Ceviche tonight...

This fish is called Sierra and if you have three or four this size you'll feed a mess of hungry surfers. These guys are like ocean trout except they have the nastiest teeth you've ever seen. Sierra are perfect for ceviche. Adam caught this one- get the limes ready:

Nice work... now get into my belly!

The people down here are hugely resourceful- especially the fishermen who live way out in the desert far from the availability of mechanics or replacement parts for their trucks and boats. Here's an example of that resourcefulness:

When we pulled into the Old Mill I noticed that there was a fisherman with a compressor and hookah rig on the deck of his boat tied up along the rock wall in front of the Old Mill.

The boat, the chamber and it's patient. You do what you have to with what little you have when you're a Baja fisherman.

The hookah rig is common down here. The local urchin and sea cucumber divers use them for gathering their product which is then shipped to Japan. Typically these guys dive offshore so it was surprising to see the line snaking over the side and into the harbor. It turns out that the diver at the other end was in a Baja hyperbaric chamber. That means that he was sitting at the bottom of the harbor recovering from decompression sickness he experienced during the day's dive. The story is that he started feeling the effects of the so-called Bends after a day of working under the water out on the reefs. Since there's no hyperbaric chamber for hundreds of miles the only thing they could do for the guy is send him back down to offgas slowly and the only spot they had was at the bottom of the murky bay. Resourceful- and smart; the guy came up two hours later feeling much better. Crazy, but that's Baja.

Killing it In Baja Part II and... The Gemini!

I'm totally blowing it Blogger-wise. I should post really good stuff one photo at a time- really stretch it out. After all, you never know when the photo well might run dry or you might wake up in a totally vacuous state with absolutely nothing to say (my contingency plan is to revert to "board porn" you know- super close-ups of rails, fins and... tails! Ooh la la!). I can't help myself though- so here's some good stuff all at once.

You may remember Mike and Dan from the "Killing it in Baja..." piece earlier in the year. Mike just dropped me an email with these two killer photos from their trip to San Carlos in August. Mike says, " I swear we only photographed the in-between-set waves, because during the sets, whoever was photographing was too busy scrambling for the outside to take pictures!" I think it's safe to say that this trip will be logged as an A+ adventure for these guys for the remainder of their earthly years. Check the the dorsal color on the whitey in the top photo, that's fresh. How about the paddle floating in the background- I can just imagine the pandemonium that followed the gaffing... paddles askew, these guys laughing their asses off, barely able to hold steady enough to snap the photo. Michael, you gotta give us the full story!

Most Progressive Paddleboard in the water? Steve (aka Capt. Neg9) rides only Alexander Gemini shapes. Check out the stand up board he had done. How radical is this thing? There will need to be a serious question and answer forum for this shape- I know I've got mine. Check back for some shots of the bottom workings on this ride- pretty radical stuff.

Updates: Haven't forgotten about your questions regarding the board cutting process- working on my "sources". And...there may be a new Stamps Carve Machine in my future... Merry Christmas to me!

Shaping Machines, Baja Fishermen, and a Board Test Day

Coming Up:
If you've ever wanted to know where these magic rides come from stay tuned, I've got a inside look at how it gets done. Check out this Channel Islands SUB being cut by the boys at ProCam in Huntington Beach. If you've ever had questions about the process, now's the time to send 'em to me.

Here's another photo of the mystery paddlers from Punta San Carlos. Check out that white sea bass. Now close your eyes and imagine fat fillets wrapped in bacon with some frijoles con arroz and couple of ice cold Pacificos. You've got serious orangutan arm from paddle surfing the Chili Bowl all day long- your neck's cramping up because you can't stop smiling- sounds too good to be true, but that's Baja. Sign me up!

In the water: Had a ridiculous poach-fest with Stu Kenson this morning down in IB. Paddled from the pier to the sloughs snagging the ones nobody else wanted. This series of swells must be a gift to make up for a lackluster summer. Wave of the day goes to SK for the little shoulder tube at "the spot". Couple of realizations: it is absolutely more fun to hit and run on these boards- there are plenty of waves away from the pack (Stu and I stopped at "the spot" because nobody was there- as I looked south there were wide open peaks all the way to the Rivermouth) and secondly, six days in a row of four hour sessions will wear you down but... that doesn't mean we don't want more! Wetsand's calling for another south swell around the end of the month- bring it on!

Last: Rumors in the wind of a stand up board test drive day down here in the Southbay. I'll keep you posted but it sounds like it'll be a day of board sampling for anybody interested in getting into the sport or for those old hands who are curious to try something new.

Killing it in Baja: Literally

Thanks Kiwi: I followed a lead from my good buddy Kiwi and poached these from www.bloodydecks.com. If you're into fishing you should check that site out- full of information from super opinionated (and funny- depending on your sense or humor) fishermen from all over the world.
Here's the backstory on these guys: A couple of friends from San
Diego headed down to Punta San Carlos (Mike and I paddled it in June- water was much colder then) to kitesurf, windsurf and paddlesurf the many waves in that area. I'm going out on a limb and guessing that they had perfected their boards for stand up fishing as well.

Seems like they knew what they were doing. Pretty good yellow tail in the middle photo and I'll post an additional photo of the beefy white sea bass they also caught.

If anybody knows these guys, shoot me an email so I can give them proper credit. I vaguely recognize one of these guys as a North County kiteboarder- let me know.

One more thing: The Laird 12'0 looks perfectly suited for this purpose- check out the milkcrate lashed to the deck. Maybe it's not such a good idea to move to the smallest board that'll float you- especially if you're headed down south and want to use the board for more then one purpose.
Another argument for holding on to a big stand up board.