Around The World In 80 Waves

Despite our surf safari it was still early by the time we opted for the morning glass on offer at Playa Hermosa, which was the best of a not particularly inviting bunch that we had seen.

We found a shady spot to leave the car in under the trees just above the water line.

Apart from a few families who had started their day at the beach early there was nobody about and we paddled out with the break to ourselves. There are towering hills surrounding the bay, all completely covered in dense vegetation and the beach truly lived up to its name which translates as Beautiful Beach. (However I should probably point out at this stage that there is a Playa Hermosa approximately every 20miles all the way from the USA/Mexican border.)

I thought I was paddling out into a fun waist or chest high session where we were not really going to be challenged but loads of great waves would be snagged by us both. However I could not have been more wrong.

This was the picture of the day but don’t think for a second that it was easy. Only about one wave in twenty didn’t suddenly lunge up to at least head high and then close out right across the bay onto about a foot and a half of sand, with the spray, sand and possibly you being sent flying twenty five feet into the air. The wipe outs here were unreal and I shant need to see a chiropractor any time soon after getting my whole spine wrenched into place with an unnerving series of cracks on one!

This picture is a crazy shot of me trying to ditch my board and bail off the back of the wave rather than drop into yet another pit of oblivion. By the looks of it I probably went head first over the falls with the lip and was lucky not to land on my board as I went.

I dont know if it was on this wave or not, but on one I took such a hammering that my shorts were nearly torn off. When I eventually got back on my board and back out past the impact zone I realised it had ripped my fly open and my wedding tackle was actual hanging out the front of my shorts. I thought better of publishing those shots from the Go Pro.

Despite all of the above we both had a really enjoyable session, then spent the rest of the day talking breaks, boards, freediving, seafood, travelling and the merits of bikini clad female surfers in the bar back at Dominical.