Baja Report
February 2008

Team No Wind -

   You get up at 4AM and drive to LAX, catch the 7AM Frontier flight to Cabo, take a taxi 50 miles east and arrive in Los Barriles about 1215PM, have lunch of lentil soup and cheeseburgers, put on your wetsuit and harness, pull a 84 liter board off the shelf (Shawn a 66L), grab a 4.5 (Shawn a 4.2) and hit the water where the wind was hitting 35mph and sail about 1˝ hours, get off the water and shower, jump in a friends car and drive to another hotel, play croquet while drinking margaritas and huddling out of the wind that is still blowing, get back to the room about 845PM and go straight to bed. That was day 1 of a great week in Baja!

   Day 2- Dave 86L and a 5.4, Shawn 66L and a 4.5

   Day 3- Dave 96L/89L and a 6.2, Shawn 74L and a 5.0

   Day 4- Mountain bike ride to the Monument and Scotty’s trail followed by a 3 mile stand up paddleboard paddle to North Beach

   Day 5- Big 3 hour mountain bike ride for Dave with Shawn opting for reading then a shorter but choppier paddle to Buena Vista for both of us.

    Day 6- Mountain Bike ride like day 4, paddleboard like day 4 followed by 3 hours on a Hobie catamaran.

   Day 7- Dave 89L and a 6.2, Shawn 74L and a 5.0 (on the water about 1030 for a 2 hour session then the wind shut down about 2PM killing the afternoon session and forcing us to play croquet again.

   Day 8- Dave 89L and 6.2/5.7/6.2, Shawn 80L and a 5.0/5.4, sail for 3 hours, shower and pay the $120 bar bill, get a cab back to the airport for a 9PM flight and home about 1230AM with an hour drive in the pouring rain. Forgot…sailed into about 200 dolphins about ˝ mile offshore while struggling to plane early.

   Not a bad week in Baja with wind 5 out of 8 days mountain bike rides that virtually guarantee you come back bloody from the cactus. Sorry to have missed Mark’s party although we would make the same decision again. Happy Birthday!

   The equipment was good again this year and I have firmly concluded that JP (Real World Wave and Freestyle Wave) will kick the shit out of you in choppy water while Starboard does not. Shawn adopted the Pure Acid as her own and I opted for the Kombats (both Starboard). Neil Pryde sails are a mixed bag with the new Hellcat OK for playing around in lighter air and the Combat OK for big air but you can keep the Alpha and Expression. All in all, I will keep my Sailworks!

   Can we talk any of you going with us next year??? Save the Presidents Day Week because you just have to see a town where they finally paved the main street and made the sidewalks virtually unwalkable (but curiously they have handicap ramps).

   No bad days!

- Dave and Shawn.

(Add wind and get white caps with the wind coming from left to right in the pic.)