Hi Les -
Paul Gross is still making 4th Gear Flyer surf mats (not sure about Dale Solomonson and Neumatics?)
Paul's quality is top notch and his prices are quite reasonable (The "Classic" is only 135.00.) Shipping is free and muy pronto.
GTFD, Proneman and John...ThankYou! All your suggestions have been great. It gives me a lot more to go on. Traveling is soo much better if you have some inside info to go on. Any more suggestions?
Oh! timing? We have two days in Cabo and one day in PV. I'll check the reports befor going and see which would be the best spots.
Les
You and your wife can do it all, a Cabo beach, surf trip And a Vallarta surf excursion. You can do Cabo's bars in the semi balmy pm. Cabo Pacific water temp will be up to mid 70's, surf in Feb can boom. Get your transpo and board rental figured out ahead of time if possible and get to either Pedritos or Cerritos, for good beach going for your wife and possibly some impressive open ocean surf, watch out for the wind, Pedritos is improved with facilities so its easy visiting and would be a decent beach going destination even without the surf, forgot to mention an important beach thing, Pedritos is rocks, all rocks in the tidal zone, with good sand beach above the high tide line. The surf washes away the sand so its touph to dip into the water if thats what your wife likes to do, like impossible to dip in, and paddling or swimming out to the break is a big time challenge being washed by substantial wash and current over biggish boulders, gladly the dry beach is nice and the facilities I've seen ages ago were excellent, I'd heard a hotel got built there, don't know about that, it was a trailer park campground and restaurant when I saw it, wish somebody would chime in here with an update. Cerritos is where La Paz citizens go to the beach on the pacific side, very nice white sand beach, good for dipping in for a swim with some current and mild shore break, Kokua probably had Cerritos in mind with stingray note, first aid for stingray is promtly soak injury in very hot water for about 30 minutes, spread the word. Cerritos when I saw it was dry, scragly barren no facilities but there must be something commercial going on there by now. Pedritos and Cerritos can both be seen on the same day to see if the zone merits a second day of travel. People travel 1000 miles to get to those two spots you'll be 45 baja miles away, not bad for warm water beach going in the dead of winter. For one day around Vallarta you could do your own car rental surf trip if you can rent a board with surf spot destination advice in Vallarta, probably not, board rental will be out at Sayulita and once there it'll be too troublesome to go back to Punta Mita hunting for surf, maybe there is board rental in Vallarta, then you could go out to Punta Mita zone if thats where surf is happening. Hotels are built up on the surf coves at Punta Mita, that might be ok for your day tripping, there's the need for the Vallarta surf shop local knowlege. If you wind up going into Sayulita either bus or car, do your beach going on the far side or "north" side of the "river" mouth, that'll get you clear of the center town mob, center town beach will be board rental places. The backpackers campground, El Camaron, and/or upscale gringo rv park next door to the "north" offer excellent support for a tiny day visitor fee. The beach at those spots is excellent, clientele excellent and you'll be right there for the mediocre "left" break, the river mouth reef cobbles are sharp.
I'm back! Lot of fun. First day in Cabo was WINDY!!! Second day we took a jeep tour. I drove and our guide directed me. We did a little off roading and stopped a t three beaches. The last beach was a 'Public Beach' that we were able to swim at. LOTs of fish! No problem there getting food.
Friday before we left home I made a had paddle:[img_assist|nid=1064591|title=Hand Paddle|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0][img_assist|nid=1064592|title=Hand Paddle bottom|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0] Palownia and epoxy to seal it.
So I tested the paddle out at that beach. It worked GREAT as just a swimming hand paddle, there was no surf here.
Over night we cruised to Puerto Villarta. My wife, brother and his wife took a tour. I left the ship with my back pack loaded with fins, paddle and started looking. Talked to a fewtour guides, taxi drivers, tourists and came to the conclusion I'd just take the local bus towards Punta de Mita (thanks Tony!). No chickens on this bus but typical 'local' bus with all the locals and tourists. Would you believe... they have Home Depot, WalMart, Sam's Club, you name it in the tourist areas there is anything and everything you could want.
It took less than an hour to get to Punta de Mira. A US couple in front of me on the bus asked what I ws going to do, and as the bus stopped I saw a jeep with three SUP's on top. I said, I'm going to go over there and talk to those guys! The driver was Alex from Pacific Paddle. Said he'd be right back to help me. A long story short: I body surfed (2-4' surf) for about 45 min. then got a SUP and surfed for another hour and half till the wind and chop got too much.[img_assist|nid=1064593|title=Punta de Mire|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0] As you can see, lot of
rocks getting in! and reefs while surfing that you have to watch out for but had lots of fun!
Thanks for all the suggestion! Sorry, can't get the pics and words to come out right!?
Les