We ended up planning for a trip into Mexico since my brother in all his years had never driven into Baja for a surf. We both traveled via plane to Sinaloa back in 2005 for a trip in Mexico but as a surfer he had never done the traditional drive through T.J. and on to Rosarito, and all the K38, K40, etc. breaks that line the coast near San Diego. My friend Bob has a place on the beach in a semi-secret location. So I planned to post up in front of his place and utilize his fire pit and horse shoe pits as a safe zone for camping.
After picking up my bro at the airport at 10pm We headed over to my friend John's house. We ended up at the proverbial Jimmy O's in Del Mar, which is usually the case when hanging with John and Dave. We had drinks and chatted it up and had a good time before heading home. John owns a surf wetsuit company named Matuse, Inc. and my brother is the Hawaii Sales Rep for Matuse. So it was good to hang with all under the same roof since normally the mighty Pacific divides the face time.
The next day my brother and I woke up and packed for our trip. We headed out of town from La Jolla at around 2pm. 40 minutes later we see the famous freeway sign that says Last U.S. Exit. I pulled off to top off my gas tank and buy the Mexico Insurance. In the back of my mind I usually wonder how good the coverage would actually be if something were to happen. I always envision me calling the number and getting a recording that says "Sorry this number no longer in service. If you feel this message to be a mistake please hang up and try again." Luckily I've never had to test it out. We cross the border and get the green PASE sign so no secondary check coming in. They might of been suspicious of us smuggling in our fresh water and food filled cooler. I make my way through the confusing streets of T.J. and try not to miss the unmarked off-ramps and merges to get me around T.J. and onto Rosarito. Luckily I dodged a few crazy cab drivers and hit my mark using past experience. As we buzz through lanes with no markings and pass buildings that look like they should be condemned my brother remarks on crazy it is that people are allowed to build a ply wood house cut into a hillside with no foundation or framing. I just shrug and say this is Mexico. Kind of like the wild west.
We finally get to the coast and cruise down the toll road. Here Mexico doesn't look so crazy as we pass by new development near Baja Malibu. Soon we reach Rosarito and I exit to visit my traditional stop that is Sergio's Tacos. Unfortunately he is closed this day. As most places in Mexico just because it's a work week in the middle of the day does not guarantee the place will be open. So with a frown we go to my next pick and we sit down for some carne asada quesadillas. Freshly made tortillas, cheese, carne asada, onions, cilantro and fresh salsa make for some awesome grub. We both eat two large tacos and wash it all down with a Coke. We pay our $5 and get back into the car.
After driving a while we drive down through houses, over very large speed bumps and down some washboard roads. We finally reach our destination which is my friend Bob's place. As we pull up I see an individual I've never seen before sitting on my friends porch. In Mexico people have been known to squat in residences that aren't theirs but I don't jump to any conclusions. I walk over and introduce myself. I quickly find out that he and his friend are the co-renters of the place with Bob. I quickly remember Bob mentioning this but never met these guys since we never crossed paths before. They graciously let us set up camp in front of the trailer and so luckily we had our safe haven for the next two nights.
Soon after arriving we were greeted by fellow neighbors. A bunch of Americans who I might guess don't want to be found by authorities in the U.S. This of course was mainly just my imagination since no hard facts presented itself but you know the feeling you get when you meet some people and hear them talk for a while. Lets just say my suspicion meter was going off a bit. Anyhow, they were all pretty hospitable. Also greeting us were the local neighborhood dogs. We let the 6 or so dogs familiarize themselves with us so that they would feel comfortable at our camp site. This also helps at night since they would defend us from outsiders if something were to happen. The only cost was seeing one dog piss on two of my rims to mark the territory. At least it wasn't my tent.
After setting up our camp we walked down the short road to the beach. We checked the surf to see it was fairly large but blown out. The predicted South swell was hitting in full force. The current looked pretty bad as well so we decided to wait until morning for better conditions. The night came and we ended up making a fire. Duralog to the rescue. A must have when you have no room in a Mazda 3 hatchback stuffed with surf gear, camping gear and food. Luckily Jessie and George had some wood to cntribute and we got a pretty good fire going for the night. We all had fun talking and drinking Tecates. Jessie was super hilarious and he and George went back and forth throwing insults at each other as long time friends often do. The two together looked exactly like Cheech and Chong. Jessie being Chong and George being Cheech. Jessie even had the long hair and glasses just like Chong. My brother later on the next day asked me if I thought of the same thing. It was funny how we both thought of it. This further reinforced the obvious similarities between them and the famous duo.
We ended up surfing the next morning as the conditions cleaned up coercing us to paddle out. My brother has been in Hawaii for the past 12 years and hates the cold. Not only is Northern Baja generally a lot colder than San Diego but the week leading up to my brother coming out we had strong onshore winds that brought windswell to our coast. This usually also means that we get cold water up-wellings from the depths of the ocean. This drops the water temp a good 4-5 degrees on average over night. S.D. went from 60 degrees down to 56 overnight. Mexico this morning felt like it was around 54 degrees or even less. So seeing my brother suit up and step into the water was quite amusing for me. His feet instantly turned to giant rocks and he had a look of pain on his face as he made his first duck dive as we paddled out. He did well and lasted about 45 minutes. Luckily he was wearing a Matuse fullsuit which kept his body super warm. His problem was he got a headache from duck diving and his hands were frozen as well. He paddled in and I went in shortly after. I ended up paddling out later that day and came into contact with something very large in the water. I guessed it to be a small whale since I didn't want to image a shark being that size. Whatever it was my brother saw it from the beach and I saw the water footprint. Luckily I did not get attacked or anything but I did make my way out of the water shortly after the incident.
We played horse shoes with Jessie and George and drank some more Tecate. Night fell and we sat around the camp fire again. More laughs as we watched the interaction between drunk Jessie and George. We talked story and jokes until about 11pm and then hit the sack. Morning came and we checked the surf one more time. It looked fun but it was overcast and cold. My brother wanted no part of the cold so we decided to pack up and head for home. We said our goodbyes and made our way back up towards T.J. to make our way through the border.
The border crossing is always interesting. You see the funniest and most peculiar things for sale. Some items are so large you wonder how anyone could fit the thing in their car even if they wanted to buy the item. My personal favorite is the huge fake stone carving of the Aztec god covered in silver glitter. My other favorites are all of the NFL and Disney character knock-offs so blatantly infringing on copyright law. But again this is the modern day wild west. It only takes us about an hour to get through the border. No passport was requested although it is now required by law. Once again we hit the U.S. highway and how good it feels to be back on U.S. roads. I love visiting Mexico but I always love returning home.
After returning home and washing up we met up with the Matuse crew at Nobu in Solana Beach. This consisted of John, John's brother Joe, John's dad Mr. Campbell, Dave and my brother. We all talked about the future of Matuse and had a great meal at Nobu. Mr. Campbell, always being most generous, picked up the bill for all of us. It was greatly appreciated as the sushi was awesome. It was great to have my brother meet Mr. Campbell and also give his ideas of what was important for the product and the Hawaiian surf market.
The next morning I dropped my brother off at the airport sending him back to paradise and warmer waters. It was great seeing him again and spending time with him. He was huge part of my life growing up and I miss all the time in and out of the water with him. That's why these trips mean so much. I can't wait to visit with him this winter out in Hawaii. Til next time bro!
