Rise and shine to another beautiful day in paradise. Today we woke up to fresh fruit smoothies and an unbelievable breakfast at “Rosita’s” a well-known little breakfast spot here in Melaque. Rosita runs her business in a small little shack. If you’re not used to the setting of authentic Mexico, imagine a restaurant environment as someone’s kitchen in a way. They would have tables and their own menus but your basically eating out of someone’s’ house. There has yet to be a bad meal on the trip. Who would have thought you would have endless amounts of the best Mexican food down in Mexico?
It seems like there are endless amounts of spots throughout Melaque, and just twenty minutes down the road are more endless spots in Manzanillo. Todays adventure consisted of making way to a new town where Diego and Jorge Barba’s X3M Shop is located. They pretty much supply the town with every surf and clothing necessity you need to be ready to shred at any time.. Their X3M shop is a great hangout spot for the younger crowd and a great representation for the sport of skimboarding. After a visit to their shop, it was time to hit the water at “Secrets” a fairly newer found spot minutes away from their place. At first your mindset of a secret spot is a wave that not many people have ridden and endless amounts of fun. However, I think the secret to the spot is if you haven’t gone, you’re in for an awakening of a lifetime once you arrive at the location.
The trip to the secret spot started off by crossing paths with a large snake in the middle of the road into the beach.
Jack Howie went straight into grom mode, yelling and jumping out of the back of the truck, grabbing the snake by the tail. We all jumped out of the cab and as we turned to see what was going on, the snake slithered out of jacks grip and disappeared into the bushes. As we calmed down from the snake wrangling and re focus our attention to finding skim, Jorge and Diego point at the cliff and say, “ That’s the mountain we have to climb over and the break we are going to is just on the otherside…” So the team grabs their gear and starts the treacherous trek up scorpion/snake infested terrain. It was like walking up the face of a steep jungle where any moment something could go seriously wrong. And if something were to go seriously wrong it was either life threatening or your throwing your buddy over your shoulder and hoping for a miracle to someway and somehow return back to safety. At least every rider and team member had some kind of shocker or beating. If you’re afraid of heights or have a big fear for any of the poisonous animals above, this is not the place for you. After the twenty-minute journey through the life-threatening hike to “Secrets” we found a new unique wave with a sider in both directions. The team along with a few other local riders scored some of the best waves we have gotten on the trip so far. The boys were frothing so hard that we didn’t start the 20 minute trek back until the sun was setting. This put us scaling the mountain side and tip toeing along cliff drop offs with nothing but the light of our phones guiding us. Jack sliced his toe open on a rock, Johnny and his board almost fell off the mountain and on the final decent, Johnny accidentally sent two grape fruit sized boulders straight down the mountain with one barely missing Jack and the other connecting with his calf. Luckily all riders are in fairly good condition and able to continue the adventures. And hey what’s an adventure without a couple mishaps.
– Words by Johnny Salta / pictures by Diego Barba
