words, words, words

The article on surfing Ecuador is coming right along. I’ve had a great response and can’t wait to share the information with you. Again, send me an email if you want to find out how to surf Ecuador on the cheap.

Due to a number of reasons, not the least of which is the owner of a hotel being a jerk, I will be publishing a guide to surfing Ecuador and the Galapagos, on a budget, for any fellow surfers that want to go feral instead of paying too much for a tour. I will be including driving instructions, GPS coordinates, tides, best time of the year and a number of spots.
So if you want to go on a cheap surf trip in the Galapagos Islands or mainland Ecuador, send me an email and I will send you a copy of the article. bkoplitz@gmail.com

I thought I would put up all the information that I have about Ecuador, the “Secret Spots” and a poor surfers’ guide to surfing the Galapagos for cheap.

There is no reason to pay a lot of money to go on surf trip. I have guided surf trips in Ecuador and am going to give out all the information that I have.

On the mainland I will tell you how to get to:San Mateo: A world class left.  Montanita: A crowded right with a good barrel section on the take off.  In the Galapagos, I will tell you how to get to:Punta CarolaLa LoberiaCanyon I’ll put together some more spots as well, but this is a work in progress.

Email me if you are interested, and I’ll let you know how it progresses.

It is raining in Puerto Escondido.
The surf was ok this morning, it is certainly big, but the shape isn’t good enough to write home about.
It is Friday night though… so I’m sure there will be shenanigans to watch.

For the past two days I’ve been seeing a bunch of cool animals in the lineup. Things I’ve never seen before that close in. A tuna cruised through, as well as a number of flying fish. Deep sea pelagic species like those are normally in water that is, well, deep.
The surf has dropped. It is still close to double overhead, though.

(click for bigger image)
I am also shot a brief QuickTime
movie. (Hence, it is not me.)
Of course, now that it has dropped, I break my board. Go figure.
It will be fixed by tomorrow afternoon. I need to get a smaller board to ride on days like today. I got a couple of really good barrels.

On another note, I bumped into my Argentine friend, Pepe at Zicatela beach today. He was singing the praises of Barra de la Cruz, a surfspot 3 hours south of here. It sounds really good, I am going to have to go down there and check it out for a few days.

I had the biggest wipeout of my life this morning. My first wave of the day, I dropped in too late and nosed my board at the bottom. I was bounced off the sand and then tumbled for what felt like forever. I had to open my eyes and swim toward the light. I got a quick breath and then almost instantly hit by the next of the 4 other waves of the set (all of which were double overhead+ and chucking barrels). Since I didn’t have a leash, I had to swim to shore, collect my board and paddled back out, I got about 10 waves, and they were all very very big.
The surf here has picked up quite a bit. There are number of Hawaiian pros out in the water and everything was turned up an notch.
Of course, right when everyone started to take themselves too seriously a guy paddled out on a longboard with a luchadore mask. Mexico.

Here is my new (to me) board, a 7′10″ Local Motion. Cost 2000 pesos.

I’ll try to take some pictures of the waves tonight.