I've never paddled out from the Mushrooms side of the point, always parked on the little dirt lot on the inside and scaled down the cliff to Boneyards (Deadmans). Always an easier paddle, unless the tide is too high. Loved how it would peel so close to those gnarly rocks at the bottom of the cliff, then just THROW over that shallow reef on the inside. When Calafia was not doing it, Bus Stops had some epic days too. Surfed Popotla many years before they built that goddam movie set there. Big, perfect left peaks peeling from the cliff into the small cove, always oily glass because the kelp was so darn thick. Problem was, the kelp was so thick and abundant that your rides would get interrupted with the constant stutter of running it over...sometimes, it was so thick it was like hitting the brakes at 100 mph and you would faceplant hard. Try swimming in that stuff. And the flies....OMG, that place was fly hell. Man, I miss that spot...lotsa memories. I hear that the Mexican smugglers are using Popotla as their main port to push pangas full of wets and dope into the states. I don't think I'd want to rock up on that schitt.
These tales keep bringing up fond memories. I do have a nice forehead scar from a reef point barrel on a 2 foot day. It was super small but perfect. My buddy had a trailer in an actual "secret spot". A little fishing village in Baja. North of Ensenada. The one that has a chain up and a 10 foot painting saying "NO SURFERS ALLOWED" on it. Some of you may know where im talking about. But my buddy actually let me come with him that day. I was riding backside at a right hand point, I was bent down to midget status trying to keep covered up. Water was less than a foot deep. Dont know what went wrong but I just got sucked up and over. Tried to handplant but the force of this 2 foot monster just slammed me head first into the reef. It was truly retarded. My wife was on the point taking photos. Worst 2 foot thrashing ever.... That little bastard had mutant strength. Still surfed with a gushing head for a while. Not a great idea.... but oh well.
Yup, smugglers paradise. I heard that the mexican military just bulldozed cement and rocks all over the reef there and it doesn't even break anymore.... sucks... That was the first time I ever surfer Calafia. Chris said that we had to go through mushrooms because the swell was just massive and there was no paddle out at all to the south. It was just a mess and with all that exposed reef he said that would never work. I saw some guys jumping off the point from the Hotel, but everyone was exiting through mushrooms. My buddy knew the hotel workers and stuff. He really had it dialed out. Mushrooms was a ridiculous wave too. These two mexican local boys were out there just getting barrel after barrel. But as we paddled by, you could see the giant reef stakes that were a couple feet under the sea level. They would boil up and expose when the wave would break... Perfect right though, but I could see getting jacked up if you don't know everything that is under the water. Similar to the takeoff point at Calafia, right as you drop in down that huge face, you see the exposing reef rock spears popping up out of the water... sketchy but totally worth it. Its crazy how many strange reef setups are down there with the jagged spear kinda things sticking up but not being exposed fully. They are all over the quarto casas and erendira and places way south in Baja but not really anything like that up in CA. strange.
High school 1978, had a Senior buddy who was a surf photographer and owned a trailer in front of BM's. Never heard of the place before, he showed me some pix of it firing. I asked him if it was Pipeline, LOL. He told me about the place and his trailer. Went there with a couple of school chums a few weeks later, mid-October. Pulled up to 4' A-frames with light offshores. One of the guys takes off on his first wave, blows the takeoff, and proceeds to do 4 barrel rolls inside the barrel with his board (he was the only one wearing a goon cord). My other buddy and I laughed so hard for days. Seriously though, I've taken some beatings at that spot on some pretty small days....easily as much juice as Blacks. Worst beating @ Blacks, Winter 1983 (the "first" El Nino). Every spot in SD was polluted, but I paddled out anyway. Took a solid 8' North Peak set directly on the head in some very brown water. Came up after a thorough douching to gasp at some air, but instead took a huge mouthful of pollution and accidentally swallowed it. Yeah, I think I stopped surfing for a few weeks after that one.
my big toe is permanently disfigured from jogging down the beach when I was a kid I kicked straight into a submerged boulder and its been messed up ever since
not to be a ****, but 30 second hold down at an extremely long period swell, say 15 seconds, would be a 2 wave hold down. if you are talking 10-12 second period it could be a 3 wave hold down. if you weren't under for 2 waves it was probably more like 15 seconds (which is a long time regardless).
Don't recall the worst but have had several long hold downs, took some beatings in PR that will be remembered, some others during HH+ days in FL that come to mind, Hurricane Bill scared me sober, killed my buzz and taught me a lesson of being in shape and got me committed to the sport when I realized I wasn't ready for that stuff. Overall it's all about staying calm but when it goes bad quickly sometimes that's a challenge, i think the leash can be a blessing and a curse, just depends if you get hog tied or can use it to find the surface. Hitting the bar makes me nervous just because I don't want to hit it head first, don't care if I hurt an arm or leg, just don't break my neck is all I ask.
A very true, reflective, and meaningful statement. Thanks. You'll never really know what you can handle and how you'll react to a situation until it actually happens. Getting off track a bit, but you don't get that from video games.
He would have to answer that one... But coming from a guy who was surfed those spots many times, you have to remember that good swells that hit the LJ reefs in the winter sometimes come at periods of about 22 seconds. It is common place all winter to have 15-22 second swell periods. I.E. The story I told in this post about my time at Calafia. The buoys were reading like 12ft at 22 seconds. It was freaking nuts. That's why it gets so big out there. Just look at what happens at a spot like Isle De Todos Santos, those 10-12 ft. @ 22 second swell periods hit that island and the surf is 50 feet top to bottom. But with that being said, my worst hold down was probably legitimately 15-20 seconds max.... Felt like an eternity, but I think thats why we all think we have been under water for a minute or so.
Every dog needs a leash. I am hard headed, and learned without a leash, but just recently I lost my board in good sized surf and had to swim way way back in during the spinner shark migration. It was an old leash. Once in Dominical at The Point I lost a board in heavy surf and almost lost the board for good, and had quite an adventure getting back to dry land. It was an old leash. At least 3 or 4 times I have snapped my leash paddling out at big Reef Road. It sucks having to swim in while everyone else is getting barrels. They were old leashes. MUCH LEASH RESPECT!!!!!
Ha Ha, doomsday 2012! A buddy and I took a quick look, must have been between sets. Rushed back to the car to get suited up. As we got down to the beach we were walking up current a half mile or so. I was watching the sets and thinking this is bigger than I thought. With each set I was realizing I was undergunned and was gonna get worked if I ever made it out there. After hooking up our leashes and standing thigh deep in the wash my buddy says, here's our chance and jumps in. I wasn't seeing it. I just knew this is gonna be a bad combination of older age, intermediate skills and the wrong equipment. I'm ashamed to say it but with every stroke my friend took towards the horizon I took a baby step backwards towards the beach. Eventually I was at the top of the dune and watching him get destroyed by monster after monster. Finally once he broke through I took my final step back and out of sight and walked crest fallen back to the car. Thankfully there were a couple of other guys that we knew in the water and beyond the break. It was their harrowing experience I was watching on the walk up that psyched me out. I unsuited and drove back home, only 5 minutes thankfully. Not my finest moment but it makes a good story.
Zippy, you should change the ending to: and I got a step up board, paddled out and got sic ones. even if its not the truth it sounds better
O god, the mathematicians are out today... FELT like 30 seconds, could have been 3 seconds. Forgot to hit go on my stopwatch...smh. I was underwater and getting pushed deeper longer than i would like to be...
Bro, haven't you seen chasing mavericks? The first thing to do when you while underwater is start counting!
Took off behind the jetty. Ended up on it. Full suit saved me. And I just took a beating trying to SUP in 4-5foot surf in Costa Rica. Mostly from the board. Gotta be honest, that SUP sh*t in waves is harder than it looks.
