Primer Nacional Stand Up Paddle Sayulita 2012

Eyes popped wide, jaws dropped.  The announcer was beside himself.  The Sunday morning crowd on the beach roared in unison.  

Fernando Stalla, who had already won both Friday’s SUP marathon (18km) and Saturday’s shorter 4.5 km technical race, once again asserted his dominance over the competition in the Primer Nacionál Stand Up Paddle Sayulita 2012.  He casually launched his Rogue squash tail into the air, paddle and all, with the same bravado as a crazed dictator launching rogue scud missiles.  Up, over and back into Sayulita’s peeling right, Stalla continued on down the line, cementing his victory in the masculine division of SUP wave surfing. 
 

Sayulita, Mexico was thrilled to play host to this event, the first ever Mexican national stand up paddle competition.  Male contestants from Colima, Jalisco, Baja, Oaxaca and other states entered this event’s surfing and racing categories in hopes of becoming the Mexican national champion, but local talent clearly had a home field advantage as the top five men all hailed from the state of Nayarit.  Most Sayulita surfing locals have for ages been completely fluent in longboard subtlety and shortboard tricks and they bring style, wave knowledge, and athleticism as they’ve crossed over to SUP.  Matching Stalla wave for wave until his magic flying act were second place Guillermo “Tigre” Cadena, Hector “Papas” Gonzalez in third, and forth, Felipe Hernandez..

“Tigre,” Pole Dancing

Hector “Papas” Gonzales hits the brakes.

The top women represented a wider geographic area of Mexican surfing prowess.  Gabriela Farías hails from Baja California Sur and impressed judges and spectators with powerful strokes and graceful rides.  Karen Jacobson brought Sayulita a second place finish with stylish surfing and a stylish look:  hoop earrings, a hat and a well cut swimsuit.  Leila Takeda will bring her third place trophy home to Oaxaca, and Alejandra Ferris from Jalisco took fourth.

Gabriela Farías, digs deep to earn the title of Mexican National Champion

Farias' face full of intensity. And sunscreen.

Karen Jacobson, Sayulita's Stylin' Homegirl

Stand-up riders of all skill levels flock to this quaint village to soak up sunshine, long waves, and even longer flat water paddles around the point in the open ocean.  The line up on Sayulita’s point break generally is frequented by some of the best SUP riders in the world getting the lion’s share of set waves, and the horizon is usually dotted with distance paddlers on longer, ocean-worthy boards.

Come to Sayuilta and enjoy the SUP scene here.  Keep an eye open for Fernando Stalla; he’s easy to find.  He’s tall, handsome, and if you have any doubt just watch the skies for a scud missile.

Stalla is Talla

Punta Sayulita, a great place to SUP.

"Fruit time!"


I remember this phrase uttered years ago in an adorable Spanish accent by my friend Isabel from Madrid.  We were taking sailing classes in Ibiza, and each hot August afternoon the 26 foot sloop would tuck into a secluded bay, set anchor, and Isabel would take it upon herself to slice up something fresh and sweet to enjoy for snack time.

It’s fruit time in Sayulita.  Mangoes are ripening on every tree, lychees are on offer at pop-up stands, and the pineapples have never been sweeter.  

The weather is hot, and nothing is nicer than slicing into a juicy champagne mango, sliding its flesh into a blender with ice, water, and a few squeezes of lime and whipping up a cold, satisfying afternoon beverage.  

The leftovers go into popsicle molds for the kids.  We like to have a little ammunition to incent good behaviour after school during the hottest part of the afternoon.
 

"Pick up your toys and you can have a little treat!" my wife says.

"Okay!" say the little gremlins as they begin their transformation into doe eyed angels.

We dropped the kids off at school and waited for my wife’s friends, Jenny and Alexandra, to arrive.  Today was girls shopping day, and the three had planned to jump into Jenny’s car and head to Vallarta after the morning child drop-off.

Escuela del Mundo has a strict policy about being on time; be there at eight a.m. sharp, or receive a tick mark.  Three ticks, and your kid is suspended for a day.  And if you arrive after 8:15, forget it, you’ll take junior back home with you.

Jenny arrived with four year old Olivia at about 8:04.  Olivia stood outside the fence watching the other kids doing their morning “greet the day” ritual on the playground.  Jenny explained why they missed gate-time.  

“It sounds crazy coming from a north American perspective, but literally just getting the car out of our Mexican house is a multi-part procedure,” Jenny started.  “We’ve got three doors, three separate keys, and I need to prop open the garage doors with blocks, roll the car out, hop back out of the car, remove the blocks, close the doors, re-lock. . .” she trailed off.

“So it takes ten-plus minutes just to get going!” my wife empathized.

“I forgot one set of keys, and had to run all the way back up to the top floor to get them!”

Time ticked to 8:13 and Alexandra hadn’t yet arrived.  In two minutes she’d be at risk of needing to bring her young daughters on the shopping spree.

Suddenly her 4-Runner burst around the corner, kicking dust as it slid to a stop.  Seven year old Summer and little sis Charlotte scurried across the back seat and sprinted to the gate, as mom hustled to get them in before the deadline.

“It’s just crazy!” Alexandra started as she wiped her brow and her girls joined their respective classes.  “It’s so hard to get going, nobody gets it.”

“Oh, we get it!” Jenny chimed in.

“There’s so much running around, breakfast, getting dressed; and then the cat caught a snake!”

“A snake?”

“Yeah, she pretty much killed it, and then I thought about the chickens.  The chickens are all cooped up, we never let them out, and they’re really angry all the time.  You can see it in their faces, they hate the pens. They hate me!  One of them pecks me every chance she gets.”

“So you never let them out of the cages?” my wife mused.  “They'd probably eat your garden.”

“Yeah!  Plus, you know, they poop everywhere.  But they LOVE snakes!  It’s so funny, one will grab it and run, and the others will chase.  It's like a cartoon! Then two will pull either end and they’ll play tug-of-war and. . .”

“So this is why you’re late?” I asked.

Such is life in Mexico.  Living here is less about drug cartels and more about the daily intersection of man, machine, and nature. And chickens.