Punta San Carlos, generally known as Baja, is situated along the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula on the west coast of Mexico. Right in the middle of nowhere, it really is the ideal get away spot: away from civilization, away from cars, and away from crowded waves. There are no paved roads for 40 miles, no running water on site, and tons of lonely waves. When Graham Ezzy told us he had a trip planned to Baja we jumped at the chance to tag along. A brilliant time enjoying great food, too many Coronas and sleeping under canvas as well as waves and wind pretty much every day. Graham reports:

‘After many days of my promising good waves, Brendan finally agreed to do a trip with me to Baja, Mexico. Baja was the perfect medicine after a month of sailing in Pozo every day. There, the waves are ankle to knee high and the wind is so strong that it’s difficult to walk on the beach. For jumping it’s fun, but wave riding is truly impossible. But in Baja, the waves are long, medium-size, and undisturbed by the light off-shore wind. We went there right after the Pozo world cup in July. The end of July is generally one of the best times for good waves and strong wind. The best waves are caused by the south swells that track up the pacific. But Punta San Carlos works on both south swells and north swells, providing many opportunities. The sweetness of Baja was magnified by Pozo’s bitter taste. Oh, how bright the dawn is after the storm!’

http://www.vimeo.com/8229233

Conditions
‘When you score in Baja, the waves can be almost a mile long and the wind is very off-shore, so it sets up to be down-the-line paradise. The wave’s lip pitches due to the offshore wind, but it does not have much power, so it is perfect for tricks and really late off-the-lips. There is nothing in San Carlos except windsurfing. No cafes. No girls. No high speed internet. So when there is no wind, we only had the cacti, the seagulls and the old Mexican fisherman to keep us company. Luckily though, for the whole trip, we only had one day without wind. But the problem of nothing to do still exists because no one can windsurf 24 hours a day! So we filled our time with philosophising, reading poems and eating greasy Mexican food.’

Kauli would be sailing…
‘One of the days, the wind was so light that the kiters were not even able to catch waves. But I rigged up my trusty 5.0 along with my quad fin (with only the two straps needed for wave riding) and slogged out to the break. After all, Brendan kept saying: “Kauli Seadi would be sailing!” That day, the waves were bigger and perfect for cranking good turns. But the wind was so light on the inside that I spent half an hour swimming to the outside where there was more wind. The session was sick. Because the wind was so light I had to pump a lot to catch every wave, but I was the only one out so I did not have to worry about anyone else already on a wave (I’d probably snake them anyway). I managed to crank some airs and surfy turns. And I knew that I had to step up my game. When I was on Maui, Levi showed me a video of a taka that he did that was inspired by my taka in the Cabo Verde contest. Levi’s taka was pretty sick – full roundhouse carve before doing the 360. I wanted to do a better one. So, I did a hard bottom turn, came up to the lip, and sunk the rail in the water. It was just a roundhouse cutback for the first part, but I kept pushing and I slid all the way around. My sail got stuck in the white water for a second, but I pulled it out, and claimed it with a fist pump – it was at least as good as Levi’s. Of course, Brendan missed it and blamed it on me for being too far away. But the happiness comes from knowing I did it, not catching it on film.’

‘It was my first trip ever with Brendan and I knew that he was taking a risk coming because he had never seen my sailing in down-the-line starboard-tack waves. I was nervous and wanted to show off a bit, but I was using a brand-new board that I was not used to. Eventually though I managed to throw some good turns and takas. Towards the end of the trip, the waves were small, so I was trying to focus on the tricks – takas and goiters. The day after Brendan left, the conditions were amazing – mast high and 4.2. I was the only person sailing, and nobody was watching! I did some of the sickest turns and takas I’ve ever done.’

Wanna go?
‘If you fancy camping in the desert, under the crystal clear night sky dotted with stars, and wake up to breaking waves, Baja is the place to go. For accommodation, Solo Sports offers camping trips. The camping is really 5-star luxury camping with hot water, tasty food and an open bar. I’ll definitely be back for another session at Punta San Carlos.’

© All photos taken by Clark Merritt. umi 2009

In whatcha ridin we’re checking out what the umi boys are riding and why. Thomas Traversa tells us all about his tiny Fabien Vollenweider Tabou shapes. Over to you Thomas!

‘This board measures 218 x 52 cm and has a volume of 60 litres. It’s my smallest board, I use it from 25 knots and up. It’s the same shape as my bigger quad, just a bit smaller. I work on my boards with shaper Fabien Vollenweider, we start from the volume and shape the board accordingly. Sometimes I have an idea about a board and we talk about it, sometimes he wants to try out some things. We meet on the beach, or talk on the phone and he goes and shapes the board. I then try them out and we talk again, just until we find the board that is right. For the quads we started from the twinfin shapes that I already had before and modified them to work well with four fins. We made the board a bit smaller, changed some small details, but didn’t even change that much. We always start from our previous shape and then take small steps.’

What’s so good about quads?
‘Quads enable you to make tighter and faster turns, especially when the waves are steep. Besides that they go upwind really well, better than twinfins. I use quads all the time now, we want to develop them as much as possible. In stronger winds or when it is onshore I still prefer twins, because they are less physical to sail. Quads can have a bit too much grip in the turns, twins are easier to move around.’

Do you always use prototypes?
‘In waves I do, because the smallest production board of Tabou is 67 litres, and my boards are between 60 and 64 litres. That said shape wise my boards are really close to the production boards, which is normal cause they come more or less from my prototypes. My boards are just smaller and generally have a bit more tail kick, because I’m light and don’t have any problems getting on the plane. In freestyle I use a production board, the 80 litre Twister twinfin.’

Your boards are always very thin, why is that?
‘Well, because I am light, this enables me to manoeuvre well. The rails are also really thin from the tail to the mid section. This goes with the size of the board as well; you can’t put thick rails on such a small board, it just wouldn’t work.’

What kind of fins do you use for this small quad?
’I use 11 or 12 cm at the back and 9 for the front ones, but at the moment we are trying out some 7 and 8 cm ones in front to see how that goes. We have placed the fins quite close together. The larger fins at the back are at the end of the strap, and the smaller ones in front are close to the front of the back strap, all really centred around the back foot. In the beginning we had them spaced further apart, but now we are trying to get them closer together, to make the board livelier, less sticking to the water.’

Do you have a fixed distance between the straps?
‘Yeah, I always space them quite far apart to get a better control, I think it is 47 or 48 centimetres.’

Will Tabou bring out a production quad next year?
‘I don’t know, but we have been making a lot of prototypes the last six months, so it may well be!’

© Action shots by John Carter. umi 2009

This month’s slideshow is from a trip to County Mayo in Ireland with Jamie Hancock, Jack Hunt and Andy King during which we had a chance encounter with Timo Mullen and Peter Volwater. The idea of the trip was to check out some new spots that we found on Google Earth, as it turns out the main spot, Cross Beach, is regularly sailed we just didn’t know that! It’s a fairly tame beach as far as west facing beaches go in Ireland and well worth a look if other beaches are a bit big.

County Mayo is as gorgeous as the rest of Ireland although with its own rugged and rocky charms not as bleak as the northwest but with more wilderness areas than the south.  One of the highlights for Andy and I was seeing a large otter crossing the road as we left Cross Beach one afternoon, so if you do head over there keep your eyes open as you drive around and you might be as lucky as we were.  If you don’t see any otters I’m sure you will see a few rainbows!

Words and pictures Brendan Pyatt – © umi 2009