12/05/07

Mainland Mex

from www.sethpettersen.blogspot.com:

...The swell showed up indeed. I heard that back home in Ventura it was going 15 to 20 feet easy. Down at La Ticla is was ranging from 8 to 12 but powerful. We saw broked boards being carried through the camp, Derek hurt his back by getting slammed into the bottom. I spent most of the day hanging with some friends of Dereks from Guadalajara. They took me to a couple of beaches where we swam and drank cerveza. We went back to La Llorna where I saw the gnarliest surf I think I've ever seen. I was calling some of them triple overhead and fast! Later that afternoon we made it back to La Ticla. I attempted to paddle out the log (after eating and drinking beer.idiot), and after getting worked by 5 or 6 set waves, I finally thought I made it to the safe zone. I thought wrong. I could see a bomb building on the horizon and coming fast, I could only panic and paddle as quick as I could towards it, but to no avail. I tried to turtle the log, but it was fiercely stripped from my hands. My leash broke and I had to swim back in the hard way. (video to come)

By Friday the swell was solid and the period was great. With Derek injured and his surfers ear bothering him, I paddled out his purple fish. I was able to duck the waves pretty well, but my arms were tired, and my back was sore. I managed to catch one and made the drop pretty well. A second later I was off the board in mid air I landed on my back facing the wave and was quickly taken over the falls and into wet oblivion. I was then caught inside, with nothing else to prove and a smile on my face I paddled in.