Snowing heavily... Baja on my mind

Living 3,500 feet above sea level has its advantages. It comes in the form of copious amounts of snow falling from the frozen heavens. But while I wait for this stuff to cover up last weeks tracks I simply cannot help but drift to thoughts of my most recent surf trip to Baja, Mexico with my wife and daughter. The trip did not feature the greatest waves ever caught but it did allow us to meet some of the nicest and most genuine people we have ever met. So while I sit here in laptop-land watching it switch outside from gently falling flakes to torrential dumpage I will post up some pictures and words to describe a month long adventure down the Baja peninsula in our heavily modified 1990 4wd Toyota 4runner.

Getting out of your northern latitude location is sweetest when you ca n leave before it actually starts snowing for the season. The pro snowbirds know this. And I only discovered it for the first time this year. We left Sandpoint the day b efore the storms rolled in and pounded down over 5 feet of snow throughout a month long period. However, Our trip down to California was weather-less. No problem car-camping in Nor. Cal and nothing but a few raindrops here and there to make the roads slick. Sunshine and dry, warm weather is driving made easy. We made it to Encinitas in 2 days, picked up our new handmade Syzmanski surf boards from Brian and cousin Todd at Fins Unlimited. I ordered a 6'8" squash tail thruster and a 6' 2" single bump quad fish. I also ordered Jyl a birthday board, a 6'4" fish. It is her first board and she was stoked to get it under her arm. My brother Andy also picked up a new handshape from Brian S., a 6'8" thruster with thinner and narrower dimensions than mine. Andy was driving his 1980 VW Camper Van on the trip so we loaded up the two rigs, shopped big at Trader Joe's and h eaded south.

Photo: Andy picks up his custom board & says "Hell yeah!"

Photo: The family quiver

The first night was classic baja style with a late arrival into said country and then a hilarious last minute shopping trip at the Wal-Mart in Ensenada to late night off-road drive into Punta San Jose. Waking there the next morning we found some small surf all to ourselves with the hustle and bustle of the fishing and boat repair going on at the bottom of the steep runway down the cliffs all the while. And we had the well graffiti'd "campg round" outhouse to ourselves.

Photo: Here I sit all...

Photo: Small but glassy J-y-l Sunrise

Photo: Andy new board prep

We were ready to get south and down to the Valle de los Cirios for some remote camping and surfing. Of course everything in Baja takes longer than planned and we ended up staying at Punta Baja that night after some extra-curricular, off-road route finding we decided to do until we ran into the nicest group of Mexican beach goers at the bottom of a coastal canyon. They ended up being workers at the Pemex station in town. We gave them a few cold ones and said thanks for the directions. They must have had a laugh and scratched their head when they saw my brother's 2 wheel drive VW bus down there in the rocks and sand. He definitely rallied that thing. Back up the Baja 300 offroad course we went until finding the now known easy to find Punta Baja...


After a windy night of sea spray and the anticipation of some good surf we awoke to more wind, sea spray and the local dog vying for falling food scraps. After meeting some nice pescadores and other locals we rolled up and back out on the road south. We pr ocured more gas that morning but never enough we later realized. Same thing goes for the cervezas. A few hours later after a couple of wrong turns we were at the spot. A point that sticks way out that pretty much catches whatever swell is out there. And it so happens that same point offers nice wind protection. So we traded cervezas por langostas with the ultra-cool fisherman and their families and surfed our brains out with new found friends Todd and Brian. Pretty much Baja heaven with 3 nice breaks to choose from, endless lobster tail and icy-cold beer to sip in the sun.

Photo: There is always a sign... if you don't look too hard

Photo (below): Andy & Hector haggle












Photo: Andy Lobster Fever

Photo: Volkswagen with a view

All total there were 4 of us surfing there over the next 3 days. My 3 year old dau ghter Hailey got in on the surf action as well riding her new "custom" boogie board and looking
way cool in her new/used B ody Glove wetsuit. She was stoked and didn't scream too badly when I actually pushed her into the little inside waves. She dug all the lobster too. Her mom, Jyl, was on her first ever (as a surfer) surf trip as well. She loved it and got out on her new quad fish every chance she could. She progressed throughout the trip and is now looking forward to more surfing in the northwest and beyond. It was really fun to see a mom and a daughter learning to surf and play in the ocean together. I think it will give us a great family pastime for years to come.

Photo: A stoked 3 yr old




After the surf died down and the wind started to do its thing on we went down into the area known as Valle de los Cirios. Luckily we had scored some extra gas before leaving from Brian and Todd because we were actually only carrying about a gallon and half extra, between the two vehicles... to be continued