Words by Jamie Sterling:

Puerto Escondido is my favorite place to travel to. It offers me the quality of life I’m looking for in a surf destination. I get more tubes here then I do traveling the whole world in the summer and the 6 months I spend every year in Hawaii. That speaks volumes for a guy who loves tube riding.
Rusty Long and I were in Chile when we saw this last big swell going to Puerto. Immediatley we booked our tickets anticipating a large swell. Rusty and I have a deep passion for this place. We both have had some career waves out here in the past. We were super amped to get down to Puerto and charge the big swell.
I thought the swell would be 10-12ft. I was wrong! We were gifted with a solid 15-20ft swell that was bigger then any of my longest paddle boards could handle. I had to borrow a 9′6 from Noel Robinson to even have a chance at catching a set wave. The evening before I paddled out on my 8′6 with Greg Long, and the 8′6 that usually handles anything Puerto throws at me felt like a short board. We were dealing with serious southern hemisphere juice!
The morning of the big day I walked down to the beach and was lucky to get a ride out on Tim West’s jet ski. Coco Nogales and Tim West had their skis in the water and were towing. All of us paddle surfers were stoked they were there to help us and make the session safe. Paddling out would have been next to impossible on that gordo 9′6. Right as I got dropped off out the back I was in position for my fist big wave of the day. Here I was on a borrowed 9′6 i’d never ridden before trying to ride the biggest waves I’d seen in 2009. I turned and paddled for a huge right with all my strength, grabed my rail as I was droping in, and hoped for the best. I ended up wearing a 30ft wave to the head. I surfaced for air feeling dizy and rattled from the lip crushing me into the dark churning water. I was super lucky to be in one piece. I quickly regained my breath and thanked my guardian angel for protecting me on such a bad wipeout. Probably the worst wipeout I’ve ever had at Zicatela! The rest of the session went ok. I caught 5 waves in 5 hours. It was very hard to position your self in the right spot at the right time to ride one of these beastly waves. I wish I had my Jet ski and would have prefered to be doing step offs. I saw thousands of huge hollow waves go by unridden. Some of the best waves I’ve ever seen! The swells were moving so fast, that dreamy day even Noels 9′6 didn’t have chance at catching them.
It was a learning lesson for all of us that day. I learned that you either want a really thick magic 9′6 gun or better yet, my jet ski, a good drive/partner and my trusty Rusty 5′8 step off board. I’m looking forward to another chance to catch the wave of my life here in Puerto escondido. I love the Mexican Pipeline! July 25th, 2009 will be a day I remember forever!

Jamie