Baja 3000

This trip was my pick. I tried to balance price, lack of crowded surf, wave quality and adventure. Sean at Waterways said to check out Ecuador.... It turned out to be solid on adventure, good on price, poor on waves (while we were there) and pretty low on crowds, except for Montanita. Montanita happened to have a south american surf contentest while we were there... Uggh.

Regardless of surf, we have a ball. This trip was complete with a day in Guayaquil, a happening little town, Montanita, with tons of night life. Very bohemian with folks from around the globe congregating to sell their goods and enjoy life. But as usual, the best times came in the nooks and crannies of hanging with the boys. Like when the "A/C sprung a leak" and drenched Sloppy.... or when Wyatt and Jof wound up at a cheesy discoteca around 3:00 in the morning that looked about as safe as licking an oozing sore on one of the local dogs.

Then there was the discovery of Redbull and Vodka. That was a first for most of us, but not for Nuby. We tend to have more beers when the surf is down, so this trip had plenty of suds.

We stayed at Randy's place, Casa Del Sol at Montanita. They picked us up at and dropped us off at the airport, fed us and drove us all around. It's always nice to not waste time figuring out where the spots are (unless you have plenty of time to kill). We learned a lot about the culture and history from Randy as well.

You can check here for more pics. Also, check out the Casa Del Sol Montanita site for a great base camp, food, and guiding. Randy Hood is the man to see.

I thought I was a little fella! Eric is literally half the size of Wyatt.

Not sure what they are so happy about!?

Casa Del Sol's Cantina.

Joe and the mosquitos...

Montanita nightlife. Oh ya... Scorpions in Ecuador along with the accordion.

One day we went to a big bay to go on a trip to view the Blue Footed Boobies... We also did a little fishing. However, before we could go, we had to push the boat into the water!

Bob caught this bad boy, which we had prepared for us in a local restaurant. Wyatt almost killed the little kid/deck hand as he hogged the pole with the bass hit.

On one day trip, we came across a funky little "dig" with some baby bones... Kind of creepy.

When we arrived we were taken straight to the beaches west of Guayaquil. We were there for a couple of days with modest surf that was in the ~2-3' range. Great points however... showed tons of promise. Getting the modest surf leveled the playing field for the boys as well with everyone getting some mellow surfing in.

Setup at Playas

The view from Casa del Sol's beach bar. This is Montanita. It's the premier spot. It reminded me of Steamer's Lane in Santa Cruz complete with middles lumping in the, well the middle. The outside right breaks along a rock reef that jets out a ways, that reminded me of four mile just north of Santa Cruz. We didn't get this too hot at all, but you could tell that it can get good.

We spent most of our time up the road a bit on a beach strip called "???"

Some other highlights were all of us longboarding on some locally shaped balsa boards. They were pretty cool to look at, but that is where it stopped. They surfed terribly. Way too much rocker. You were lucky to catch a wave let alone ride one with any style.

Here is a long point that they say GRINDS left for hundreds of yards. When it works. We missed this by a day. This is the same place as that has the baby bones on display.

On one trip up the coast Jof and Wyatt hit a spot called El Faro. It had a handful of pumped up locals that took off too deep, only making the wave half the time and messing it up for everyone.