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Viva Mexico!!!
7:30 AM Thursday and its on. The Cabo 2002 trip has begun.
My trip starts out at Ben Kotin’s house where we meet with Chad
Stickey and his dad for a ride to LAX.
His dad has a minivan so we could have piled a lot of skimmers in
there if it weren’t for Chads three foot thick bodyboard bag.
The ride to the airport was full of anticipation and ideas about
all the stuff we were going to do, only about 5% of which we actually
accomplished. But what a 5%
it was! We arrive at LAX
where we meet up with Brad Dickey, Paulo Prietto, Mike Stanaland,
Dominic Prietto, John Collins, and Andy Chiavetta, which completed our
crew for the trip. Chia had to go to the Orange County recorders office to get a
birth certificate just hours before his flight.
Way to plan ahead Chia.
Arriving in Cabo it took only about 15 minutes to
make our first big mistake of the trip, renting a Dodge Intrepid.
Driving away form the airport with four skimboarders and gear in
the car it bottoms out just driving down the road, no speed bump or
nothin. This is gonna get
interesting. We arrive at
the Hotel Finnistera and are chilling in the parking lot when two trucks
full of skimmers roll up. About
15 guys jump out and hit the beach after one of the trucks rams into the
side of the hotel. That was
only one of two car accidents I saw in that garage in 24 hours.
Solmar is about 15 foot and totally out of control.
Twenty of the worlds top riders on the beach and only a handful
of rides were completed. It
was heavy and everyone was just stoked to be there.
Chad Stickney just off the short bus (hotel shuttle) charged out
into what at first glance looked like manageable bodyboarding peaks.
That was not the case. Thirty
minutes of scratching later he is back safe on the beach, somewhat to
the surprise of many watching from shore.
The conditions at Solmar have this way of looking like a normal
much more manageable than it really is. It’s totally
deceptive. Waves that look
10 foot from the shore are actually 20 foot once you get out there.
There is a huge amount of water
moving around and it is truly one of the most dangerous beaches
on the planet. The hotel
security at all the hotels on the beach are aware of this too and
don’t usually let people skim there anymore. Too many dead tourists (not skimmers though).
The Finnistera security seemed to realize that we knew what we
were doing (except for Chad…) and let us be, which was pretty cool of
them. After the session we
had some of the best Nachos anywhere served in the Jacuzzi as the sun
went down. Not a bad way to
start the trip.
The next day it was early to rise as we had to make
the most of every hour of daylight.
Cabo has a propensity for getting really windy.
After some brief discussion we decide to try the west coast
spots. The first one
doesn’t look too promising but I know a spot up the road that might
have some potential. To get
to the spot you drive down a sandy wash out to the beach.
The sand isn’t too deep but the clearance on the Intrepid
isn’t too great. So there
we are bombing down a sandy wash at thirty miles per hour with the front
of the car pushing sand like a plow.
Dirt and sand is coming up through the floor of the car into the
cabin. It isn't long before the inevitable happens. Two hours later we have the car unstuck and on solid ground.
Time for a 15 minute hike to the beach.
John Colins was the first to the beach and as he approached the
berm a giant set roles through. Seeing
those waves towering over Johnny as he stood high on the beach was one
of the most surreal visuals of my life.
An excellent way to forget a little car trouble.
The set turns out to be one of a kind and the waves are big but
manageable. Everyone is
stoked on the secluded Cabo session.
We head back to the hotel and everyone scatters relaxing after a
long day in the sun. I go
trade in the Intrepid for a Jeep.
The next day we wake even earlier and drive up to
Todos Santos for day one of the contest.
We head over to the sector house and are greeted by Bill who
tells us that the contest is at the same place as last year.
We head down to the beach and find that as usual Todos is firing.
Everyone just free skims for an hour or two enjoying the
conditions before the contest gets underway.
Some of the locals even build us a sick Palapa on the beach as we
warm up. It doesn’t get
much better than that. The
competition is stiff right off the bat.
There is only one division in Cabo, pro. And everyone who is dedicated enough to make the trip is a
ripping skimboarder. Bill
as always is the standout of the day.
Other notables were Kai Bond and local boy Jaime who were both
demonstrating their abilities to get pitted on just about every wave
that dared come near the beach. After
about three hours of competition the event is finished for the day and
everyone scatters again. Some
decide to stay and skim Todos, others want to eat, go back to Cabo…
etc. Our group decides to
catch a bite at a local taco stand and then check out some west coast
spots again. We score at
K88 (see photo) with some really sick waves.
Very reminiscent of Point Mugu at last years Slotstik Contest.
After yet another skim session we are all beat and head back to
the hotel.
Its back to Todos early the next morning. We arrive
at 8AM when the heats were supposed to start, of course no one is on the
beach who didn’t sleep there. We
go get breakfast and come back around 10AM for some warm-up skimming. Three more hours of competition and the contest is over.
Bill again was dominating in the early rounds.
The finals however were pretty tight with all four riders in
contention. A hour or so
more of chilling on the beach and skimming and it is time for an awards
ceremony. The top eight were:
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Bill Bryan
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George Bryan
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Paulo Prietto
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Mike Stanaland
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Erik Christensen
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Keith Peery
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Kai Bond
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Jaime Lovett
Monday the waves were pretty small.
We drove around looking for skim but eventually gave up and hung
around the hotel for a while. Some
of the guys scored some decent waves on the at K88 but the wind was
problematic. We eventually
settled on some high speed dune skimming which was a lot of fun.
Almost got stuck in the Jeep, that was not so fun.
Tuesday we awoke early to try our luck again with
K88’s. The entire west
coast was not happening though, and upon returning to Cabo we found that
Solmar, just in front of the hotel was firing.
There were about 20 pro skimmers in all ripping up some of the
best conditions of the trip. The
Solmar Hotel security was particularly annoying however and eventually
forced us to stop skimming. You
would think they would recognize a potential revenue source and nurture
it, but that’s another issue…
It was my final day in Cabo and we spent the rest
of the day eating and drinking poolside, which aint all that bad when ya
think about it.
Reflecting back on it all, there is one thing that
is particularly clear to me, this is what a skimboarding contest should
be like. No hand stands, no
flatland shuvit tricks, no one forced to skim bad waves cause that’s
the way the tide worked out and no tourists wading in the competition
area. Just huge glassy
barrels being shared amongst the best skimboarders in the world.
I will drink to that.
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Cabo
2002
