As you may remember, I recently drove down to mainland Mex for my wedding in Sayulita, I saw the email regarding Cardon Resort and felt obliged to write a few words.
The last time I drove all the way down here, about 5 years ago, I stopped at Celestino for some great left-hand point waves. I met a nice Mexican guy in the water named Omar who said that he was planning on building a surf camp/hotel on the point, and to stop by and say hello the next time we're in town. So, on this trip, I stopped by the now-built Cardon Resort to say hi and came across this Jeff guy, sitting in the office, giving me attitude for stopping by to say hello to Omar (who wasn't there at the time).
The next morning the swell was pumping - solid 8ft., maybe double-overhead on the sets. The current was running strong, so it was only me and him sitting at the point. I'm sitting inside Jeff, obviously letting him have his pick, when he turns to me and says "Are you the guy I met yesterday? Why the fark did you target my surf camp?!". I shoulder-checked to see who he was talking to and saw no one, except his 3 clients/guests swept a good 100-150 yards further in, unable to make it anywhere near the point. Baffled, I responded "Targeted your surf camp? I surfed here long before your surf camp was ever here", to which he responded: "Maybe, but you weren't here before me." He then kept at it, with me rhetorically stating/asking: "You seriously can't handle one single surfer in 'your' lineup?!? Your guests can't even make it out here!"
At this point, I figured he was just another grouchy ex-pat kook and shrugged it off, but he continued: "You don't belong here" to which I replied: "And you do, gringo??" At this point he made some inane claim about providing 200 jobs to the village. This banter continued while he struggled unsuccessfully to get into a couple bigger set waves. Finally, he said "No one invited you to surf here" to which I responded that I was pretty sure Omar had, in fact, invited me to do just that five years hence. At this point he paddled towards me, and threatened to kick the poop out of me for being mouthy (which he easily could have done - the guy is a bull). Fortunately for me, a set swung wide putting him in position and he opted for the wave rather than to administer me a beating. I took the set wave behind, giving him a courtesy hose-down and flip-off on his paddle back out. I continued to ride it all the way into the beach, partially due to the ridiculous current and partially due to my distaste at receiving that kind of attitude in an empty lineup.
I packed up and headed south toward Patole and other good waves south, with the bad taste of my encounter with this guy still lingering in my mouth. When I arrived in Punta Mita, my friends who live in Punta Mita and surf up there frequently said that they were very familiar with this guy and that Omar is apparently just as aggressive.
Much to my satisfaction, the week before I arrived in Celestino (and the week before the Mexican surf nationals), a bunch of the Mexican locals from the Mazatlan area who frequent those points had gotten sick of Jeff's poop, found him and beat the poop out of him. (He had a bunch of burst blood-vessels in one eye when I saw him). Unfortunately though, this beating didn't stop him from continuing his aggressive tactics. I've seen a lot of localism in my many many travels around the world, some near surf camps, some not; but these guys seriously have something coming to them.
I just wanted to drop a note to corroborate that guy's email.
Hasta luego,
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