trip report

or...as i drive through the shadow of the valley of
12-15 11 pm: left the driveway fully loaded with everything (and then some!) needed for a four day sojourn south 'o the border. somewhere between la salina and salsipuedes the fog rolled in and i mean THICK. speeds were reduced to 20-30 mph until we started uphill out of maneadero. then it was up to speed until san vicente and back down to 25 mph through san quintin until near the military checkpoint north of el rosario. by the time we gassed up and i made a call to the wife (last contact with the outside world for a few...:bounce it was fast approaching sunrise!!! the stress of trying to stay on the road and make good time was unreal!

hit the turn off running full of optimism and basking in the warm santa ana breezes. this is some of the prettiest scenery this side of an old western.

regans' forehead vein seemed to grow larger after each CLANK. my co-piloting remarks were of no use "go high left, punch it, wait-STOP!) either in trying to soothe his obviously high blood pressure.

admitting defeat, sort of, we turned around and headed back to the fish camp. this turned out to be one of the best decisions either of us had made in a long time. the family who lived in the camp-mama, isreal, mario, jorge, jose were the kindest, coolest people you could ever hope to meet. after some discusion, it was decided mostly by them that we would camp in front of their houses down on the beach.

the next morning, we awoke to the sound of a muffler-less alarm clock. mario arrived and persuaded us to load our stuff on top of his cherokee and that as soon as mama made desayunos, he'd show us the coast!

this would be our only day of waves. the santa anas were in top form-easily 30+ mph, subsiding only around an hour after dark until 3-4am. our choffeur got us to the place his uncle called "?" because when they used to dive for abalone, at night they would sleep with a knife in each hand to defend their catch from marauding coyotes.

we paddled out to head high 'tweeners and 8-10 foot faced sets. the tides were not ideal, not much swing during our stay, so the waves didn't really grab the bottom and wrap. instead, it would grind at the peak and quickly push/roll around the corner of the point and into the bay. trying to paddle into these sets was nearly, but not totally impossible. regan and i shared maybe a dozen waves between us and that was it...a pretty implausible finish to an otherwise outstanding go-out.

the rest of the time was spent talking story with the pangueros, being fed three meals a day by mama, isreal correcting my spanish and me his english, fishing up and down the beaches-rocks-etc...

when the time came to leave we unloaded clothes, toys, tools, a little $ to restock the kitchen and promises to return soon. isreal insisted that next time i come, that i MUST bring more than 5 of my wife's home made tamales. as far as surf trips go, it wasn't epic, probably wasn't worth the drive. but based on the people we met and the experiences we had you could sum it up like this: a trip like this makes you feel good to be alive!





[Edited on 12-25-2004 by woody in ob]

[Edited on 1-23-2005 by woody in ob]

[Edited on 1-23-2005 by woody in ob]

Perhaps...

NICE, VERY NICE

Thanks for shareing

enough already

enough already

Oh no... here we go again!

(Feels like DejaVu all over again.)

wait a second...

okay hugger, the names have been changed.

about the 361 views-can't change the past
about the photos-oh well, thank the surf mags for getting me started in the first place.


p.s. can't we all just get along now?

Quote:

Originally posted by grover I'll be expecting mine shortly.

Dear Doug,

In an effort to help those who are acronym impaired as opposed to those who are Spanish language impaired (reference to recent posts impugning some peoples' knowledge)

May I offer a translation of your reponse?

LMFAO