A Wave For Every Occasion
Issue 1 / Thu 28th Jul, 2016
Billy Ackerman makes his regular pilgrimage to Punta San Carlos in Mexico, a spot that offers a multitude of waves to play on right out the front of the remote camp based there.
Billy Ackerman makes his regular pilgrimage to Punta San Carlos in Mexico to partake in a few doses of “the most majestic right Baja has to offer”!
Travelling around the world to achieve your favourite adrenaline rush can take you to some far out destinations. In all the locations I’ve personally travelled to, Punta San Carlos (PSC), Baja, Mexico has to be an all-around favourite. Rise and shine ocean-side, feast like a king, play all day and of course enjoy a Baja Fog or two in the evening! At times you may think it can’t get any better.
At heart, strapless kitesurfing is my passion, but in reality it’s never windy twenty-four-seven. We all need activities to fill the void Mother Nature presents us with and when the winds are not up to par, chasing waves on a SUP is my activity of choice. Traditionally PSC is a kite surfer’s dream location with wind and waves for days. However, when the winds are light, as they often are in the morning, SoloSports Adventure Holidays in Punta San Carlos, Mexico lights up with SUP’s and smiles.
SoloSports is located about eleven hours driving time south of the San Diego, California boarder. If you’re a special individual you will most likely fly into the PSC private airstrip landing roughly 30 yards from where you sleep. Believe it or not it doesn’t take much to be special, and we’d recommend your first trip being organised through the crew at SoloSports, to take away the pain of getting somewhere so remote.
They will pick you up in a private plane in San Diego, fly you over the border at low altitude, get your visa’s sorted at an airstrip near the border and then take you down the coastline buzzing the coast road as you go. You will see surf spots littering the coastline and these are just a small taste of what awaits at camp! Of course you could ignore our advice and just drive down, which is equally fun for about the first hour of off-road action, it then becomes somewhat tedious - trust us!
Regardless of how you arrive, SoloSports is loaded to the brim with fun, featuring an all-inclusive, action-packed adventure camp located in a perfect desert oasis. Instantly you realise how beautiful the Baja Peninsula really is with epic surf breaks lining the coast! The environment has very tranquil feeling and the locals are extremely friendly. It’s off the beaten track too, you’re alone out here and civilisation feels a million miles away, don’t expect a phone signal, and that, somehow, adds to the intrigue of the place!
Owned by Kevin Trejo and supported by a pretty amazing crew, this location brings the stoke to just about anybody. Known for hosting the best windsurfing and kite camps known to man, PSC is loaded down with all the freshest gear you could ever want. Top brands like F-One, Quatro, Dakine, Manera, and more fill the shelves in plentiful numbers. The way this camp is designed allows you to travel with little to no gear hassle; Kevin has everything in every size ready to go making SoloSports a stand out travel destination. Travelling light makes it easy, giving you less to worry about and creating an overall more enjoyable experience. You literally can just pack your wetsuit, a few clothes and let Kevin and the crew do the rest!
Stand up paddleboards are on site ready to ride. Early morning surf sessions are some of my favourite, wake up to the smell of coffee brewing, grab your board, and hit the water before the wind fills in. On the right swell and tide, this place can crank some fast hollow waves. What some of the guys these days are doing on a SUP is blowing my mind! Stand up paddle surfing has really enhanced the power you can create surfing a moderate to slower speed wave break. Being able to get the speed of a long board with the performance of a short board allows the rider to really make the most of certain breaks.
My board of choice is the 7’11 x 28” F-One Madeiro Pro Carbon and I ride this board in just about any conditions. When it’s really glassy and little to no wind I will break out the 7’7” x 27”, but for a 200lbs guy I sink that board quite a bit.
The beach break wave that comes into the main beach out front of camp is very playful and can have a nice variety of split peaks. Of course, the rights line up better than the lefts here, overall this peak is perfect for anyone and everyone on a smaller day. Guys that have barely surfed a paddleboard were catching wave after wave riding them all the way to the beach.
The guys and gals that wanted to step it up a notch sat out a little further on the tip of the Bombora, which is a rocky break that has a little more of a punch to it. Naturally, you have to wait a little longer for the perfect wave, but once you have this spot dialled you will catch some excellent rights.
Feeling a little ballsy? Travel down the beach a little way from the main break to the next point south and you will find a right that wraps around the rocky coast, for some this might be too close to the rocks for comfort. When the tides are right this is the place to surf. Known as The Point this wave will be bigger than the waves at the camp and also a little faster. As it rolls down the point it pitches up to a section called The Chilli Bowl, which will often break left at you as you go right. This enables you to practice smacking the lip as hard as you like as the wave does this in almost the exact same spot every time.
I think that’s the real beauty of this place, the consistency the swells from the Pacific Ocean offer. It’s very rarely flat and even on the smaller days you’ll have decent period swell with plenty of power if you want it. In the camp at the beach break it is always a little mellower and perfect for warming up and learning, then as you progress you can step up to the Bombora and The Point knowing that the waves won’t catch you out, but roll in right on cue over and over!
We’ve had an epic six hours on the water and it’s not even lunchtime yet. As we move through the daily grind at SoloSports we get into a peaceful rhythm of eating, sleeping, and shredding. I cannot say enough great things about the food. The local kitchen staff are off the charts, serving some top notch cuisine. You get three cooked meals a day as part of your package here, if you didn’t spend so much time on the water you would definitely go home a little heavier!
SoloSports has you covered for a variety of other sports too. You need to be fairly proficient to windsurf and kitesurf here, the wind is offshore and there isn’t much in the way of rescue. However, if you’ve got the skills when the thermal breeze fills in during the afternoon you can carry on shredding! The other ace up the camps sleeve is the world class mountain biking that Kevin and the gang have developed over the years. Endless miles of trails are at your fingertips to accommodate any level, they have actually filmed some of the world’s best MTB movies just out the back of the camp and you’ll often find pro bikers hanging out and surfing in the morning and riding bikes in the afternoon!
Keep in theme, the camp has world class bikes to go with the trails, along with all the safety gear you will need to protect you out in the desert. It’s a testament to these guy’s high standards as to just how good all the equipment is here. This isn’t like some second-rate island rental destination, with battered and dinged gear, nothing is more than a season old and it all gets replaced regularly. As Kevin puts it “I may as well have the best gear here if I am gonna ride it too!”
If all the sessions a day are not enough to send you to bed broken at night, guests can sit around the full bar in the evenings and enjoy the sunset as they toss stories back and forth from that day’s epic conditions. The more I visit PSC the more I sit back and soak it all in, every wave, meal and adventure around this spot is full of beautiful scenery and peaceful vibes. In my opinion, it’s the most majestic right that Baja has to offer due to its ultimate features and surroundings. They have the whole package, one that is hard to match anywhere else on the globe.
As stand up paddling grows so do the locations one travels to in order to pursue it. You can SUP just about anywhere, a lot of windsurfers and kitesurfers are adding SUP’s to their quivers due to the fact that it’s a great conditioning exercise and makes them a more rounded waterman. So the next time you're considering a SUP travel destination, you might want to put SoloSports at the top of your list. It’s the trip of a lifetime, and one you will find yourself frequently recounting fondly, with dreams of returning time and again…
Fact Box
When to Go: April to October
Weather: Warm/Gets Cold At Night
Water: Cool 4/3mm Full Suit
Wind: Cross Offshore Thermal
Waves: Reef and Point Breaks Right Handers
Best Swell Direction: SW
Top Tip: Book with http://www.SoloSports.net and make your life easy, also take warm clothing, it gets super cold at night!
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By Billy Ackerman
