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

A little more than a week ago we got a solid 10 to 12 foot swell at playa zicatela, puerto escondido, mexico. just coming over from austria to visit our friends living close to puerto all of a sudden the game was on to tow into some solid waves.

During the night everybody woke up by the thunders produced by the fresh swell hitting the sandbar at the nearby beach. We got up in the dark to go to Zicatela and to get out there with the first light to play and tow into the biggest waves i have ridden so far. Watching the others towing and surfing and getting the first few rides myself it all started to feel so comfortable and fun! With the jetski everything feels pretty easy and safe. You catch the wave way early and having the straps on the board makes it feel like snowboarding down a steep face. At the end of the wave or if you pull out over the shoulder the jetski most of the time is right there to get you. The biggest difference though is that the face is moving and changing the shape, what a trip!

When i got towed into my most intense wave, a pretty big righthander (Stan called it a 15foot face, chris a 20foot face) i was doing big turns down the face. At the bottom i saw a spot up on the lip where i planed to do my next turn, up there i was looking down realizing that what was a nice big hill before turned into a steep drop back to the bottom, whoow, what a feeling!!

Towin surfing feels like heliboarding

red flag means ready for tow in

its a lot like snowboarding, only this time its moving water instead of snow

I took a picture of this guy getting a nice righthander