Date:         Fri, 9 Sep 94 14:08:58 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dan@jrs.com (Danny Dayton)
Subject:      Baja Surf Trip Report (was New HEY!!!)

 
> Whatever happened to that Baja trip you were going to make in that bus?  Those
> of us who drive buses AND surf wanna hear the details!
> 

Well, bruddah JR, I wussed out on taking the bus.  Actually, the guys 
(mostly strangers) in the three other cars weren't willing to drive 60mph,
and they knew where they were going, I did not.  Also, I'd only had the
bus a few weeks and the large oil leaks were making me a bit hesitant
anyway.  Lucky thing too.
The washboard dirtroads (about 12 miles worth) would've shaken the crap
out of it.  The extremely dusty red dirt would not have been fun to clean
out of all the freshly leaked oil splatters, either.

As far as the trip was concerned, it was fairly close to being epic had
the surf been larger.  I drove my 85 Honda (gack!!) Accord (gack!!) beater
and outraced the three dirt virgin 4Xs that went along.  These guys were
serious wusses.  The Honda beater turned out to be an absolute jewel for
Mexico.

We arrived at our destination, Quatro Casas, 165 miles south of the border
around 10am Saturday, with 4 beers already ingested (all on the dirtroad
that leads to the ocean).  My buddy only had to jump out once as we
nearly got stuck in some powdery sand close to shore.

Quatro Casas (not to be confused with Quatras Casas farther south) is a
cold water right point that lines up for 200-300 yards.  I was told that
on huge days it connects to the next point for a total of nearly 400 yards.
Not too shabby.  Dirty dirt and red ant camping is done on the edge of an 80ft 
bluff that serves as a perfect grandstand for the surf.  The location
is around 2 miles north of Robert's Place (named for Mr. August of Endless
Summer fame) and 5 miles north of Shipwreck's/Freighters.  ShipWreck's
was flat the entire 4 days.

Quatro on the other hand was chest to head high plus the first 3 days
with never more than 4 other guys in the water besides the 9 goons that
our group totaled (of which never surfed all at the same time).
Definitely a longboarders paradise, I averaged 35 long backhanders
each day.  The place has very cold water though, and a HUGE amount of
kelp through the takeoff sections.  This stuff was thick and nasty
and would ruin some killer waves about 15% of the time because of its
grabbiness.  However, the kelp more than pays its way there, as the place
stayed glassy all day long.

Oh how I would LOVE to see this place when its big.  Next time though,
I'm taking the Happy Bus.

Stay Wet,
Danny D.
60 microbus