I heard Playa Zicatela was one of the better waves in Mexico, so I rented a board. I’d tried wakeboarding before and once borrowed someone’s skateboard, so how hard could surfing be, right? When I got to the surf shop I couldn’t remember if I was left foot forward or right foot forward so some guy at the shop did the test where they push you from behind when you’re not looking and see which foot you use to stop yourself from falling. It didn’t work though, and I sort of ate shit into the display area where they keep the Havaianas and when I got up some little kid in the back of the shop was laughing his ass off.
Either way, they got me a board. The wanted to give me some 6-foot something fish design but I insisted on getting one of the shorter, smaller boards I had seen most of the guys at the beach using. I’m a man of the people; I didn’t want to be given any unfair advantage or disadvantage due to the board I was using.
When I got the beach I noticed a photographer with a tripod and a fancy lens standing in the water taking pictures of some of the surfers. I approached him and asked him what he was up to and he said he was a photographer for Quiksilver. I asked him if he had any stickers I could put on my board because I noticed most of the surfers had stickers on their boards and mine didn’t have any. Once again, I didn’t want to stand out and have the other surfers treating me any differently just because I didn’t look like the rest of them, but the guy didn’t have any stickers so I just made sure he noted what color boardshorts I was wearing so he could take pictures of me.
People had told me at the shop that the waves at Zicatela were pretty powerful, but from the shore they didn’t look all that crazy. Actually, it looked fun to be lifted up by the waves and I noticed how most people dove under the waves after they had broken to get past them. Some of the people even caught waves that curled over them, forming sort of a tube. Those were the waves I wanted.
It turned out getting out to where all the big waves were breaking was harder than I thought. The waves kept crashing on me and I kept getting separated from my board and dragged in by it. Once, just when I thought I was out far enough a huge wave came that had a surfer on it. He had to swerve and making a really hard turn to avoid hitting me and then the wave pinned me against the bottom for several seconds and shoved sand and saltwater into my mouth. When the kid was paddling out past me I heard him yell “Pendejo,” which is a word I’d never heard before but must be some sort of slang for “Amigo.”
After about 10 minutes of trying to get to the good waves I had to stop and just try to catch the smaller waves that had already broken. It turned out that the board they had given me wasn’t nearly as stable as I thought it would be and it was really hard to stand up. I think next time I need to go to a surf shop where the staff is a little more knowledgeable.
All in all it was a good experience, and at least now I can tell people I’m a surfer.
Photos of some of the other surfers:
The Puerto Escondido harbor.
This entry was written by , posted on May 27, 2009 at 5:33 pm, filed under Travels and tagged beginner waves, floater, glassy, offshore, puerto escondido, tippy toes, zicatela. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
This entry was written by , posted on at 5:00 pm, filed under Uncategorized and tagged barcelona, gnar boots, mayflower puerto, puerto escondido, zicatela. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Apparently there was a 5.9 earthquake today in Mexico City and I didn’t feel it. According to the wonderful and also very knowledgable Sarah Tompkins, people were “panicking in the streets” and electricity went out in many parts of the city. I believe this happened about the same time I was in the men’s bathroom of the UNAM faculty of medicine undergoing the sort of stomach trauma that’s to be excpected after a few days eating nothing but quesadillas and passing around bottles of Corona Familiar.
Another thing you should know is that I’m going to Puerto Escondido. This is significant, due to the fact that Puerto Escondido is one of my favorite places in the world. For my money, beach towns don’t get much better. I will be staying at the Hotel Rincón del Pacifico and spending much of the time at Playa Carrizalillo trying my hand at the small left pointbreak for which the beach, apart from its stunning beauty, seclusion, sparkling water, and hundreds of steps leading down to it, is known.
The shitty thing about getting to Puerto Escondido is that the bus ride takes 17 hours. 17 hours is a long time to spend on a bus. Luckily after the 30-hour hellride I once did from Ariza, Northern Chile to Valaparaiso I think I’ll be able to handle it. I won’t be hungover since I’ve now decided that alcohol is the devil, I’ll have plenty to read, and I’ll have my cell phone so I can annoy Barry with text messages.
That’s right, I have a cell phone! A Mexican cell phone. It’s fucking awesome. I’d give you the number but I don’t know it. Actually that’s not true. It’s 552 655 7324. Hit me up.
This entry was written by , posted on May 22, 2009 at 7:10 pm, filed under Uncategorized and tagged a huevo, carrizalillo, chido, chingon, corrizalillo, hotel rincon del pacifico, puerto escondido, surfing. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.