After the leash snapping and toe mangling session that I endured the night before, I was determined to have my first “real” day of surf at Cardon Adventure Resort, an hour north of Mazatlan. Â Armed with a duct tape cast and a bit of liquid skin to fill in the chunk missing out of my toe, I holstered a 9’0 firewire on my hip and marched down the short stone path to the sandy beach, ready to redeem myself at the perfect, peeling left point break.
The ocean gods must have been smiling on me (or maybe had some sympathy for what happened previous night) because as soon as I joined the crew in the lineup, I was granted passage into wave heaven. My wood colored board and I sailed hundreds of yards at a time down the point, having another wall of perfection waiting for me as soon as I circled back to the take-off spot.
Needing some liquid jet fuel after the taxing paddles back and forth, I re-upped on some strong coffee and grabbed a different stick – a 7’2 funboard with a big custom Cardon logo on the deck, that ironically was made by my South Bay shaper and friend Jose Barahona, who frequents the resort. Â In fact, most of the rentals here are hand-shaped by him, Barahona’s insignia dominating the board racks. Â The smaller model took a few minutes to get used to, but eventually my feet started jiving with my shorter fiberglass friend. Â I began to carve tighter and quicker than the limits of my normal longboard quiver, and I felt the grom in me surfacing, frothing for sharp turns and snaps off the lip of the fast breaking waves.
At some point during the afternoon I found myself bored and grabbed the firewire again for a solo session in the wind-blown breakers. Â Even in heavy onshore winds, Cardon is nothing short of incredible.
Three sessions and some memorable meals later and I was standing in front of a south of the border sunset that I might not ever forget.  In that moment the silly disasters of yesterday melted down with the sun, and soon after I melted into my white sheets.
