Troncones Rocks!

Winter surfing can be the pits, unless you are someplace sunny and warm. To achieve this, I decided to take a winter trip to Mexico; although I originally wanted to go to Puerto Escondido, Mexico, where the surf is incredible. However, my surf buddy, Robin, investigated it and discovered that the waves can be so huge and rough there that surfers' boards can be broken. She suggested somewhere a little more calm, and I had to agree. She found a place named Troncones that had excellent smaller surf. She also explored different inns and found us a quaint little one on the coast called the Inn at Manzanillo Bay. As is the case in any travel to Mexico, travelers have to be a little more careful and things can be slightly more primitive. But, as soon as we arrived we felt we had made the right choice.

Our taxi driver Able drove us the 20-miles to Troncones with a promise to pick us up on Sunday. Although there was surf on the beach of our hotel, it was part of a point break and inexperienced surfers would end up in the rocks that surrounded the beach. We watched a couple of more experienced surfers tackle the break, and it was definitely fun to watch, but we knew our limitations and point breaks were out of our league. We were able to hire a surf guide named Beto (short for Umberto) to drive us to a beach where the sets were more defined and designed for surfers of all levels, including beginners like Robin and me. The drive itself was always an adventure. Beto often had other plans for our drive. We also had to pass through a Federales check point. We made it through two days before we were stopped. Beto said they stopped us because he was driving two blonde Americans; I think it was more random than that since we had driven through without being stopped the previous two days. Beto's lessons were brief and, although we were glad we had him to drive us, his teaching skills probably needed a little more practice. Nevertheless, I really liked him. He let us use a couple of his boards and the board I had was fantastic. It was a 9'6", but was a little narrower than my board. After a couple of falls, I started to really like it, despite it being narrower. Of course, with consistent nice waves/sets, it's hard not to feel comfortable on any board. I had one of the longest rides of my life, as did Robin, catching it midway and riding it all the wave down the wave. Beto wanted us to follow him to the outside (beginning of the wave), but since several other more experienced surfers were out there, neither Robin nor I felt comfortable getting in the mix.

Beto was a jack of all trades. Not only could he teach surfing, he owned a surf board rental shop, served as a caretaker at a house, claimed to have massage-healing hands and also could show us real estate for rent/sale. All in all, though, he took care of us, drove us to the La Saladita beach and rented us good boards. Three cheers for Beto!

As a matter of fact, three cheers for Troncones, Mexico!

No surfing this week..

The cold snap this past week made it impossible to surf; not just because it is so darn cold that I don't want to even think about getting in the water, wetsuit or not, but also because it flattened out the surf. No waves, so, naturally, no surfing. I visited with my friend Robin this week. We are planning a short trip to Mexico. While I was at her house, she showed me a new yoga for surfers video that she recently ordered online from Netflix. Yoga...I definitely need more of that. Right now, my training for surfing is a a lot of spinning, some weight-bearing exercise and as much cycling as I can get. I used to swim several mornings, but I have found that the swimming exercise isn't as good for me, believe it or not, as the weights. The weights are increasing my swimming on the board. I think yoga will help me overcome the severe muscle memory I have from riding bikes in a slightly, hunched position for so long. I need to be able to arch my back more for the swim out. When I watch the really good surfers, they all have great form on their swim out. They arch their backs and make it look effortless. Just got to keep on practicing!

Holiday surfing

Fortunately, I get the week off between Christmas and New Year's. Unfortunately, the weather doesn't always cooperate 'cause it is usually just cold and rainy during week 52. This week was no different, but that didn't stop me from going surfing on Wednesday and Thursday. With my 5-4 wetsuit, surfing in the cold isn't a problem. The only issue is the strip-down after we finish surfing because, by then, my hands are so cold that doing anything that requires finger dexterity is nearly impossible. That 10 minutes could, quite possibly, be the coldest 10 minutes of my life. As ridiculous as that may sound, it is exactly how I feel. And, because I'm wet, my booties are suctioned to my feet and require a lot of pulling and tugging. My wetsuit literally fits me like a glove so that removing it is like peeling off a layer of skin. It's definitely a two-person job, and I'm lucky to have my surfing dudettes Andrea and/or Robin, as well as Brian to come to my rescue when I, literally, get into a pinch.

This week, while Andrea and I were out surfing, Andrea's husband, James, showed up and shot some photos. He got some fabulous photos of Andrea catching waves!! She was even able to successfully post one as her Facebook photo. She looks great. He caught a couple of me also; especially one of me doing the pop up completely wrong. Instead of popping up on both feet, I'm moving to one knee first, which is a complete waste of time and downright goofy-looking, and it has nothing to do with my anchor foot (I'm a goofy-footer, so that last sentence was my attempt at humorous sarcasm). Brian wants me to call him so we can critique the photos, but I haven't had the time to do that yet. Although, I really don't need a critique as I can see my positioning issue. I'm practicing my pop up now on the living room floor, but even though I can do it in the comfort of my home doesn't mean I will naturally do it right out on the board. Not sure what to do about that one, but I'm willing to take any suggestions!