More gear info:
13. Waterproof wallet: small enough to fit in your wax pocket yet large enough to hold your passport, credit cards and pimp roll. If you're staying in a semi-sketchy zone or have to park the rental car off the beaten path, you'll want to know that the paperwork that'll get you home is safe and secure.
14. Mexican TelCel pay-as-you-go cell phone: Pick one up, they're everywhere. Load the thing up and make your calls. You lose it, it get's stolen or you break it? Who cares?
15. Ding repair kit: Tube of Solar-Rez (in my case, epoxy Solar-Rez, since I ride epoxy boards- make sure you use the right kind or you'll end up with a disaster), sand paper, screwdriver for installing fin nut, length of shoelace for leash plug and, most importantly, a roll of sail repair tape. The plastic film sail repair tape sticks like crazy and is totally impervious to water. I buy mine (it's the white roll of tape) from West Marine- don't get the nylon fabric kind!
16. Dell Mini-Inspiron Laptop: This thing's rad- and it's cheap enough that if it was stolen, I wouldn't be too worried about it (which definitely wouldn't have been the case if I'd sprung for the $1600 + Apple laptop I was drooling over). I picked up this little laptop (10" screen, 2 lbs) for $320 bucks. It's the perfect size for throwing in a backpack (super lightweight and small) and it does everything I need... and not much more. Which is okay because this thing isn't my primary workstation it's just meant to keep me in touch with this site and my email... and maybe a surf report or two. Only downer is the 2.5 hour battery life- maybe there's a better battery just around the corner.
17. RadioShack rechargeable AA and AAA batteries and Energizer Rapid Recharge station with cigarette lighter adapter: Everything I need to keep my Canon S5 IS and GoPro powered up and working. The Energizer charger is great; go from dead to full charge in about fifteen minutes. Fire the thing up in the rental car or the casita- a super versatile piece of equipment.
18. Photo gear: Want a killer little camera that snaps fairly sharp photos, decent video and has a zoom that's the equivalent of a 650mm lens? Pick up a Canon Powershot S5 IS. This is a tough little unit, it's not an SLR so there's no worry about dust infiltrating the body when you change lenses. The camera is simple to operate as a point and shoot but does allow for a moderate level of control if you're into messing with all the different photo controls (I really like the exposure compensation button). I've carried this camera all over Mexico, treating it badly every step of the way and I've never had a problem with it. I use the thing to shoot most of the photos you see here on p.net and almost all of the video that has been posted. This model is last year's version, the newer SX10 IS is also very nice but its lens doesn't allow you to add aftermarket telephoto accessories. If you can find one of these out there, grab it.
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