After an exciting run of results with the IWT Big Wave Award and double National Title win in SUP Surf and Longboard Surf, my wife and I got a surprise invitation to Punta De Mita, Mexico, from our good friends and clients whom we coach each year at Maui Sports Adventures Waterman Camps. We decided to share the trip with their family, coaching the kids and running ocean safety. The trip was super unexpected but we jumped on the opportunity and had an amazing week of surfing and celebrating our early 1-year wedding anniversary.
Just before heading home to Maui, a solid south swell popped up on the weather forecast at one of my favorite spots that had great potential for barrel riding and Mexican big wave surfing. So we quickly decided to extend the trip another week and flew to Puerto Escondido, Mexico, otherwise known as “Mexican Pipe”. Mexi Pipe is nicknamed after Hawaii's world famous wave on the north shore,”Pipeline”, and it earns that nickname as a hollow wave that grinds over an underwater sandbar point.
My wife Kim loved the waves around Punta De Mita for her level of surfing and stand up paddling. I had a blast as well, but making it out to Zicatela, Puerto Escondido was definitely a huge hit for me! We stayed at the same hotel property as good friend and fellow APP World Tour competitor, Sebastian Gomez from Peru, and his girlfriend Tatianna. It was a perfect situation as Kim and Tatianna could hang together while Sebas and I were out on the water all day. Or at least that was the plan before Sebastian had an accident while SUP surfing and caught a few stitches under his eye!
There are several good reasons why the Mexi Pipe wave makes me more nervous than Pe’ahi on Maui. The waves at Mexi Pipe can easily reach XXL status and they grind along the shallow sandbar. Often this makes for abrupt contacts with the sea bottom after wipeouts. My body was feeling pretty bruised from slamming into the bottom after our first days out there! Not to mention the wild rip currents and undertow that are constant factors to navigate and overcome during wipeouts and long hold downs. Sometimes the rip is so strong it almost feels like the waves are breaking in one place like a standing wave in a river. This makes it a damn crazy challenge because after a wipe out, the following waves often feel like you are just getting pounded in place.
You can tell who the experienced riders and locals are out there with their ratio of clean rides and how these surfers navigate the lineup and current with ease.
With only about five days planned in Zicatela, I made the most of my time getting familiar with the different peaks and the local lineup surfing etiquette. Respect for the wave and the locals is always important, but especially here. My first day of surfing Zicatela, I warmed up with some repetition on a wave down the beach outside of the main peak. I was definitely surfing hard, and packing close out barrels left and right with a few amazing clean exits. Let me tell you, those clean exits felt so good to escape from! Getting barreled at Puerto Escondido has to be one of the best feelings in the world. There is no shortage of barrels out here. A surfer just has to hunt and work for the exit while keeping in mind the importance of wiping out with technique as you’re destined to catch a dirty lickin’ from this wave!
