The surfing life
here is a balancing act
between winds.
The Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, México, area happens to be situated in the center of a very windswept, blustery zone. There are generally two different types of wind that come into play in this vicinity.
North winds and southerly winds.
The both are major players with their effect on the surf, and as to where we will go in order to score good waves.
North winds and southerly winds
The strongest most dominant wind in our region is the North wind. It is known as “El Norte”, or ,“Gap” wind. Unfortunately, when it blows with above moderate strength, this particular wind has a tendency to completely blow out several of the local point breaks.
However, as a blessing, this wind blows directly offshore at our beach brakes. We are talking groomed, offshore conditions with serious peaks, lines, and barrels at the beachies when she blows! A huge plus is that we have miles and miles of empty beach brakers and we can go sand bar hunting for epic, spitting tubes!
The North wind is always at its peak strength in and around Salina Cruz. But don’t worry, as we can still drive up the coast (Westardly, toward Huatulco) and have a very good chance to surf some of the upper point brakes if the North wind is moderate in strength (under 15-20 knots).
In other words, it is a fairly commonplace to drive up and out of the adverse affect of North winds around Salina Cruz. I have successfully done this hundreds of times…
So, be advised that there may be times when we hop in the car in order to drive out of the effect of the north wind. Keep in the mind that we may conmute as much as ninety minutes to find the best surface conditions at some of the upper points…
Now for the othr wind... Senor Southerly...
When South winds blow they have a consistent habit of turning more Southwesterly in the afternoon and early evening. Oh yeah! These are the wind that light up all of the pointbreaks and make for dreamlike offshore groomed surface conditions.
Southwest is best!
Sometimes a little bit of patience is required on our behalf, as we wait for a Southerly wind to swing more to.