BAJA
Once the gear arrived we started our drive, direction San Diego, as it was already too late to drive through the border into Mexico. We spent the night in a motel really close to the Border and left early in the morning. The landscapes and cities we drove through were so impressive that the drive seemed fast, even though I was sincerely a bit scared when we got to Tijuana as this city is well known for crime, but nothing happened and actually the city seemed pretty chilled and fun.
We made a quick stop in Ensenada, Mexico, to buy the food we needed for the week of camping ahead of us and then got back on the road. The last 100 kms were really ‘entertaining’, as it looked like there were no signs at all for Punta San Carlos (PSC) and both our GPS’s weren’t working, but after some ‘blind’ navigation we finally found the PSC signal and started the off-road drive. We were told there was only about 1 hour of off-road driving. Simeon got into “rally” mode and was driving pretty fast so we expected to get there even earlier, but after 1 hour and a half we still couldn’t see the ocean and of course there was no signs! We started to wonder if we were on the right road! Finally after almost 2 hours we saw the Solo Sports campsite, the only real structure in Punta San Carlos, and it felt really good as it was almost sunset and we had spent all day driving through Mexico. We were now in the middle of nowhere with no electricity, no Internet and no water; I was seriously impressed and ready to have an experience I knew I would never forget.
I was in a site with Colby Deer and the legendary Ferdinando Loffreda. The days in PSC were really simple – wake up, have breakfast, windsurf until you couldn’t move or it was dark, have dinner and go to sleep in the tent. All this mixed with lots of laughs, visits to the other guys’ lots, an awesome landscape and some cold temperatures!
There is mainly one wave in PSC, but when it isn’t too big it separates into 2 spots: one upwind called Bomba Point, which is more side-shore and a bit more mushy, and then downwind the completely down the line break, the wave PSC is famous for! It’s unbelievable how awesome this wave is. It gets to the point and from there starts peeling, leaving you time for 2, 3 or 4 turns, then you have to be fast and run down the line as it gets super offshore just before you reach the second peak and continue putting in turn after turn. What a dream!
The IWT competition was a blast and I was satisfied to finish 7th, almost into the semi-final after a tough heat against Kevin Pritchard, Boujmaa Guilloul and Maxime Fevrier where I ended up 3rd but really close to Boujmaa in 2nd. During the last few days of the trip I got a bad infection in my face after a cut while shaving with dirty water, but even so, Baja was still a seriously good trip.
