Everyone just loves to go on about how surfers always go to Mexico when they need to gather clips.
Always the same complaints. Too familiar. Too crowded so no one should go there anymore. Oh, that same right-hand point with an inviting sandy bottom, how original. All the regular things you expect jealous people to write when they’re stuck behind a computer screen.
But there’s a profound amount of beauty in Mexico. One of the beauties is that it is a great leveler. Mexico, unlike most idyllic, tropical locales, offers endless cheap flights its way, so it attracts stag parties and hen nights and university students on their first proper spring break and are about to consume a quite alarming amount of tequila without dying about it. Go on any flight to Puerto Vallarta or Puerto Escondido or Cabo and all these characters are here along with quiet couples and families who’re dressed up to fly like they’re going to church. And then there’s you. You, anxiously watching your board bag on the tarmac through a tiny window, making sure the luggage handlers don’t run it over with one of those half-sized semi-trucks they drive around in even though you’re completely powerless to do anything about it if they do so and there’s just a fantastic amount of shouting going on about you while it’s all happening. You don’t get that sort of excitement on a flight to London. Or France. Or Los Angeles.
All that and the water is warm and the waves are regularly quite good. Palm trees and white sand and cold beers. Is enjoying those sorts of things a crime? Are you a police officer coming over to beat me with a baton about it? No.
Anyway, Micky Clarke was in Mexico recently. The waves look perfect. Micky surfs how you’d imagine someone who has the full bag — tubes, turns, airs — surfs. Which is to say, phenomenally. Oh, and he edited the whole thing himself! Nothing like adding some extra personal touch.
Micky is an all-around great person and it’s always a pleasure to see him on a board. Chances are you already clicked play well before reading all this nonsense and saw that for yourself, though. Another fantastic addition to the Chapter 11 compendium.
