Smash & Grab

By: Jeff Shapiro

By KAVU

April 20^th, 2021

Soul Trip

The best part of life is the inevitable up's and down's. All the amazing times..... and the challenges allow perspective; an ever-evolving path that becomes who each of us are.

When the combo of high intensity BASE jumping, hang gliding, paragliding, and climbing (alpinism in particular) became saturated with the highest of highs and..... the lowest of lows from prolific loss, two things helped keep the right-side-up for me. First and foremost, it was the people. Family and friends who were constant reminders of deep level connections and all the love in the world. And the second, was the environments that made me feel small and insignificant.... part of something much larger. The ocean, the sky, rivers.... they don't care what we want, who we are, or have any emotional construct and yet, they all still seem to have their own personality and soul. During that time in my life, the ocean in particular served as a balancing point, a support system, and a place that allowed peace. Sailing across the Atlantic with Tyler Bradt and Daniel Treloar was an experience of a lifetime and every bit as impacting was time spent surfing.... from the green waters of the rugged Oregon coast to the warm waves in Nicaragua with one of my best friends, Hayden Peters.

Hayden is a true "waterman". That term gets thrown around a lot in certain circles but, I don't know many who are as qualified. He's a passionate surfer, sailor, a free-diver and spearfisherman, he's crossed oceans and solo-kayaked the raw west coast of N. America and still talks like a little kid when describing the underwater world. When my family and I leave the mountains in Montana to visit Hayden on the Coast, we all come home feeling inspired and balanced. So, when he told me he was heading to Baja Sur to see some good friends and get some ocean time...... and that the swell was pumping, it took zero convincing. The surf would be good for about a week and we were psyched!

We ended up in an amazing spot, right on the beach in front of a nice rocky peak at San Pedritos. Semi-outside living, hammocks, Palapa roofs and hearing the waves pounding all day and night made for some good sleep and even better surf sessions. When life slows down, and the rhythm of the swell turns the ocean into corduroy off into the distance, broken only by the occasional humpback whale breaching....... you definitely know you're having KAVU days!

One of the coolest features of the place we stayed was the "treehouse" in the corner of the property. We'd wake up, grab some coffee and climb up into the perch to check the waves. Depending on tide levels, we'd chill and talk about life or, we'd grab boards and wetsuits and go get after it.

One evening (in the video below), I wanted to film the epic landscape of the area.... and if you watch in the background toward the end, when Hayden is doing his "ocean dance", a Humpback whale breaches all the way out of the water behind him. Common occurrence or not.... it was no-less awesome.

We were staying (and surfing) on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula so, on one of the days of the trip, Hayden wanted to show me the Sea of Cortez side and the contrast of water and wind.

Wanting to do some free-diving, we were bummed that many of the spots he knew were "closed" due to Covid restrictions so, we ended up diving a few shallow rocky points which actually yielded more wildlife than expected. On one dive to check out some puffer fish and to look for lobster, I found a pair of goggles that had been lost by some wayward kid. Not wanting to leave plastic in the ocean, I grabbed them and Hayden thought they might be an improvement over his mask.... in style, if nothing else. Unicorns are indeed real;-)

In between surfs, the sun rises and sunsets were off the hook.

During a couple of the days during our trip, because the south swell was pumping, we drove down to the east cape and paddled out to a few of the more "well-known" surf breaks. It was holiday in Mexico, so tons of super friendly locals showed up, tailgating on the beach and giving off good vibes. A feral donkey walked down the beach, visiting with families enjoying the sun and water, and it was such a cool (albeit a bit strange) to see this animal treated and greeted like a friendly dog by all on the beach. I think we surfed for over 7 hours each day, being delivered highlight waves, lots of good laughs and even better vibes in the lineup.

Everyone was there to share the joy.

As I get older, two things are becoming apparent. First, my closest group of homies may only be an inch wide, but are definitely a mile deep. And two, there's a lot more surfing and days in the water in my future. I find so much ambiguity in time spent.... in, and on the ocean.