Surfing In Mexico

When I was in high school my old man inaccurately prophesized that rock music would destroy my life.  Little did he know it would actually be surfing that would turn out to be my downfall .  Since I was a kid back in grade school, I always wanted to surf.  Our family trips to Ocean Isle in North Carolina fueled this desire to start surfing which always seemed painfully out of reach growing up in Chicago.  It wasn't until I moved to Portland and was able to try it for the first time in 1996.  At that point I was 26.  After trying it, I took several trips to try my hand again and again visiting Hawaii, Costa Rica and San Diego.  I'd go for week long trips to try to learn more about a sport I had obsessed about since i was a kid.  I even made several trips to Westport on the coast of Washington State when I lived in Seattle to try to better my skill set in the frigid 48 degree water.  None of it really clicked until i got to LA in 2003 to start my new job which I gladly accepted with the idea that it would get me in the water more consistently.

I met Melissa almost immediately when I got to LA and we would spend our weekends driving to Trestles, C Street or North County searching out where the best conditions might be on any given Saturday or Sunday.   We both eventually developed a pretty solid intermediate skill set and when the kids arrived that came to a grinding halt.  One of the big motivators for this trip of course was to surf consistently and get good before our bodies are too shot to push the limits of what we're capable of.  That is precisely what we've been doing the last two weeks averaging 4 surf sessions a week.  We'd be lucky to get this many in one month back in LA where our days were clogged with play dates, work, traffic, shopping, television and whatever else we could pile into a 24 hour day.

We've been logging the majority of our water time at La Saladita which is a short 15 minute drive.  it's a long left point break that has been referred to by some  as a reverse Malibu.  It's true to some extent with one big exception....  There aren't 200 of your closest friends clogging the line up on a solid head high south swell day.  We've had a lot of fun surfing this wave with Russell and Pedro who both have this spot dialed in after logging many sessions here.  It's a nice take off that spins down the line for up to 250-300 yards when it connects.  While not a top to bottom race track of a wave, it's a hell of a lot of fun allowing for you to work on any variety of skills from top turns to cut backs.  The crowd is always friendly and we find ourselves chatting up many travelers from California, Texas and Colorado in addition to the locals when were out there.

Last Friday we decided to head further north to The Ranch which is a bit further out of reach.  It's 45 minutes down a road that is currently experiencing heavy construction which exits into a small village where you follow a dirt road through the brush down to the point.  It has a very secluded feel with a small shack that serves up some fantastic tacos and huevos rancheros for a post session refueling.  That's about the only thing on the beach other than surfers.  When we arrived on Friday, south swell lines were pouring in with consistant sets in the 7 to 8 foot range.  When these waves hit they would rifle down the point with a lot of speed.  Both Melissa and I had some difficulty paddling into the waves with strong offshore winds and Melissa choice to ride a shorter board which she hadn't dusted off in years.  We each only had a few waves this day, but I did manage to catch one set wave that upon take off looked to be a solid foot or two overhead.  The wave freight trained out in front of me allowing me to ride it well over 300 yards to the inside carving multiple turns as I worked my way into the bay.  I probably didn't ride the wave as well as I would have liked, but it felt pretty darn good knowing we were finding what we came here for.

There are other spots we're interested in checking out down here over the next several months that require overnight trips like Nexpa.  It'll also require us to get our skills up to par since it's a dredging, barreling river mouth set up.  You'll again note the lack of photos.  We're working on getting the GoPro set up and any shots of us surfing at this point would likely be more comical than anything.   Maybe once we get things tightened up a little we'll share some.

 

Getting them started young: