Chicama: The Good and the Ugly

Imagine you're at Disneyworld, not just regular old Disneyland, but Disneyworld, literally the happiest place on earth. You're patiently waiting in line to go on the most amazing ride you've ever been on yet every time it's your turn, six people cut in front of you, leaving you to wait for the next one to come through. This goes on for twenty minutes till you finally get a seat, not the best seat but its still an exhilerating ride. This goes on at every attraction, all day long.

Welcome to Chicama. As arguably the longest wave on earth, those too weak or too lazy to walk or paddle back to the peak after a long ride and willing to spend a few bucks, are scooped up into one of a few zodiacs buzzing the water only to be dropped back off at the top of the point, deeper than the rest if us doing it the old fashioned way. When a set comes, the boaters are deeper on the wave and thus in position to have right of way for the entirety of the ride. Several boats even cut straight through the surfers battling against the strong current and drop guys off perfectly timed with sets so that they guarantee the best waves.

But this is worse than cutting in line at Disneyworld, as the boats not only break the unwritten yet universal code of line-up etiquette, they go against the essence of surfing itself. Surfing is a way of life, much more than a sport or the simple act of riding a wave. What makes it so rewarding is all the hours spent looking at swell charts, driving around checking each spot, traveling great distances, learning how to read a wave, acquiring tribal knowledge, waiting for the tide to drop, and paddling against the elements only to finally arrive in that perfect spot at the perfect moment to get a fleeting ride on a wall of moving water that was generated by a storm thousands of miles away. To boat through the surf skipping so much of this process, creating wakes that ruin the waves, bypassing the surfers struggling to stay in position and selfishly claiming each wave as "mine", couldn't be further from what surfing makes surfing such a beautiful way of life.

One of surfing's great lessons is "just because you can, doesn't mean you should." We're an infinite number of people all fighting for a finite number of waves. Restraint, grace and humility are as much a part of surfing as actually riding a wave and are virtues that carry on into the rest of our lives. The boaters may need a refresher course.

But I digress from my rant. For a strong paddler and someone willing to spend endless hours in the water, the boats are frustrating but certainly not enough to ruin a great wave. Chicama is actually an interesting study of all the various people that surf from around the world, from the two week vacationers paying a couple hundred dollars per night at the resort on the cliff, to the slummers like me paying less than ten a night a couple hundred yards down the road.

This is about 1/4 of the wave as it peels down the point. On an all time day, rides of over four minutes are possible.

The coast here is extremely hot, dry and windy. The land above the point is completely devoid of plant life giving it an almost Martian appearance.

I've been in the water at least four hours every day but yesterday was a marathon session from 1 to 6 with just a quick sunscreen and water break somewhere in the middle. Even boatloads of kooks couldn't wipe the look of pure happiness and exhaustion off my face!

Disclaimer: Though my audience is almost entirely non-surfers, I have intentionally avoided naming waves or towns near waves and posting photos that might hint where I am, though Chicama is such a circus, I did not feel it needed nor deserved such protection.