Punto San Carlos, Baja, Mexico!!! Chasing a Scattered SW and NW Swell!

San Carlos with the Boyz! Looking pretty haggard after not showering for a few days!

Things weren’t looking so hot for me going into the trip. I was very sick and had flu-like symptoms the night before departure of our long and very adventurous adventure. Because I was so sick I missed packed some pretty crucial things for living in the desert. San Carlos is 280 miles into Baja from the border, the last 40 miles being on a wash-board dirt road. You are literally in the middle of nowhere. There are ZERO amenities in San Carlos; no running water, no electricity, no stores, no people, NADA except for big waves and high winds! This means you have to bring everything. The main thing I forgot was my sweatshirt but Christopher being Christopher packed two of everything and had an extra, what a guy! It’s really hot during the day and pretty cold at night. Our dad flew into LA the day before we left to accompany us on the journey. It was Christopher and Pops in the Jeep and Brad, Ben, Matt, and Me in Brad’s little racecar. We packed the car the night before and left at 5am to get to the border at sunrise. I had done this same trip almost exactly a year ago with a buddy Adam so I knew the general directions of where we were going to I wasn’t too nervous about getting lost in Tijuana. I don’t remember too much of the drive as I was coming in n out of death by flu but we arrived safely in Punto San Carlos around 3pm on Thursday.

Gotta LOVE Point-breaks! 

Poppa Bear !

We unloaded the toys from the Jeep and I immediately made a den and slept until 2pm the next day. In the meantime, the boys scored some epic surf that night and early morning Friday. Matt got hit by a big wave when trying to climb out and cut his hands and feet pretty badly on the rocks. Nothing that duct tape couldn’t fix!  When the wind picked up on Friday I couldn’t handle missing all the action and quadruple dosed ibuprofen and grabbed my kite and board and headed for the water. We had been tracking this swell the previous week in class and boy did we have impeccable timing. The waves were big and the wind strong which combined made for some of the most epic kiting I’ve done. Chris’s centerline snapped which caused him some trouble. He had to be dragged in by a fellow kiter and due to the direction of the wind (side-offshore) he didn’t make it to the beach very close to camp and ended up at the fishing village about a mile down the beach. One of the guys at main camp saw the fiasco and drove his truck down to him to pick him up. Other than that, we all had insane sessions and made it back without any issues. I got super lucky and almost joined Chris with the walk of shame when I crashed my kite in the surf and it got rolled by about 8 waves. My lines were completely covered in seaweed and I was getting dragged across the rocks in the shallow water but somehow my kite managed to right itself and launch so I made it back safe. Kiting in San Carlos is not for the faint of heart because of the wind direction and the way the shoreline is shaped. Last year when I was kiting here, I had 4 sessions and of the 4 sessions, made it back without an issue once. Not a very high percentage!

The Camp Site! Look at all the amenities! 

Saturday we woke up early and scored some really nice surf until the wind picked up. When the wind picked up we all grabbed our gear and scored another sweet session.  In between sessions, we all pounded muscle milk and ate peanut butter and nutella sandwiches. Matt had an unfortunate kite-mare when hit bar popped off and his kite became uncontrollable. Because of the wind direction, his kite was dragging him out to sea. I saw what was happening and went to try and help. Chris saw too and sat on the kite so Matt could roll it up. At this point it had been about 20 minutes and we were way to far out to sea for comfort. I brought Matt’s board in while they were wrestling the kite. When I got to him the second time we were even further out to sea. He had to cut the kite free and grabbed onto my harness and I pulled him for about 20 minutes to shore and we ended up by the fishing village. In the end he donated a kite to the ocean but he made it back alive. Everybody at main camp saw the whole thing so we got invited to main camp where my dad was staying for dinner. It was the first hot food we had eaten on the trip. It was quite scrumptious! We decided we hadn’t had enough action so we agreed to stay for another day.

smacking the lip!

after our epic kiting session!

The surf Sunday morning was smaller but still really nice. The wind picked up later and we scored another epic session, this time we all made it back without any issues! That night Matt found some firewood at an abandoned camp site and we made a fire in the closest arroyo (area between two dunes) and talked about our awesome trip. Monday morning we picked up camp early in the fog and started the long drive home. The military checkpoints on the way out are way more observant and strict than the way in. We waited at the border for about two hours and when we finally crossed through we turned our iPhones on and found the closest In-N-Out Burger joint! It was a neat capper to a neat trip! 

testing out my new Fuel kite!

A+ Trip!