BARRA DE LA CRUZ, MX
Barra de la Cruz is arguably the best wave in the country. I mean it probably is if we are being honest. There have been WSL events here in the past so it's by no means a secret. The wave when you get there is called La Ola Perfecta. Which translates directly to the perfect wave. There are signs with this on it, t-shirts you can buy, etc. That might sound like it's touristy. It's not at all — there is just a homie on the beach selling shirts. Worth a buy for sure. It lives up to its name. This is about as close to a perfect wave as you will find anywhere in the world. It is perfect to be honest. Depending on the amount of size, this reeling right-hand point break will break past the rocks with a bit of a sketchy takeoff, steep with a short barrel section, then soften up for a second takeoff zone if the deep guy doesn't make it. After the soft foam-ball section it will speed up again on the inside and start to barrel again. All in all you can get barrelled a few different times through the wave, throw a handful of turns and then about 200 meters later, kick out with some burning thighs. It's such a perfect wave. The downside here is the crowd I would say. It's a point-break, and with any point-break crowds become a real issue. Just the simple fact of not enough waves for the amount of people. Here is no exception. When it gets big and really good here the place fills up. A lot of people coming down here for strike missions and the likes from Southern California. The place usually fills up with pros and young rippers. So that's the problem with the crowd. The crowd is exceptionally good at surfing. The talent-level of the crowd creates a bit of a testosterone show out there, vying for position, etc. So it can be slightly competitive surfing. If you don't want to deal with that, just stay off the peak and surf the ones that come through on the inside or get missed by the guys out front. To me that was the only negative I could possibly come up with about the wave. You can surf practically all day and there will be windows during the day with really no one out. So just find a slow time, and go get some waves to yourself. The town of Barra de la Cruz is tiny. There is pretty much no cell phone service, and wifi is hard to come by. There's nothing to do here except (surf) for sure. Like the rest of Southern Oaxaca you have to pay to get into the beach. It's been kind of privatized, but by the locals. Which is better than it being bought by some gringos or something. You pay 100 pesos per person to get in, and you can stay there the whole day. The program here pretty much is get up with the sun. Make the trip down to the beach, set up camp with your friends, and just hang out on the beach all day. Getting a few sessions in. Taking breaks to grab food at the little restaurant on the beach and then surfing again. Right around sunset everyone will head back up to one of the little surf-shack places where they are staying, have some beers, get some dinner, and then call it a night to do it all over again. It's a little slice of surfer's paradise here. No cell service, waves all day, beautiful beach, a bunch of other dirtbag surfers, beers at night, and a perfect wave. Nothing at all when it comes to nightlife. Just surfing. Heaven.
Barra de la Cruz is located in the southern part of the state of Oaxaca. It is about halfway in between Puerto Escondido and Salina Cruz. So if you are coming by car from Puerto Escondido it is about a 2-and-a-half hour drive. The bus will take you longer — well, because it is a bus. To get there from Puerto, you just take the coastal route 200 down from Puerto, and you are there. Pulling into Barra it is a small little village consisting of dirt roads, small little homes, a few places to rent a spot to sleep, a couple restaurants, and not a whole lot more. When you are coming down the 200, there will be a sign that is clearly visible that says 'Barra de La Cruz'. There's a wooden surfboard on the sign with a Corona logo on it. It's pretty hard to miss. Just judging by the sign it's pretty clear you are going to be pulling up on a well-known surfing destination.
Once you are in town there is not a whole lot to explore before you have been everywhere. There's a few different places to choose from when it comes to accommodation. Well, more than a few, but a few that I found to be suitable to those on a budget. If you keep driving past town and towards the beach you will eventually pass a little guard gate. This is where you will need to pay your entry fee for the day, and they will let you pass through. Below is a picture of the receipt that they give you after paying, as well as the entrance sign to Barra de la Cruz, letting you know where to turn off.
It's not all that hard of a place to get to, really. Below I will describe the ways to arrive at La Ola Perfecta.
- FLYING - To get here by flying you will have to fly into the Huatulco Airport. There are some direct flights internationally, but you’ll likely have to go through Mexico City first. It's extremely close to the Huatulco Airport. You can be in the water after getting off your plane in less than an hour. There are taxis and shuttles, and if you are staying at a nicer place they will provide your transport. This is one of the reasons that strike missions for guys from Southern California are so common. It's so easy to fly here.
- DRIVING - If you have a car then you will just drive here. It's the easiest way to get here if you are already in the area without a doubt. To get here you just take the coastal route 200. There will be a clear sign that tells you when you have reached town. Use your downloaded maps and this shouldn't be tough at all.
- BUS - There is no direct bus from Puerto Escondido. But you have options. You can either take a bus from Puerto to Huatulco, then to Barra de la Cruz. This option will be about $10, and take around 3 hours, depending on how well you time the buses. Or you can bus to Pochutla, and then taxi to Barra. The other option is to just get a private car from Puerto to Barra. This is going to be about $40 per person, and take about 2 and a half hours.
- HITCH-HIKE - A very common way to get down here from Puerto. Lots of people hitchhike. It's a safe and easy way. Will also be fun. Don't be scared.
HOSTELS, CAMPING, AND HOTELS (IF ANY)
Pepes is the best place to stay in Barra. It's a collection of little huts along the road towards the beach. It's a surf-bum spot. Just simple little palapas with a few beds, some hammocks outside, and shared facilities. They have a restaurant on site with great and cheap local food. A fridge stocked with honor system beer and everything you could want from a relaxing place to chill after surfing. It's very basic, but the place is usually full of backpacking surfers.
You can get a room here for like 150 pesos per night or something like that — which had two beds. Car camping is available for 100 pesos.
You will have options here in Barra. There's loads of different ways to stay. I elected for shared hut with a buddy of mine. But you can sleep in a hammock, rent a tent, sleep in your car, or get a hotel room. Really whatever you want. The camping price is surprisingly not that much different than splitting the cost for a simple little bed, which is why I ended up going that direction. Even though we shared the room with a bat for a week.
You can't camp on the beach, which is a bit of a bummer compared to the rest of Mexico and Southern Oaxaca. But the surf-shack scene is pretty fun. You'll usually be surrounded by other surfers, and like-minded people.
Another great little option. This spot is the closest that you can get to the beach. It's a little bit more expensive than some of the other options, but you are getting better quality out of it as well. You'll have a pretty nice room, and a great location.
Another really good spot to stay. It's a little more expensive, but also much nicer. It's like a proper house, with proper rooms and facilities. Pretty much across the street from Jaysur, so really close to the wave as well. Still going to have to walk like at least 10 minutes though.
This is the most budget option. It's pretty much just a campground, with one or two options for a basic room. For the most part though people are just going to be camping here, or living in a hammock. It's a hot spot for overland travelers because it's the cheapest place to pay for car camping. A really good option if you want to budget, or have your own place to sleep on wheels.
This is the only spot that is actually on the beach. It's only slightly south of the wave, but it would be a really cool place to look into. I never went over there but was curious when I was initially doing research. It's not cheap, but your fee to enter the beach doesn't exist when you stay here. It's a cool little surf villa kind of thing. I think it is easiest to find this on Airbnb or something.
EATS
The eating options here are going to be really limited. But there are a couple places that we went, and returned to many times.
Restaurants
There is a restaurant on the beach that pretty much feeds all of the surfers all day long. It's not even on google maps but you can't miss it if you are going to be surfing. They have really good food, and it tastes especially good after a 4 hour session.
Epic spot with delicious pizza. It's the only place in town that people kind of congregate at. You can go with a group, get some beers, have some fun. A must do here in Barra.
Little local food spot in town. One of the few restaurants. Great food, plastic chairs. You know what that means.
NIGHTLIFE
Literally Nothing.
SIGHTS
Nothing to do here but surf.
SURFING
I pretty much went into the whole surfing section in the opener. I am just going to copy and paste that section here. The wave is the wave out front. Barra de la Cruz. Respect the locals. Give them whatever waves they want. It's their wave — we came in and stole it. Buy a t-shirt. Buy local food. Be kind and respectful and thankful for these people sharing their land and waves with us.
Barra de la Cruz is arguably the best wave in the country. I mean it probably is if we are being honest. There have been WSL events here in the past so it's by no means a secret. The wave when you get there is called La Ola Perfecta. Which translates directly to the perfect wave. There are signs with this on it, t-shirts you can buy, etc. That might sound like it's touristy. It's not at all — there is just a homie on the beach selling shirts. Worth a buy for sure.
It lives up to its name. This is about as close to a perfect wave as you will find anywhere in the world. It is perfect to be honest. Depending on the amount of size, this reeling right-hand point break will break past the rocks with a bit of a sketchy takeoff, steep with a short barrel section, then soften up for a second takeoff zone if the deep guy doesn't make it. After the soft foam-ball section it will speed up again on the inside and start to barrel again. The photo below nearly perfectly portrays this barrel to turn to barrel section I describe.
All in all you can get barrelled a few different times through the wave, throw a handful of turns and then about 200 meters later, kick out with some burning thighs. It's such a perfect wave.
The downside here is the crowd I would say. It's a point break, and with any point break, crowds become a real issue. Just the simple fact of not enough waves for the amount of people. Here is no exception. When it gets big and really good here the place fills up. A lot of people coming down here for strike missions and the likes from Southern California. The place usually fills up with pros and young rippers. So that's the problem with the crowd. The crowd is exceptionally good at surfing.
The talent-level of the crowd creates a bit of a testosterone show out there, vying for position, etc. So it can be slightly competitive surfing. If you don't want to deal with that, just stay off the peak and surf the ones that come through on the inside or get missed by the guys out front. To me that was the only negative I could possibly come up with about the wave.
You can surf practically all day and there will be windows during the day with really no one out. So just find a slow time, and go get some waves to yourself.
I am just going to talk about Barra here. There are waves all over the place in this area. But I am not going to divulge the other ones. The other ones are known in the surf community and are common knowledge down there, but I will not write about them. Just expect there to be no less than 10 world-class right-point breaks in the area of Southern Oaxaca.
Photo: Aaron Chang
