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Before the Contest at Las Escolleras 2009

2009.04.24, precontest photos from Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo (Z-hwa-teh-nay-oh) image LasEscollerasPan2400.jpg
Panorama of Ixtapa and Las Escolleras. Raul, with blue fins is talking to a photographer. (higher-res 6K x 1K)

Photos by YON unless noted as Tim Hankins (th) or Jerry Caldwell (jc)

The swell map is for Thursday night. The peak of the swell hit Wednesday night sometime. Easy swimming in front of the hotel Tuesday evening when I got in. Brandon, Raul and I went in early Wednesday at Las Escolleras. It was getting interesting, but, when we went in again before dinner it was HUGE! Raul says 3M easy. That getting to be 10 feet. Without pictures, it is hard to estimate. Certainly when you are looking up at a wave about to crash on you, it looks about twice as hight as it really is. When you are pulling out of a big wave and looking down, it seem to look about 3X its real size. When you do commit to riding a big wave and you are sliding down the face, there is a whole different feeling about size.

image swellMapThurs11pm.jpg
Swell Map Thurs 11pm
image spray2.jpg
Thursday sometime - the spray was much less intense.
image LasEscollerasSpray.jpg
Wave in front, spray behind.
image BlackFlag.jpg
Black Flag! No swimming (unless crazy :-)
image blurry.jpg
Good sized waves coming Thursday morning (jch)
image LasEscollerasZoom.jpg
Notice the arm of rocks that sticks out.
image BlackFlagInset.jpg
Between the monsters crashing in little water
And the good sized rips sweeping out 40M +
it really was dangerous, but safer at Las Escolleras
image LasEscollerasWave1.jpg
The jetty and the islands broke things up
image LasEscollerasWave2.jpg
With some short shoulders sometimes.
image: JerryHotelWave1.jpg
A sequence of a wave breaking (jc)
image: JerryHotelWave2.jpg
With the islands in the background (jc)
image: JerryHotelWave3.jpg
And the white water bouncing off the sand (jc)
image MikeBillWave.jpg
Check out the wave behind Mike and Bill
On Thursday morning there were some huge
waves!!! At least 4m, but, just one big wall. (th)
image rip.jpg
A huge rip taken from the plane by Tim Hankins.
image MBBT.jpg
Mike, Brandon, Bill and Tim (th)
image registrationParty.jpg
The gang at the registration party. (jc)
More on the contest page
image speakingForGringos.jpg
Bruce got off track talking about fishing. (jc)
mkthumps.py Sat, 02 May 2009 17:21:57 +0000