Surfing
Surfing
As Told By A Big Wave Surfer: When Mexico Calls
In Mexico, there exists a haven for big wave surfers — actually, two of ‘em. Rusty Long elaborates.
Maya Gabeira, Steep and Deep
© Dave Nelson
There’s nowhere else in the world like them. Puerto and Pascuales. And both happen to exist along the same Mexican Pacific coastline. Comparisons are plentiful and contrasts and rife, but the way I look at it, one is a Navel Orange, the other is a Valencia Orange. Both are of the same family, in that they unload the biggest beach break tubes in the world hands down. There is nowhere else that falls into this family of waves, and we, as surfers, are so fortunate to have two of these arenas.
The biggest South West swell since 2009 just went down the first week of June, and both places saw an influx of many of the best big wave riders in the biz. With this swell event just shortly behind us I thought it would be a good time to look at the contemporary state of affairs at both places. Both got giant on the swell, 20-feet Hawaiian scale, and some crazy s went down, sticking to a fast-emerging trend now common to any big wave session that gets a crew on it.
Pascuales has evolved into a premier place in the world for jet ski assisted surfing, which is a great way to maximize wave count and get incredibly tubed -- two things the dedicated crew there have been doing for years. These guys have revolutionized “step off” surfing and there is nowhere else in the world where such a skilled group are operating and getting this barreled. This beach is great for it because peaks spread up and down over a solid mile, so there is room to roam. a definite golden era at Pascuales, led by Todd Morcom and Brian Conley, two of the best tube riders in the world, along with classic group of rogue surf cowboys that are all charging giant pits and living the dream, expat Mexi style. What these guys have been doing has drawn the attention of guys like Bruce Irons and Jamie O who come looking for the same thing.
In recent years, Bruce Irons and Jamie O’Brien have been spending solid stints of time down there, doing some of the most mind blowing surfing ever. When guys of this caliber get on a ski and reap all those benefits of positioning, speed, and ability to ride a small board on big waves, unprecedented feats go down, and that’s exactly what has been happening. It is an era in both these guys’ careers that will surely get looked back upon as time passes. And other good surfers who want big wave tubes without having to paddle into them are also showing up for swells. This last swell, that list included Maya Gabeira and Benjamin Sanchis, who both got their fair share of what they were looking for.
With any session in these types of body breaking waves, people get tweaked. It was Todd Morcom this swell, who broke his leg and actually had a piece of the bone completely ripped away by the force of the waves. It goes to further show that anytime you put your hand in the mix, things can go south, for anybody.
Puerto got giant this swell. That’s where I was. There were a couple of unfortunates though. First, the swell peaked all afternoon into the night in onshore winds. Had that size come during the morning it would have been a historic day. Second, the next morning, which was still very big, had onshore wind first thing. The first morning of onshore wind in weeks! It was a shocker! It cleaned up enough by 9 o’clock for a few good waves, but not many. Things were still a bit funky, but a couple flurries of nugs came in, and as has been the trend of all the past big swells, my bro Greg Long nabbed the wave of the day. A big, deep backside one, that was critical start to finish. He’s been channeling mental waves every time he surfs it big out there! It’s getting kinda ridiculous actually. There were a number of other rad rides by the big crew of usual suspects who was there throughout the course of the swell.
Puerto has remained a place where this dedicated crew continues to test the boundaries of paddle surfing, and that’s still the mode of operation here. The best in the biz still show up on the biggest swells with eight-to-nine-foot boards, jump in the rips to get out, hunt the line up like primal beasts and muscle into giant tubes. Wave count is never as high as using a jet ski obviously, but a super high caliber of wave riding is going down every swell. Guys like Jamie Sterling, Derek Dunfee, Coco Nogales, Skinny, Healey, Twiggy, Greg and a slew of others are all on it regularly, and keep the level super high when it’s big.
So while these places have different scenes going on, it is awesome the progression of tube riding keeps moving forward at both and people keep having the time of their lives, because there isn’t much that can compare.
