19-Time Emmy Winner Moises Linares Tells the Surf Story Shaped by El Salvador’s Brutal Civil War

"I don't carry because I want to. I carry because I have to, because I was taught to." 

There was a time in the seventies where El Salvador was a top prospect on the global surf exploration depth chart. It was an unassuming lil country with point breaks that could make Trestles blush in envy, a land saturated in cobblestone with swells that would wrap into headlands and bays.

All this existed in a chaste and rustic playground where savvy and covert surfers indulged their off the lip appetites. 

And then, well, Ronny Regan felt the specter of the sickle and the hammer looming a lil too close. The Red was swelling through central America. Fidelio Castro had already cast his influence and infiltrated Nicaragua. Salvadorian leftist insurgent groups united under the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, were actively trying to overthrow the U.S. backed military government.

What ensued was an uncivil war with mass civilian casualties. Mark Danner’s book, The Massacre at El Mozote, tells of instances where government troops would seize infants from their mothers, throw them in the air and catch them on their bayonets.

The war ended in 1992. Needless to say, plenty of lives, including surfers, were left in a state of forlorn limbo. The residual and collateral effects lingered for years. In a 2003 surf jaunt to La Libertad every citizen from abuelas to ninos were strapped with 9mm’s, carried in open holster form.

During the purchase of shark oil on the Libertad docks at dusk a local was asked why he carried. A wry and sullen smile crossed his face before he replied: “I don’t carry because I want to. I carry because I have to, because I was taught to.” 

President Nayib Bukele was elected as president in 2019. He had seen enough of his peaceful and humble citizens not being able to access their beaches because they were gang controlled. He also saw the rolling lines of flawless surf stream in. Syndicates were round up and given permanent residence in cell block C. The Surf City signs were erected. People started coming back.

Moises Linares knows this story.

He’s been researching it for three years. His parents lived the aforementioned history. He negotiated and persevered the streets of L.A. Moises then graduated college and went on to become a play by play announcer of critical acclaim for countless professional sports teams in the D.C. area, including the Washington Commanders, Capitals and Wizards.

Few, if any, could tell the history of El Salvador surfing the way Moises could. His experience in broadcasting and his familie’s lineage in the country made him an apt candidate.

“I originally wanted to do a piece about soccer in El Salvador,” he tells me during our phone call while he was on a bus to the airport,”but (as far as sports goes) everything pointed to surfing. President Bukele pushed the surf narrative, but he didn’t start it.” 

Through tireless research Moises learned the inception of surf in El Sal began with Bob Levy. “I wanted to go all the way back to the very beginning of the very first surfer. Everything pointed to Bob.”

“It took me a year to do it, but but after speaking with Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson they agreed to join the project. They believe in it.”

We then speak of the civil war. The world called the Farabundo fighters communists. They saw themselves as people who were just trying to feed their families and who were tired of being under the suppression of an oppressive government.

“El Salvador had over four million visitors last year, in a country of 6.5 million people. There is no doubt that surfing is a major contributor to the country’s recent resurgence.  It’s provided jobs and many non profits have begun to help young people know that these beaches and surfing can provide a positive influence in their lives.”

Moises has had interest in his project from outside parties. He’s had offers of monetary support from private donors. He refused them. Because he doesn’t want funds that come with strings attached.

“I want to tell this story from a pure perspective, without the influence of outside money. No one is getting paid on the project. They are doing it because they believe in the importance of the story we are trying to tell.”

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