Secret spot, located somewhere around lat. − 3°00 S, long. 100°19 E. Get going…
Way, way back in the day — the summer of 1984, to be exact — I was told about a very special secret spot. Baja California’s last great secret spot, so asserted veteran Baja surf explorer and eventual Surfline founder, the late, great Sean Collins.
It seems that some years earlier Collins had been sailing north from Ensenada with his father, sheltering briefly in the lee of Cabo San Laźaro, at the mouth of Bahia Magdalena, where he saw what appeared to be quality waves peeling off the distal tip of Punta Hughes, the prevailing wind straight offshore. To the best of Collins’ knowledge, nobody had ever surfed there, so sharing this intel with me meant no betraying the secret spot “code of silence,” which by then had pervaded surf exploration the world over. Turned out my younger brother Michael, always up for a challenge, had a boat: a 16-foot Bayliner skiff that he suggested we tow down Baja’s Highway 1 to Puerto San Carlos, launch and motor south around Punta Entrada, then head back north to Punta Hughes.
This we did, surviving the drive down, wasting a couple days fixing a broken outboard, eventually making our way to Punta Hughes, and then camping in the open boat for three days while surfing really fun overhead waves with no other humans in sight. When motoring home, however, as we neared Cabo Corso to the south we spotted a boat approaching from the opposite direction. No fishermen’s panga, it had a steering console and low forward cabin, with three figures standing behind. It wasn’t until we got closer that we saw the surfboards and they, apparently, saw ours. If we expected the traditional meeting at sea we were disappointed — they didn’t stop to chat, or trade notes or even slow down, but as they motored past just bellowed, “Don’t tell anybody!”
I replied at the top of my voice, “I work at Surfing magazine!”
“What?” they yelled.
“I work at Surfing magazine!”
You know what they were expecting: the inevitable coterie of sponsored pros and accompanying photographers, with the resulting “Discovery In The Heart of Baja,” magazine story soon to follow, the break’s location teased yet not revealed. But exposed to the ravening masses, nevertheless. That was the deal back then; it’s the same deal today, times a million, given the immediacy of online video clips and proliferation of social media. But have attitudes regarding the surf media’s enduring protocol of “show but don’t tell” changed as much over the decades?
I presented that question in “Death To Secret Spots: Part 1,” and for those of you who don’t regularly read the comments section, here are a few of the responses, annotated, with my thoughts in italics:
abrowned: Show, not tell is literally the perfect policy, though. People get to see and surf amazing waves, but it shows respect to the locals so their backyard spots don’t get blown up. The difference between 10 and 20 guys out at a lot of spots is massive, especially if it’s a small reef break [If the spot is in someone’s backyard and already has locals, does it really qualify as a secret?]
@surfexplore: As someone who knows something about this subject – many of the places we have traveled with @surfexplore don’t have any local surfers. There is no one surfing at all. [Man, with “5,000 verified pages and 100 cover images of published print and digital media materials worldwide,” your non-disclosure agreements must be airtight!]
surfing_soul: If you wanna surf perfect waves by yourself do your research. That’s one of the main differences between a kook and a real soul surfer: secrets are only for the ones who deserve it… I had the best sessions of my life in secret and I won’t tell anyone where it is… Snitches get stitches. [Well, I guess they deserve it.]
pedro_falconb: Nah, more people means more trash and more problems. That sounds really egoist: “death to the secret spots,” sounds like a cry to want something you don’t have and not caring at all about these spots. How many local (places), because of unruled and unregulated tourism, get destroyed or polluted? Not only beaches, anywhere in fact. This sounds irresponsible, the idea of secrets spost still has a place while we as civilization can’t take care, and don’t care, about our environment and local people. Long live the secret spots. [Not much to argue with here. Although it is interesting to assume that the mere presence of surfers other than ourselves is bound to trash a spot. We’d do well to examine why this is so.]
evebrown: Please don’t promote secret spots. People need to earn these discoveries. Some of the masses just don’t understand the consequences of their impact on sacred and uninhabited surf and countryside. Some of these places are sanctuaries for animals and plants. Please reconsider your policy. [I’m with you, Eve. Although technically, the policy you refer to isn’t mine at all.]
benweiland: I’d rather not know. The mystery is what keeps me interested. [He should know.]
alex_epicure: I was like that too, in my surfer infancy. One part of it is true, no one owns the ocean and the joy of the energy should be shared… But with that said, it’s not an amusement park where you buy a ticket and take a ride. Surfing is a ritual to show respect for the life-giving force. And with THAT said, one has to struggle a bit to reap the reward, getting it laid in your lap would most probably destroy your ability for reverence. [“No one owns the ocean” should be a pretty easy one to defend. But unfortunately…]
linden: Because as soon as it’s “discovered” we come like locusts and devour it. It’s who and what we are. We can’t help it. We come because it’s amazing, magical, perfect and uncrowded…then we pack in, develop it, monetize it, hype it, and turn it into a kind of hideous carbon copy of what we’re trying to escape in the first place. And yes, I include myself in that equation. So yeah, I think it’s not only okay for places to be secret, I think it’s healthy and essential. Even if they’re secrets that are hidden from me, as well. [Again, must we just accept that we’re by default the ravenous locust horde, as opposed to the enlightened, exalted creatures who just happened to surf the spot before us? Who enlightened them?]
sirseaman: Blame Sam is the new motto. [This one’s my favorite. Clever.]
Okay, Inertia readers made it pretty clear how they feel about secret spots (and equally clear that very few read the title of the feature closely, it being “Death To Secret Spots”, not “Death Of Secret Spots”) Some find their continued veiled exposure inspirational, almost all support the idea that they exist and should continue to do so, everyone hates crowds, and more than a few think that having worked in the surf media for almost 40 years I’m a big hypocrite for even writing about the subject. Fair enough. Consider what happened when I got back from my trip to Punta Hughes. Nah, didn’t do a story for Surfing magazine, but I did tell one of my best friends with whom I’d been sharing surf trips for years, and he told a few of our other friends, and they all eventually went down there and somehow made it out to Punta Hughes in sea kayaks (think about it) where, with the waves pumping and no other humans in sight, they experienced one of the greatest surf adventures of their lives.
