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Back in 1972, 19-year-old Sean Collins was sailing up the Baja coast with his dad and a couple mates after a race in Mazatlan. They were bucking strong northwesterlies and finally coasted into some smoother water in the lee of a big headland. Sean had scoped out a potential right-hander on the nautical charts that looked like it'd be protected from the afternoon winds and wanted to stop for a wave.
"In less than an hour I was pretty much ready to get back to the boat," Sean remembers. "Dusk was coming on quick, and it was getting kind of spooky. Lots of life around with seals coming really close, fish breaking the surface, lots of bait getting pushed up by something underneath. Time to go." But he made a mental note of the place for future reference. "I just wanted to be sure to surf with a few other people," he said. "So I could improve the odds of the spookiness factor." Thirty-two years later, he did his fist visual recon mission. In the spring of 2004 he managed to fly over the zone in an Aero Commander, taking all kinds of video and trying to figure out if his fantasyland still existed. It did. "There was a solid, overhead groundswell running and the right was firing with five stacked-up lines racing for what appeared to be a couple hundred yards," he smiles. "And then I noticed the left." It was only a matter of time before he went back.
Introduce our new friend the Honda Aquatrax PWC, a GPS, SAT phone, food, fuel, a couple he-man sized 4WDs and a crew strong and experienced enough to deal with the unexpected -- Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach, Dino Andino, Jodie Nelson, Aaron Lloyd, and Sean -- and you've got a Mission. "This was definitely not just your 'throw your boards in the car and drive to Baja' type of deal," Parsons says. Plus, the swell window and optimum conditions for the place was very specific, so Sean and crew had to wait for just the right swell -- which took months to come together. "Even as prepared as we thought we were," Sean says, "After the trip, we realized we were incredibly lucky that nothing really went wrong." Once they finally got out there and went through the hassle of figuring out where to set up camp in such a tidal zone, that's when the fun started. "Getting out to the waves was interesting," Mike Parsons recalls. "The wind was really heavy and the channel chop was huge and the landmarks were difficult to work out 'cause it was all low-lying scrub brush -- but I love that kind of stuff. I really enjoy troubleshooting and trying to dial stuff like that in."
And as the crew fanned out from the perfect right to the perfect left, the PWC proved their worth in gold -- and ended up bringing them closer together as well. "We all learned a lot about each other on the trip," Jodie Nelson says. "The day the left was firing, Dino let me go first. It was amazing, pulling into stand-up barrels and having him on the ski right there watching and I could hear him hooting." "It's a lot of teamwork," she went on. "I wanted Dino to get the best waves, Dino wanted me to get the best waves. Usually when you're surfing you're on your own, you're off by yourself, but this was a really fun great experience. It's amazing that something like that exists and that we were able to participate in it."
"You wouldn't want to be swimming for more than a couple seconds out there," Snips agrees. "Especially at the left. Which was unbelievable, by the way. It reminded of a mix between Cloudbreak and Restaurants, but over sand. I'm really freaked out about the place and can't wait to go back." And after ten hours on the water, it was typical Baja waiting for their return. "Dirt everywhere and in everything," Sean smiles, "You're caked with salt and sand and the wind howls all night. Not Tavarua, that's for sure. But it's funny what perfect waves can do to your comfort level." But after a couple ten-hour days on the skis, the swell started to drop and their bodies were almost thankful. "Surfing perfect waves all day with no one out, is an unreal experience," Sean says, "but bouncing around on the skis without a break or much food or anything kinda gets to you after a while." Former pro and longtime industry vet Dino Andino was frothing. "It was one of the best trips I've ever been on," he says. "I was stoked to get down and dirty and jump on the skis and find waves that no one knew how good they were. It was cool 'cause a lot of times I go on trips where I go on a plane and I know where the waves are, with plush surroundings and everything. This trip made me feel like a surfer again."Jodie Nelson agrees: "It was the most grueling, physically taxing trip I've ever been on. Being out in the water, in the elements, all day, all those days, and the actual driving down there with the skis and the trailers and the crazy big rigs on the two-lane Mexican highways, inches away...setting up camp, breaking down camp, the wind the dust you're dirty all the time. I vividly remember pulling up to the hotel and dreaming bed, air conditioning, showers, food ... man. But I'd go back in a heartbeat." Sean Collins sums it up: "I've done a
lot of Baja trips. Hundreds. But this one totally kicked our
asses! An extreme effort to get there, the unknown factors,
the camping situation, the dirt, the wind, the currents, watching
out for each other in an incredibly wild place, the sharkiness,
safety backups for everything, etc. But the waves were insane.
Funny how often some of the hardest Baja trips are the best." For more on Bahia de Tiburon, including exclusive photos, check out the new Surfer's Journal, Volume 14, Number 2. --Ed
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