BAHIA MAT GO-OUT IN 4 FOOT SURF

 

Surf’s coming up here at the very end of the 80 day south of the equator sojourn. It’s not surf season but there has been SOME surf anyway. Any go-out is fun. And best ride so far today: drop in, bottom carve, and a bit down the line. Here’s the point:

Looking maybe ESE. Not a great point due to being man made but it breaks off the right side of this rock jetty.

Curious stares from the local surfers as I wade out with a mat and fins. T’s shots remind me just how old I am. But surfing is a essential truth from my 20s when I spent many summers and some winters surfing. Once a surfer, always a surfer, in mind if anything else.

At this point in my mat surfing education I still paddle out but it’s becoming apparent that kicking with the fins is the way to go.

Rode a nice one a good ways in right off: even as the tide was destroying the break it had me hooked enough to keep going out. Snagged a few good waves but, overall, just fun to be out bobbing around in the ocean. Learning to handle the mat is way more difficult than I would have thought. Long enough rides to consciously try to “unweight” my legs and at one point I think it really took of, as mats will do. Tough in basically windblown chop though.

The Landlord, the Man in the Grey Suit, Mr. Fun……. the nicknames abound. One never knows if he will be around. Usually a benevolent landlord though, thank the great maker.

This is the way it’s supposed to go….. a actually well formed wave with a nice face to work. This guy’s in a wetsuit…. unnecessary here. I’ve gotten enough of a taste that now I WANT IT. It’s really reawakened me for surfing….. it IS a essential truth…. at least for me.

And this is epic surf….. the stuff of dreams. Chicama, Peru…. just south of here. A point break that continues on along a sandbar for almost two kilometers, breaking with near this perfection of form almost all the way. Not ethe surfer about to duckdive on the right hand side. This is a good 8 to 10 footer.

Once a surfista……. always a surfista.

Maybe this will be the “before” pic, if I am lucky. Give me a few months surfing and I think I can whip a 57 year old, Alaska reticent body back into form. Drying off at the hostal and classic end of session beverage quaffing. Note the UDT divers fins I have finally whittled down to almost nothing with a jigsaw….. finally can handle them and they work well now.

Me, Henry, and Wayne heading out in the back of a pick-up truck yesterday to check out some country farm property for a friend of ours. Life is good here.

REMOTE FISHING VILLAGE EL MATAL: DAYTRIP TO DELIGHT

Yet another lovely satellite trajectory out onto the surrounding coastal area from our base here in Bahia de Caraquez.

OK….. here’s where we went. T, me, Suzy, Brad, and Mes. Two yanks and three aussies. A remote fishing village of maybe 1000 folks on a little country side road off the main coastal road. I shot a 360 video spin there while we ate lunch:

CocoBongo owner Suzy, a 7 year expat here, from Australia, took T and I along with her son and daughter-in-law to check out here investment property in the little village. That was the official reason…. really just a fun outing for all. It’s a big lot right off the little dirt road main drag with a small house on it.

Hanging out the back of a farmers truck going about 45 on a one lane country road to the beach from tiny logging town Jama. Cost to the beach? 35 cents apiece.

Brad and Mes hangin out in the breezeway of the farmers truck. Maybe a 4 mile run from the main road out to the coast and the little fishing hamlet.

T and Suzy windblown. That’s a hard wooden bench we’re all sitting on. Caught this little truck in Jama after a bus ride of maybe 90 minutes north from Bahia to Jama on this bus below:

Air conditioned bus, for a change, with smooth jazz on the sound system….. go figure. T braved a bus hawkers empanadas for 50 cents. Filled with chicken and papaya. Cost per person for 90 minutes of bus travel? Three bucks apiece.

Grey day and initially checked out the north end of El Matal beach.

Main drag, El Matal….. lovely ambience. No tourists AT ALL. Fishing pangas pulled right up to the road. We stopped for a “first” lunch at a mom & pop restaurante. Looking north up the beach. Maybe a 1/2 mile of dirt road along the beach. That’s it… tiny and quiet.

Looking south from same vantage point. Coast curves around down there to a rocky headland and cliffs on the south side.

19 bucks all in: 3 big beers, 5 platters of fish nuggets, fried shrimp, plantains, and spicy slaw. Immense fun to hang with some australians. And just great folks overall. Brad and Mes are visiting for a few months on a 2 year global trip after Brads two tours in Afghanistan.

Fishermen with a big pail of skate like catch.

Looking to the headland that enfolds the bay at El Matal. Gotta love a dirt main road town. Simple, yeah, and maybe intellectually arid, but ambience out the ying-yang. Relatively clear water here offshore. Green and blue on sunny days.

Caught another farmers truck out to the main road. Got off a bit early hoping to catch a through bus on the main road. No luck so hoofed it towards town and had to cross the river.

Stopped by Canoa on the way home to relax and Bob got to surf his mat in gnarly beach break. The surf was forecasted to be peaking on Wednesday at 5 feet and so it was….. but beach break in Canoa. Actually got some good waves, one excellent. Also got trashed but…. a good workout overall. I LOVE to be in the ocean. Brad went out with me on the other mat. T and Suzy and Mes got a great table at El Bambu.

Suzy has a fav lady on the beach who makes killer fried corvina, lusciously breaded plaintains, and other delights. Grey day meant few folks on the beach.

Our cocinero finished and kept vigil on us from afar. What goes through such a mujeres head? Wish I spoke better spanish. Actually a very dignified and cool lady.

The cocinero goes essential……..

Gotta go back to Alaska in two weeks. 80 days here total by then. 60 right now. Gotta say….. we REALLY  like it here.

Brad and Mes…….

Nice black and white of Mes……

Temp maybe 82 in the pic above. Statistically the coldest month in this area. No sweating and a cool breeze off the ocean. Maybe a 4 foot swell rolling in at El Matal. Life’s good on the Ecuador coast with T.