Tim West - Final Journal Entry From Mexico
August 26, 2009

The swell that hit July 25th at Puerto Escondido was definitely one to tell the grandkids about in 50 years. It was a series of pulses from the southwest over the course of about 5 days with the biggest pulse showing on Thursday night. A few surfers paddled out that evening from the harbor in 20 second interval, solid 30 foot beach break, which was intense to watch. The next day was magical with perfect conditions. Only a handfull of people were out, with two tow teams, to enjoy huge perfect Puerto. Here it is several weeks later and I am still feeling the stoke from that session.

I had been staying at Playa Zicatella for over a month when I saw the swell show up on the Stormsurf.com models. It was a no-brainer to know from the colors on the map that this swell was going to be big. I had driven my jet ski down from Norcal in anticipation of a big swell, but had no tow partner to ride with. A few days before it got big my friend Lael showed up out of the blue and the rest is history. The first couple days were double overhead and just about as good as it gets for heavy beach break barrels. There were a load of people in the water looking for that "one" to come right to them, as was I. Some unbelievable tube riding went down during the first pulse on Wednsday.

Thursday was the day pulse #3 showed up. Around lunch time you could hear it from wherever you were on the beach. Thunder-like sets rolling through with a little bit of cloud cover, which meant a possibility of clean evening conditions. During the next 6 hours the swell jumped up dramatically- nobody out. Sure enough the winds shifted offshore as 40 foot waves marched in like a brigade of soldiers, back-to-back-to back with 10 to 20 wave sets. So I'm sitting on the roof, watching this macking swell flood into town with the most unforgiving close out sets I've ever seen, and all of a sudden out of the corner of my vision I see Greg Long running down the street with his Puerto gun ready as ever to tackle one down. He, Jaime Sterling, Rusty Long, and Will Dillon were on it. It looked scary, not fun, so I opted out. Big props to those guys for getting out there that evening.

It's hard to sleep knowing that I was going to be looking at building high tubes in the morning. Lael cruised over super early so we could get the jet ski prepared and launched in the water with no delay. The view from the beach was unforgettable, especially the feeling of being about to do something special, but not knowing what it would be. Just knowing that we would both have good stories to tell later in the day over a couple Coronas of either getting shacked or doing donuts under water.

Lael was up first. I threw him the rope and whipped him into some huge pits down towards the south peaks of the beach. The paddle surfers were sitting on the north peak in front of the lifeguard stand where the majority of waves were. Waves were holding without a drop of water out of place on that peak, which was hard to stay away from, but we did. At all times we respected that area with distance so there would be no wake or towing through the lineup. Down at "far bar" there were fire hose spitting lefts so we were content waiting over there even though the waits were long. Wide rivers of rip tide flushed out to sea when a close out set came through so we positioned in between them to get the glassy water. Lael pulled me into some of the best waves of life so I'm really thankful to him for that.

Another part of the session was keeping an eye out for the paddle crew- Jaime Sterling, Rusty Long, Will Dillon, Greg Long, Dean, and a couple others. One clean up set wiped out just about everybody, so I jumped off the ski while Lael did the rescues. I'm sure having the ski in the water for safety gave those guys more amp to go over the ledge a little deeper, which stoked me out. We watched a few sets roll through that peak top to bottom and A framing at 40 foot - no joke. When these sets came in you could see them 3 or 4 minutes out on the horizon before they hit. In the late morning I had the chance to throw Jaimie into a few big ones before the wind picked up. He has a step off board with no straps that he rides by jumping off the jet ski as I follow the wave in. Fun to watch for sure. Later in the day I went with Coco Nogales, Oscar, and David Rutherford to a big wave spot that was solid a few hours up the coast. David got a big paddle in that afternoon and I whipped him into a couple of walls too. Lots of stoke when theres two tow teams on one peak with 30 foot waves coming through. Everyone made it in safe that day and they all got some of the rides of thier lives.

This was my first trip to the area and definitely not my last. Its a true test of a waterman to surf at this beach because it is like no other beach break in the world. The local crew has the place wired and get much respect not only for surfing well, but for thier kindness and good vibes. My two month trip had more of everything than I ever expected- waves, friends, food, culture, landscape, and juice smoothies, ha. Thank God for the smoothy bar, couldn't have pulled it off without that place. The next day after the big swell, Saturday, was still 15/20 foot so I launched the ski and towed in a few friends I had met during my stay all morning with a few waves each, most of them for the first time on a tow board. They all said they got the biggest tubes of their lives, which I was more than happy to help with the assist. Its just as fun towing people into big waves than surfing them sometimes, especially when you see how stoked they are at the end of the ride. After towing them for a couple hours I packed my rig, attached the ski, and B-lined it straight back to Half Moon Bay with an adrenaline rush that still hasn't gotten out of my system. Livin' it to the fullest.

-Tim West