A Bigger Board n Balls
A couple weeks ago i took a trip down to mex. I lucked out (or so i thought) and happened to be in the right place at the right time with regard to swell. Surf was something like ~8ft @ ~17+sec.
Morning after i landed woke up and looked at the ocean. Waves were large and there were clean 5 or so wave sets pulsing every 10 mins or so. Paddled out and quickly realized i was lacking foam. Couldn’t catch anything ‘cept a beating. A friend who’d experienced the same swell conditions suggested before i left to get my hands on a bigger board…but i opted out of dumping anymore cash on the trip.
That was a mistake.
For a couple days i basically sat inside and picked of the smaller set waves. Watched dudes on 7-0′s n shit catch fucking bombs outside. The swell eventually faded and i was in business with my smaller boards. Perfect.
The area has an amazing wave selection/variety all withing a short distance. I opted for the waves closest to where i was staying–mainly due the fact that the rental car i got couldn’t make some of the roads.
The closest wave was literally right in front of where i was staying . Shallow reef, general gnarliness, and longer, better waves elsewhere kept it empty except for myself. I hermitted out there for a week. Swell went from out of control, to fun, to shit, then good again as my week progressed. I had enough time to get a feel for how the wave broke, how it shifted, changed with the tide, wind, etc. Between surfs i posted up read, ate bananas and watched it. For hours. Pretty well had it figured out. Or so I thought.
The left was a long shoulder with a steep and fast drop that ran out into a deeper/safe zone. Right was a crazy heavy, vertical, sometimes over-vert drop, with a super steep short wall that dumped on gnar jagged, shallow reef. It barreled in the shape of an almond–a vertical one. Lefts were pretty easy as that’s the way i was facing…so i opted to go for more rights. At first.
I was sent more than a few times. Pitched from the lip, airborne with the rest of the ocean right behind and ontop of me after landing on hard water. Somehow i managed to escape without any major reef injury. After a couple sessions of that i pretty much gave up and stuck to the lefts. They were fun, rippable and more or less sketch free.
The evening before i left i was finishing up my last banana and noticed some new swell filling in. The wind was right, tide was right so i hit it till late. One of the better sessions i’ve had in a while. Countless fun rides. I figured the next morn i’d be able to get another in before heading to the aeropuerto.
The whole week i’d been on this wave solo. Nadie. It was nice. But it def kept me in check. Surfing solo over reef…it’s different.
The last morning i paddled out. Same as the eve before. So much fun. Just lapping it. Then a local kid paddled out. “Hola amigo!”, he yelled as paddled over. Kid blabbed some spanish that i didn’t understand. I tried to answer and then a bomb set came in. He started scratching to the right going for what i would have considered death by reef bludgeoning. I looked back as i paddled outside for the next wave and saw a blast of water coming off the top of the wave he went for. Made it…whoa.
Over the next hour this kid fucking destroyed this wave. He went right only. I watched him drop directly into barrels, stall, come out, whack the lip, cutback into the foam, turn, comeback and whack the lip a few more times, then come off the wave pretty much on dry reef at the shore. Over and over. He never sat still and waited, never hesitated, went for everything, caught everything. Some of the sickest surfing i’ve seen.
“Adios amigo!”, as he paddled in. Inspired, I stayed in the water for a little longer and went for a few rights.
They went badly.