Archive for August, 2008

 

the playa zicatela experience

Aug 11, 2008 in summer news

surfing a medium swell in zicatela can be an intense experience. the locals dont use a leash so they would not break their boards to easy. well, i thought that is smart so i did paddle out at a medium day, they would call it 6 foot zicatela day without using a leash. when a set exploded on my head i did loose the board in a second. no big deal i thought, trying to swim in turned out to be a 20 min caught between the rip and the incoming sets experience: diving, swimming, bodysurfing, getting ripped back right into the impact zone… at one point i thought: what the fuck, am i going to drown or what? finally i made it to the beach, where my board was waiting for me.
but not enough, after relaxing a bit and a little coffee break i went back out again, this time using a leash like half of the surfers do to avoid another intense swim. i would rather break my board than getting stuck by trying to swim in again without a floating peace of board leashed to my ankle.
what followed was exactly that, dropping late, wiping out, broken board, feeling like a stupid tourist but at least i made it to the beach easily.
you see people getting the sickest barrels and you see a lot of broken boards, thats playa zicatela, some people love it, some people hate it, but up from medium size its for sure a hardcore spot where you will only find the guys out there who dedicate a good part of there live for surfing this mad barrels, so you would not find me out there unless chris tows me into some of this beasts.

myself after breaking the third board on this trip