Surfing in Baja California

We left early on Friday and took the 5 freeway down to the California/Mexico border crossing at Tijuana. Arriving in the evening at our "basecamp" of a friend's beach house, we were able to get an evening surf session in at Baja Malibu with good waves. We enjoyed beers and live rock music with the locals at a bar and called it a night after getting late night tacos from Rosarito.

We left around 10am on Saturday for our expedition to find good surf off the beaten path. We traveled south through Ensenada and continued to follow highway 1 to a little town called Santo Tomas. It was here that we veered off pavement. About an hour later, we came across the ocean again after a bone chattering off road session in my stock 1996 Jeep XJ.

We walked down the path by the fishing boats of the locals that live at Punta San Jose. Paddling out and surfing most of the day was excellent. We left around 6pm to have light out for the trip back. We dropped our bottles off at the store in Santo Tomas for our deposit and then got searched by the military at a checkpoint just north of Santo Tomas.

Getting back to the beach house after enchiladas and a few beers/margaritas was great after a day long expedition to nowhere to find surf. Enjoy the photos!

gassing up in San Diego (yes, we ended up at a Pemex...no gas problems though!)


The waves at Baja Malibu


The store at Santo Tomas


Group photo on the road


Cruisin' off the beaten path


Arrival at Punta San Jose


Being goons with local bulls


Parked and ready to surf!

The waves weren't half bad!


emo shot of my board and an abandoned boat


Getting some quality grub. I gotta say that I'm not a huge fan of Mexican crumbly cheese...

cow tipping? or looking for some shroom

"slap the bull"

That road out of Santo Tomas was just part of the Baja 500 course.Very pretty scenery along there.You should of went next door to the beer store and had some goat taco's!

Goat??? Montezuma only caught up to me today and we had pretty decent stand tacos all the time..

Very cool trip. I don't do any surfing, but am down in Baja a couple times a year for racing and one of my favorite pits is during the Baja 1000 penensula run. San Juanico is the town or known as Scorpion Bay. I guess is is a very popular surf spot but about a 12 plus hour drive south of the boader.

So its not as bad as they make it seem on the news then huh? i been wanting to go visit but worry about getting kidnapped and held for ransom...

boostamante said:

So its not as bad as they make it seem on the news then huh? i been wanting to go visit but worry about getting kidnapped and held for ransom...

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Dude! You're mexican! WTF lol. You'll be fine.

crazyjim said:

Dude! You're mexican! WTF lol. You'll be fine.

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They could hold his Jeep for ransom

you guys were a bit early for the big south swells! Looks like you had a great trip, I miss it down there.

Definitely not as bad as they say. We got searched once by the military. LOL at holding my cheap Jeep for ransom. While in great condition, we weren't pulling a $30,000 trailer or anything of value.

Great time and we'll be heading back at the next south swell...

boostamante said:

So its not as bad as they make it seem on the news then huh? i been wanting to go visit but worry about getting kidnapped and held for ransom...

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Nothing but mass media hype!! Don't believe everything you read in the papers/see on TV. I go to Baja all the time. My in-laws live in Baja Malibu just across the road from where the photo in this thread was taken. I will be there again in 2 weeks. If you're not a rich local you won't be kidnapped. If you're not transporting drugs or guns you probably wont be shot,(more likely to be shot here in SoCal!!). I have found that once you get away from the boarder the people are freindly and curious. If you treat them with dignity and respect, you will get the same. That's more than I can say about this side of the boarder. Don't let some media bozo keep you from enjoing a great culture, great food, and great views. Go see for yourself.

P.S. Sorry for the rant :wave1:

HeepSpeed said:

DefiWhile in great condition, we weren't pulling a $30,000 trailer or anything of value.

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I always get stuck pulling one of the race trucks across the border and back to the shop with a heavily marked box van and a Protruck on a flatbed trailer. Worst shakedown cost the team about $200 in fines.(Payoff) to get on our way. I guess it is the price we pay to play without all the treehuggers and politicians.

Definitely media hype. Although I told my parents I was camping in Santa Barbara and only told them it was actually Mexico once I got back since I knew they only know media hype and would worry too much.

As soon as we got out of the cities I felt the safest and the people were always nice and smiling and waving to us

HeepSpeed said:

"slap the bull"

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I thought we were the only ones to play that game... did the bull get anyone back?

2001XJ-32 said:

I thought we were the only ones to play that game... did the bull get anyone back?

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Nah, we even chased them around until the real bull (big horns) started getting angry and shaking his head a lot...we decided it best to call it quits while ahead LOL

crazyjim said:

Dude! You're mexican! WTF lol. You'll be fine.

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:laugh::rof::laugh::rof: Ahhhh.... funny $Hit !!!

As to listening to the media... I don't I haven't been getting my info. from them... while it might not be as bad as portrayed it does seem to be worse then it has in the past...
I really miss BAJA... I agree that once out of the say 100 mile south of the border zone you can relax a bit...
I think if I was to go it'd be with a group of 3 to 5 vehicles a 4 day trip... couple nights of camping then the last night in the hotel and dash for the border early the next day...
I need to get my passport...

Curt

Yeah, one of my friends from San Diego was working in Tijuana, and it was very scary a lot of the time. I'd love to go, but won't chance my teen daughters or my non-imposing teen son down there. Used to go to San Felipe a couple times a year with a motorhome & a stock XJ, and I really miss it. With the right group, it could be fun.

But some of the folks on JustRuns have had some unnerving experiences (like armed men "dropping by" their campfire, and I think there were 10+ folks at the fire). On the other hand, some runs go just fine.

I think I'll have to wait 3 more years til my youngest is heading off to college already, so I don't have to worry about minor custody issues if I don't come home. Of course, that could just be an "I don't come home cuz I don't wanna come home" :laugh3:

Next time you go down south PM me, I haven't surfed in that area since 1976.
I've got a buddy who's a malibu regular, that would probably do a trip to Baja.