Isle Crew Chasing Winter Swells in Northern Baja Mexico

Isle Crew Chasing Winter Swells in Northern Baja Mexico

At the end of January some of the biggest swells of the year hit the west coast providing ideal surf conditions for California and Northern Baja. Seeing these swells forecasted on Surfline the crew started foaming at the mouth and making plans of attack early. We loaded up short boards and SUP’s of all sizes and were ready for just about any condition that mother ocean threw at us. For two weekends in a row the crew drove hours south of San Diego in search of the biggest and best empty and not so empty waves that North Baja had to offer.

The first weekend was MLK day and the swell just so happened to be peaking on that Monday along with perfect weather and a puff of offshore to boot. We scored perfect conditions at the hollow beach breaks and a few lesser known peeling points breaks. With weather and swell on our side we lucked into some of the best surf the Northern Baja coast had seen in months and surfed our brains out.

The second weekend came just after the most watched surf event in the world to date at Mavericks. When the ocean arises with these conditions so do the big wave surfers from all ends of the Planet. We went so far as to hire a Ponga (Mexican fishing boat) to take us an hour off shore to a rock Island. The island is uninhabited other than a lighthouse, some old fishing shacks, seagulls, and Osprey. But, it is surrounded by large waves as it has 360 degrees of exposure to open Pacific Ocean. We paddled around the island and even jumped on it to shoot some photo’s of all the big boys jousting for the set of the day. Later in the afternoon once the crowd settled and the pro’s had their fill the Isle crew jumped out on on the big guns and stand up paddle boards and managed to pick off a few bombas.

Mexico, especially Northern Baja is always a hit and miss type mission. You never know what the weather and waves will reveal until you arrive, but its when you score big it makes up for all the times you put in the effort and came up craps. When Northern Baja is going off its got some of the best surf in the world hands down. Until the next swell Adios Amigos!