mitch blog

For many years i am coming back  to visit my friends in puerto escondido and every year i am hoping for a big swell to realize my dream of towing into big walls. When the swell than was suddenly on the radar and we were watching the crazy towin footage of that  same monster swell already hitting tahiti  i was really getting nervous. I have had some tow sessions with my friend chris over the last years but nothing like that predicted swell! For me not being into it for a year made me questioning myself if i was ready for that.
Once out there and letting go of the rope all the questions i had were far away and it did feel so damn good…like snowboarding a steep powder face, only the face is consistantly changing its shape and character when on your way down the line…
here a little clip i did put together and some impressions from our two day tow session at the playa zicatela, puerto escondido:

swell is arriving with 21 seconds period and 12 foot

the show is on at the beach

waiting for the set to pass

game on! chris on the early shift

down the line chris is disappearing

chris in the house! square beach break at zicatela

next to go: Stan the man! he got the sequence! 1st nice view of the peak

Stan the sequence 2nd

`when i pulled into this i said to myself today is a good day to die!´ Stan the man still alive

my turn! Chris driving the ski i am taking a righthander

dropping into a left

my last possible exit on this one

snow is gone, time to enjoy the summer mountains. i really like to pedal my  heavy bike up the mountain as long as there is some nice run down waiting for me. riding my fully downhill I almost get in the same flow feeling as if i was riding my snowbaord…all pictures taken by ulrich hoschek

sometimes you got to carry your bike to get to the sweet spots...

For the last week we got a good S/SW swell making us surf 5 to 6 hours a day. The surf forecast for our remaining last  week in mexican summer is looking small and we are getting ready to move on for climbing and snowboarding some vulcanos in Ecuador with the crew from the summits4kids project.
From board shorts and paddling in warm water to winter gear and hiking up to over 6000m peaks in the snow. What a trip!

a nice last summer swell made us surf all day

tropical snow and ice are waiting for us, that is one of the vulcanos we want to climb in Ecuador, the Cotopaxi