Over the MLK weekend a few friends and I took a little surf trip into Northern Baja and scored big. You may recall the weather over this 3 day holiday weekend was summer like, with temps here in So Cal reaching 90 plus. We planned the trip months in advance, so getting good weather and waves on the same weekend was a long shot at best. Mother nature came through. With a large storm moving across the pacific creating waves big enough to put the Mavericks contest on standby we knew the spot we were going to would be really good. Really really good.
On Friday we made our way through TJ without any problems and continued on past Ensanada for a few hours. Yes, there has been a lot of hype about the violence in Baja. It is real, but it is all concentrated in the slums of the city. We were on PCH heading south and had no problems, besides going through 4 military check points slowing our progress. Finally reaching our destination we found the ocean to be flat as lake, but had the promise that the swell would fill in overnight. It did. We woke to the sound of huge waves pounding the point.
Our accommodations were ideal. Staying at the Baja surf adventures resort, we were steps away from a 400 yard peeling right hand point break. The picture above is taken from the resorts tower.
It was a epic 3 days. 3 good friends (and another couple) at the resort and no other surfers for miles. We had it all to our selves. Questions began to arise, could I surf this perfection for 3 straight days, would my arms fall off from paddling. No time to worry, with my wetsuit on, I was in. Catching absolute perfect bombs peeling down the point. My legs burned from making so many turns, it was as if I was riding a snowboard. We would have to stand idle and glide through sections of the waves just to let our legs recover. Paddle? Why paddle when you can get out and run back up the point and jump back in. For nearly 8 hours each day we did this surf / run circuit, stopping at the resort for a banana and water every few trips.
Exhaustion hit hard after a few beers and shot of tequila around the fire in the evenings. Stories and heckling of each other faded away to blank stares into the fire. Bed time was on at 9:00 pm every night.
Mother nature continued to send overhead waves into Monday with no break in the January heat wave. We packed our bags Monday afternoon and drove away leaving behind perfect waves with no one around. Monday had the best waves, so we named this the MLK "I have a dream swell of 2009".
I have spent countless hours doodling waves on school books, reading stories of far away places in magazines, and dreaming of remote islands, wondering If I would get my moment. Like a skier tracking across virgin powder or a golfer playing the 18th at a dream course we all have our ideas of the perfect moment. While I'm sure I will continue to dream of better moments, I know that on this particular weekend I got as close to mine as ever.
7 comments:
Sounds like an incredible trip - thanks so much for sharing it. Love your writing. It helps to have something like this to read while watching paint dry!
Wow, what a trip. Empty right point that peels for hundreds of yards. Is that south of Ensenada? The 8 hour sessions sound grueling. Did you have a little more length for the afternoon paddeling, or ride the same board all day? Epic.
It was a good one. The spot is called shipwrecks. It is in the quatro casa's Camalu area. We split our sessions up, a few hours in the morning and a few in the afternoon. To conserve energy we would let the smaller ones go and wait for the set waves. It was really long period energy 19 seconds. I still want visit you and the land of lefts. The schneider 6 compound is looking very nice.
I have camped at 4casas in 1987. I broke good for a few days, but not as lined up as your swell. I´ll send some pictures of my spots.
Wish I was coordinated enough to surf :) Sounds great!
That sounds like an amazing trip!! I am really jealous!! I still need to come down and attempt surfing again (but Hawaii's warm waters did spoil me the one time I did surf!)
Isn't it the best when everything falls into place. I need to come down and surf with you. My physical therapist in Las Vegas trains the Cirq gymnast and has tightened my balance up big time.
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