It’s midnight, and outside of a Garage in La Selva Beach, California, eight surfers are loading four SUV’s the last of several thousand pounds of gear.
But on closer inspection, it isn’t the typical gear you’d expect to see on a 10-day, 1500 mile drive down the Baja peninsula. There are dozens of boxes of children’s clothing, books, and toys. Five mountain bikes are stacked precariously on the roof next to a formidable array of long and short boards. Wetsuits and wax are stuffed next to bags of watercolor paints, paper, brushes, and science kits.
The plan is simple: after more than two decades of surfing Baja, we felt it was time to give something back. For nine months, we’ve been planning, collecting donations, and more than $6500 in cash from generous people throughout California. For this trip we’re going to drive the Baja, surf until we can’t paddle. Along the 1500 miles of narrow paved roads, torturous dirt tracks, towns and villages, we plan to give EVERYTHING away, including the trucks.
More than nine months in the planning, this trip is the evolutionary brainchild of Robert Ellenwood, 48, and Rob Brough, 42, both of La Selva Beach. Each of them gives credit to the other for originating the trip. “Bob planned about 95 percent of this trip and I did the last five percent,” Rob Brough says with a self-deprecating shrug.
