Happy Holidays to all. and to all may you surf better and catch more waves then I’ve caught, over the past few days.
Yes, that’s right. there are waves, here, finally. On the 23rd our second major swell of the season rolled through town and I was there to enjoy. Only something was off. I rolled over to Burros with my sister who had just gotten in to town, with my new camera and the fatty 100-400 telephoto lens. I set the thing up, turn the camera on and one minute later the battery dies. who forgot to charge it?
What a complete rookie I am.
And to top it off, I only caught 2 waves as I battled it out, in the line-up. the waves were around 6 feet, but mushy and totally inconsistent. I was dejected. As I knew the swell was rising, I headed up to Anclote later that day, to find nothing going on, at all. the gods were not at my back.
Christmas day I was dead set on catching some waves in my new .05mm long sleave wetsuit. Did I forget to mention that I’ve acclimated to the weather here and the water is freaking cold? well, it is. Christmas day I checked out Veneros for the first time in months. The beach break was going off, but it was all closeouts, nothing to ride. Dejected again, I went home.
On the 26th I set out mid-day, no real swell going on, but after the past few days, I’d settle for anything. Burros had nothing special, so I hot-footed it up to Anclote, to find even more nothing special. I then dropped back down to La Lancha. Ah yes, La Lancha, my favorite little secluded beach, a 15 minute walk through the jungle. Well, the waves weren’t really going off there either. I guess the tires were bald on all sides. But I did have fun at La Lancha with the mushy waves that kissed you like big lethargic dogs. topping out at like 2 to 3 feet, they weren’t much to ride on a shortboard, but I did manage a few drop-in-and-pump-like-hell rides, as the longboarders all looked on, in that sympathetic, well-at-least-he’s-trying kinda way.
note to self: quit being a nerd and get a longboard.
Yesterday, another swell came into town. Supposedly 6 to 8 feet. I’ve been wanting to hit Anclote on a nice swell. Anclote is a point break with a nice long rolling wave. From the beach you can see 4 or 5 breaking waves coming in, in neat little rows. Anclote, like Sayulita, gets crowded this time of year, but the rows of waves and the length of the break, make it more manageable for people to ride together on a single wave, kinda like the surf breaks in Hawaii, I see, in the surf videos. Anclote is also nice because they have palapa restaurants where the ladies can get some shade, drinks and food. So Marcia, her mom, Martha, and my sister, Beth, came along to watch. I brought the new camera for effect.
As we rolled in, I could see 2 and 3 foot waves with about 30 longboarders in the water with 1 or 2 odd shortboarders. It took me a few minutes to realize that the waves were really only longboard material. I conferred with Marcia as to whether we should stay here or move to La Lancha, which I could see in the distance across Punta de Mita’s shallow bay, going off, with onshore winds sending plumes of water high into the air. gotta love off-shore winds. well, with the crew in tow, I decided to battle it out at Anclote. I paddled out into the lineup and tried my hardest to seize the day. The waves lacked force and getting into them was next to impossible. They were great rollers for the longboard crowd, but not enough push for a shortboard. I tried my damnedest for an hour or so, before I gave up and headed in. Marcia took pity on my soul and marshaled the troops for the truck into La Lancha. We stopped into Agro-Gourmet to pick up some cheese, crackers and fruit. So, we be in Mexico, but we still sophisticated n shee-it. Actually, it was a total fluke, but they just opened Vallarta’s version of a gourmet specialty food store, in Punta de Mita. Awesome for us, bad for our wallets (A pomegranate costs 6 bucks, ouch).
The ladies enjoyed the walk into La Lancha and Beth proclaimed it her favorite beach. I quickly scanned the incoming sets. One consistently breaking section that mushed up as soon as it broke, making it unrideable. A few close out sets, big and closer to the beach, but total close-outs. After a few minutes a nice outside set came in, and one of the longboarders had a nice long ride. I geared up and headed out.
Some guy shortboarder from Santa Barbara was out in the lineup with me. Since there were only about 5 of us out there and he and I, the only shortboards, it was nice to have a fellow shortie out there to gauge where to take off. The waves were actually pretty good, in the sense that they had some real power to them, unlike the waves of the past week or so. The normal sets were a bit hard to catch, either close-outs or just to mushy, it was all about the outside sets. You can see them rolling off the horizon, in big giant rows. Normally these kind of rows would rise up and become 10 foot waves as they neared the break. But these waves couldn’t really stand up. They just sorta came in at 4 feet and maybe grew to 6 feet, but nothing more. If there was an A-frame, you had to be exactly at the crest to get into it. And it was breaking everywhere. Needless to say i didn’t catch much. A nice one here or there, 3 rides tops. But nothing to feel confident about. I sat out there for easily a half hour waiting for my last wave, knowing the girls were on the beach getting fried to a crisp, I headed in, paddling, doing the surfer walk of shame.
once again i had been dejected.
Back on the beach, Beth had been shooting the entire time and we did a cute little photo shoot with the surfboard and Lola, our new dog. we’ll see how it turns out. If nothing else, over the past week, I’ve gained my surfer’s physique back and my swimmer’s arms. i am now ready to do battle with the fiercest of solid sets, not to mention my tan is coming back after months tucked away in the office. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve surfed, consistently day after day. And even if I’m not catching waves as easily as I’d like, it’s still great to be back out on the water.
