Payin’ It Backward

In the wake of an acutely demoralizing experience—having to pull out only twelve miles into Southern California’s thirty-two-mile Catalina Classic paddleboard race due to poor planning and a bout of seasickness—something deliberately arduous needed to be done. A solo kayak/surf trip to a remote break off the coast of Baja California seemed like just the thing.

I camped on a low bluff at the base of Monte San Lázaro, on the southernmost tip of Isla Magdalena, off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California Sur, steep slope behind, sheer cliff to the sea before me. I’d set my tent up on the only flat patch of ground I could find, sitting back from the edge of the cliff about ten yards. My porthole view from the zippered front entrance was a slice of dirt and a lot of water: Bahía Magdalena, deep cobalt blue, with its southern tip, Cabo Corso, ten miles distant, lording over that perspective. Even tonight, with little moon, I