Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca Harbors is what's thought to be the most famous beach
break on the planet... Puerto Escondido, also known as Zicatela Beach, is where it's at!
Perfect sand bottom surf breaks all around, some guarded heavily by sketchy locals and some
far off the road with nothing more than a bike trail to lead you there. There’s a lot of amazing
waves for such a small area (many of which are said to be secrets).
Few folks can realize and understand the true power of this potentially deadly monster. Earlier this year Monster Army athlete Remy Jubori experienced this for the first time.
After hearing he made four back to back trips chasing giant south swells and storms we had
to check in and see what he’s been up to:
How's Mexico been going?
Been trying to get used to surfing big waves, the energy is a lot different than what I'm used to
in San Diego. First time visiting Puerto was this June, I just fell in love with the place and ended
up going three times after that.
What have you been up to before Mexico?
I've been doing a lot of training in the pool at Cal Poly, heavy cardio workouts mostly. You’ve gotta
be more than ready and really prepared to swim back to shore without a board. If you loose
your board and your breath it could be your life. There's been times I’m trying to swim in, and
taking 20-30 waves on the head before I make it to shore.
I just wanted to get big barrels honestly, I’m trying to get comfortable in the big stuff so theres
no fear or stress at contests when it is really big. The barrel at Puerto Escondido, Its the best
view in the world for sure! You can take off so deep, you just don’t wanna fall on the drop!
Did you get worked on the trip?
The most worked I got the whole trip was at this place called La Punta, it's the left point.
There's super sharp rocks there. I got trapped under one of them! After one of the biggest days we
went to surf La Punta, a perfect left barrel! Some guy paddle battled me way too hard and I
didn’t make the drop. I got trapped under a rock, my leash wrapped around a part of the rock. I
couldn’t get out from under it. I took my leash off and tried pushing off the rock to get back to
the surface but pushed my hand into a sea urchin... When I had resurfaced and made it to
shore, everyone was freaking out that I took off near that rock, I guess its famous for trapping
people!
Have you surfed anything like this before?
The closest wave I’ve surfed to Zicatela is Pipeline, a similar set up just without the reef. It's like
Pipe with more peaks and sand bars. I think Pipes a little easier to surf though, since you’re
taking off at the same spots every time. The crowd at pipe though is a lot to deal with...that's
what is most dangerous!
What was your best wave like this year at Puerto?
Hmmm, maybe 2 days before I left, the swell had cleaned up a lot! I got lucky on this one,
didn’t think I was gonna make it on the drop. A really late drop. Somehow though I back
doored it, and was driving, driving! This was definitely the longest and biggest barrel I had ever
gotten! Until right at the end the thing clamped on me, my board came out of the barrel but I
didn’t. It was the best feeling in the world though! Standing straight up in this thing, it just kept going and going. I didn’t even get worked since I was in the barrel so long, and I was so deep.
Everyone was out there, getting spit out of crazy barrels.
What size boards?
Sharp eye 7’6 - 9’0.
Whats next?
Summer's over, school's in and I’m back on the contest grind! Definitely looking forward to my
next WQS events in California, Barbados, and Hawaii.
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