surf spots

Playa Zicatela

"The people from the clouds" or the Zapotec, the people once native to this area worshipped all forces of nature. They respected the power and the beauty of these waves. The Zapotec brought gifts and sacrifices to the waves of Zicatela and la Punta. Why was this land embraced so sacredly? Well, the more time you spend openheartedly feeling the nature of Puerto, the more you will see through the eyes of the Zapotec. Puerto Escondido is in its own world. As the Zapotec believed, the end product of such energy here, slows time down. So that's how the saying is said; "time stops in Puerto."

 

 

Waves:
Linguists and archeologists have only recently discovered the meaning of the word "Mexico". An ancient Mayan term, it refers to the moon goddess' navel and implies the essence of fertility. Oaxaca state, the pregnant belly of Mexico, bulges southward, pointing this rural gut of the North American Plate at the Southern Hemisphere. At a certain point here, a branch of the San Andreas Fault emerges from an offshore convergent tectonic plate zone as an underwater canyon. Like a geological umbilical cord, this snaking canyon funnels in any southern swell, magnifies it and feeds the wave energy onto 200 yards of sand. The result is the meanest beach break in the world -- the Mexican Pipeline.

Quality: world class, epic A-framed, peaking beach break
Experience Required: experienced surfers for any day, skilled wave masters for big days
Frequency: only in January did i see a day that was not surfable, Zicatela picks up anything

Wave
Type: defined peaks, A-framed beach break
Power: hollow, fast, boxed, and bowled
Length Normal Day: 50m
Length Good Day: 50 to 150m
Bottom: just sand

Tide & Swell
Swell Size: surfable whatever size but starts working at 1.0m-1.5m / 3ft-5ft and holds up to 5m / 16ft and way over
Direction: cleanest on direct south swells, but has waves with whatever is dished out
Tides: can be good at any tide
Wind: always offshore in the mornings, sometimes when the rain comes in the evening, offshore may come again

Access & Info
Distance: Main beach; Zicatela
Crowd: Smaller days get crowded, bigger days tends to filter out the unworthy
Hazards: locals, riptides, and stingrays
Locals: Very local, bring respect and aloha spirit. Don't even think about dropping in on any local, even if they ask for it.
Boards: pintails are the Puerto style, even with longboards. Have a few in the quiver, there's small days, and there's big days, and then there's BIG days. Its a bit safer not to wear a leash, especially on big days.

Tips
Cuidado: If you don't feel comfortable in the water, watch out for bigger days. This is riptide land, so just take it slow. A riptide looks like a brown river going out to sea. If you get pulled out in one, let it take you out then just swim parallel to shore to get out of it.
Locals: bring respect and a smile
Stingrays: Not something to be scared of but accidents happen. On colder days stingrays hang out closer to shore. To avoid stepping on one make it a habit to shuffle your feet as you walk out to the line up.

Photo Op's
Almost every morning Rubin Pina and Miguel take pictures from the beach. In the afternoon, go to Central Surf shop or in front of Sakura to grab them.