How To Ruin Surfing For Yourself
I’ve meet people who have surfed all over the world. Some have been lucky enough to live in places with warm water and consistent good waves.
When we’ve talked about PNW surf there’s always some comment about how lame wearing a wetsuit is, or the cold water, or the shitty surf, or the long drives. I’ve always been so hyped on the surf in the PNW that i always have some rebuttal to those comments–rarely a crowded line up, water temps aren’t that bad, really good surf in the winter, wetsuits are stretchy, warm, make you strong, etc, etc. There’s never been a doubt in my mind that despite all the differences between warm water surf and cold water surf in the PNW, we have it pretty good.
Last week i surfed in Mexico. The water was warm–unrefreshingly warm. Temps hit near 100 degrees, humidity was 100%. I lived in board shorts.
For seven straight days myself and a handful of friends surfed our brains out. We didn’t do shit else. Wake up, surf, eat, nap, surf, eat, nap, surf, dinner, booze, repeat. A minimum of 2 sessions a day, clocking 6+ hours of surf each day. At all hours of the day the surf was on; it never got bad. We had three spots within walking distance from our pad–all were good. Waves varied from mellow entry, soft shoulders and down-the-line to heavy, top-to-bottom, and barreling.
[quicktime width="560" height="340"]http://www.nwbroweather.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/lorn.mp4[/quicktime]
After the first couple days the surfed-out soreness let up and long paddles stopped being lame. All of us were on the same “surf, eat, nap” program intently. We weren’t anywhere near nightlife, so surf was the only focus. By 9pm most of us started shutting down involuntarily. Tequila and beer was the only thing keeping us going if we were up much later. And poker.
Towards the end of the trip the surf got a little bigger. But for the duration of the trip, 15 to 20 second period swell breaking over reef assured that the waves didn’t let up. Nor did we. Most days we were up at 6am and paddling shortly thereafter. Everyone surfed good. Wave counts were off the charts. At the end of each day i was tripping at how many waves i’d caught and how many i watched being ridden. It was like winning the lottery over and over.
I can’t imagine anyone wouldn’t appreciate insane Mexican surf for seven days straight. But when you’re used to junky waves, driving 2 plus hours for surf, wearing wetsuits, being cold, it makes Mexico just a little more amazing.
[quicktime width="560" height="340"]http://www.nwbroweather.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/drex_lapidas.mp4[/quicktime]