We recently took a surf trip to Scorpion Bay at San Juanico, Baja Mexico for a week of surfing at the famous 4 points located along the north end of the bay. Many people ask me why we would choose to leave Maui for surfing. Well, in the summer, we often get island blocking from the best swells, and those that sneak through are usually not very big. We took a chance at hitting Scorpion Bay on a south swell (which is also fickle.) Thankfully, we scored chest to head high fun waves with minimal crowds.
The waves were incredibly long. Though on the perfect swell, the 4 points can connect and leave surfers rides in excess of 3 minutes, we clocked our longest ride at just over a minute long. That’s ok though since a minute on a wave feels more like 20 minutes. Amazing rights! We didn’t get any barrels, but we got plenty of fun rides.
The area is in the middle of the desert, and it’s really not for the weary traveler. Instead of driving for 2 days from San Diego, we opted to take shuttle from San Diego to Tijuana, a flight from Tijuana to La Paz, and finally a 5-6 hour drive from La Paz to San Juanico. San Juanico is a VERY small town with around 50 people living there. Mostly Mexican residents, we did encounter a few ex-pats that love the wave enough to have moved there. We don’t see this appealing because there’s really nothing around. Surfing is a lot of fun, but we need a little more to sustain our sanity.
We ventured to a pretty crazy little local festival called San Juanico Days. It was like a 3 day carnival with clowns, rides, games, fights, and all kinds of weirdness you’d only find in a very small, isolated community. We had fun, but some of the events left emotional scars.
All in all, it was a successful trip. Here I am surfing a few fun waves on a chest high day. Glad to be back in Hawaii, but what a fun trip! Thank you Roco Project for making this trip happen successfully and safely!
What were the dates/months of your trip (curious about timing for swell etc)?
Late March 2012. Have fun!