There was barely any wind blowing. The forecast looked like a bad acid trip if you looked at it on a computer screen. People were talking “swell of the decade” about a week before its arrival and guys like Coco Nogales and Edwin Morales were getting anxious – and it takes something really special to get those guys pumped up.
It was around four in the morning when I woke up. I couldn’t sleep any longer. There were just too many things spinning around my head. The day before I had witnessed the biggest waves of my life. Is the wind going to switch? Will it even be rideable? is it going to open up? Two cups of coffee later I packed my gear and drove down to the beach. When I arrived I saw the police and army had closed both main access points to Zicatela. There was a surge alert in full mode going on.
I parked my car on the highway and made my trek down to the lifeguard tower to find out what was really going on. The morning was kind of cloudy. I didn’t really think the sun would make an appearance. All the big names were on the beach and each time a set rolled in they started to shake their heads. There must have been proper 40-50ft Hawaiian waves moving toward the shore. The inside looked like what water rapids on steroids. The current was moving sideways and dragging water so fast that just the idea of somebody swimming through that mess seemed suicidal.
Soon after I met up with my friend, Yassine Ouhilal. He had arrived a couple of days before, making the two-day trip from Norway to Puerto to document the swell. He was shooting on a RED so I pulled out my trusty Canon and suddenly the sun came up. It was officially a go. The show was on. There where already 15 guys out. You had everything from Kalani Lattanzi on his bodyboard to a solitary guy on a SUP. They had all made the one and a half-mile journey from the harbor to the lineup. After taking some random shots we saw one big set on the horizon. The kind of line you know is going to make someone’s dream or nightmare. When it started to hit the sandbar we saw the figure of 19 year old Pedro Calado committing to the peak. The offshore was blowing hard and the wave kept growing bigger and bigger. When he finally started to take off I thought he was going to actually make it. He was about half way through the drop when his nose suddenly dove in and the cartwheel mayhem begun. Pedro got absolutely annihilated and everybody on the beach went nuts.
Soon after, we spotted another big set on the horizon. It was about two miles out but you could feel the anticipation. The guys out on the lineup started to paddle for their lives and all I could think off was “cleanup set.” Suddenly, there’s somebody on a yellow gun turning around. I think somebody said Healy on the left. I looked through my lens and started shooting. The drop was flawless. Second wave of the day and he went for the barrel. There was no chance of making it but still, we had just watched maybe the biggest drop in Zicatela history. No jet ski, just his bare arms scraping their way into a 55 footer.
There were some other memorable drops and wipeouts that day. Kalani Lattanzi consecrated himself with the gnarliest bodyboard takeoff ever at the Mexican Pipeline. Moroccan charger Othmane Choufani caught a grower left on the inside, lost his board and was rescued by Coco Nogales after being caught by the rip and taking several waves on the head. It was definitely as heavy as it gets. Once the high tide pushed in, palapas chairs and other objects on the beach were swept away like toothpicks. The water went up all the way down the main road in el Morro Avenue.
What made that day so special was that surfers pushed the envelope of big wave paddle at a maxing beach break. The last big swell in 2006 was cleaner but it was definitely all tow-in. Now with social media the world got to witness where big wave paddle surfing is heading and what we can expect in the future. It might be another ten years before we see something that big again. But until then, May 3rd of 2015 at Puerto Escondido remains a day big wave surfing won’t forget any time soon.
Editor’s Note: You can find more of Jan’s photos from Mexico on Instagram here.
