Arrivare Sir Le Beak!

Que dia! So if I had to summarize today in a few words it would be: Stormy surf, Guacamole and lots of laughs.

Let's begin with the surf: So we played surf chasers this morning before Sir Le Beak was to arrive at the San Jose del Cabo Airport. Our quest took us up and down the Cape until we settled for a few storm swells, none of which were particularly friendly. In the end Peter battled his way out at Punta Perfecta, while I settled for exploring a left break on the inside. I found my left, but had plenty of sets crash on my head. Later in the day we headed back to Old Man's for more of the same.
Team Baja's consensus is "Storm please go away...how about 500 miles south...please"

Now for guacamole. You can thank John and Peter for this one. As we got out of today's afternoon surf session John proclaimed "I want to make an enormous bowl of guac...with like 10 avocados." 5 minutes later we headed to our favorite store, MEGA of the commercial Mexicana to get the fixins. 3 hours later Peter didn't eat dinner because he at a half gallon of guacamole.

Laughs just go with the territory.

We are fired up now that the crew is back together. John landed relaxed and ecstatic because he had nearly the entire plane to himself. Tomorrow is another day and perhaps we'll find the perfect wave... in the meantime we'll keep having a good time.

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Peter's Turn:

Hornbeak flew in today and the 3 Musketeers are back together in Baja. It's nice to get my 4th trip to Baja in full swing with everyone. Today Fonz and I drove the hour trip to Punta Perfecta again hoping against the windy, sloppy conditions we saw at the Cape for some picture perfect waves- our hope was squashed as I struggled out past the inside sets to scare the crap out of myself as very large waves kept shifting around out on the point trying to pummel me. It was pretty trashy surf out there and at one point it started to rain, so I caught some white water foam back onto the shore where I found Fonz still on shore getting ready to surf an inside break. He tried it for a while and then came to much the same conclusion that I had: storm surf = not good.

After we both finished paddling around dodging the waves the best we could, we had lunch on the cliff over looking the break and then drove into town to pick up Hornbeak. Once le Beak got in he talked us into going back out in the surf and because he was so enthusiastic, we found it easy to forget our earlier experience in the day and followed his excitement. We went out again at "Old Man's" in San Jose del Cabo only to find much of the same conditions we found earlier in the day at Punta Perfecta.

I must have paddled around for 20 minutes without successfully getting to the break so I gave up to find Hornbeak and Fonz on shore pondering whether they should enter the slosh or not. I bet they got a kick out of watching me get dominated out there. Eventually they went out and surfed some of the stuff closer to shore. Once they'd been out there a while and I'd been resting, I decided to join them again because even getting pummeled in the surf is better than sitting on the beach- and it's always better with two other friends. This time I hung around on the inside surfing and experiencing a washing machine type environment until things cleared up just enough for me to sprint out past the sets to the outside. Now finally I had arrived at my destination. But it turned out to be much like the inside sections of surf just that now the waves were twice as big and more disorganized (bad combination). Now the task of getting back to shore in one piece was the chore. I ran into some guy out there who thought the surf was great because, "sometimes the waves almost look surfable." I'm not sure where that guy usually surfs, but I just waited for one moderately crappy wave and rode it about 20 yards before body boarding it onto shore. After that much paddling mostly, I was definitely done for the day.

Hopefully everything clears up tomorrow and we can get back to Punta Perfecta for another perfect day. Then I'll be able to see if that dog remembers how to shake.

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Le Beak has arrived:

The flight down from LA was so awesome. I had a window seat all the way down the baja peninsula and the views were wonderful. Plus the plane was only half full so I had the row to myself. A 2 hour flight is so much better than a 24 hour drive along a single lane road with no shoulders with large semi trucks barreling down on you.

2 hours later Fonz and Peter picked me up at the airport in the giant green 4x4 wagon! 4 surfboards and 3 fishing rods inside the car, and a special treat of freshly made doughnuts from the panadaria (or the Mega, because Peter and Fonz had been going to the Mega 3 times a day). It was so nice to be picked up at the airport in the car packed with surfboards and Fonz and Peter ready to go surfing. In 30 minutes we had dropped my stuff off, and we were out in front of the Cabo Surf Hotel.

So the surf was pretty choppy, and huge, but we tried it out for a bit. I felt like I had a duck diving practice session instead of a surfing session because the waves just kept coming. There were no sets, it was storm surf.

Then we went to the store, and picked up tons of avocados and tomatoes etc and made the largest guacamole bowl I have ever seen. All 3 of us could not finish it, it was an amazing dinner. Then it started raining at night so we headed over to the pool to swim in the rain before heading off to bed. It was so warm all night and it looks like it might be clearing up, so hopefully tomorrow it will be glassy and sunny.