E's Surf Report

e, are hans blix and the inspectors back on the scene? sux that your amp is still in the shop. WTF?

glad you got some. i woke up around the same time. no wind. no rain. mad i didn't go.

Just read web's interview. That guy laid it down! Mucho respect. I would shit my pants trying to sail anywhere. Good take on the localism/respect for the ocean too.

I bet the longer you looked the less inspired you would be to paddle out. But isn't that always how it is. On the Dawn Dogwalk, I came to that conclusion.

Air Joust - Put those two boys on the back of an Ostrich and have 'em take on the "invincible?" Dragon.

sick shots ian.

ian - do you have any plans for a website to chronicle your trip? It would be fun to set up something on niceness where you could keep us in the loop as you travel around the world. Maybe a clickable map with updates? let me knowif that sounds cool to you.

lerm.. i didn't surf either.

friend #1 - thanks. that makes me feel better about missing out. Not to mention the pollution.

sick Kalani shot ..that local really tore it up at the Pipe contest.

e,
i've got some details about cabo.
the gist is that if you want to score SE tropical swell energy, pass on the drive up the pacific side is the call, headstraight down to the tip, surf gulf and pacific. if you have got the time the long way can be rewarding.

i just lucked into a week in mid april in cabo. got my plane tix last night. so stoked, warm water.

i'll email some details offline.

awesome..im going to cabo for my friends bachelor thing end of april..anyone got any rec's for good air fare?

ive heard the drive is awesome but the guy i know spent a month doing it..

I've had Baja on my mind for a while now. I'm gonna try to take a (first-time) trip at least part-way down this spring/summer. Getting my Cherokee ready as I write as the overall maintenance check and repair process plays out over the next couple months. Should I rent a pit bull for the trip?

went to cabo last year around same time all ya'lls are going. great trip, nice and mellow and good waves. Alaska is the way to fly, non-stop to Cabo and they have their own terminal so they make it easy to go through customs and stuff. only advice if you are gonna do the south tip drive, rent an independent front suspension rig with 4wd. roads are bumpy as all hell and if you have IFS you can just rage over it, faster the better. otherwise your teeth will fall out in one of those wranglers with solid front axle.

seiously Dennis - build a strong box welded or carriage bolted to the chassis of that Cherokee.
its almost guaranteed that a rip off attempt will occur while you are in the water.

otf - So I've heard. I've also heard the thieves are very fast and mostly fearless. Maybe two pit bulls.

Just like surfing....without that pesky ocean to deal with.

http://www.craigslist.org/pen/mcy/59634525.html

CABO:
Check Sun Trips, they fly out of Oaktown, went in Oct. and they didn't charge us for the boards either way. Cabo wasnt' firing when we were there but head high plus on the pacific side for a week,and the warm h2o. Have fun!!

That third pic down is intimidating to look at. Does that guy make it--or did he hafta bail? I've seen guys in SC make unbelievable sections, so I guess it's possible, but it looks as though that wave has its own notions.

Breaking News: Right outside my office window there is a four car accident including the uprooting of a streetlight pole. That was a nice Benz... Back to our regular programming.

first shot ian posted is looking tasty right about now

i second dennis's comment....every person
i have known to travel into baja with a dog
(lab, rott—something with some size and
volume) has had little problems. sans dog
a different story.

dogs also love roadtrips....

right lyle?

When in baja, it is imperative that you never rage over anything, especially the roads. Even a crappy car will make everything fine, despacio por favor. As long as you are never in a hurry, you'll avoid most major hassles. The drive from Cabo to the border takes about two days. Or, it can take two weeks or a month or longer.

Don't forget to tip the nun and buy some chicles!

Read TSJ article / interview about Buzzy Trent last night. I think he and Ricky Grigg literally had a conversation with a tape-recorder taping them - probably a mistake. Maybe its a generational thing, but he comes off as ignorant and a biggot. He may have just been messing around with his buddy Ricky, but a bunch of lame comments showed up on tape which made it into TSJ. Its too bad - he's had some great life experiences and there's some cool stories in this piece, but my takeaway from the article is that he's a biggot.

My dog LOVED baja, no one got within ten yards of the campsite without him going off. As a reward, we fed him blackened halibut every night and scorpions (apparently, dogs can eat scorpions).

I soaked up some of the sludge for y'all. Inner-bar glassy hollow strangeness---stay on the board, and something fun just might happen.

Now commence symptom-watch. Fatigue, spaciness, burning eyes? Yep, all systems normal.

B-Stah - HOW MUCH FOR YOUR DOG?

Dennis & OTF-

Waaaay overblowing the theft problem in Baja. I've been going at least twice a year for years and have heard of very little theft happening, dog or no dog. Baja is the country-side, very mellow and friendly and minimal theft (TJ area aside). The only time I"ve ever heard of things disappearing is when people leave a trailer somewhere for like 5 months. But during a session, almost never happens. And if you're hitting surf breaks you'll probably be in little surf camps that are filled with paranoid gringos so no one will even come close to harassing you.

It always cracks me up seeing some pissed off gringo at a Pemex station, thinking everyone is trying to rob him, rushing through the fill-up process, treating everyone like thieves, and peeling out when they're done. Yet another form of ugly Americanism, but then again it's a right of passage for Mexico travel, everyone has to be paranoid for their first trip. But keep an open mind.

Feel free to email for some tips, wrybread @$#@@!! wrybread.com.

Thanks wrybread. Appreciate the comfort and suggestions. I'm very interested in getting the lodown. B-Stah. Sorry, I'm not in the market for your dog anymore.

I'll sell my surfboards before my dog. If you want a dog for baja, you need to carry proof of shots with you to show the federales (or bribe them with a playboy/penthouse). Most dogs are pretty protective of their digs - I think they're most valuable at keeping yourr stuff safe while you sleep - not while you surf. If you go in the water, a lockbox for valuables would be a great idea. We always had 4-5 of us and if we were all surfing we'd lock all the cars and let Cody roam free to beg for food.

Despacio cuando manejes.

No tire basura.

Vado.

music review: saw dark star last night... totally sick. show was 4-3-93 but they raged it... 2nd set: scarlet -> fire, woman smarter, lady with a fan -> terrapin, corrina -> drums -> space, last time, around&around. E: black peter, brokedown palace, NFA.

i was born too late for the real deal... last night's show was a great cover with bright smiling crowd.

music -> energy -> wave -> dance.

I agree with Wrybread, knocking on wood right now, but in 5 or so trips over the last few years, driving from LA to as far as the Wall, both camping and staying in hostels & cheap motels, no robberies. Only one semi incident in Ensenada but my friend and I were doing something that in hindsight was really stupid.

I've been to cabo too, but not the stretch between todos santos and the wall. E, I hope you do the drive rather than just lounging around in cabo and the east cape, can't wait to read your trip report. explore!!

Spent a month driving down in 1980 in May/June. Even with that amount of time, we felt pinched on the return trip. The days flow pretty quickly.

If you're into warm water, fly and explore down there. If you're willing to continue with cold water, hanging North of Punta Baja is a fun two-week trip. There's all sorts of spots to hit between there and Santo Tomas. There are some remote beach breaks that do well with Spring lines, although winds could be a factor.

Also consider rainy season. I've been in Puerto Vallarta when the first rains hit. Estuaries opened up (ick,) but provided for nice early season bars... it happened quickly! First rains also bring out the land crab migration. Very entertaining.

yea, do what blakestah says, he knows everything.

thanks for the baja tips!!!

we were not really thinking of hanging in the cabo area. We were thinking of spending a day or two around the town of todos santos.. then driving up to the Abreojos (sp?) or scorpion bay areas for a week. Then... we can't decide between driving all the way up to San Diego/san francisco/TJ (depending on the rental car situation) or just cruising back down to Cabo. My friend is getting married in Cabo so that's the impetus for the trip..

Sooo.. will we be better served by just exploring around the middle/pacific coast of baja (abreojos/scorpion bay) or should we suck it up and drive all the way up??

anyone ever rent a car in cabo and return it in TJ or san diego or san Fran? possible?

baja!

Regarding Buzz's racist comments in TSJ --- sad to read most definitely. I am surprised he still thinks this way after spending much of his life as a pale visitor amongst dark skinned Hawaiians in their native land.

Read the post-script on the last page -- Pezman acknowledges the literal transcription of this conversation amongst old farts, which put it into perspective for me.

i got some really good waves around todos santos e. there's a sick right point setup with a good beachbreak right next to it somewhere around there.

i was grooving on the latest TSJ until i read the buzz (kill) piece. even after seeing the postscript, i think it was a bad editorial call. knowing the context really doesn't make it any less offensive. pezman should know better.

Buzzy is an opiniated old codger of germanic descent... I accepted the comments for what they were given that perspective and enjoyed the article/interview.
Was just in baja del norte around new years - fun waves, glad i brought a wet suit though, also don't forget booties for protection from the rocks reef urchins etc.

baja del norte barrel

I can't read but I did look at the pictures. The new TSJ looked pretty sweet. Even the Buzzy (nice name!) stuff.

Lance's looked pretty sick! Can't wait to learn to read though and then I would finally know the real deal......

Yeah...3to5...bad editorial call all the way around. Anybody read the Nat Young intro on the Oxbow? Sounds like a pretty cool format...although Nat's self-promotion is a bit tiresome.
_____________________________________________
Body found off Santa Cruz coast; foul play suspected
Bay City News

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

A badly decomposed body was discovered in the surf just off the Santa Cruz coast Tuesday.

Lifeguards were called at 2:34 p.m. by a passerby who spotted a body being tossed around in choppy water below the cliffs in the area of Auburn Avenue and West Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz police Lt. Rick Martinez said on Wednesday.

Members of the Santa Cruz marine rescue team pulled the body in to shore, where an initial examination by police and the county medical examiner revealed that foul play was likely involved in the death, according to Martinez.

Martinez said items found on the remains and the condition of the body suggests that the death was not accidental.

The body, a male's, may have been in the water as many as three days.

An autopsy is under way and authorities have not released any information pertaining to the victim's identity.

Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact police at (831) 420-5820 or anonymously at (831) 420-5995.

be VERY careful with "churros" with dog paws in Baja. Little balls of spines. They drop of a certain kind of cactus. If your dog steps on one, it might mean a trip asap back to the states. They are really nasty. I know it sucks, but one might consider keeping your dog on a leash.

I love that second shot that Ian posted. The board looks like a little missle rocketing off into space (got the plume of spray and everything)

"Buzzy is an opiniated old codger of germanic descent... I accepted the comments for what they were . . . ."

Ditto.

Low tide weirdness in the middle for Lunch (1hour). 6 rides: three steep drops to bottom turn to end of ride; three steep drops to bottom turn to cutback and then ride a wave with no whitewater into the inside shorepound almost.

Hard to be in the spot and mostly there is not much in that spot when you are.

I'm behind on my TSJ subscription, sounds like next issue is interesting eh?

Ah Spring, when a Beach Surfer starts to think about travel...

Blakestah's on it!

Definitely give to the nuns/nurses and get the little white stickers for the windshield. I use to spend many 4-day weekends a couple hours south of Ensenada and only had some minor, negative encounters with your, usually drunk federales.

We would have our supply of CDs and magazines to offer them and beer. However, if they were "working" -looking for drug dealers and funny enough, artichoke thieves- we wouldn't give them any beer and tell them to come back when they were off. Most of the time they didn't, unless they spoke a little english.

I 2nd the notion on booties in urchin-laden areas in Mexico. I was unlucky enough to get a foot-full of black spines: Big toe, ball of toe, mid-foot. Took 2 months for the last one to work itself out. Didn't stop me from dancin' though. I'd also recommend a well-stocked first aid kit, including some Benadryl in case someone gets tangled up with a nasty jellyfish.

sorry for posting so many, but i like to share. =)

Yeah the Federales in Baja are a hoot. My policy is generally to only take the sorts of things the federales are looking for south, and, if possible, give them away or hide them really well before going north. In general the checkpoints going south are just formalities, and they mostly just stop gringos because they're curious and want to talk to them, and they always want to tell them in really crude terms how beautiful the women are where they're from, which is always southern mexico.

At first when they'd ask if we're drinking beer we'd always say "oh no, we'd never do that" kind of bullshit, but then we realized they just want one. So the best way to get through quickly is to keep a cooler visible, and when they ask about it, hand over a couple of beers, and you're done with it. Not that it's necessary, they'll let you through anyway, and I've never ever been searched thoroughly, but hell they're sitting at the side of the road for months in the hot sun, why not give them a couple of icy beers.

The only time I was ever scared at a checkpoint was driving from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondito, crazy road at night (everyone says don't drive at night, it's mostly bullshit), we came to a checkpoint in the middle of nowhere. The scary thing was it was just two kids, guns bigger than them. I figure it's hard for a big group to collectively decide to rob someone, but two people is another story. And they were really jumpy, searched the van oddly thoroughly (a full minute instead of 15 seconds), and never put their guns down. The only time since my first time in Mexico that I was scared at a checkpoint. It turns out there's two roads going to Puerto Escondito, and on the other road earlier that night a tourist bus had been held up and robbed so they were on Mexican orange alert. That's really rare, but again that's southern Mexcio, which is a bit of a different story.

I have GPS coordinates for all the federale checkpoints in Baja, if anyone wants them let me know. They're always in the same places, though sometimes they're there, sometimes not. Kind of nice to be able to prepare for the checkpoint though, instead of coming around a bend and saying oh shit.

Army checkpoints in Baja:

I figure someone would want them, so here goes. They won't necessarily be at one of these places, but they won't be anyplace else, if that makes sense. I'm a bit worried that my GPS didn't export all the waypoints, since I thought there were more, but I'm pretty sure this is all of them. I don't both to note them in that first 40 miles since there's so many of them:

27.29077434, -112.92537727, ARMY
28.50764504, -114.02309794, ARMY
26.19147170, -111.43900898, ARMY
30.09859993, -115.73928021, ARMY
31.65805652, -116.51789142, ARMY
31.90265876, -116.71669037, ARMY
31.27962182, -116.19670889, ARMY

Crap, those don't go far enough south, so it must not have exported all of them. Looks like that's only Northern Baja as far south as Loreto. I'll dump the southern ones next time I'm in my van.

Sorry for the flurry of posts, but this should be complete.

Army checkpoints in Baja:

27.29077434, -112.92537727, ARMY
28.50764504, -114.02309794, ARMY
26.19147170, -111.43900898, ARMY
30.09859993, -115.73928021, ARMY
31.65805652, -116.51789142, ARMY
31.90265876, -116.71669037, ARMY
31.27962182, -116.19670889, ARMY
26.45861515, -111.64993993, ARMY
24.11513183, -110.48319485, ARMY
32.28241354, -117.03104978, ARMY

aggro for the arvo

wrybread, you da man!

seth - thanks for posting those photos. I like the first batch and the beach-cutie is nice too.

By the way, anyone considering getting a GPS, you should check out the Rinos, I totally covet one. It's a GPS and FRS (aka Talkabout) radio in one, and the cool thing is when someone else keys in on one, their position gets plotted on the map. So cool.

Technically Talkabouts are illegal in Mexico since the Army uses them, but I've found that it's a non issue. I didn't even learn that it's illegal until like last year, and I wouldn't be surprised if I was talking on a Talkabout at a checkpoint before learning that.

http://www.garmin.com/products/rino120/

I'm not sure if there are Baja maps available. Would be amazing if you could get the AAA map of Baja (which is considered the best, as far as I know) in there.

I'm bumming i can't go to baja this weekend. Perhaps make it up to the Wood though- new foot of freshies, ahhh!

Thou shall not covet.

Across from Hazard's apt. this morning was exceptionally fun. Reeflike waves would shift sideways as the approach and leap to beautifully smooth head-high peaks in the same spot over and over and over and... Becuase the were very quiet lulls between sets when the waves came they made an unusally loud crack as the peak slapped down. They would back of in the middle and the jack up on the inside for some very zippy rides.

Big channels, dry hair, all alone...so it goes.

That last pic is sweet! Northern California....Damn.

I can't decide, #12 or #13. A little help please:

12
its good now i bet you..lunch was so so but i still have sand in my hair..

13

12

25!

12 + 13

trying to find a song that was on that Lost Across America video..this death metal type song where this dudes basically grunting and its fast and has some sudden stops..can anyone help me out? wonderign how to get a list of the songs or something..

i'm with korewin on the #25 thing.

bagel, weren't all the songs on lost across america like that, LOL!

Late post, but whoever reads, cool. I'll be in the water probably around Sloat tomorrow morning maybe around 9-1 or so, shooting pics in the water. I'M AN AMATEUR, chances are the shots will NOT turn out. So if you see me holding an orange camera, come say hello, and please let me hold onto your board for a while so I don't drift to sea :) If you wanna meet in the morning or whatever, iane at sfsu . edu

so that's why almost nobody was out. didn't want to check the postings, and figured there might be a gap. Stayed north end and gotta say no poo/chlorine aroma detectable, not even from the atomizing foam. San Francisco is such a sewer. But the waves, heh-heh. got a little green roomin', and I ain't complaining. Man those inner bars are shallow, through. most times I've thumped bottom in many a sesh.

Ian- your photos rock. Checked the site this morning between meetings (day job) and was totally stoked. Really good stuff. Ready to put my camera back in the closet. Lane this weekend?

Oh yes, Kasier is a pig.

nice checkpoint list wry. dropping that in the gps...

ya the road from oaxaca out is sketch.

Bruce, those are photos I stole off of santacruzlineup.com, definately not my shots! Haha, that'd be nice if they were mine though. Now I know what it feels like to have someone proud of your work ;)

Where did you get the picks from Surfing in Norway. Interested in any info.

Keep up this great work