And at the end of the road...

The last day of driving is always the toughest one. You are tantalizingly close, but still hundreds of kilometers away. It's got to be just right over the next hill, or around the next bend. You ask yourself again and again, "Are we there yet?"



Photo: Our home for the next ten days. Astroturf under the awning, boards stashed in the shade and our trusty, pink, BBQ pig keeping it all under control. Home sweet home.

But then, suddenly, you've done it. You've arrived. You pull in and pick a spot. And here's the beauty of Mexico. There's no frenzied, year-in-advance, internet reservation system. Down here, you just show up; kind of how it might have been decades ago back home. At some point, Don Pancho wanders over and says hello and you let him know that you're going to be around for a few days. Pay when you leave. Camping's a hundred pesos a night (that's less than ten bucks) and for that you get clean hot water showers, flush toilets, shady, palm fringed campsites and a five minute walk to the point.



Photo: Here's a view from the bath house. Put yourself at that table; it's eighty degrees of dry desert heat, the water's in the mid 70s. What's on the agenda? Here's a better question: Down here, what is an agenda?.

You get yourself good and sweaty setting up camp, all you can think about is jumping in and going for a swim. The draw is too powerful to resist. I end up blowing off the last few camp chores and harass my wife a little too much. But I'm an ocean zombie, entranced by a saline form of voodoo. We hop in the cab and I jam the truck into four high, drop the tires to 20PSI and check the beer and ice status in my shotgun cooler. I love driving up onto the beach. It's the one time a year that I get to actually use my truck's 4x4 gearing. There's always a couple of guys who tell me that the off road option is not worth paying for. "You'll never use it.", they say. Funny way of thinking. To me it's not about using it all the time, it's about using it at the right time. And, at this moment, cruising up the berm just above the surf, loaded for serious lounging- this is definitely the right time.



Photo: Eventually your mind turns to the surf. Truthfully, we really didn't see the point work to it's potential this time. But with a couple of fun, peaky sessions like the one pictured here, it was easy to forgive and forget.

Stand Up Paddle Surf Lessons in San Diego: Give us a call! 619.213.6622 or email john@paddlesurf.net Click here for more lesson information.