Stanley's Surf Literature

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This time last year, Ron Dorn took me to a left point break ( Rio Nexpa) that he said would "blow my mind"...the pictures I saw of the place alone on the internet, blew my mind! Ron, his girlfriend Janet & I boarded a flight to Zihuatanejo & after landing & grabbing our rental car, we headed norte' to a tiny town that escapes my memory right now...long drive, so we decided to spend a night relaxing "in style" & jumped into the crystal clear pool. Later that night, we walked into town & found a tiny aquaria & ordered up some tasty "monkey meat"...nah, it was cow, (but in the Philippines your never quite sure what you got on a stick!). We ended up sitting down at the table next to Mike Doyle who said he had driven south with his buddy, as the surf was too big up north! Needless to say, Ron & I were wondering what we were going to see the next morning...

After a small mix-up with our rental car, we finally got to Rio Nexpa & rented our "bungalow on the beach". The waves looked good, a bit of a lull between sets, but "do-able". The only thing that had me concerned (besides the fact that the paddle out to the point was a good 1/4 mile), but the water on the shoreline was this mixture of white & brown foam...now the white foam I can attribute to how salty the water is, plus the "shore pound" was kicking up a lot of backwash...

I started counting bungalows on the beach, 20 maybe 30 + the restaurants. Than I added up the toilets that each bungalow had & of course the "septic symbiosis" of all of this played a part in the brown, brackish color of the water...

Ron, being a fireman in Los Angeles has had all his shots...all I've had is a tetanus booster about 2 years ago...no hepatitis shots.

It was a bummer, but I just couldn't force myself to paddle out the whole 5 days we were there...I had just survived a "near-death" illness the year before & I wasn't going to take any chances with getting sick, especially since I have no medical insurance.

There also was the "Sneaker Clean-up Sets" that were closing out the entire bay every 45 minutes or so...the south swell was working just fine, but there was a WEST component that was frightening! The last day we were there, a set that (without exaggeration) was fully 20' face came through & cleaned 23 of the 25 surfers that were out there into shore. Luckily, Ron managed to paddle over both waves, but it was heavy. I needed binoculars to see him & the other guy they had paddled out so far!

Anyway, Timmy Turner a local California surfer who contracted a mean Staph infection in Mexico...& you thought Hepatitis was all you needed to worry about! Bring on the Avian Flu!

Cojo Dave

Surf Stories

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