I had bowed out of writing a Surf column this week, due to a couple of things. Not much surf, too many words, and...my wife took a fall a few days ago, wrenched her knee, and has been laid up. So I've been nursing her along, and I have not been on any "surfing safaris" or anywhere else by car except to see a doctor deep in Vallarta. So I'd written off surfing and written off writing about it this week.

So imagine my surprise when I wandered down to the town beach, and had a look at the north-of-the-river left, where absolutely nothing was expected on the charts and forecasts, and found, first on Tuesday and then again, even more so on Wednesday, May 4th, some really, really great mid-sized waves. Risa said it was a wind swell, though there was no wind to be seen. "The wind is probably way out at sea," she said, when I pointed out the glassy conditions. But both days, and especially May 4th, on the Eve of Cinco de Mayo, the waves were super-good, lining up end to end at the left, waist to head high walls. Between three and six people out, and I knew them all. The low season is upon us. Long live the low season and its beautiful, empty waves.

After I surfed for two hours on Wednesday, around 11 am to one pm, I ran home and grabbed the crummy little camera that is the only one I use. These pictures are bad, I know, and once again I have no excuses other than my own inexperience and inadequate equipment. But let me tell you, the waves out there on Wednesday were beautiful, and the crowd was, well, Beto and Kirsten and two others; then Kirsten left and one other guy showed, then Jorge showed up, then Geordie. Old home week in the front yard.

"Not a bad place to be on a Wednesday afternoon," I said to Kirsten, as we paused between sets. "No, not at all." She smiled. I smiled. We whooped and paddled for the horizon as another set came marching in, and we traded another round of long, perfect lefts.

By the way, north of the left, by the riptide, out front of La Terrazola, an epic in-close, almost onshore beach-breaking right barrel has been firing all week. I watched a couple of guys getting barreled and emerging from the depths with that special smile only a barrel bath can bring. You shortboard chargers should check it out.

Here on Cinco de Mayo there is nothing out there. Let's hear it for Cuatro de Mayo!