Deep in the bowels of Mexico (pun intended). Hotel with wife in Puerto Escondido. The surf at Zitacela is nuts. Semi closeout death thumping beach break barrels in the 3X OH range. Found a “secret” left point in the neigbhorhood. Very nice set up. Dale got my mat to me just before I left to come here. Only thing I don´t like so far is that I didn´t get it a year or year and 1/2 ago when it they first crossed my radar. Similar in a vague sort of way to the cheepo Intex $8 special i was riding but oh so different. This point, i`ve surfed for 4 days now, has lot of waves that connect for 250 to 300 yards. Clean, almond tube race track sections w7 big workabel shoulders and some cylindrical grinder sections. Amazing little Mexican grommets maybe 10 years old hurling themselves into the pit on 2XOH late take offs and gettting deeply pitted and sometimes making it out. Boy do they come out grinning and flashing the “V” fingers. Woo-Hoo!!! Me? Going sideways and getting tagged “yer out” buy the lip. Too intimidated due to my total kook on an air bag status to go outside as the beach in front of the take off and first part of the wave isn’t. Just jagged boulder cliffs and caves. I hang on the inside and try to pick off left overs between sets. Not complaining though as these reel off for 75 to 100 yards in 85 degree water. Sweet.
Today had first mat experience Ive read others mention. Figured out sort of how to hold an edge but no speed. Section looms and breaks ahead of me. Dang, guess ill straighten out and go in. Not sure quite what i did, less and/or diferent squeeze, different angle of attack on wave face…sudden huge burst of speed and i was out in the flats, around the already broken section and 1/2 way through a cut back to straighten out for real. All in an instant. Nice rush.
Great cheep eats here relatively speaking. Big plate of killer good garlic shrimps w/ all the Mexican fixings for $7 or $8. Big plate of enchiladas more like $4. Pesos look like play money compared to US so hardly notice the spending. Day of reckoning to come later.
Went on Ecotour boat trip this morning in mangrove swamp that was like being inside an aviary there were so many and different kinds of birds. A few pretty big crocodilos (ULP!) iguanas, and of course lots of mosquitos. I donated a pint or so.
Just though Id put up a mini report to help boost the Mexican economy as the surf is great, the water is warm and the locals are incredibly friendly. Only a small trace of tude from an Aussie who told me I really needed a hard edge out there… HAH. I just told him I was a newbie and it was keeping me humble. Indeed.
hey Doc - good to hear from you again. and glad to see you’re happy with your choice. I was thinking of you the other night went to a bar at Balboa yacht club – picture this: beauiful night yes – but no wind, humid to-rass. so imagine the shirt on yr back dunked into a pool and wrung out to get every airbubble out,and you put it back on without wringin it. Some old friend comes up and slaps me on da back, and it splatters my sweat and is like dripping off his hand. if i wuz him, i’d be friggin shlitz! (an i’m sure he was) Yea, it’s humid here pal.
hey good to hear you gettin into some wavage - and on a neumatic.
1992 and around late April to early may, tail end of summer and everything dry as a bone out on Contadora to where they were on water hours ( the reservoir out there was dry too - the desal plant was dead, it was dry!) , but when we hit the mainland we hit the Balboa Yacht Club first thing and those great big lovely bottles of Balboa beer, ice cold and either a quart or a liter and in fact I think they were on ice.
And watching the lights out in the Canal, ships going by in the evening twilight…
Flat calm, though, and I’ll bet the rain just went through - all I can say is stock up on some very cold beers…
Doc - don’t know what years you saw byc - but if you’d seen the whole general area of Ft Amador and the original byc building prio 1999 – well, what we have now would make you cry.
Well, it was - (looking at my old passport, as I no longer trust my memory all that much in very specific details ) March 1992 - and what I remember of my brief look at the area is that in many ways it was like they expected Goethals to be back next month, taking names. Late Victorian, almost, things were ‘just so’…
The small airport was overlooking the city and there were still a few dings in the cement here and there. No real high rises, maybe one or two but not all that much.
was back in 2000 and 2002 - and yeah, it had changed, and it all seemed like it had gone shopping mall. Out by the new bus station it was strange, original Canal plants and industrial stuff and right beside it that bus station that looked so Southern California that it made me itch.
Out in the country hadn’t changed, though. That was the good part -
All we gots is a little dig camera w- no big lens. Sorry bout dat, but maybe got a couple really nice bird shots in the swamp where we were looking for the crocs. when i get home i’ll post a tiny pic distant shot of La Punta. Won’t tell ya much. Getting more dialed in on the mat. today surf smaller though still some 1-1/2X OH sets. Afternoon wind bump lost the crowd. Hard to catch as pretty lumpy but once in the mat does indeed run like a cadillac. Got a few actualy burst of speed. Some control on the smaller waves–out ran sections, went around sections, a weak sort of cut back. Total stoke!!!
Still laughing every time I see one of those little kids, and i mean like 60 pounds worth of fighting spirit, lauch into a macking death barrel with wild, bulging eyes. DEEEPLY pitted and more often than not making it out the end with a “whoop” and a grin and flashing the “V”.
Wife has decided, and I admit to not arguing much that she wants/needs a bit less entropy in her permanent residence. I love it here but it does feel a bit like everything is held together with plastic twin (Mexican bailing wire) and fervent “Hail Mary”. And it is a bit er, moist here, rainy season just starting. Mold is definitely present. Bearable with mostly outdoor living and palapa dining but we searched quit awhile to find a hotel room that didn´t smell like, well mold. Not sure what we will do as far as relocation but the journey finding out is mighty fun.
Wife has decided, and I admit to not arguing much that she wants/needs a bit less entropy in her permanent residence… Not sure what we will do as far as relocation but the journey finding out is mighty fun
Eeeeeyah…making Chili Verde, sweating down too many onions and tomatillos, smelling pretty good, thinking about the sweet onions I’m using…Maya onions I think the sign said…Maya = Guatemala…spent Christmas there once over three decades ago after a few days in previously mentioned Panama (this not being a surf trip at all)…weeks before the U.S. went into the first gas rationing since WWII…we were encouraged to not have outdoor Christmas lights to save energy that year, yet driving away from the Panama airport in the middle of the night we saw a sea of Christmas lights and color television screens along the pitch dark road…was only on the return to the airport we saw most of those homes were plywood shanties…I was young but not that young with a couple of Hawaiian summers under my belt but it was the first time I really saw poverty that wasn’t part of “the adventure”…but certainly part of the journey…
You might add a bit to the “man of mystery” element the lesser Dr. Strange was known for and consider dividing your time. An aquaintence who once lived large in the South Bay once told me that a buncha old time surfers lived in Idaho, supposedly during the heyday of the sailboard, turning board building knowhow and some cashout money into extremely nice lives in that landlocked but not dry state…mitigated with vacation homes in the Baja Sur. I remember him saying Bing Copeland and Hobie did this. While I have no way of knowing how true this is, I read something in a surf mag later on that seemed to bear it out about Bing Copeland. It’s an interesting notion, that…make the permanent residence in the U.S. but keep yourself free for months Down Way South…either at a place of your own or just rent, try new places every year or two…I am also mindful of a friend who has a modest place in a spectacular high altitude location…I was telling him about another high country area my wife and I had visited for the first time about an hour away from his place, and he said a bit wistfully that the one problem with having a vacation/getaway/eventual retirement house somewhere is you pretty much wind up having to go there, and there is so much to do you don’t get around as much.
Interesting option to consider, adapt to your own interests and quirks…might provide some balance and comfort…does your wife know you get advice from 2000 bad influences? Hee hee hee…
Yeah Nels, she knows. Actually she is sort of interested in what y’all have to say. Have been considering the bi-locational idea. Checked a spot in New Mexico we’d heard a few raves about but it was kinda meth and incest central in an old mobil home living sort of way. Off the list that spot. Trick is, we inherited a nice little stash and are hoping to find a way to set up to live comfortable enough but cheap enough to not have to work, or at least very much limit that sort of burden. Heh-heh. Don’t know if we can pull it off though. Panama or Mexico would be lot more likely than in US but the wife needs a bit more comfort and tends to get a bit freaky from the lack of full service amenaties.
Now if we could find an extreme fixer upper type house in Santa Barbara/Ventura area back country or San Diego back in a ways…Huge down or buy it outright so minimum monthy nut…
Funny, can’t seem to access the mat forum from Mex…oh well Wondering if any mat riders have any tips to offer. I seem to do reasonably well on 3 foot mushy rollers but when it gets head high plus and hollow I’m sidways into the trough and lip smacked into the wash cycle. Cant seem to find the speed or climb back up the face. Can do both in the tiny mush though…Not to frustrated yet as this was only about my 4th day on my neumatic. having a good time regardless. (Sheesh, 80 or 85 degree water and peeling point waves with mild offshores in the morning and mild sideshore wind bump in the pm. nice…)
drstrange: the bigger it gets, yr gonna want a little more inflation. On larger/juicer – keep the inside rail full(er). also on larger i tend to be rolled or positioned closer to the inside rail.
re Inflateable Dream Speed site – if y’re using Firefox, that may be why yr not getting in. i found that I have to be on IE or some other browser to login.
that’s usually what wears me out mat surfing, especially on a point that ends as a shore pound. the other thing that kills me, is on the type of point that you jump off the rocky point, surf, paddle in, walk back, jump again … taking off and putting on those damn UDT fins – dam that’s a work out. (forget Bowflex!) was watching Crystal Voyager, where George Greenough walks out of the surf with his spoon, sets it down to pickup his mat, and walks back out into the water. doing all dat walking in UDTs, is that for real? GG must be a masochist.
Deflate and swim out. Experienced mat surfers do it all the time. But… shifty, powerful, dumping beachbreaks are not the best kind of wave for surf mats or flexspoons.
Wasn’t thinkng about deflating but to paddle out but I did get caught inside at least 4 times today and rag dolled all the way to the beach after loooooong paddle out. Sheeesh.
Running inflated to a bit past 90 degree easy bend, maybe 100 degree bendable.
Dr Str: you were losing an edge at a 90deg bend? Were you crushing outside rail to keep inner rail firmer?
DS: I understand that about dumpng beachbreak not being the ideal for a mat, but I’ve actually had a good time in those conditions. the mat getting in sooner than standard boards and just streakin along until boom. still it’s a lotta work (compared to a board) - but there are dividends to be paid out, so we keep working at it.
little by little battle practice ya gets technique i guess.
Ska, Zicatela, the much photo’d PE break ain´t for me. Have had my share of near death experiences. I’ve been surfing the point break just east of town (coast points south) that is a perfect long long left point with 3 different take off zones that often connect to one insanely long ride. i havent´been able to take advantage of that aspect due to kookdom but having a blast none the less. Have enjoyed watching Zic during dinner though. Man those boogie riders make me want to ride one again. For slamming critical death barrels they seem hard to beat. A mat out there would likely rupture within a few days, don’t care how strong it is, as the changing forces are so great. Have seen quite a number of guys limping down the street, neck braces, broken boards etc
Yassa’ Jason, been squeezing. Today surfed another beach, beautiful little cove in town where mostly the little kids learn. It was head high plus a bit and semi mushy. A bit harder to get into the waves but I managed to hold an edge on a few and yes, even those conditions w/ 90 degree bend seemed to take major squeeze factor. I think I’m partly not putting the mat into proper trim alignment with the wave face. Today had the additional hassel of pretty good surfing, very fast paddling little kids ripping me off for waves; frickin’ monkey would back paddle me, front paddle me, once he just came across from the shoulder and paddled right beneath me. If his many large friends and neigbhors hadn´t been in the water also, I`d have just run over him or grabbed his leash and yanked him off. Still pretty fun day though. Got lot of waves and had great pescadillas (crispy little corn tortillas fried w/ some kinda yumscrum fishies inside).
Tomorrow going to Huatulco where the airport is so no more surf, just holding my breath while the wife shops—Lord have mercy!!! Then the long flight home Sat.
Well here’s a coupla pics finally. No telephoto and my wife went to different beach when I went to surf La Punta so only shot is of it pretty much blown out. Before I shrank it to upload you could see second group of guys farther out. When no wind or off shore, every morning, there was also a 3rd takeoff zone out by the last set of rocks in the pic. Many waves conneccted all the way thru for at least 200 yards or more or very fine wave. Every day was a bit different depending on swell angle, how much it ran along the point and connected or broke up into 2 or 3 “shorter” waves that were still nice and long.
The other shot is at a little beach called San Augustinillo. The building is a little chapel the fishermen pray at in the early morning before going out. Good idea!!! They use crude pvc pipe w/ fat stick inside rollers and beach launch a boat. 3 guys jump in and they idle just off the beach, inside the left hand rocks in about 4 feet of water. The waves in the background don’t look like much but the spray from behind the chapel is probably a 10 foot face maybe 15. They rear up out of deep water, no warning and close across the small “cove” formed by the rocks. When it seems there’s a lull, the pilot cranks the throttle to full loud and they rocket thru a little opening in the rocks. Can’t see it in the pic but to the right of the boat there’s intermittently exposed fangs, channel all of about 20 feet wide. They often get full air over the incoming. When mistimed, they swing a tight “U” and race back into the little protected pocket. Coming home, they just run it full speed full throttle up onto the beach. Don’t be laying on your towel there! All in all a pretty exciting way to start and end your work day. Whew!
