BEN KATE KODA
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Friends
We have returned from Mexico after almost exactly three months in Baja, spent entirely in the vicinity of the Seven Sisters. After the big Christmas swell we returned to The Wall and hunkered down. The surf became much less consistent, and some days were just about sitting around and reading books.
My birthday is in January, and a few of my friends had mentioned coming down and spending some time with us. I didn’t really think this would happen, as we were about as far in the middle of nowhere as it was possible to get, and coming down would be a commitment. I was rather surprised when two sets of friends ended up visiting. First Peter and Jeff came down in Jeff’s recently built up truck, “Brodozer.” I know Peter from a long time ago, when we used to be whitewater kayakers, and he came up to Humboldt to run some rivers. More recently we have reconnected over surfing, and this last summer we spent six weeks in Nicaragua at a house Peter likes to rent. Jeff is part of the Ocean Beach Size Queens surf crew, and along with Peter was super helpful to Kate when she started her new job as an engineer in The Bay. It was great having these guys visit for the week.
Luckily the wind calmed down after their first night, and we had a week of small, but clean, waves. Having people around reminds us that our lives are a little odd. To someone coming from a more active and urban lifestyle we don’t really do a whole lot. As a result, we were somewhat more busy during the OBSQ visit. We surfed as many as three times a day. We attempted to wing foil, but were foiled by the lack of wind. We went to Guerrero Negro and got some tacos. Then we went driving up towards some of the other Seven Sisters, stopping in Rosalillita and getting some more tacos. The surf all week was pretty small, but still clean and fun.
After a week to recover from our sudden exposure to a social life, another two of our friends came down. Matt had bought a new Sprinter van and this was its shakedown cruise. He picked Graham up at the airport in San Diego, and they came down for the week. Both these guys are friends from college, and we have done some good adventures over the years. The surf was larger and bigger for the week and their time ended with a storm rolling through, which prompted us to drive north in search of a protected cove where there might be surf. We found one, but the surf was no good and we returned to the Wall after two nights. We had our first hot shower since November out of the back of Matt’s van, which was pretty decadent. Matt and Graham left back to their lives, and we were left with two more weeks before our departure for the states.
The last two weeks were a little mediocre. The waves didn’t really cooperate. Some friends of friends came through. We read a lot and tried to eat the part of our food that was perishable, as we would not be allowed to transport it across the border. Then we sold the Starlink and our E-Bike to other surfers and began our trip north. We stopped again at Puertecitos and had a nice hot springs session. We made it across the border and back to San Diego.
This will likely be our last visit to Baja for quite some time. We are now in Panama, about to help sail an Outremer 51 across to the Galapagos and then the Gambier Islands. Then we will return to the states and sell the van before heading to France on a one way ticket. The next time we cross the Atlantic, it should be aboard our yacht KODA, an Outremer 4X.