the playa zicatela experience

Monday, August 11th, 2008 @ 09:17 | 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.