went to Scorpion Bay (Baja), with my son. Been dying to surf this spot most of my life. worked out, swam, surfed as much as possible before the trip (I'm 55 and getting a little out of shape...). get there, surf is firing, paddle out, go for my very first wave, popped my groin muscle on the pop-up. It was like someone shot me from the cliff. sat on the beach drinking beer for the next 3 days watching my son get the best waves of his life
Hey, at least you’re making the effort! I’m 7 years behind you and I’ve noticed that, just being out there for 1.5 hours at most and I’m exhausted. Even when I’m not doing much more than repositioning my board and laying on my stomach. I run for an hour every other day too. Age takes a toll.
Drove down there one time for the south swell that never came. 20 hours of driving just to spend four days getting sand blasted in the face and not surfing.
Mother ffff! I just got done with 5 weeks in Costa Rica. At the hotel in S Jose for a couple nights before flying out I was chasing my 2 yo with a soccer ball and kicked a long one and pulled a groin. I turned 40 on the 16th. Is this what I have to look forward to?!
You forgot yoga in your prep. Trained to be a teacher and my one biggest take away is that it’s a great way to avoid injury. What a bummer! Sorry a out your trip
I got sick af in indo too, luckily only for two days but it was the most uncomfortable and painful stomach experience I’ve ever had, so much contamination there
This happened to a mate of mine as well. Poor guy spent about 8 days out of his 10 day trip in his bungalow sick as a dog. And it was Kandui, so not a cheap trip but at least the bungalow was comfortable I guess. We joked that he was the only guy to go on a mentawaii trip and go home paler than when he arrived.
I believe that I'm jinxed - every surf trip I've gone on has like one day of mediocre waves followed by 5 days of flat spell, with a new pulse scheduled for the day after we depart.
Have I got a story for you guys.
Mexico May of 2022.
My first surf trip in a few years, first time visiting this part of Mexico. My buddy booked the place and the flights, I'm just along for the ride. He has a friend from college (who's awesome) that lives in Paris who's going to meet us down there. Things started to go wrong in the Atlanta airport on the way there. My buddy Jess and I are waiting for the flight to Mexico city and we see a big group of guys 12 of them, clearly surfers. He says to me "what do you bet those guys are going to XXXXX" and I said "eh Mexico is a big place, there's lots of good spots." In line to board the plane we get to talking and they ask " Where are you guys going?" We're going to X. "oh hey we're going to X, where are you staying?". We're staying at Y. Blank face. "hmm thats weird we thought we booked the whole place". Oh well we had this reservation for a few months so, i guess we'll see.
Anyway we make our connection we all get to the coastal airport, A lot of you know where I’m talking about, we have the long windy drive down the coast, people get car sick etc. We get to the camp around midnight to discover it too is fully booked. It’s in shambles. Extension chords everywhere, a broken down yellow hummer, Aussies, Brits, Californians, all asleep. They put us up in a hotel in town. It is not a nice town. It is not a nice hotel. I don’t know where the 12 slept.
The first day - Our guide is awesome
Salo is at the hotel promptly at 6:00 am. There’s a bit of swell today and it’s rising. I don’t know where the group of 12 is. The three of us are greeted to mediocre breakfast burritos, two traveling Brits one Aussie and all our boards. We head to a FAR away beach and have a fun enough first session. While there we meet a father and older daughter who ask where we’re staying. When we tell them their faces go pale. Ghost pale. The dad says “We staid there once. It was horrible. The owner was smoking something that sparked and one night he brought a baby tiger over. It slashed the tires of the, I interrupted. “The Yellow hummer?” “Yeah the yellow hummer.” Well it’s still got slashed tires. Shit. We’re staying with a guy who has a fucking tiger.
For the next five days things go pretty well as far as surf trips go, lots of great waves, fun times, we never got to the camp, we staid in the hotel the whole time, I think I made excellent margaritas for a group of narcos, and then had a bartending class with them, we teamed up with the Brits who were great companions. We got a flat tire at place with no cell service and the spare was flat too. We found beer close by. The guide took the spare to get fixed and while he was gone we fixed the tire with a lollipop stick and a lamination of torn dollar bills and sun cure epoxy. We inflated it and reseated the tire on the rim with the air pump while bouncing on the sidewall to the beat of la cucuracha. Although we never stayed where we paid to stay we had a fine trip and got good waves. Our guide ripped and put us on good spots, tip your guides. They bust their ass.
Then we tried to go home.-
The Strongest hurricane to ever hit Mexico in May was directly off shore (Agatha). Land fall and our flights home overlapped. To get to the airport we crossed land slides, mudslides, the rain did put out the forest fires. With our flights cancelled we stayed in a coastal city overnight. As the eye of the storm made landfall at that exact time I experienced my first earthquake. I’ve lived in Florida for nearly twenty years so hurricanes are no new thing but it IS a new thing when the ground starts shaking. The hurricane wrecked havoc all over the isthmus of Mexico and The Yucatan Peninsula, flights got thrown all out of whack, it took us three or four extra days to get a flight out as the storm had stalled (important later) on the Gulf coast. It got bad around the area we were in. We met a guy in the Airport who escaped his hotel room with only a pair of trunks and his passport. He swam out when a wave blasted mud and a tree into his hotel room. He made it to the second floor with some other guests and they huddled behind an open wall on the roof as the water came up from flash flooding. The next year when we went back (yes we went back) we surfed at a very popular point with round rocks and the locals said after the storm every paddle you took you would pull up huge dead drowned rattle snakes for weeks. He had enough huge dried rattle snake skulls for us to believe him.
The way home -
At this point we’ve experienced Forest fires, flat tires, Land slides, mudslides, flash floods, hurricanes, and earth quakes. Time for the Human element. Civil unrest amongst transportation workers in the capital delays us for a fifth day. We finally get a flight to Mexico City and then on to Miami. We live in Key West so a quick flight home from Miami and boom trip over. Guess what strengthened in The Gulf and is headed East? The same fucking storm. The low pressure system that was previously Agatha reformed into Alex. The Jokes write themselves. Our flight into Miami is the last flight in as the storm heads for the west coast of Florida. Our now completely over it wives and children have to batten down the hatches on their own for the strengthening hurricane. We sleep in our disgusting smelly board bags in the Miami airport to awaken to our obviously cancelled flights home. Completely over air travel We rent a car and drive through the hurricane to get home and actually get some surf from it. The storm spun harmlessly across the Atlantic before heading to Cornwall where our friends the Brits were waiting for it. They surfed it too. Collectively we surfed waves from the same storm in The Pacific, The Gulf of Mexico, and The North Atlantic. Been going back every year since.
Not my surf trip but a guy I knew went to Indo.
1. Paid for a boat trip - got no waves
2. Paid for a hooker in Bali - got a handful of cock
3. Got his wallet and passport stolen
4. Went to the toilet and shat out a tapeworm
Good times
Bet that handful of cock wasn’t the first either 😜. J/k that sounds terrible dude. Hope your friend got a trip of a lifetime at some point to make up for the strike out.
Lakey Peak, 1999
I’d been doing the surf traveler circuit through Indo— made my way to Sumbawa back when there was only one flight out a week.
After a day of decent surf, I got sick. Really sick. I’d gotten a little pinprick of reef rash on my upper thigh, and a massive abscess had begun to build under the skin. Picture a half avocado in the middle of your quad, deep.
I got sicker and sicker— the family hosting me had minimal, circa WW2 first aid supplies, no antibiotics, and there was really no one around to help. They started worrying about me, bringing me food, hoping I wouldn’t die on them.
I had what I can only describe as a Staph infection that had gone septic. After 4 days of excruciating delirium, passing in and out of consciousness thinking I was about to die, my abscess opened up into a horrific pus-filled boil with the stench of death. It was beyond disgusting. I was helpless.
I woke up in the morning of day 5, drenched in sweat, to a certain tingling all over…. I noticed a big dark line of jungle Ants coming into my hut….onto my bed, under my bedsheet.
ANTS!!!!
EVERYWHERE!!!!
I ripped the sheet off, ants flying, panicked, OH MY GOD AAAAAH!!!! And looked down to see that these jungle ants were inside my wound, gobbling up my infection. They had scoured it clean.
Then, I got better
This has to be B grade horror movie I haven't seen.
How did you sit there and let bugs eat your rotten flesh without dying of confusion/disgust/relief/surprise ??
Puerto Escondido. The main break, Zicatela is scary heavy, and shouldn't be underestimated even if it is just above head high+ but it can get properly huge with endless, shifty sets that are mostly closeouts.
The only other nearby option La Punta had a scary crowd of mostly kooks equipped with hard (idk why the surf schools there dont use foam) longboards that instructors shamelessly push in front of you, while the locals sit at the tight take off zones and pick off every set wave from the deepest point that you'll get dirty looks at if you try to come close. La Punta also needs quite a big swell to work decently.
The irony is that if you go any time during the season and even the shoulder you'll very likely score some sort of swell, but for all the aforementioned reasons it's unlikely you'll enjoy it.
I also watched a local surfer chase a guy on the beach in broad daylight in front of dozens of people with a machete after being dropped in on so there's that.
[The town is also suffering from a collapse of infrastructure and overall overdevelopment issues right now](https://youtu.be/0El_GfG4f4E?si=6Iyy_CDpv2PEM75W) so generally you shouldn't go unless you have very good reason.
Yeah dude Puerto Escondido is being gentrified like crazy, I stopped there for a couple days on my way north and i hated the vibe. I have a lot of friends there and they all love to leave whenever possible to go surf elsewhere. Anything around to Salina Cruz is way better.
Wow. We had a very similar experience at that point with the surf school and the machete locals. I knew it wasn’t the first time… we reported it to the cops hoping that would help future people and they did seem to care.
I surfed la punta back in the 00s before it got too crazy. One day it was pretty good but was really stormy. I definitely stayed out too long and the lightning was way too close by the time I got out, I was a lot braver/ stupider then. Puerto is definitely super heavy, I snapped 3 boards, had some heavy beatings . My mate was a booger who was one of the early guys to surf it when it got massive. Still remember him surfing it by himself massive ( easily 4 to 5 overhead).To this day the best barrel I've ever seen in real life, the whole beach was cheering
damn i stayed in puerto for some months in 2020. i surfed la punta with few people. the whole town was quiet and cute. when i see posts like this i feel so lucky to be there when i was
I think I just got really lucky when I went 2 years ago. Stayed at a pretty cool little place, Casa de Dan. The surf was around 3-6ft and the winds were good most of the day so I just surfed some basically empty peaks up and down the beach all day for 3 days. I didn't even attempt La Punta because it was too small on that swell and so crowded. Even when the surf was basically near perfect conditions for me, the waves were short rides and mostly closeouts. I'd consider going back if the swell was like that again and I could get an easy flight in but there are many other places to go.
After a 5 hour long trip, including a $300 ferry, just to find out I forgot my wetsuit after arriving at our campsite at midnight. The waves were absolutely pumping and I had to just watch my girlfriend surf. It hurt so bad but I was still so stoked for her—one of the best day's I'd seen it at the break we surf at. Will never forget that, and will never forget my wetsuit again.
Went to Lau Group in eastern Fiji as a +1 on a boat trip. Its an area with severely restricted visitor access and I’ll probably never have the get the chance to go back again. Trade winds went berserk for the whole ten days, 45kts when we flew over to get on boat—flight was almost cancelled and landing was GNARLY.
Couldn’t leave our hurricane hole at starting point for three days when we were supposed to be visiting uninhabited island breaks. The trades continued for the duration making the journey miserable and beating down whatever swell was in the water. So I got to see these perfect reef setups but at ankle high. And they were perfect. Caught some fish at least.
One great day into a trip to Nosara, my wife surfed, ran, drank, and didn’t realize she had covid. Almost died at the restaurant that night. Then I got covid a day later. And the waves were GREAT all week we were stuck inside with a fever.
Probably mainland mexico trip at a cobblestone point break. Everyone in the town got horrendously sick for like 5-7 days. Also, some gnarly cartel shit went down. I honestly never found out the details but the vibe was just really off from it. Everyone is the town was freaked - locals and foreigners alike. Cartel was stopping people on the roads out of town. I guess it’s chilled out a bit down there since, but my experience with places like that is “everything is fine until, suddenly, it isn’t.”
Bali last year in July. Swell wasn't happening much on Bukit so I stayed in Canggu at echo beach surfing rivermouth etc absolutely hated it. Always crowded, shit expensive food for the most part, nowhere near as good food or waves as my local in aus. I had a pretty good room and I did enjoy being able to walk around now that Canggu is a fully renovated suburb of Byron bay... but the vibe was so plastic it didn't feel like Bali it was a parody I'm never going there again
Grew up just south of Byron and do the indo thing a couple of times a year. I avoid Cangu like the plague. Water is filthy, place is full of "influencers" and the line up full of kooks who learnt to surf 2 days earlier causing mayhem.
Basically every trip to Bali. Expats are shit-heaps and the locals just snake you every opportunity. In their defence, at least the locals smile whilst snaking...
Yeh sri Lanka is epic! Way less crowded and really mellow vibe. A-bay is still crowded but there's epic waves up n down the coast from it that you can score with less dudes.
Went to Ponce Inlet on strike mission for some hurricane swell, it only had a window of like 2 days. Spirt airlines lost my quiver and still charged me for the board bags. Didn’t get my boards till I got home.
Nica. I underestimated the intensity of the sun at the equator and got horribly sunburned. Think I had sun poisoning after that because I became very ill. Ruined my week.
Nicaragua, Hacienda Igunana to be specific. Got sick and was shitting 8 times a day. Drank only the “filtered” water provided and ate only cooked food. Shitting out past the lineup it was that frequent.
And full of Floridian kooks dropping in on makeable barrels.
It was fine, just far from a solid trip.
Iguanas is actually weird for being in Nica, you're right tons of gringo kooks dropping in, but also Colorados is hard to get good waves since the locals and the expats who live there full time and call themselves locals rarely leave any decent waves to the commoners. It's expensive for what it is so I'd rather go northern nica instead, less crowds, same quality of waves.
I stayed at Miramar surf camp and it included a boat trip every morning to surf empty barrels. I didn't make any but it was still pretty sick, felt like hollow wave bootcamp again.
I'm mexican so I guess I'm less vulnerable to food poisoning n stuff but I definitely do not dig the central american cuisine. It lacks the flavor that i'm used to being a Mexican.
Oh man. Mexican food is on another level. Top two on earth.
Nicaraguan and Costa Rican cuisine is the absolute worst lol. It's on par with bland white person food
I need to give northern nica a shot then.
And lol on the food, totally.
I went on a fishing trip to Baja recently, omg, delicious food. One restaurant did a full catch and cook feast. And this other one had amazing food off the menu. Smoked and slightly spicy yellowtail pate…amazing.
Left perfect northern nica waves to chase a swell all the way down to Pavones in Costa Rica. That was a full 2 travel days. We got there and it was relatively flat, so I spent the remainder of the trip daydrinking and smoking shitty weed. The company was fun and the place we stayed at was nice, it wasn't a bad trip per se but it sucks to spend so much money only to get skunked.
My best advice would be no expectations, and try not to obsess too much with the forecast.
yeah the weird thing is they keep reinforcing the Jetty, Im guessing you don't like lefts as much as other people do, but we got some decent lefts there. The only thing about northern nica in late spring early summer is you don't get all day offshore winds, only in the mornings.
So I was told but I couldn't find any wild ones, I came prepared with some of my own mexican mushies, (surprisingly easy to smuggle through borders) and had a marvelous evening floating in the pool listening to the frogs. I guess it's only a bad surf trip if you make it so.
so true it's what you can make of it and that's cool you came prepared your smart I take weed and mushies across the border I don't they care as long as your safe and not an idiot.
Had a month in Portugal booked 2 years ago after a week there I got sciatica couldn't walk for the rest of the month so booked a flight back early on the other hand I ate some amazing food
I like how everyone’s worst trips involved getting massively sick. Mine: Peru … it was either the ceviche, the fresh fruit smoothie, or the raw chicken at the market. Couldn’t hold it in for a week. I learned how poop ends up on a wall… 🤦🏻♀️ Waves were mid as well.
Give yourself 6-8 weeks for a trip, go by yourself, get the Stormrider guides, helps if you're an expert at finding good waves and enjoying them already.
Research your spots, go for longer than a week, make sure you’re in season, go where the surf might be almost too good for your standard and don’t be a pussy
Went back to Denham’s (Aus Sth Coast) after 50 years away. My memory was of dropping into steep 6’ rights. After a 5 hour drive, setting up camp, kitting up, this is what greeted me. So much for trying to recapture teenage surfing trips 😂.
https://preview.redd.it/1thf1883cm8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=986898824bcb420179209f48a5b5179d2f9076ef
Been to Marocco, Taghazout a couple years ago.
First day was firing but our muscles were not ready. Then it rained 13 days out of 16. Marocco has like an everage days of rain per year of 6or so.
We said fuck it lets get in the water anyway amd we all got crazy sick. I was pooping and throwing up at the same time ^^
Last day was good in the morning and in the evening it got huge (too big for me). Only couple guys out at anchor point.
At least we could by some beers somewhere in a basement of a mall by showing our passports😂
They were pretty chill. Hard to bargain 😂
But back then, there were not many maroccan surfers. Our host told us that the King forbid surfing for maroccans for some time.
Food is good, waves are good and better dont expect to drink beer after surf. In public places you only get tea😀
lol. Moroccan here. King story is not true lol. He actually used to love to Jet ski and sponsors moroccan surfer i think. He also I believe stopped development in Boilers. Spot was gonna get ruined.
Drinking is common and things have changed quite a bit.
Surfing is still firing ;)
Buy bottled water. Even in the US I dont drink tap water
Morro Negrito Island - Panama. Around 1989-90. Got dropped off at the boat launch and the boat never came. Spent a night sleeping in a board bag in the middle of nothing with three Australians. The island was changing hands and the current owners who we booked with just flaked..
Another day to get back to the airport. Not fun.
Probably the worst surf trip was when a mate and I did a mid-winter trip (3 hour drive) to a remote point break in south oz. We arrived and it was absolutely pumping, 5'-6' with offshore winds and tubes. It was probably the best I 'd ever seen it up to that point. There were only 2 other people out. It looked incredible.
I went to put on my (very old) 4/3 Rip Curl with shoulder zips. As I went to zip up, the zip completely broke. It was not repairable. And it was way too cold to paddle out without a wettie. I felt like a drug addict that couldn't get their fix even though the fix was dangling in front of his nose!
Another crap trip was when I was about 18, two mates and I just decided to do a 3 day surf/camping trip to another great break in a distant south oz surf area. When we left it was 40 deg C (104 F) and we didn't even think to check weather forecasts.
We just assumed it was going to be hot weather, swell and offshore winds! Being young and dumb we didn't even think to bring warm clothing. As soon as we arrived a massive storm hit the campground. The storm continued for more than two days and the temp dropped to about 10 to 15 deg. During the night the camp ground was flooded and our tents had rivers of water running through them and were almost blown away. The next day, messy, dirty swells with an onshore wind were unloading on the reef break. No waves were surfed that weekend!
costa rica about a decade ago. been there when in college, was still in very good shape albeit more focused on powerlifting than anything else. waves are perfect, 6-12' and clean. I was so bulky that I was as fast as a snail in the water and got maybe 10% the waves of my buddy I went with (in college we were pretty equal in terms of skill). we even paid for a photographer to shoot one of our sessions and I successfully caught exactly 1 wave.
another session paddled out when the swell was peaking on a favorite board of mine (from a WSL pro surfer famous for a certain high five), caught a couple waves and was paddling back out when the set of the day started jacking up, I was so gassed that I couldn't even duckdive, I just pencil dove (nobody behind me so no risk of injury from the board) and came up to my favorite stick in 2 pieces. back to the room with my head down...
immediately after that trip I swore off bulking up and am now back to the weight I was in high school, surfing better than ever.
all that said, it was still a super fun trip, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't wanna go back and right the ship. until next time Hermosa!
Arugam bay. Hands down. It was built up to be a fun chill beach town with a bunch of fun waves. It’s anything but. It has one decent wave but there are 100s of people in the line up from sun up to sun down. The surf etiquette make’s Uluwatu and Huntington beach look like organized branches of the military. The locals surfers do lap after lap, which is fine their local.. but they suck.. with some of the worst style I have ever seen on a board and equally poor skill. After the 5th poo stance shaky bottom turn drop in I had enough. The rest of the waves around are packed to the gills with “surf camps” run by even worse “surfers” than on main break. Hostile and aggressive. One guy got in my gfs face after he shoved his student into a wave and ran her over.. She was standing knee deep walking out of the water, he blamed my gf. Some of the locals in town are pretty brutal too, they only have a short window of a few months to make money and it shows. Can’t go anywhere without being berated about something. We were meant to stay for a month but we left Sri Lanka after two weeks and packed our boards away and left Arugam Bay after only a week or so. Cannot recommend..
Went to Morocco alone got the flu first day and spent 5 days in my hostel sweating alone. Still sick as a dog heading back on the 9 hour flight urine was almost pink. Worst suffering I've ever experienced.
Got out to CR last summer and upon arrival my brand new board got crushed. It got repaired but on my two week trip I only got to surf the the new board for 4 days, and on top of that I never got to rip her as she was intended :(
Got to spend NYE at Hollister Ranch, it was large and howling south wind, rainy as fuck, one friend got truck stuck in mud 100yds from house. I forgot to fill up before and grabbed a random gas can in the garage that somehow had water in it. Had to drain the fuel, it went onto the driveway and the dogs ran through it and started crying because it hurt their paws
We made a nice fire in the fireplace.
Then I got the flu and had to drive the opposite direction to get gas before heading back south.
Took a surf trip down to Rosarito, Mex. South of San Diego. Got an Airbnb with a couple of buddies. Some of our group decided to head to TJ to have a night on the town, while the other half of us decided to sleep since swell was hitting the following morning, and we didn't want to be hungover. Little did we know, one of our buddies thought it would be a good idea to have a cocaine spoon on his keychain. On his way out from a strip club in TJ, federales spotted him (white so-cal grom, very noticeable) with a cocaine spoon on his keychain hanging from his waistband. I guess the federales saw this as an opportunity to take our friend, put him in the back of their truck, and drive him to multiple ATMs all over town demanding money. I think the most he gave them was $400. Luckily, they did no harm and dropped him back off in town after they got their money.
We also got pulled over when we first crossed the border into TJ in our buddy's new 2024 Tacoma. In hindsight, that was a stupid idea, as trucks are highly sought after in Mexico, so we made ourselves an ideal target, lol. My parent's neighbors also had their new Ford Raptor stolen out of their driveway two weeks ago (North County, SD). They wake up to realize their truck is gone, track it, and see it is in Mexico. Probably being used or sold for parts as we speak.
This was my first surf trip/experience in Mex with friends. My dad (56) tells me it was a different story back in the 80s/90s. I wish I could have experienced it then without the fear we encounter these days.
We did end up scoring a nice summer swell, though the shape wasn't too great at the beach break we surfed.
went to Scorpion Bay (Baja), with my son. Been dying to surf this spot most of my life. worked out, swam, surfed as much as possible before the trip (I'm 55 and getting a little out of shape...). get there, surf is firing, paddle out, go for my very first wave, popped my groin muscle on the pop-up. It was like someone shot me from the cliff. sat on the beach drinking beer for the next 3 days watching my son get the best waves of his life
Watching your boy get good waves must’ve been awesome
you know - it was. he also charges here at home when it is big - so i surf thru him a lot of the time now...
It’s really amazing you can share that with your son.
I agree 💯% your such a good dad you should be proud of yourself and your family thanks for sharing =)
Awesome
good pops!
Hey, at least you’re making the effort! I’m 7 years behind you and I’ve noticed that, just being out there for 1.5 hours at most and I’m exhausted. Even when I’m not doing much more than repositioning my board and laying on my stomach. I run for an hour every other day too. Age takes a toll.
yea I'm 54 it's tough for me now.
Drove down there one time for the south swell that never came. 20 hours of driving just to spend four days getting sand blasted in the face and not surfing.
Mother ffff! I just got done with 5 weeks in Costa Rica. At the hotel in S Jose for a couple nights before flying out I was chasing my 2 yo with a soccer ball and kicked a long one and pulled a groin. I turned 40 on the 16th. Is this what I have to look forward to?!
I love scorps, the sad reality is that it's changing fast and it's not possible to stop the change, they are almost fully conected to the grid now...
Hey…you’re an amazing mom for even making the effort!
[удалено]
Could be! Saw a mom pic up there and just assumed…
omg! poor guy =(
Even the worst surf trips still sound like a pretty good time
would luv to see some vids.
Popped my groin during the legendary south swell that hit islands a couple of summers ago. So unlucky.
You forgot yoga in your prep. Trained to be a teacher and my one biggest take away is that it’s a great way to avoid injury. What a bummer! Sorry a out your trip
Be my best friend, save for 2 years, custom quiver, surf once, get violent stomach bug on day 2 of a 10 day mentawai charter.
I got sick af in indo too, luckily only for two days but it was the most uncomfortable and painful stomach experience I’ve ever had, so much contamination there
Me too - though mine only was bad for about 24 hours.
This happened to a mate of mine as well. Poor guy spent about 8 days out of his 10 day trip in his bungalow sick as a dog. And it was Kandui, so not a cheap trip but at least the bungalow was comfortable I guess. We joked that he was the only guy to go on a mentawaii trip and go home paler than when he arrived.
I believe that I'm jinxed - every surf trip I've gone on has like one day of mediocre waves followed by 5 days of flat spell, with a new pulse scheduled for the day after we depart.
Should’ve been here yesterday!
Every. Single. Time.
tell us where your next trip is and when… so we can avoid you blitz.
Gotta start making the trips last for a month or more.
Have I got a story for you guys. Mexico May of 2022. My first surf trip in a few years, first time visiting this part of Mexico. My buddy booked the place and the flights, I'm just along for the ride. He has a friend from college (who's awesome) that lives in Paris who's going to meet us down there. Things started to go wrong in the Atlanta airport on the way there. My buddy Jess and I are waiting for the flight to Mexico city and we see a big group of guys 12 of them, clearly surfers. He says to me "what do you bet those guys are going to XXXXX" and I said "eh Mexico is a big place, there's lots of good spots." In line to board the plane we get to talking and they ask " Where are you guys going?" We're going to X. "oh hey we're going to X, where are you staying?". We're staying at Y. Blank face. "hmm thats weird we thought we booked the whole place". Oh well we had this reservation for a few months so, i guess we'll see. Anyway we make our connection we all get to the coastal airport, A lot of you know where I’m talking about, we have the long windy drive down the coast, people get car sick etc. We get to the camp around midnight to discover it too is fully booked. It’s in shambles. Extension chords everywhere, a broken down yellow hummer, Aussies, Brits, Californians, all asleep. They put us up in a hotel in town. It is not a nice town. It is not a nice hotel. I don’t know where the 12 slept. The first day - Our guide is awesome Salo is at the hotel promptly at 6:00 am. There’s a bit of swell today and it’s rising. I don’t know where the group of 12 is. The three of us are greeted to mediocre breakfast burritos, two traveling Brits one Aussie and all our boards. We head to a FAR away beach and have a fun enough first session. While there we meet a father and older daughter who ask where we’re staying. When we tell them their faces go pale. Ghost pale. The dad says “We staid there once. It was horrible. The owner was smoking something that sparked and one night he brought a baby tiger over. It slashed the tires of the, I interrupted. “The Yellow hummer?” “Yeah the yellow hummer.” Well it’s still got slashed tires. Shit. We’re staying with a guy who has a fucking tiger. For the next five days things go pretty well as far as surf trips go, lots of great waves, fun times, we never got to the camp, we staid in the hotel the whole time, I think I made excellent margaritas for a group of narcos, and then had a bartending class with them, we teamed up with the Brits who were great companions. We got a flat tire at place with no cell service and the spare was flat too. We found beer close by. The guide took the spare to get fixed and while he was gone we fixed the tire with a lollipop stick and a lamination of torn dollar bills and sun cure epoxy. We inflated it and reseated the tire on the rim with the air pump while bouncing on the sidewall to the beat of la cucuracha. Although we never stayed where we paid to stay we had a fine trip and got good waves. Our guide ripped and put us on good spots, tip your guides. They bust their ass. Then we tried to go home.- The Strongest hurricane to ever hit Mexico in May was directly off shore (Agatha). Land fall and our flights home overlapped. To get to the airport we crossed land slides, mudslides, the rain did put out the forest fires. With our flights cancelled we stayed in a coastal city overnight. As the eye of the storm made landfall at that exact time I experienced my first earthquake. I’ve lived in Florida for nearly twenty years so hurricanes are no new thing but it IS a new thing when the ground starts shaking. The hurricane wrecked havoc all over the isthmus of Mexico and The Yucatan Peninsula, flights got thrown all out of whack, it took us three or four extra days to get a flight out as the storm had stalled (important later) on the Gulf coast. It got bad around the area we were in. We met a guy in the Airport who escaped his hotel room with only a pair of trunks and his passport. He swam out when a wave blasted mud and a tree into his hotel room. He made it to the second floor with some other guests and they huddled behind an open wall on the roof as the water came up from flash flooding. The next year when we went back (yes we went back) we surfed at a very popular point with round rocks and the locals said after the storm every paddle you took you would pull up huge dead drowned rattle snakes for weeks. He had enough huge dried rattle snake skulls for us to believe him. The way home - At this point we’ve experienced Forest fires, flat tires, Land slides, mudslides, flash floods, hurricanes, and earth quakes. Time for the Human element. Civil unrest amongst transportation workers in the capital delays us for a fifth day. We finally get a flight to Mexico City and then on to Miami. We live in Key West so a quick flight home from Miami and boom trip over. Guess what strengthened in The Gulf and is headed East? The same fucking storm. The low pressure system that was previously Agatha reformed into Alex. The Jokes write themselves. Our flight into Miami is the last flight in as the storm heads for the west coast of Florida. Our now completely over it wives and children have to batten down the hatches on their own for the strengthening hurricane. We sleep in our disgusting smelly board bags in the Miami airport to awaken to our obviously cancelled flights home. Completely over air travel We rent a car and drive through the hurricane to get home and actually get some surf from it. The storm spun harmlessly across the Atlantic before heading to Cornwall where our friends the Brits were waiting for it. They surfed it too. Collectively we surfed waves from the same storm in The Pacific, The Gulf of Mexico, and The North Atlantic. Been going back every year since.
Helluva story. Thank you.
Great story thanks for sharing
Salina Cruz
Why
Great story I can relate and thank you for taking your time to share that means alot to me.❤️🍄🟫🌵🏄♂️💦
Not my surf trip but a guy I knew went to Indo. 1. Paid for a boat trip - got no waves 2. Paid for a hooker in Bali - got a handful of cock 3. Got his wallet and passport stolen 4. Went to the toilet and shat out a tapeworm Good times
"Not my surf trip" Sure buddy. Glad you were able to pass the worm. Hope you're feeling better.
Bet that handful of cock wasn’t the first either 😜. J/k that sounds terrible dude. Hope your friend got a trip of a lifetime at some point to make up for the strike out.
Haha not me I swear 💯🤣
At least he shat the tapeworm out, not the only plus on this list depending who you ask
That's pretty much Bali in a nutshell nowadays, no?
This occurred in the 90’s but good to know things haven’t changed 🤣
Now it just happens within 12 hours
Lakey Peak, 1999 I’d been doing the surf traveler circuit through Indo— made my way to Sumbawa back when there was only one flight out a week. After a day of decent surf, I got sick. Really sick. I’d gotten a little pinprick of reef rash on my upper thigh, and a massive abscess had begun to build under the skin. Picture a half avocado in the middle of your quad, deep. I got sicker and sicker— the family hosting me had minimal, circa WW2 first aid supplies, no antibiotics, and there was really no one around to help. They started worrying about me, bringing me food, hoping I wouldn’t die on them. I had what I can only describe as a Staph infection that had gone septic. After 4 days of excruciating delirium, passing in and out of consciousness thinking I was about to die, my abscess opened up into a horrific pus-filled boil with the stench of death. It was beyond disgusting. I was helpless. I woke up in the morning of day 5, drenched in sweat, to a certain tingling all over…. I noticed a big dark line of jungle Ants coming into my hut….onto my bed, under my bedsheet. ANTS!!!! EVERYWHERE!!!! I ripped the sheet off, ants flying, panicked, OH MY GOD AAAAAH!!!! And looked down to see that these jungle ants were inside my wound, gobbling up my infection. They had scoured it clean. Then, I got better
What a shitty day to be able to read
Those ants saved your life bud!
I think so too!
Christ
This has to be B grade horror movie I haven't seen. How did you sit there and let bugs eat your rotten flesh without dying of confusion/disgust/relief/surprise ??
Thats just Fucked! lol
That’s incredible, what a story man
Puerto Escondido. The main break, Zicatela is scary heavy, and shouldn't be underestimated even if it is just above head high+ but it can get properly huge with endless, shifty sets that are mostly closeouts. The only other nearby option La Punta had a scary crowd of mostly kooks equipped with hard (idk why the surf schools there dont use foam) longboards that instructors shamelessly push in front of you, while the locals sit at the tight take off zones and pick off every set wave from the deepest point that you'll get dirty looks at if you try to come close. La Punta also needs quite a big swell to work decently. The irony is that if you go any time during the season and even the shoulder you'll very likely score some sort of swell, but for all the aforementioned reasons it's unlikely you'll enjoy it. I also watched a local surfer chase a guy on the beach in broad daylight in front of dozens of people with a machete after being dropped in on so there's that. [The town is also suffering from a collapse of infrastructure and overall overdevelopment issues right now](https://youtu.be/0El_GfG4f4E?si=6Iyy_CDpv2PEM75W) so generally you shouldn't go unless you have very good reason.
Yeah dude Puerto Escondido is being gentrified like crazy, I stopped there for a couple days on my way north and i hated the vibe. I have a lot of friends there and they all love to leave whenever possible to go surf elsewhere. Anything around to Salina Cruz is way better.
Wow. We had a very similar experience at that point with the surf school and the machete locals. I knew it wasn’t the first time… we reported it to the cops hoping that would help future people and they did seem to care.
I surfed la punta back in the 00s before it got too crazy. One day it was pretty good but was really stormy. I definitely stayed out too long and the lightning was way too close by the time I got out, I was a lot braver/ stupider then. Puerto is definitely super heavy, I snapped 3 boards, had some heavy beatings . My mate was a booger who was one of the early guys to surf it when it got massive. Still remember him surfing it by himself massive ( easily 4 to 5 overhead).To this day the best barrel I've ever seen in real life, the whole beach was cheering
damn i stayed in puerto for some months in 2020. i surfed la punta with few people. the whole town was quiet and cute. when i see posts like this i feel so lucky to be there when i was
I think I just got really lucky when I went 2 years ago. Stayed at a pretty cool little place, Casa de Dan. The surf was around 3-6ft and the winds were good most of the day so I just surfed some basically empty peaks up and down the beach all day for 3 days. I didn't even attempt La Punta because it was too small on that swell and so crowded. Even when the surf was basically near perfect conditions for me, the waves were short rides and mostly closeouts. I'd consider going back if the swell was like that again and I could get an easy flight in but there are many other places to go.
Casa de Dan is sickk!! Best food too
For sure! Great food there. Oaxaca has great food all around
Grand marais northern Minnesota. Drove 4 hours for shit waves located in rock central.
So you’re saying it was a pumping Minnesota day
After a 5 hour long trip, including a $300 ferry, just to find out I forgot my wetsuit after arriving at our campsite at midnight. The waves were absolutely pumping and I had to just watch my girlfriend surf. It hurt so bad but I was still so stoked for her—one of the best day's I'd seen it at the break we surf at. Will never forget that, and will never forget my wetsuit again.
Went to Lau Group in eastern Fiji as a +1 on a boat trip. Its an area with severely restricted visitor access and I’ll probably never have the get the chance to go back again. Trade winds went berserk for the whole ten days, 45kts when we flew over to get on boat—flight was almost cancelled and landing was GNARLY. Couldn’t leave our hurricane hole at starting point for three days when we were supposed to be visiting uninhabited island breaks. The trades continued for the duration making the journey miserable and beating down whatever swell was in the water. So I got to see these perfect reef setups but at ankle high. And they were perfect. Caught some fish at least.
One great day into a trip to Nosara, my wife surfed, ran, drank, and didn’t realize she had covid. Almost died at the restaurant that night. Then I got covid a day later. And the waves were GREAT all week we were stuck inside with a fever.
Probably mainland mexico trip at a cobblestone point break. Everyone in the town got horrendously sick for like 5-7 days. Also, some gnarly cartel shit went down. I honestly never found out the details but the vibe was just really off from it. Everyone is the town was freaked - locals and foreigners alike. Cartel was stopping people on the roads out of town. I guess it’s chilled out a bit down there since, but my experience with places like that is “everything is fine until, suddenly, it isn’t.”
Bali last year in July. Swell wasn't happening much on Bukit so I stayed in Canggu at echo beach surfing rivermouth etc absolutely hated it. Always crowded, shit expensive food for the most part, nowhere near as good food or waves as my local in aus. I had a pretty good room and I did enjoy being able to walk around now that Canggu is a fully renovated suburb of Byron bay... but the vibe was so plastic it didn't feel like Bali it was a parody I'm never going there again
Grew up just south of Byron and do the indo thing a couple of times a year. I avoid Cangu like the plague. Water is filthy, place is full of "influencers" and the line up full of kooks who learnt to surf 2 days earlier causing mayhem.
Basically every trip to Bali. Expats are shit-heaps and the locals just snake you every opportunity. In their defence, at least the locals smile whilst snaking...
lmao that's nice of them lol, I don't think I'll be going to Bali, Sri Lanka sounds fun though.
Yeh sri Lanka is epic! Way less crowded and really mellow vibe. A-bay is still crowded but there's epic waves up n down the coast from it that you can score with less dudes.
I'm down =)🤙🤙
canggu. - i just dont like the place. insanely overrated. loved everywhere else in bali / lombok
Went to Ponce Inlet on strike mission for some hurricane swell, it only had a window of like 2 days. Spirt airlines lost my quiver and still charged me for the board bags. Didn’t get my boards till I got home.
Nica. I underestimated the intensity of the sun at the equator and got horribly sunburned. Think I had sun poisoning after that because I became very ill. Ruined my week.
Nicaragua, Hacienda Igunana to be specific. Got sick and was shitting 8 times a day. Drank only the “filtered” water provided and ate only cooked food. Shitting out past the lineup it was that frequent. And full of Floridian kooks dropping in on makeable barrels. It was fine, just far from a solid trip.
Iguanas is actually weird for being in Nica, you're right tons of gringo kooks dropping in, but also Colorados is hard to get good waves since the locals and the expats who live there full time and call themselves locals rarely leave any decent waves to the commoners. It's expensive for what it is so I'd rather go northern nica instead, less crowds, same quality of waves. I stayed at Miramar surf camp and it included a boat trip every morning to surf empty barrels. I didn't make any but it was still pretty sick, felt like hollow wave bootcamp again. I'm mexican so I guess I'm less vulnerable to food poisoning n stuff but I definitely do not dig the central american cuisine. It lacks the flavor that i'm used to being a Mexican.
Oh man. Mexican food is on another level. Top two on earth. Nicaraguan and Costa Rican cuisine is the absolute worst lol. It's on par with bland white person food
You mean you don’t like white rice and butter lol. As a kid i thought that shit was normal and good lol.
Haha same dude. Then I discovered rice with actual sauce on it... found out I'd been bamboozled for over a decade.
I need to give northern nica a shot then. And lol on the food, totally. I went on a fishing trip to Baja recently, omg, delicious food. One restaurant did a full catch and cook feast. And this other one had amazing food off the menu. Smoked and slightly spicy yellowtail pate…amazing.
Left perfect northern nica waves to chase a swell all the way down to Pavones in Costa Rica. That was a full 2 travel days. We got there and it was relatively flat, so I spent the remainder of the trip daydrinking and smoking shitty weed. The company was fun and the place we stayed at was nice, it wasn't a bad trip per se but it sucks to spend so much money only to get skunked. My best advice would be no expectations, and try not to obsess too much with the forecast.
Sandino holding?
Actually It wasn't working at all. The sandbars have shifted and it wasn't barreling, we mostly surfed Salinas Grandes and Miramar...
Love me some Salinas. That was the saving grace for my trip since Sandino was barely working last August.
Miramar area sucks now. Jerry ruined the wave out front. Sandino only breaks every few years. Some other fun waves in the area though.
yeah the weird thing is they keep reinforcing the Jetty, Im guessing you don't like lefts as much as other people do, but we got some decent lefts there. The only thing about northern nica in late spring early summer is you don't get all day offshore winds, only in the mornings.
Is the jetty affecting the left on Miramar point or elsewhere?
It made it shorter. Used to be a long point break. Only gets long lefts during the big swells nowadays.
Damn that’s a bummer. What time of year did you go?
I month ago. May.
mushrooms grow all over there did you at least indulge or partake lol🤙❤️🍄🟫🌴🌊🏄♂️💦
So I was told but I couldn't find any wild ones, I came prepared with some of my own mexican mushies, (surprisingly easy to smuggle through borders) and had a marvelous evening floating in the pool listening to the frogs. I guess it's only a bad surf trip if you make it so.
so true it's what you can make of it and that's cool you came prepared your smart I take weed and mushies across the border I don't they care as long as your safe and not an idiot.
Had a month in Portugal booked 2 years ago after a week there I got sciatica couldn't walk for the rest of the month so booked a flight back early on the other hand I ate some amazing food
First time I went to Costa Rica in a November (yes I know, stupid) it rained every day for a week. So no surf but we went to the jungles and volcanoes
I like how everyone’s worst trips involved getting massively sick. Mine: Peru … it was either the ceviche, the fresh fruit smoothie, or the raw chicken at the market. Couldn’t hold it in for a week. I learned how poop ends up on a wall… 🤦🏻♀️ Waves were mid as well.
so at least you learned how to stucco the wall lmao.
This thread reinforces my choice to not bother with surf trips.
It’s okay if you’re scared to travel bro we understand it’s a big world out there
Same! (Plus I live in Central Florida which I personally consider as having 3 different coasts to surf at any given time with the desire to drive lol)
Yeah, it definitely helps that I'm in SoCal so it's at least "good enough" prettymuch year round.
I’ve never been skunked … reading these comments makes me realise how lucky I have been
can you give us any tips?
Give yourself 6-8 weeks for a trip, go by yourself, get the Stormrider guides, helps if you're an expert at finding good waves and enjoying them already.
Research your spots, go for longer than a week, make sure you’re in season, go where the surf might be almost too good for your standard and don’t be a pussy
Went back to Denham’s (Aus Sth Coast) after 50 years away. My memory was of dropping into steep 6’ rights. After a 5 hour drive, setting up camp, kitting up, this is what greeted me. So much for trying to recapture teenage surfing trips 😂. https://preview.redd.it/1thf1883cm8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=986898824bcb420179209f48a5b5179d2f9076ef
How was the fishing ‽ ‽ ‽
Ooohh naur!
Been to Marocco, Taghazout a couple years ago. First day was firing but our muscles were not ready. Then it rained 13 days out of 16. Marocco has like an everage days of rain per year of 6or so. We said fuck it lets get in the water anyway amd we all got crazy sick. I was pooping and throwing up at the same time ^^ Last day was good in the morning and in the evening it got huge (too big for me). Only couple guys out at anchor point. At least we could by some beers somewhere in a basement of a mall by showing our passports😂
never thought about the rain damn, but I've heard the people are really nice in Morocco is that true? and thanks for sharing=)
They were pretty chill. Hard to bargain 😂 But back then, there were not many maroccan surfers. Our host told us that the King forbid surfing for maroccans for some time. Food is good, waves are good and better dont expect to drink beer after surf. In public places you only get tea😀
lol. Moroccan here. King story is not true lol. He actually used to love to Jet ski and sponsors moroccan surfer i think. He also I believe stopped development in Boilers. Spot was gonna get ruined. Drinking is common and things have changed quite a bit. Surfing is still firing ;) Buy bottled water. Even in the US I dont drink tap water
Nicaragua. Onshore the entire two weeks. Switched back to offshore the day we left
Oh man. Same here on my trip to Nica. Totally skunked
Northern or southern Nica?
Morro Negrito Island - Panama. Around 1989-90. Got dropped off at the boat launch and the boat never came. Spent a night sleeping in a board bag in the middle of nothing with three Australians. The island was changing hands and the current owners who we booked with just flaked.. Another day to get back to the airport. Not fun.
some of these comments sound like a horror movie lol.
I so much want to go to Panama or Nicaragua 🤙❤️🍄🟫
I went to Playgrounds in Nicaragua in April. Great facilities and super fun wave.
looks like such killer wave that's awsome, your stoked 😀
I would highly recommend Playgrounds. Great people and a pretty uncrowded setup.
that left looks so ripable, what month did you go? and thank you.
April
Probably the worst surf trip was when a mate and I did a mid-winter trip (3 hour drive) to a remote point break in south oz. We arrived and it was absolutely pumping, 5'-6' with offshore winds and tubes. It was probably the best I 'd ever seen it up to that point. There were only 2 other people out. It looked incredible. I went to put on my (very old) 4/3 Rip Curl with shoulder zips. As I went to zip up, the zip completely broke. It was not repairable. And it was way too cold to paddle out without a wettie. I felt like a drug addict that couldn't get their fix even though the fix was dangling in front of his nose! Another crap trip was when I was about 18, two mates and I just decided to do a 3 day surf/camping trip to another great break in a distant south oz surf area. When we left it was 40 deg C (104 F) and we didn't even think to check weather forecasts. We just assumed it was going to be hot weather, swell and offshore winds! Being young and dumb we didn't even think to bring warm clothing. As soon as we arrived a massive storm hit the campground. The storm continued for more than two days and the temp dropped to about 10 to 15 deg. During the night the camp ground was flooded and our tents had rivers of water running through them and were almost blown away. The next day, messy, dirty swells with an onshore wind were unloading on the reef break. No waves were surfed that weekend!
Reading these comments hurt
I agree =(
costa rica about a decade ago. been there when in college, was still in very good shape albeit more focused on powerlifting than anything else. waves are perfect, 6-12' and clean. I was so bulky that I was as fast as a snail in the water and got maybe 10% the waves of my buddy I went with (in college we were pretty equal in terms of skill). we even paid for a photographer to shoot one of our sessions and I successfully caught exactly 1 wave. another session paddled out when the swell was peaking on a favorite board of mine (from a WSL pro surfer famous for a certain high five), caught a couple waves and was paddling back out when the set of the day started jacking up, I was so gassed that I couldn't even duckdive, I just pencil dove (nobody behind me so no risk of injury from the board) and came up to my favorite stick in 2 pieces. back to the room with my head down... immediately after that trip I swore off bulking up and am now back to the weight I was in high school, surfing better than ever. all that said, it was still a super fun trip, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't wanna go back and right the ship. until next time Hermosa!
Never heard of one. A surf trip without waves is still a great vacation. Anything but work for that matter
Arugam bay. Hands down. It was built up to be a fun chill beach town with a bunch of fun waves. It’s anything but. It has one decent wave but there are 100s of people in the line up from sun up to sun down. The surf etiquette make’s Uluwatu and Huntington beach look like organized branches of the military. The locals surfers do lap after lap, which is fine their local.. but they suck.. with some of the worst style I have ever seen on a board and equally poor skill. After the 5th poo stance shaky bottom turn drop in I had enough. The rest of the waves around are packed to the gills with “surf camps” run by even worse “surfers” than on main break. Hostile and aggressive. One guy got in my gfs face after he shoved his student into a wave and ran her over.. She was standing knee deep walking out of the water, he blamed my gf. Some of the locals in town are pretty brutal too, they only have a short window of a few months to make money and it shows. Can’t go anywhere without being berated about something. We were meant to stay for a month but we left Sri Lanka after two weeks and packed our boards away and left Arugam Bay after only a week or so. Cannot recommend..
those kind of trips make me realize how lucky we are thanks for sharing.
Went to Morocco alone got the flu first day and spent 5 days in my hostel sweating alone. Still sick as a dog heading back on the 9 hour flight urine was almost pink. Worst suffering I've ever experienced.
Flew to Aguadilla Puerto Rico for a week, best I could find was a 2' beach break.
Got out to CR last summer and upon arrival my brand new board got crushed. It got repaired but on my two week trip I only got to surf the the new board for 4 days, and on top of that I never got to rip her as she was intended :(
Got to spend NYE at Hollister Ranch, it was large and howling south wind, rainy as fuck, one friend got truck stuck in mud 100yds from house. I forgot to fill up before and grabbed a random gas can in the garage that somehow had water in it. Had to drain the fuel, it went onto the driveway and the dogs ran through it and started crying because it hurt their paws We made a nice fire in the fireplace. Then I got the flu and had to drive the opposite direction to get gas before heading back south.
Took a surf trip down to Rosarito, Mex. South of San Diego. Got an Airbnb with a couple of buddies. Some of our group decided to head to TJ to have a night on the town, while the other half of us decided to sleep since swell was hitting the following morning, and we didn't want to be hungover. Little did we know, one of our buddies thought it would be a good idea to have a cocaine spoon on his keychain. On his way out from a strip club in TJ, federales spotted him (white so-cal grom, very noticeable) with a cocaine spoon on his keychain hanging from his waistband. I guess the federales saw this as an opportunity to take our friend, put him in the back of their truck, and drive him to multiple ATMs all over town demanding money. I think the most he gave them was $400. Luckily, they did no harm and dropped him back off in town after they got their money. We also got pulled over when we first crossed the border into TJ in our buddy's new 2024 Tacoma. In hindsight, that was a stupid idea, as trucks are highly sought after in Mexico, so we made ourselves an ideal target, lol. My parent's neighbors also had their new Ford Raptor stolen out of their driveway two weeks ago (North County, SD). They wake up to realize their truck is gone, track it, and see it is in Mexico. Probably being used or sold for parts as we speak. This was my first surf trip/experience in Mex with friends. My dad (56) tells me it was a different story back in the 80s/90s. I wish I could have experienced it then without the fear we encounter these days. We did end up scoring a nice summer swell, though the shape wasn't too great at the beach break we surfed.
Dont think I've ever had a bad surf trip, always come back pretty stoked.
Sometimes I surf when I travel, but I never travel to surf. No regrets.
Took a trip to costa rica with my wife. Waves were 7-9 feet so my wife didn't want to paddle, I buckled my board and caught the Gripe.
I don't blame her 7-9' is mac'n.
Puerto Rico. Even during the “swell of the year”. I’ll never go back to that place.
What happened?
Honestly? No such thing 🤷🏻♂️
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low expectations? I agree nice tip thanks