5.31.16 Somewhat Ballsy Attempt at Punta Roca given my Saharan-Level Dry Spell

PuntaRoca53116

After my sorry excuse for a session (three pop-ups, no turns), I was interested to see how much I'd lost in my surfing on real waves.

I borrowed my uncle's Jeep and headed down there early.  As discussed, Chamba was at the point with his camera, shooting clients.

The wade/paddle -out wasn't too bad and I perched pretty aggressively, to the west of the decrepit rancho that's been there forever.

Over WhatsApp, I asked Chamba in the preceding year what the deal was with that property.  That would make quite the homestead.  What an amazing view of one of the world's best waves!  He told me, if I remember correctly, that some gringos owned it and had wanted to put up a condo tower on the back of the property.  That went nowhere beyond the marketing phase; the talk around town was that the government wanted a slice and it made the project unfeasible. He had also heard, if memory serves, that they were willing to let the property go for $2M. Ouch!

There is another property just to the east (for those who've been there, it's the one with the rotting pool and all of the palm trees) which is owned by people from San Salvador, but Chamba says they're not interested in selling.

It turns out one can rent a house an easy walking distance to PR for $150/night.  Conchalio is a great break and is rarely crowded. I had a great session there with Chamba in 2005 during which we pulled into some heavy not-makeable-by-us barrels and got slammed into raw logs that had washed out to the sea by a recent deluge. The linked-to house sits between both breaks.  Check out the razor wire on this house!

The session yielded me one really good turn on which I thought I was going down.  I think I caught six waves and fell on two.  I sat deeper than most and was not intimidated despite my prolonged sabbatical.  It was interesting to note muscle memory leads to my making the same mistakes of many sessions prior.  When I get back in the water much more frequently, I will work to correct these, starting with the most egregious ones.