I highly recommend Ricardo's place. Everything was sparkling clean and cozy. It's fairly close to the beach, and there's a lot of space to clean, dry and safely store your surfing equipment.
Santa Cruz is a lovely city, with a really nice vibe, and a great place for a surf trip. I specially recommend going to "La Fontana" for dinner. My girlfriend and I we ate there every day for around 22,5€ per meal.