A surfer road trips along Mexico’s Pacific Coast to see how much his 1960s-era haunts have changed.
After hearing Jim’s idyllic-sounding surfing stories for years, I suggested a road trip to revisit the haunts of his youth. We started in Mazatlán, at the mouth of the Gulf of California on the Pacific Coast, where we now spend the winter months. Our goal was to find not just the towns, but also the exact stretches of beach where he stayed, where geography, winds and water currents converged to create world-renowned surf breaks.
Under a cloudless February sky, the dry desert air from the nearby Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains heated the blacktop on the two-lane highway, making for perfect road trip conditions on the drive to San Blas. Along the route, the landscape morphed from marshes and lagoons to mango, agave and banana farms. Trucks streamed by in both directions, passing each other in an imaginary but mutually understood center lane.
Although the beach looks the same, some artificial jetties and a hurricane have filled the bay with sand, so visitors have to wade out quite far to swim. The waves are now more suitable for beginner surfers or children. Surfers looking for larger waves these days head to Stoners Point, reached at the end of Las Islitas via an unmaintained dirt road.
Jim said he and his friends used to drive on the beach, taking turns picking each other up at the end of their half-mile or longer rides. “Those days are gone,” he said. “But the beach is still breathtaking.”Spectacular scenery is not limited to the beach. At the top of San Basilio Hill, the ruins of a 1770 fort, La Contaduría, command a striking view of the town and harbor.
After three nights in San Blas, we set our sights on Punta de Mita, in search of the sweet surf spot that, back in the day, was celebrated as a classic Malibu-like point break, a long break wrapping around a small, rocky reef. Jim referred to it as “my own little Shangri-La,” a place where he and his buddies would surf all day and share a palapa under the stars on a powdery beach at night.
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