La Buena Ola!

About a billion years ago, the first multicellular life existed on our little blue dot. I can understand the unit of measurement known as a ‘billion’ in a mathematical way, but it boggles my mind when speaking of it in terms of years. I suppose that’s because we humans think about years mostly in terms of, or relative to, human history and individuals’ lives. It’s not until you talk about science that you have to consider years beyond the existence of human ones, and the Earth’s geological time is beyond massive. Anyways, it took another 6 or 7 million years for something besides a plant to finally crawl out of the ocean and exist on land. To put that in perspective, modern humans have been around for a mere 200 thousand years. So, for 6.5 million years things have been evolving in the ocean. 6.5 million years of things with sharp teeth, stingers and the ability to breath underwater.

Things ate or got eaten until finally, it became advantageous for something to escape those brutal and dangerous waters. And a whole bunch a millions of years later, here we are, the apex of evolution, the modern man – able to create the freaking Internet, go to Starbucks, walk on the Moon, flush a toilet, whatever. Then, behold, circa 1980 (okay, exactly 1980) I am born! Yes, you can applaud. I too agree that it was awesome, but that is not the point of this recapitulation so stop getting sidetracked! So, what do myself and those decades of people before me do? We actually go back into that friggin’ creepy, dangerous, dark ocean that we escaped from literally millions of years ago!!!

That place where all the things that can sting and bite and eat are! The place where things that can eat us have been evolving for literally, exponentially larger periods of times than our own species has existed!!! Why? Why would anyone just swim out into those giant, crashing waves with a tiny board that floats??? It’s because surfing is that fun. It’s that awesome and that fun and that is why.

My friend Chip, sent me this video of the massive swells that have been hitting Hawaii “recently.”

Now, considering the ass kickings I’ve been handed on what are very small waves compared to those in that video, I have to say that I have a very large respect for anyone who can ride those. That said, the ass kickings one takes learning the sport are already worth it for me! I enjoy it that much. Surfing just a little surf or some small waves once you stand up, get that board under your feet, and feel the turbulence of the ocean propelling you forward is astounding. And for someone who has skateboarded and snowboarded his entire life, I must say it is a rush to have the medium on which you are riding moving underneath you. Riding deep powder hardly comes close, but it’s about the closest thing I can think of. It’s just different, and in case I haven’t mentioned it yet, so very, incredibly fun!!

Onto the area that prompted this post: Sayulita. We had heard a bit about this place from several people and books. Despite the buggy, jellyfish-ridden, meager waves (which I found both shallow and pedantic) of our last couple of attempts, we descended some 3,000 feet of elevation back into the jungle hoping to find surfable waves on which to get quality learning time in on! And then, BAM, heaven on the Pacific!

We pulled over and parked one block from the beach on a side street right in front of a coffee shop and a bar called the Public House – an excellent place to drink good beers and talk about waves. We met the bar tender there, Miguel, a guy who was as stoked about us learning to surf as he was to catch waves himself! He also put us in touch with some friends of his who can help us find good climbing and places to camp down the road. Muy chido! Great guy, knows his tequila. Everyone there, from those frequenting the place to the owners, were awesome. We camped out there for our entire stay of 4-5 days, hitting happy hour periodically to rehydrate our saltwater-logged selves!

We also happened to meet Jeff and Christie from Golden, CO who were there vacationing and learning to surf as well. We all became friends quickly, paddled out to catch lots of waves (and sometimes beatings), and kicked around town chatting, eating great food, and drinking. They even left their stash of groceries with us when they headed back home! Can’t wait to get after it with them in the pow when we return to the states – that is unless they return to help add that sidecar to the van…

So we continued hanging with everyone and enjoying Sayulita. It was awesome and despite waking up sore every morning from getting hammer by waves that we don’t yet know how to accurately judge let alone ride, we dragged our long boards through the surf and got after it. I even ventured out into the line up a few times and attempted to get on the real deal. Soon… more practice. Also learned what rash guards are for!

Lots of cool stuff in the bustling beach area. Every time you turn around there’s something interesting.

Having demolished ourselves and really taken full advantage of the good times and waves, we decided to move on. We were considering hitting a 14,000+ ft volcano outside of Colima, but the logistics of getting to the National Park and Niccole being the first one to go down the bug/food-poisoning path (we’ve both been routinely drawing straws in that game), we opted to head back to Tepic and then onto Guadalajara.

About halfway back up the highway to Tepic the van suddenly lost power and had a slight lurch to it. I checked all the obvious things but it really seemed to be a misfiring or timing related issue. And so, we pulled into our first Mexican auto mechanic shop.

After a little bit of troubleshooting it turned out to be a spark plug. We changed all of them out, put a new gas filter on it, checked the timing, and topped off the very slowly leaking power steering fluid (something I haven’t bothered fixing yet). About $50 (US) later we were on the road but stopped in a small town near Tepic as it was getting dark. For now, we’re staying in the back of a hotel where there is a carwash. We’re plugged into electrical, have wifi, hot showers, and bathrooms. Not bad for about $5 (US) a day and a great place for Niccole till she feels a bit better!

Cheers from… I actually don’t know the name of the town we’re in. Let me check the map.

Cheers from Compostela!