Team Paddler Luke Vollmerhaus and His Mexican Vacation

Okay, so clearly I am doing something wrong when in the last 10 days or so we've had two Nikki Rekman Sales team members reporting from sunny Mexico.

Here's a trip report from Luke Vollmerhaus that will having you yearning for Spring or hoping on the next plane to visit warmer waters!

Hey Paddlers!

I hope everyone’s winter is treating them well and anyone playing in the backcountry of the Rockies has been VERY careful.  We’ve seen some of the most reactive avalanche conditions in years this season.

Anyhow spring is just around the corner (it’s a marvelous +10⁰C here in Calgary) and I managed to make it down to Mexico at the end of February to hit the beach!

We stayed in a town just outside of Puerto Vallarta called Sayulita, less people more waves! We were super fortunate with weather and had blue sky days the whole week we were there. I was lucky enough to have both my family (Andy, Lori and my brother Jakob) and my girlfriend Allison along for the trip.

I could barely wait to taste the salt water so when we arrived my first move was to get a board and hit the ocean. The local surf shop had some great SUP boards. The waves were small the first couple of days but this was an excellent warm up and an easy catch for the SUP board. One comment I have to make at this point regards the ocean floor in this area. The bottom was comprised of oyster beds, for any non-surfers out there this means you’re surfing over a bed of small knives. This is a little hard on the feet and surf-wear, I was incredibly impressed with my Kokatat Surf Trunks which stood up to the beating without issue, no awkward streaking out of the water holding shreds of shorts for me!

During the first days of our trip we took a couple of small SUP tours out of Sayulita’s bay, an incredibly beautiful area, warm water and we even had the privilege to see humpback whales spy hopping!

As the week passed the waves got consistently bigger, nothing impressive but definitely more fun to ride! I got out on a surf board for a couple of days and went back to the SUP later on.  My family had their boogie boards as well as a play boat we dragged along with us, everyone managed a few great rides every day. I even managed to get Allison on a surfboard and after just a couple of short learning sessions she was up and riding like a pro! Her long board practice at home definitely helped.

I must really recommend this area for anyone looking for a sweet cheap vacation, there’s tenting spots right on the beach if you’re worried about accommodation blowing your budget and food is cheap!

I brought my own paddles down for this adventure and got to put Werner Paddles’ Stinger through its rounds in the surf and I must say I was very impressed. The blade surface area provided tons of acceleration when catching the wave and it’s shape made an excellent brace and rudder for cranking the big board through a tight turn.

I’m back in Canada now and eagerly awaiting the spring melt to start our rivers pumping! See you on the water!!

Cheers,

Luke