Dave Collins posts here about an SUP Expedition he recently undertook. Check it out...
As I finally scramble out of the surf zone I´m reminded of how impractical it is to paddle a loaded SUP. I´ve had to go back to shore once already to repack my load—shifted by the hammering surf. I wave to Elysia to paddle toward me. At first petrified by the waves, she dug deep and made it out of the surf zone before me. She´s still a bit wide-eyed, but maintains balance and equanimity in the mild noon chop. This is her first SUP expedition, and my second. Our shuttle driver is nowhere to be seen now. We are alone on the open ocean of the “Costalegre”, the southern coast of the state of Jalisco from Barra de Navidad north to the southern tip of Banderas Bay where Puerto Vallarta is located. I sense that this realization is still sinking in for Elysia, as I sense that my loaded board is sinking deeper into the water unless I paddle—which is what we begin to do in earnest.
Only five minutes into establishing a rhythm we sight humpback whales about 100 meters offshore. In a magical instant two of them breach simultaneously about 60 feet out of the water, exposing some two-thirds of their cetacean mass. Awestruck and humbled, I wonder if the expedition might all be anticlimactic from here…? In any case, I take it as a most convincing sign of an outstanding trip to come. As Elysia and I look at each other there is a sense that the scene is a metaphor for our union on this long-awaited journey. “Wow,” is about the only word we can conjure. The whales cruise south with us for a while longer and then disappear.
A headwind picks up and the paddling becomes even slower, especially for me as I am carrying at least three times the weight of Elysia and weigh twice as much as she. My mind is drifting and I´m beginning to fall under the awkward load and increased chop, while she is flying ahead featherlike and laughing. At me perhaps, but her laugh and lightness are inspiring nonetheless. With renewed concentration I try to drive thoughts of the outer-world from my mind and drive my board forward. There is no better moving meditation than this sport and the need to focus is magnified by the load. With every new stroke thoughts of the economic recession are replaced with concentration on balance, strokes, foot placement and then flashes of the Snickers bar in my camelback. After two hours of hard paddling we sit on the boards to eat lunch, until I realize that we are drifting north, away from our destination, at a disheartening rate. There will be no opportunity for lunch on the boards today, and landing on the open ocean is not a viable option either considering the size of the surf and our already slow progress. We throttle down our Snickers and get paddling once more, but from here on out, due to our, and the ocean´s, conditions, we switch between sitting or kneeling on the boards and paddling standing up.
Some two to three hours later we come upon the aptly named Punta Soledad (Soltitude Point). A reddish volcanic sea stack capped by agave and Prickly Pear cactus, framed by scrub forest and unrelenting surf, juts out like an exclamation mark ending the phrase, “You are alone now!” Initially we decide to paddle around it and look for camp, but this strikes me, in a fleeting moment of clarity, as not a very wise idea. The sun is going down and we are completely exhausted. Not only should one plan on going about half as fast as a sea kayak on a loaded SUP, one should also count on getting twice as tired. I suggest we backtrack a bit and grab a protected cove for the night and Elysia agrees. The first thing we do upon beaching our boards is rip open the dry bag that with yesterday´s leftover pizza in it. Between mouthfuls we smile, laugh and comment on the bounty and beauty of this beach, which I later discover is named Las Cuatas, or “female companions.” I´m not female, but I soon switch into my pareo, or beach skirt, the ideal after paddling wear in a tropical climate, and the name seems fitting.
Dusk is upon us as we hike up to get a view of the surroundings, the sunset, and the moonrise—the brightest full moon of the year due to the phenomenon of perigree. Along the way we spot a fleeting Orange-breasted Bunting, one of the 22 endemic birds found in the Jaliscan Dry Forest, and a group of snorting, scurrying White-nosed Coati, a carnivorous raccoon-like mammal common to the region. At the top we are so enveloped in the sunset that we don´t notice the moonrise until we turn around to walk back down. Once again, as with the rising humpbacks, we are stunned beyond words—this time though, my imagination, far from thoughts of anticlimactic occurrences, now explodes with thoughts of infinite possibilities.
The door opens to these on day three, our final day, when we find some secret surf. This is when the slower and more exhausting travel of SUP-expeditioning gets paid off in waves. The payoff is abundant this particular day: overhead faces smile in consistent sets, greeted by an offshore breeze. Elysia bows out gracefully and sets up the camera gear. I am unduly impressed with her performance on her first SUP expedition and grateful for her company. I know it won´t be too long before she´ll be joining me not only to enter and exit the surf zone, but to play madly in it…
The SUP Expedition Set-Up
I am testing different gear than that from my first SUP expedition around Cape Scott last July and wearing a lot less gear thanks to the climate. I am using out two of Werner´s new paddles, the Advantage and the Carve. The Advantage is Werner´s new touring/racing SUP blade, and the Carve is their new specialized surfing paddle. Compared to all other SUP paddles I´ve tried, Werner is dominating the industry hands down. All those years of R&D in the paddle industry have transferred directly into their SUP line, offering superior quality, diversity and durability.
To start, the ABS Palm-style grip on both the paddles just feels right. And ergonomically it makes all the difference for stroke control while also lending to less strain on the wrist and hand joints at the end of the day. The attention to detail—just the right width, thickness, and angle of the grip—make all the difference, especially after taking some 10,000 strokes. Also, although I´m still quite fond of my Werner Spanker, I find the tear drop blade design on the Advantage and Carve more sophisticated and fluid. First of all, the surface area of the blade is now more elongated throughout and not as wide at the bottom of the blade. This reduces torque and makes for faster cadence, especially faster on the smaller Carve blade, which is ideal for making short, rapid strokes where they count—up front—when you need to build hull speed instantly to drop into a wave. The dihedral of both blades is also more pronounced, allowing water to spill off the back of the blade more quickly, further decreasing torque. And there is more scoop in both power faces of the blades which means more water catchment, and ultimately more efficiency. The versatility of the adjustable shaft makes it possible for me to fit Elysia with a properly-sized paddle as well. Finally, the durability of these paddles under the extra stress of paddling a loaded board is unmatched, an especially crucial detail on an expedition.
Regarding boards, I am now paddling an 11-foot ULI inflatable board, and Elysia is paddling a 10-foot Infinity. I´ve mentioned that one should plan on going half as fast on an SUP expedition versus a sea kayak one, but that is a very rough equation and has much to with conditions—e.g., headwinds versus tailwinds. An experienced SUP paddler has potential advantage in a tailwind, but any SUP paddler has an extreme disadvantage in a headwind. Speed is also relative to what length and width of board one is paddling. ULI has now come out with a 15-foot board, which I imagine would cruise along much faster than the 11-footer. However, what one gains in speed by using a longer board, one will lose in performance in the surf zone, so it all depends on one´s preferences. On this particular trip my preference is catching waves at otherwise inaccessible spots, not on making faster time or longer distance.
The ULI board is proving quite worthy, though, once I figure out how to better balance and secure the load. The first day I had the load packed too far toward the front of the board, and I have now moved it a bit further back which cures the problem. Also, my previous method of gluing E-Z plugs to the board and using nylon cord to strap down the load is not working as well either because the plugs do not adhere to the inflatable board material as well as they do to an epoxy board (at least with the glue I am using, which is a marine epoxy). The method I´ve switched to is simply using two cam straps and wrapping them completely around the load and the board. There may be a little drag on the hull, but I consider it miniscule, and far outweighed by the newly achieved security of the load to the board. I flip in the surf again on my take-off, but no going back to shore to re-pack this time—the load holds steadfast to the board. There is also the issue of increased board flex using an inflatable board versus an epoxy one, which tends to make paddling a loaded SUP slightly more unstable and slower. But again I find that the positives of the ULI board far outweigh the negatives for SUP expeditioning. I can travel anywhere in the world with this set-up without paying outrageous airline fares and worrying about the board getting damaged along the way. And finally, I don´t have to sweat dinging or breaking a board on an expedition, where the consequences matter more.
An Extremely Diverse Ecosystem Under Pressure
Globally there is little good news for the state of our environment. The Jalisco dry forest eco-region is no exception. Tropical dry forest is the most threatened tropical ecosystem on earth. And among this type of ecosystem the Jalisco dry forest, encompassing 16,218 square miles, is the most biodiverse in the world. It hosts 1,100 species of mammals, 270 of birds, and 1,700 of reptiles and amphibians, and contains the highest rate of endemic species—84 animals and 110 plants found only in Mexico. This forest is largely coastal, containing the section referred to as the “Costalegre”. The area has been identified by Conservation International as falling into the Mesoamerican “Biodiversity Hotspot”, one of 34 in the world, and by World Wildlife Fund as one of the 200 global areas in most critical need of conservation. These areas are selected for being the richest, rarest, and most endangered freshwater, marine, and terrestrial reservoirs of biota left on earth.
The Costalegre is undergoing an unprecedented environmental crisis due to unsustainable and unregulated development, tourism, agriculture, fishing, deforestation, contamination and poaching. In collaboration with the University of Guadalajara´s Center for the Sustainable Development of Coastal Zones, I formed the nonprofit organization Tierralegre two years ago. Its mission is to protect the biodiversity and natural resources of Mexico´s Costalegre. As I paddle this coastline I never take for granted that it is one of the least spoiled, most beautiful places on earth—for now.
