English Pros visits PLASMA-Boy on the Galapagos Islands
In sept. 2006, the metheorlogical media went bananas world wide with this headline: "El nino is confirmed".
SHIT! – that was the reaction from the goverments of Ecuador and Peru ( we knew about all the damage this phenomenon caused in 1998 ).
YES! – that was the reaction from thousands of surfers around the world. We all know that when an "El Nino"-effect is on, this means plenty of epic surf all over the eastern pacific, especially the Galapagos islands/Ecuador, Peru and Hawaii.
Personally, I did order a 7 footer for the big days. I knew that some of my friends that where planning to visit me on the Galapagos islands where undusting their guns and some of them even started to do some training to make sure that they where going to survive those monster waves.
December started decently with a double over head swell which got us very exhited. Comments like " Dear God, let me survive this winter and I will be a good boy" and "Finally I got the chance to experience this kind of phenomenon" where very common.
Well my friends; some times even the hardcore metheorologists makes mistakes on their weather forecasting.
After that first swell, the entire Pacific went quiet for over 4 weeks. Hawaii did got some, which was called "way below average", and in my backyard we did no get anything over 4 feets for over 2 months. We did surf, but it was nothing like what we expected.
It was hard to get wired visitors looking for big waves. They where only getting small fun waves. But hey! it is part of my job to deal with this kind of situations.
In mid January, Steve England (Editor of Carve Magazine from England) confirmed that he was coming with a bunch of pro guys from the U.K.
My sponsor Plasma Boardriding Inc. was informed. "Time to work " was the response! I was still positive about El nino, so we started to get al the details organized.
Arrival date: March 3rd 2007.
Fergal Smith (Irish champ), Mark Harris (English wonder), Easkey Britton (U.K. female champ), Sam Boex (power surfer), Steve England, Ben Skinner (world top longboarder) and accompained by photographer Alex Williams was the group that I was going to entertain for 2 weeks!
2 weeks! I said to my self ,in the middle of Feb.! In the end of february I go back to Denmark to see my kids for the winter holidays! (I was down there this winter by myself). I was supposed to arrive at the Galapagos again on the second week of the pros stay! (I didn´t want to deal with a flat ocean for 2 weeks with a bunch of Pros, if you know what I mean ?!)
While I was in Denmark,I was monitoring the swell action on the south Pacific (the action at the north pacific was gone, time to look somewhere else).
There was something nice forming south of New Zeland heading to the north east. I though: Thanks you lord, the pros will get some fun waves.
Two days later I checked again. The "nice swell" had become a massive swell heading straigh to the Galapagos Islands! Time to re-organise my flying schedule!!
I made it just on time on the 3rd of March. As soon as we all arrived at San Cristobal Island, the face of the ocean totally started to change. From calm, soft breaking waves into a wild animal
getting ready to get humbled.
Places like Tongo Reef where having the best Indo impressions, Loberia was looking like a softer version pf Pipeline and the outer reef was as good as Lance´s Rights.
What a show!
After 3 days of epic surf, we where checking the swell models again. Good news showed up. A new swell was going to arrive after the one that we where surfing at that moment.
Cool, we where going to surf 2 swells in 2 weeks. And that was what we did!!
Just before the English team departed, just for fun, we where looking at the models again. DEJA VÙ!! A new swell with the same characteristics as the first swell was forming. Ben Skinner wanted to stay longer (he fell in love with Loberia Reef), but in the end, he left due to sponsor deals in Europe.
Not a big deal, I was going to receive some surfers from the USA. They where going to score that caramel.
To make the story short, we had 6 swells, one after the other on a 35 days period!
I couldn´t believe it! From what was called the worst winter in 20 years, changed into the best South Swell month in surfing history at the Galapagos Islands. My entire luck changed, all my guest where super satisfied and by the end of the 6th swell my arms where numb, not to mention that my entire quiever ( 4 ) got destroyed.
It was a magnificent way to end the season. I am posting some action shots from those days. I hope you all in Denmark like them.
Enjoy!
Your friend
Eddie Salazar
>>Click here and check out a gallery from the trip <<
