bermejo

made my first pilgrimmage to bermejo yesterday, and the 222 km drive north of lima wasn't so bad. i managed to get two sessions in. bermejo is quite possibly the best wave in peru. i'd been dreaming of surfing it for months. locals say that it always has a stiff offshore wind, which hits squarely and makes the face of the waves wall up and stay up for what seems like an eternity. there are two sections, one out the back, which is pictured below but rarely works, and the inside section, which is more consistent. i'm told that with big westerly swells, of 9 to 10 feet, soft barrels form that roll across both sections, which together are maybe a kilometer long or more. the takeoff on the inside section can be either too fat or too fast, depending on the sands that get deposited near the rocks, and wave height and direction. yesterday it was a bit shifty, with 7.5 foot waves. i got worked at least twice taking off too late, but also had lots of waves of pure joy. big walls to carve on, and the quad held lines high up on the wave and accelerated like a rocket the moment you pumped your legs hard to gain speed down the line. i even pulled off my first floater, but didn't risk a reentry. i don't think i've ever ridden a faster board. still, i probably should have taken my thruster. a little less buoyancy on the takeoff would have given me more control with some of the white water splashing down during the drop, as it was a little too fat sometimes on the clean stuff and impatience means that you will risk a wipeout if the squeezed takeoff looks possible. it all depends of course on what you want to do.