Also Known As Stoner’s

In the spring of 1964, Long Beach, California, surfer and photographer Leo Hetzel scrambled up a rock balustrade in the state of Nayarit on the mainland of Mexico. Peering over the top, he copped the first surfer’s view of a wave now known popularly as Stoner’s. The lineup, as it is today, was a warm green cove infused with freshwater from the adjacent rivermouth just out of sight to the north. The atmosphere was silent, hot, and thick. Blinding-white thunderheads exploded over the inland sierra. A set of waves lurched upward like cereal boxes on a conveyor line and chased themselves toward a beach of yellow sand. Hetzel watched as the set traveled south around the next point toward Matanchén Bay.

Later that day, he told his pals what he’d found hidden around the corner from their annual holiday hangout, Matanchén. The following morning, the crew logged first tracks at what would be known for the next couple of years as “the secret