It's Another Tequila Sunrise Tuesday Surf & Culture Report
The world is going to hell in so many ways that it's hard to keep up with the latest outrage. Well, this one ought to send a cold spike of fear right through your testicles, around your liver, through your heart, ping-ponging through your carotid artery, all the way to those short hairs on the back of your head. (For those of you without testicles start in the pit of your stomach.) We saw this bumper sticker at Torrance Beach, last week. YES! It is the Ranch, at Capire, near Zihuat. What bonehead has decided that the world needs to know about the Ranch to the point that they had f'n bumper stickers printed? Gaack!
So, it's just super lovely here today with gray skies, alternately drizzling and raining on our small but decorous parade. It's good for the chrysanthemums. 7 miles visibility, if you have something that far away to see. Winds are offshore, by 5.5kts and the sea surface is glassy. The air temperature is 55.5° and the water is still 58.3°. Low tide is at 7:41am -0.6' and high tide will be at 2:48pm +3.6'. We have a SSW swell out of 192° at 2.0' and that is actually diminishing. Currently, waves are sub-one foot and the water has a bit of red-tide tinge. A good day for paddling, SUP or having a latté with Dono at CB&TL.
From: Big Daddy (where's the LBS&CR outrage?)
Surfers subjected to racial profiling in Mexico
Is it reasonable that for the many privilege's of living here we should all willingly be inconvenienced in order for our society as a whole to be safer and more civilized? The Mexican Government certainly thinks so. After several trips south of the border, I have come to expect racial profiling as a matter of course and the price to pay for exploring the wild and pristine coastal areas of Baja California. As a life long surfer, I share the universal desire for uncrowded, quality waves that can be found by driving the military patrolled highways of the mexican coast. Many long hours of preparation and packing go into these often multi- day trips. It is customary during these trips that several times a day we encounter the Federalies (with automatic weapons in hand). They set up makeshift checkpoints which involve the handing over of our papers, as well as the searching of our vehicles. Most of our carefully packed belongings usually end up ,well, less carefully packed. We recognize that the actions of some of the early surfers to visit Baja California have resulted in the police being suspicious of all of us. While being subjected to a request for identification here in America is a hassle, it doesn't compare with the experience of white American males in Mexico. However, many of us continue to return because it's worth it.
In our modern world it seems inevitable that we will all be experiencing increased amounts of inconveniences in the interest of security. Despite that, I believe that people from around the world will continue to aspire to American citizenship. Why? Because it's worth it.
(We've been to Mexico (mainland not Baja) twice in the last year and have passed through a number of similar checkpoints without any hassles. They looked, they waved us on, we headed out. (This also includes the incident, where Bob Feiles stopped, then disregarded the cop's raised hand to stay put and started to roll. All the guy did was say "Pay attencion!") We have no doubt that they are profiling, but we always imagined they were looking for drugs. They did stop us in Baja one time, years ago, when we had 19 people in a VW combi. We had so many crammed in, the guy next to the driver had to shift gears. We also had at least 10 kids. When they made us get out, it looked like a clown car in the circus. Since most of the checkpoints are army and not Federales, the soldiers are about 18 years old and they thought it was pretty funny. They made us get back in when they discovered someone's diaper was full of shit and not drugs. If it had been in the US they would have cited us with so many vehicular transgressions, we'd still be down there. The people that get racked down there are the nationals who look suspicious, we've seen plenty of their vehicles getting searched. Somehow, it doesn't seem like an accurate comparison. Ed.)
"When the surf breaks, we'll fix it..."
The Professor!!
