Snorkeling and Surfing
Surfing
“Guerrero has a long coastline with almost no crowds and limitless potential for surf exploration. Most spots will be largest in the summer, sometimes huge from June through September, but reasonable surf can be expected for the majority of the year…”
–From the Surf Report, published by Surfer Magazine
Some Useful Links:
Catch L’Ola
Catch L’Ola is an associate company and can arrange all services for Raqueros guests such as surfboard rentals.
ISA Mexico
Instructional Surf Adventures
From the photos above, you can see that there is plenty of surf in the area, starting with the fun left pointbreak in our back yard, known as Troncones Point, and the various beachbreaks and rivermouths biking distance to the north and south. From there, experienced surfers can either hire boats or rent a taxi to visit some other nearby semi-secret spots: Saladita (a long Malibu-style left point) and the Ranch are only a short drive or boat ride away. If you have a car… then exploration is the name of the game.
The water is warm year-round, usually hovering in the high 70s/low 80s. Winds tend to be light offshore every morning, turning onshore around noon almost every day. Troncones Point is a peaky point with a steep drop over sharp coral, that then backs off into deeper water, sometimes lining up nicely through the inside, sometimes not. We recommend reef boots, as the urchins can be thick.
Good boards can be rented at the nearby Inn at Manzanillo Bay (Modern boards in good condition: Channel Islands, Rusty, etc, mostly epoxy as well as longboards, boogie boards, fins, snorkels, etc). We have some boogie boards also, which guests can use in the shorebreak out front on smaller days.
Snorkeling
It’s amazing when you find a place where you can both surf and snorkel in nearly the same spot. Because of the steep shelf that makes the waves break and the deeper water next to it, you can snorkel in relative safety even when waves are breaking on the reef– you just stay 20 yards to the north of the breaking waves where the bottom drops suddenly to approx 15 feet deep. From there you will see all sorts of tropical fish in the clear blue water– on an average day you will see schools of skipjack, giant angelfish, pufferfish, huge schools of colorful striped reef fish, pufferfish in all colors, shapes and sizes… plus the odd tuna, snapper or the local favorite: Sierra.