TR: Sayulita & Punta de Mita, Sept 25-30

First trip ever surfing somewhere outside of the Pacific NW....man, I had no idea what I'd been missing...I'll still surf in Washington, but paddling around in 85 degree water in just a pair of board shorts is something I could get used to. The waves were pretty small, but with a longboard it was a fun place to surf...I got to practice getting my toes on the nose and my girlfriend moved up from playing in the whitewater to catching some waves on the outside.

It was nice to visit Sayulita during the 'low' season...I can't imagine how crowded it must be in the winter. The break in Sayulita was small and in the afternoons it usually had 10-20 people in the line-up. We would surf it in the morning before breakfast and then hop in the rental car and go to breaks further afield and often had the beach entirely to ourselves if we were willing to walk 15 minutes or so through the jungle.

For it being the rainy time of year the weather was pretty decent....it never rained during the day and only two evenings it rained a bit along with some rather impressive thunder and lightning. The heat and humidity was insane though...forget wearing a shirt, it gets soaked through in no time.

We ran into some really nice guys from Bellingham that told us about Gecko car rentals...sounds like the guy who owns the local rental company is a surfer and pretty much lets folks rent boards for $100 a week from his own personal quiver of boards....sounds like a good deal. We just rented a little jellybean of a car from hertz and put softracks on it...we rented boards for $150 a week from Sininen in Sayulita...the girlfriend tried out a couple different boards (all decent condition tuflites)...I got a 10' Robert August What I Ride from Sininen...it felt like cheating being on such a big board.

We didn't have actual reef booties, but we brough our 3mm booties for surfing in the NW and they worked fine...definitely kept our feets from getting cut up on the rocks. Also met 'El Fox' who works at Accion Tropical...he came up to our car when we pulled in to the Anclote parking lot to see if there were waves....he was eager to have us hire him to get a boat ride to one of the breaks, but when we told him we didn't have any cash and were hiking to the surf he was just as eager to help us out with some great directions to find the trail to La Lancha.

One of the highlights of the trip was on our last day while sitting on our boards waiting for the next set, a sea turtle popped its head outta the water between my girlfriend and I to take a look around.


A few pics:

probably shouldn't swim here....
http://www.repete.us/Pictures/Mexico...s/IMG_0017.jpg

our deck was right next to a tree with tons of iguanas, so we had lots of visitors....
http://www.repete.us/Pictures/Mexico...s/IMG_0034.jpg

http://www.repete.us/Pictures/Mexico...s/IMG_0057.jpg

nice place to swim in San Pancho, but no waves that day...
http://www.repete.us/Pictures/Mexico...s/IMG_4435.jpg

typical afternoon crowd and minimal waves in Sayulita...
http://www.repete.us/Pictures/Mexico...s/IMG_4203.jpg

best to get a car and go hiking...you'll find some good waves elsewhere...
http://www.repete.us/Pictures/Mexico...s/IMG_4496.jpg

http://www.repete.us/Pictures/Mexico...s/IMG_4495.jpg

Cool Pix.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bud

First trip ever surfing somewhere outside of the Pacific NW....man, I had no idea what I'd been missing...I'll still surf in Washington, but paddling around in 85 degree water in just a pair of board shorts is something I could get used to.

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You've got no idea what you have gotten yourself into now. I hope your job:
a) Pays well
b) Gives you lots of time off

Looking forward to more TRs.

^^^^

Indeed.

That's where I learned how to surf. Super fun place for beginners. Tons of stuff north and south too from what I understand.

Some very good friends of mine own Don Pedros and I basically parked myself there for a week, surfed, drank, and ate like a king.

Oh and the women's surf camps ensure fresh talent on a weekly basis. :D

Sadly, I've gotten fat and lazy surfing behind a boat the past couple of summers...I mean, how can you argue with a 10-15 minute long ride. ;)

Nice...sounds like a good trip :yourock:

On the flip side I went back out saturday for more puget sound wind swell surfing....nasty

saw those whitecaps in the sound this weekend and was wondering if it was gonna be marginally surfable again...but I thinned my quiver of boards this summer and got rid of the p.o.s. Bic longboard I'd been keeping around as a loaner for friends....so I didn't have a board I was willing to risk beating the crap out of at Alki. Good on ya for getting out there again! Looks like the WA coast this weekend might have a last hurrah of mellow longboarding waves this weekend....