Southern Shuffle

Time has clicked to a slow roll on the Southern California coastline after a lamentably flat summer. Rarely is the song of Central Baja so enticing -- the call for empty pointbreaks, a schedule as wide-open as the dirt roads cooked dry by the sun. Earlier in the season, Alex Knost called SURFER Photo Editor Grant Ellis and proposed a surf trip through Baja with Australian Jack Lynch and Costa Mesa artist Alrik Yuill. What started as a three-day journey stretched into a week, as the crew left the asphalt asphyxiation of Orange County for marathon sessions on alternative craft. And it wasn't just sleepy groveling, either.

"We got decently rippable surf because of the swell we were chasing," says Ellis. "There were some sessions where we got good turns in, and it was uncrowded. You’re looking at Lowers-type sets with no one out. That’s the beauty of Baja: being able to tap into that solo experience. Three-hour surfs with absolutely no one in the water. It doesn’t get any better than that."