and estuaries. For a mellow, marathon-length wave in a green tropical bay, Matanchén is genuinely unique. The record-length rides claimed here are part of surf folklore, and the town's tropical wetlands are a magnet for birdwatchers between sessions.