South of the Border Swell: Puerto Escondido Goes Off

I ran up to a lookout to see if it was clean enough to make a break for it. This is some deceptive perfection although there was one incredible three wave set. Photo: John Maher

There are a lot of great local Mexican surfers who run the lineup at Puerto Escondido. Don't know this dude's name, but he was taking advantage of the rare lefts the fourth morning of the trip. Photo: John Maher

Throughout the first morning of my trip, the swell started to fill in. Photo: John Maher

Gavin Beschen has always been one of my all-time favorite surfers. I always get so psyched to surf with him and now the same goes for shooting. This wave was uncharacteristically clean for Puerto standards. Looks almost like Indo. Photo: John Maher

Derek Dunfee is a great childhood friend who also spends a couple months each year hunting Puerto's dredging barrels. Here he is riding a 5'6" Jeff McCallum quad-fin while a lot of surfers were riding step-up boards. Photo: John Maher

Here's Derek Dunfee again on his fish. He made six or eight deep pits that morning. Photo: John Maher

The second day of the trip, the swell really started to show. The wind wasn't good off the bat so I cruised around the beach with my camera for a while. It's important to have offshore winds at Puerto. Otherwise, it's just way too dangerous. Photo: John Maher

This was the only perfect, clean set of the morning. Here is Nic Lamb on the first wave. Greg Long got the second one. You probably saw the mental video of it on Surfline. Photo: John Maher

Ended up getting hurt breaking off a surfboard fin with my head, so I took this parting shot from the beach. Photo: John Maher

Derek Dunfee locked in to a drainer. Photo: John Maher

What you may not have seen was Greg Long's next deep beast. He didn't make the barrel, but he did as good as anyone could have. After this set, the conditions got funky again. Most of us were over surfing it for fear of injury. Photo: John Maher

Rusty Long is an incredible surfer and awesome human. He spends a ton of time at Puerto and it shows because he drove through this foam monster. Photo: John Maher

Puerto Escondido is best before noon. I like to get in the water to watch the sunrise thus maximizing tube time. Photo: John Maher

Los Angeles lifeguard, Cameron Faris, was feeling comfortable after posting up at Puerto for a couple of months. Photo: John Maher

When Puerto gets solid, it really starts to come alive. Waves breathe, sucking air and blowing it out all over the place. Here, Pat Shaughnessy does his best to ride it out. Photo: John Maher

Gavin Beschen again, this time on a lurcher. He actually rode through a long barrel before he got to me and packed the second barrel as he rode past me. Photo: John Maher

Derek Dunfee. As cool as can be. Photo: John Maher

If you're not lucky enough to make the pit, you'll probably end up taking a lot of these on the head. The rip currents will keep you in the impact zone. It's really heavy. Photo: John Maher

Here's Travis Payne again--this time on a little drainer. The double-hand-drag is awesome, our friend Noel used to be the master of that technique. Photo: John Maher

The final water shot I took was of Coco Nogales--the unofficial mayor of Puerto Escondido. If Coco is paddling for a wave, don't even look at it because he's the man. Photo: John Maher