Slow Baja - Greg Tomlinson On Growing Up With Baja In His Back Yard

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

Greg Tomlinson, aka GT, grew up in Dana Point, California. With Baja practically in his backyard, GT has nearly 50 years of Baja stories to share. A lifelong surfer, motorcycle rider, and adventure seeker, exploring Baja is where his wanderlust began. Reflecting on his first father and son camping trip in the early 1970s, "The dads rode in the cab while the kids rode in the back. As the pickup truck, piled high with dirt bikes, surfboards, and camp gear, cruised south, we could barely contain our excitement for the epic adventure to come." GT is the founder of Von Zipper Sunglasses and spent years traveling the globe as the host and webcast presenter of the Billabong World Championship Surf Tour. He's a national title holder in the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association. He races classic 60s Triumph motorcycles on both road courses and dirt. During Winter, you'll find GT snowboarding, chasing waves in sunny climes, or riding Baja with his buddies on the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. Follow Greg Tomlinson on Instagram  Follow Greg Tomlinson on Facebook Learn more about Von Zipper here Learn more about AHRMA here

Hello, hello, Ola, Como Estas, Slow Baja amigos. Thanks for making a little time for me and Slow Baja today. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to my Baja adventure buddy, Ted Donovan. Happy 60th birthday, Amigo. We have had some great adventures over the years, and I don't think there has been any better than the Nora Mexican 1000 and leading the Slow Baja safari class. So Ted, it's great ride, great run. Happy birthday to you, and I can't wait until our next Baja adventure, which, if I were a betting man, would be the Nora Baja 500, the end of September, early October. Maybe you folks listening right now want to jump in. The registration opens July 2nd. All right.

Well, today's show is with Greg Tomlinson, better known as GT. GT is a surfer, snowboarder, vintage Arma, motorcycle racer, Von Zipper, founder, and just a crazy fun guy. I met him in February when he came on my Slow Baja vintage expedition. He was riding Speedy Magoo, and we just had a ball. GT's got a great spirit, and I wanted to get him on Slow Baja to tell me what are like growing up in sunny southern California with Baja, California, just an hour-ish away on a good day with little traffic. And G.T. He told some great stories, and I hope you enjoy the show. So without further ado, Greg Tomlinson, G.T.

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmarkmaps.com. They're like, hey, let's grab the kids and go to Mex this weekend. totally happened first trip i think my first trip hey you know what it always makes sense when i

press this time and we start to do it again let's do it again take yeah hey three yeah i'm hey perfect take three let's do it again that was perfect let's do it again three all right we're recording we're recording on all four channels yep i have a half there in front of me and there's a fridge no i'm good i'm good uh unless i'm sleeping on your couch yeah and you're welcome to all right uh hey hi mike it's slow bah ha Yay. And I'm in Dana Point with Greg Tomlinson, better known to many in the surfing, snowboarding, motorcycle racing, sunglass world, fans of Lakers everywhere.

Oh, God, yeah. People know him as GT. Yep. And you can follow him on Instagram right now at GT with 5E's, right? That's right. GT5E's. Anyways, GT was on my mind, and I said, sent him a text because I was driving through Southern California, and I said, I want to get you on the show, and I want you to tell me about what it was like being a Southern California kid with Baja in your backyard.

I've had multiple technical difficulties already this night, so this is a third time we're getting to this. I'm totally used to it. This point in the show, so GT, take it away, bro. Well, thanks for, thanks for letting me come over on Sunday night. Michael? Interrupting your evening. No, no, no, no. Well, so first of all, just so you guys know, it is Sunday night.

I had a race today out in Glenn Helen racing the vintage dirt bikes. I just got home. There's Formula One, Moto GP, a Super Cross, Moto America. I think I have five of my favorite race series on DVR. And literally no, actually one of my sons might be here. But the point being is I have an empty house tonight. So I was just going to land the couch in my favorite Al Bundy pose and just watch sports motor racing until I fell asleep. So anyways, when you called, what,

What is interesting, Mike, is you were a topic of discussion today, which maybe we'll get to, except that a couple of my buddies are in town from England to race the Nora, which I, of course, was told them, oh, I got to hook you up with Mike, because I know he's going to be there and boobo da, but they, blah, but anyways, what I guess what I'm getting at is the magic of Baja goes well beyond NorCal, goes well beyond SoCal, goes all the way to England, apparently with Nick Ashley and his friend Ben that are going to come down and race Nora, which I think this is their six or eighth or tenth time doing it. And this is Nick Ashley's first trip, first real trip post-COVID.

And the first place he went was Baja, right? So that's a draw. Long time, slow Baja listeners will remember Nick Ashley from the show that I recorded with Hayden Roberts and Hayden and Joy, I should say, Hayden Roberts and Joy and Scott Tougher about their experience in the Baja, the Baja 500, and Hayden refers to Nick as Nick two shits, Ashley, in the show. So go back and check that one out. Yeah, I can't speak to that nickname.

You're not counting. But what I can say is that Hayden is one of my best friends and Nick is just an incredible, I was telling you, he's kind of a mix between Bilbo Baggins and maybe, Austin Powers meets James Bond. I mean, he's just this incredible, incredibly clever man. And someone who's been racing motorcycles since probably the mid-50s and is just an absolute legend in every aspect of life. Well, and to get back to your point to circle this thing around,

because I'm going to tee you up and you're going to run with it. Again, that should not be taken lightly. That Baja burns brightly in people who are in Britain, let alone in New York or wherever people could be. There are 22 million people right here in Southern California. It's magnetic. But I get it. And so take it away.

My start with Bob, growing up in Southern Orange County here, you know, an hour and a half away from the border on a good day. My first trip down was kind of something similar that you said. I'm not sure if it was on the air or when we were having technical difficulties or not. But, hey, let's grab the kids and go to Bahá. this weekend to my old man's best friend kind of thing. And that first trip was probably 74. Maybe it was, it was either, it was right around when I first started surfing. So it must have been 74, 75. But anyways, um, so my first trip down there was with my dad, my best friend's dad and my best friend. There was four of us. And, you know, I'm guessing we were 10, 11, maybe at that time.

And, um, man, to this day, I, I, he had, I, I, I don't know, my buddy's dad had like a red pickup truck and I think we were riding in the back, me and my best friend with all the surf shit and the camping gear. Kids did that back of the day. Oh, yeah, no, you're totally allowed to. And, um, you know, my old man and my buddy's dad up front and we were in the back of the bed and riding down. And, you know, and I think we talked about this on the, the Baja Vindadadavina expedition. But, you know, the first thing that was super sensory and, and it's kind of lost it. unfortunately is the smell.

The smell of burning trash. Yep. Just immediately, you know, well before you got through Tijuana, that smell. I'm going to actually make a candle. Yeah, no. It's burning trash smell. Oh my God. So if you're of a certain age, that's the smell.

No, no. Cross the border. That's what you smelled. It's not funny, but it is what it was. It's super sensory and it's just the smell. And I'm not saying it was a bad smell. I'm not saying it was a good smell. It just was the smell.

All right. So that first and foremost, the other thing is I can remember coming through, God, you know, and it fails me, but coming down, you go down the quota, you know, like down the lawn or whatever. And there was that weird. And to this day, I think it's still there, but that weird building that, like, it's a rectangle that sticks up with like a rainbow arm off on one side and a rainbow arm off the other. Do you know what I'm talking about? I think it's just past Laplace and it's all decrepit and screwed up now. But that was there then. And it was so odd because it was just like in a, off the side of the road. There was no.

development there maybe it was going to be a development that that was the figurehead of it but anyways that it that was always something that every time i went to baha from the my first trip to now it's kind of overgrown with buildings and everything else um that that that monument or whatever the hell that thing was somebody at one point you can text me and we'll laugh about it because someone i'm sure knew knows what it was or what it was on tuesday yeah yeah see you next tuesday but anyways um so so the other thing that's so crazy awesome was at that time, like, you know, you kind of like, it was always a lot of Rosarito. Like originally, it was always Rosarito to Ensenada.

It was kind of as far as we went in the early trips with my dad and my buddies and stuff. But the, that area was so killer at that time. I distinctly remember we pulled into Rosarito and there's the arch to the hotel, which was there. But there might have been, oh, man, four Tiandas on. either side of the arch. And that's all that was in Rosary. I mean, there was not a damn thing. And, you know, I think, I can't recall, I'm guessing LaFonda might have been there because that was always a camp spot. The ways were always kind of okay. And we'd always camp there. I think it's Alicitos,

if I say it wrong, again, correct me. But that, you know, around K-58-ish, I think it was. And the other thing that was super, that I super remember of that first trip was, the weird like as techy building up on top again super ornate super as techy it's still there on top of the hills you kind of come over the crest and drop down into where LaFonda is it's up there on the right but anyways I just remember that clearly and at that time we would bring dirt bikes surfboards boogie boards camping gear and then you know my my dad and my buddy's dad would get drunk on tequila and we just pretty much had free reign. And, and again, a word that, that I've always described for Baja was freedom. And I just remember at that 10, 11, 12 years old, just that innate freedom, that kind of,

anything was, you know, anything was possible, you know, and the waves always seemed bigger, and the tortillas always tasted better. And I remember on that trip, we did go into, we, we were snorkeling all around out by Labufidora and all that. And, you know, literally pulling avalonies out and eating them on the beach. And, you know, we went into Hoosongs. And I remember me, my buddy's sitting in the back of the truck watching the shit while my dad and his buddy got hammered in Hu-songs and we're eating tortillas that probably cost us a nickel. But it was just, man, I'd been on other camping trips and surf trips and all that crap by that point in my life. But there was just something about Mexico that, that,

It just, it was like, God, it's just, I'm going to sound like a sappy dork, but it was just magical. It was just, through my childhood eyes, I get goosebumps even thinking about how special it was that first trip. And it just, it just never got old. And you just chased that dragon for all those years. Oh, my God. And so, so as it evolved, you know, and I think when we were screwing around riding vintage bikes with you and Hayden and them, you know, There was just so many of those. And the man, when I turned 16, I probably bought my car when I, 16 in one day.

And at 16 one day and one hour, I was heading to Mexico in my carmenguea. Like that is no joke. The first place, the first trip, the first tank of gas, that was heading straight to Mexico. And literally, but that was it for growing up here at that arm's reach. And at that time, the way it's a way it's. around here, they could be crowded, but certainly not crowded by today's standards. But man, there was always the promise of empty perfect waves just over the border. And there was always plenty of that. And man, you know, I don't know how many goofy escapades you want to go through.

But I mean, there was just so many of them. And it was, I mean, so many stupid, really dumb things that turned awesome and I you know I was really fortunate that um traveling as much as I did and I think I think the other thing that probably comes to mind is having spent so much time Mexico was always my my first go wherever whenever I could break away it was always to Mexico and through the course of my career and and and the things I've chosen to do whether it was chasing um you know surf contests and riding waves and getting photos or snowboarding or riding dirt bikes or road racing or all my stuff. It's always centered around travel and just wanting to see what's on the other side of the next thing. Whether it's, oh, I want to go skateboard in the next skate park. I just want to ride somewhere

different. Or, oh, this racetrack, we've never raised here before. What's it set up? It's always about kind of looking over the next hill, so to speak. And Baja, I think really for me, probably got that wanderlust started. And, you know, so as soon as we kind of got Rosarito and Ensenada wired, it's like, whoa, is it flat earther? What's on the other side of Ensenada? Oh, what's on the side of Santa Tomas? Oh, wait, Gros Negro? Oh, Mulehe?

Oh, wait, Cabo? Oh, you know. And it carried on down into Alcapulco and everywhere else, but the point of mazalon and everything else. But Baja specifically, growing up in Southern California, it was an escape that was super. obtainable and hey man you want to find some trouble it was there for you you wanted to find perfect empty waves it was there for you if you wanted to um you know drink when you weren't allowed to drink well it was an obvious place to jump off at and um and um those memories are so fond

in those adventures um but it really again that the risk is sounding sappy for the second time it just really set me up to just i want to okay what else is out there. And Mexico is always that for me. Well, I think of unfolding that first AAA map and looking at the Long Peninsula and just kind of trying to get your head around like, oh, I've only been to this little tiny bit up here. Yeah. And there's that whole thing below there. Absolutely. And that, you know, there was the Baja book. You know what? I bet you I have both copies in this little bookshelf. I don't have many books. But what I do, I'm sure there's two copies of the Baja book. and I must admit

whenever that thing came out I might have got it for a birthday or Christmas present or stocking stuff or whatever I studied the Baja book inside this is when kids read oh my God

I mean so bad they listen to Vim Skeli I have two copies of it one because my original one was so The bindings were crap Oh God it just got wrecked because and then I had to get

another clean version of it but I was so enthrasing and the mystique again most of my Baja stuff centered around surf initially um if not foremost and um and so so for me it was always like oh my god okay so a south swell of that angle oh that could be a spot because at that time it was still fairly early on we maybe we're creeping up into the early 80s at this point but the point being is at that time surf forecasting wasn't super good and so so you could only guess what oh like cabo calling up there's got to be a good wave look at how far that sticks out and in some cases what what i found was the way the spots that we always thought were going to be

ways with me being a terrible surforecaster weren't the spots and then but that made it when you stumbled on one even that much more better is the mobeda as they say in the islands but the point being is that that was all part of it that we would stumble on these spots and just like you know, spit the coffee out of our mouse and just be like, wait, what? Oh, my God. And and as it became more developed and et cetera, et cetera, those spots became more exposed. But I mean, I remember surfing K-38 and you'd be lucky to see one or two other guys in the water. And now, I mean, you know, there's apartments and condos and, you know, I don't even think you can access the beach there anymore. I'm not quite sure because I just kind of blow past it now. But

that whole Popola, Rosarita, Gaviotas, Calafia, Sosopoese, San Miguel, that I should also mention like Baja Malibu. Those were all spots that, I mean, Baja Malibu is kind of the first spot when you come in to, you know, you get through Tijuana, you get through Laplace. But Baja Malibu is kind of the first spot. And quite frankly, it might be the best one. And just a crazy good beach break if you're a surfer and really powerful and punchy and half the days you couldn't even get out. And it always seemed like if it was, you know, four feet here, it was eight feet there. And it was an easy strike mission, you know, leave it three in the morning and shoot down.

We'll be a, you know, Bahaboo at first light, be the only ones in the water. And then as things progressed, they do, you know, anyways, it started with surf and it just became a lot more over the years just in terms of just the awesome beauty and diversity that you can find there. And I'm a little remiss because it's taken this long for me to get it out. And then the people like, again, don't get me wrong. You can find trouble. It's a, you know, Tijuana is a big city, okay?

And now Rosarito is a big city. And Enzano is a big city. So you can find all kinds of trouble. But especially in those early days, man, the people, they would have, they would have given their shirt off your back and this is the oldest saying in the book when they ain't got a shirt. You know what I mean? They were just, I mean, if you're shit broke and you're in the middle of nowhere, there was no fear of getting messed with as much as it was just more part of the adventure that

we're just going to see it through and it kind of always did and and that those are the things that when I think about Baja, the essence of that you know you're kind of flat earthing it a little bit and you're kind of on the edge and you might be a little out of your comfort zone but that's the beauty of it. So let me set the stage for our younger listeners. There is a couple of films that came out in the 60s that really screwed a lot of people up. It was, of course, the endless summer. And then on any Sunday. On any given Sunday.

Oh, no, on any Sunday. Sorry. And then on any given Sunday was the second version of it. Right. So those two films, I think, really screwed a lot of people up and got people moving to find surf. Right. And you know what's neat about that?

Both those movies were done by a gentleman named Bruce Brown, who is a native of Dana Point, by the way. But carry on. And there's a lot of scenes from on any side. Sunday shot right here in Data Point. Yeah. And so again, being right here and having those influences, they're only a few years old at that stage.

Yep. It lit a fire. 180,000 percent between those two movies for me are like seminal to my being in terms of, again, the what's on the other side of then the summer stuff where they're walking over sand dives to discover the perfect wave and, and, you know, Tahiti. all those places. I mean, that, and again, I'm really proud to have a little bit of lineage to that being in Dana Point and Hobie and Phil Edwards and everything that was right here in town. But it was a shockwave to everybody. Like, wait a minute, we're going to go chase this thing.

And then on any Sunday, for me, I mean, as you look at my living room, I got two old triumphs in my living room right here that is an absolute testament to that film because those guys are all my racing heroes. I race vintage bikes, largely because I just could, I couldn't take my eyes off. As much as I was more of a surfer, I've probably watched on any Sunday, as much as any movie I've ever watched, I could flip that on right now and be entertained. And anyway, so, so it's, it is, those two movies just were shockwave, for sure. So you have those seminal influences in people's lives and and then the place where basically you can do that stuff is right out an hour and a half away two hours away and so kids who are turning 16 and one hour later they're loading up their car

with dollar gas in those days and heading south yep and then buying beer oh because you could no no straight to yeah bohemia or you know i'm trying to think of some of the because it's funny because some of those beers you don't really see anymore. And, you know, like Mike's drink a medillo, the only place you could ever get a medello at that time was in Baja, before it became a thing. And Negra medello even more so. I remember humping a Pacifico, two Pacificos back from my first trip to Porta Vayarta.

And, you know, I found Pacific, oh, I got to bring these things back. And I dropped one on my front porch, you know, my parents, my parents' house. And it like ate a hole in the paint on the porch. I'm like, I didn't drink these things for two. weeks. Well, and it's funny. One eats the pain off of your porch. But it's funny because I think, I think the secret of that, that Pacifico and Corona,

and I've always preferred Pacifica over Corona. That's just anybody who knows me knows that. And I don't mind a Modelo. But the point being is, I think the secret to how good that beer is, is how drinkable it is when it's warm. Because, and in those days, ice was not. Ice. It was not an easy thing to come by.

So you drank a lot of warm beer on those trips, or I did anyways. And it's surprising how drinkable that stuff is when it's warm. And interestingly enough, going back to my trips, again, I've followed a decade behind you, those spring break trips, those beach trips, where the beer cost less than the posit on the bottles. So if you're buying a 20 pack, that's the way they sold in those days. It wasn't 24 in a case. They were 20. 20. And it was like three bucks for the beer and four bucks for the bottles.

Bring back the bottles. In the middle 80s. Yep. And there was a number of trips where, you know, at the end of the week, you're scrounging up bottles trying to get that deposit back so you can get that gas to get home. And, you know, I don't think. So what I was getting to, or the thought that I didn't act on earlier when I was saying, you know, on any Sunday and endless summer.

For our younger listeners, we grew up with magazines. So you probably ripped down to the surf shop or the 7-Eleven and you would get a, you would flip through a surf magazine and there might be something on Baja, but probably there wasn't. There was something on something. They were covering other places. Occasionally, the Baja showed up occasionally. Yeah.

And so, you know, it wasn't something like there wasn't a free flow of information. Yep. It was word of mouth. 100%. was it was sea stories being told on shore. Oh, 100%. And, you know, a lot of... And legend.

Yeah, legend. People steering you, you know, it's like a treasure map, man. They'd steer you left when they damn well knew it was right because they didn't want to give up the spot, you know? And if you did get that information, you protected that fairly religiously. Even to this day, there's still plenty of secret, you know, surf spots, if you will. And it's funny because some of those people still this day are kind of all guarded about that shit.

and I'm just like, dude, when am I going to, like, you think I'm going to climb over the mountain, climb down the hill, jet ski for 40 miles in the fog to get to the thing and maybe you're not getting even by a great white now. That's probably well past my scope, but I still, but I want to know about the adventure. Like, this is rad, you know, I am a little bit more civilian in my means, but. So do you want to, do you want to name that spot that you just described, but you surf there? No, I've been sworn. But you've been out and done some of that stuff.

I've surfed plenty of, I've been fortunate to be in on those, some of those strike missions, as we might have called them in that time. And, and, you know, the Baja, you know, Baja has its surf challenges with wind in the middle. Like, you know, it can be tricky to get good waves. But there's plenty of it, especially if you know where to find it. And some of the, some of those, some of those Hall of Fame spots, yeah, they might require. boat or a ski or something to really get into it or get out of the water safely based on the sea life that lives around there but the point being is and there that might there might be a hint but the point being is um you know early so early 80s out to toto santos the little island right off of vencenta

which just blew up on the surfing world you know that killers which is the main wave on totos is a big wave spot on par with anything in the world. And oh, by the way, it's, you know, an hour and a half and a boat ride out, which you could rent a ponga for the day. And you really didn't need much to get out there and get yourself in a lot of trouble and some really, really serious surf. I've had some incredible experiences out there.

One time, I'd just gotten back from doing about a month in Hawaii. So I would have some good big wave experience, you know, under my belt and was feeling pretty confident. and we went out there and it was every bit of 20 feet and shooting some photos. And, you know, it was just, it was just incredible. The day just got better. And by the afternoon, it glassed off. And it was just this otherworldly beautiful glow about it.

And the photographer who had been shooting all day finally was going to go out for a surf by himself, for it with it by himself. And so I was like, I'd already probably surfed eight hours that day. And I was like, oh, dude, I'd join him. But I'm just so burned out. And he's like, oh, it's all good. Good. Paddles out. We're sitting on the boil at Killers. And he was probably out there for 20 minutes. We're all yelling, screaming, kind of sitting in a boat in the channel. And two killer whales go through the lineup, swim right underneath them, just incredible stuff. And, and, you know, his name's Hank. And he's not known, put it this way. He took it in stride and wasn't remotely intimidated. And he came and going, well, there's never been a reported, you know, attack on a human of a killer whale, right? And I'm like, I don't know, but at least it wasn't today.

Yeah. But they only eat their trainers at SeaWorld. Exactly. And they deserved. Well, they know. Anyways. So, so, but, but it's filled with those kind of experiences where, you know, you mentioned Surfer Magazine. I do remember there was one cover shot that there was a photo taken inside a tent with the

tent flaps open looking out to a lineup, an empty kind of point break lineup. And, and, and I don't think they claimed it. was Baja, but anybody who knew Baja knew it was Baja. And it just said everybody on the like, where's that wave and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I think I found it actually. And it was one of those things that you show up not really expecting much. And all of a sudden, there you are just, you know, surfing on waves that you drew on your notebook, you know, in fifth period, you know, on your peachy. Exactly. Waiting to get out at all. costs and um but again it's the thing it like i said that tent photo they label a bahad they may have

but trust me that was bahia it's just in any you know pictures worth a thousand words there it was you know uh trading some canned goods for some fish or a t-shirt for you know some some abalone or or some clams or oysters depending on where you're at but that was all part of it, you know? And so just off the, you see that photo, the smell comes to mind, the, the, the bartering, the trading, the broken, you know, oh, I broke my transactal in the Jeep or whatever. It's all part of that. Right. Well, we're going to take a break right here.

I'm going to insert a plug for Baja bound insurance. If you want to get to this wave, if you want to break your transactional, if you want to barter for fish, you got to get Baja bound insurance first and get your ass down to Baja. Don't be foolish. We'll take a break right here and we'll be right. back with more from GT. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use, check them out at Bajabound.com.

That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Do you wish you'd join me on the Nora Mexican 1000? The sold-out Slow Baja class was truly epic. We had an amazing array of vehicles and folks driving them. The Don Kay, the Chimp, the vintage Manxes, the vintage racing Broncos, Mayo Land Cruiser, Bronco Privateer. Shout out to you, brother. 1980s, FJ60, the Silver Lady.

Let me just say, the man called Yeti and the Wild Yolo. They had an amazing Johnny Johnson tribute Ford Ranger truck. They rolled with us, changed gears and rolled with us on the last day of the event. And I think they had a ball, as did all the other folks and the new jeeps and the raptors and all the folks that came down the peninsula with us. Again, Big Oli absolutely blew up the internet. But they were right there smiling at the end. You got to check that out, folks.

I'm not going to go into it. But the next opportunity to have some fun in the slow Baja Safari class is the Nora Baja 500. It's September 29th through. October 2nd. It is Ensenada to Ensenada, which means logistically. It's a heck of a lot less challenging than the Mexican 1000. So if you want to come down, have all the fun and a lot less logistics to deal with. The Nora Baja 500 is the event for you. Shoot me a message. I think the Slow Baja Safari class is going to sell out quick. So if you're interested, let me know soon. Also, next opportunity after that is the Baja XL rally. It's every other year. It's coming up.

in February of 2023. Again, it's a totally different animal. It's 200-something overlanders. 25-30 countries should be represented again now that COVID's behind us. And it is a great time. Bring your rooftop tent. Bring your funky vehicle. Get on down the coast at a very slow roll. There's a competition category, which is like a giant Easter egg hunt, or there's the adventure category, the touring category, which we roll in, which we just break out our benchmark map, figure out which squiggly dirt road looks the most scenic and we take it and nobody judges it's an awful lot of fun it's too much to explain here if you're interested it's february 17th through february 26th 2023 shoot me a message through the contact feature at slowbaha dot com direct message

instagram direct message facebook or slowbaha at gmail and i will get you all the information you need for for you to make an informed decision if baha is right for you. Hey, we're back. We're back right here in Dana Point. Hi. Talking about beautiful experiences in Baham, trying to figure out before the internet, before all the GPS coordinates, before all the urban assault vehicles that people can take

down to Bahá on air down and have stuck boards and refrigerators in your car and all that stuff, rooftop tents. B.F. Goodrich, all-terrain TAs, Baja champions. Before all of that, people just drove down in any old car that had gas in it with a bunch of stuff crammed into it and threw it all out on the beach. Half of it blew away. Half of it got taken away by a huge tide that they were not anticipating. That never happened to me.

And the other third got stolen by somebody. Yeah. The other surfer or some local dude, whatever. Yep. So you experienced all of that, I'm assuming. Yeah. Well, and a lot of that was in a Carmen Gia. We did it in Jeeps, Carmen Gea's, bugs.

Overland vehicle. Yeah, yeah, no. And that thing weighed about 800 pounds. It could never get stuck. I could push it out of anything myself. But that also taught me to be a good packer, you know, minimize that. You know, and it's funny because, because, again, everything about Baja, especially in the early days, was everything, surf and you know driving to cabo when again there was nothing in cabo i mean i have photos of

you know we're camping at um the rock zippers um that area now that is just you know it's fully built up and i mean my lonely car on the beach with the tent i mean i just i'm just so the eastern cape which there was so many fun waves and it still is um but just nothing around and hot hot hot hot, fun waves and Cerritos, Toto Santos, Piscadero. There's just so much of that. But, you know, there's also, there's also the spring break element, I'll call it, which was, oh, you had a couple young girls after school or same age. I was not taking advantage of underage women at this point.

But, hey, I got a car. Let's go after school. Let's shoot down to bah. And so the spring element, spring break element, meaning that we. could drink underage and get a little squirly, was always kind of on the burner as well, whether it was a surf trip or maybe just having some fun with a couple girls.

It was all part of it. And there was a window where San Felipe was a big spring break. It just went off. Mid 80s. It went off. Yeah. And to be honest with you, again, I was always like, it's spring break. I'm going surfing and bar.

I'm not going on freaking San Felipe. That's freaking lame. So one year I got talked into it. And oh my God. Just, you know, it's just the classic Baja trip, like you said. Like, I think, well, a few of us got thrown in jail. There was a, we went to a cockfight. Okay.

And this is like probably 84, I'm guessing. So somehow or another, me and my buddies stumble on to like a proper cockfight. fight. Without any other college kids sitting around there. Oh no. No. No. It was all, it was all locals, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we stumble into this cockfight, so we just get in the middle of it. Marlon Perkinson, Jim here. And I don't know if you ever seen a cockfight before, but that was kind of interesting unto itself, except that at one point it got busted up, like by the polisia or federalies or wherever it came. And so, you know, it was the classic scatter, which we all got split up. And then at one point, you know, I see my buddy and his VW coming across town.

And he's like, GT, so-and-so got thrown in jail. I'm like, okay, well, let's get him out. And so I run and jump on the – you remember the bugs used to have like a little side running board on the outside of the car. So I just jumped on the running board. And now I'm holding on to the out – you know, from the outside of the window. You're holding on to the drip rail. Yeah. And we get pulled over.

I get thrown in jail. So we get thrown in jail and there's my buddy. And the jail was filled. And there was one fairly. Standing room only. Oh my God. Filippe jail spring break. Packed.

And there was one oldish lady. And I don't recall her having teeth that was trying to do. Let's say make people's time go better. Jobs for hire. Yes. Yes. make your time go by a little quicker. And I think we ended up getting sprung for 20 bucks ahead,

which left us with no money to get home and literally coming in on fumes. I just, but that's all part of that trip. And that was, I'll be honest with you, it's the first and only time I ever went to San Felipe. And it wasn't, again, I don't mind the desert hot middle, but I'd always prefer the, but the hot, beachy, wavy, you know, rinse it off kind of thing more so.

Yeah, at least there's something to do in the middle of the day besides just pound beers. Yeah, and I've never been a day drunk kind of person. I've always wanted to like, say outside, where are we doing? We're going to climb them out. We're going to serve. We're going to fish. We're going to, you know, like ride dirt. You know, you're a little busy.

Yeah, I didn't want to sit around drunk. Like, that's too easy. San Felipe in my recollection from 85 to 88 or. so was 100 degrees at 6 a.m. Terrible. You're climbing out of a tent. At least we were because we didn't stay at the hotel. Who did?

No. And brushing your teeth with a beer. Oh, yeah. And then 100 beers later, it's 2 o'clock in the morning, and you're still awake. Yeah. And hopefully you still have all your teeth and everything. And you didn't die that day. And just the stupidity.

Yeah. Just the, it's crazy how much beer you can drink. But you were talking about you were talking about you jumped onto the side of the running board of a Volkswagen, which is from three inches wide at the back to six inches wide at the front. Exactly. Right. Well, my buddy and I jumped on to Big Olaf. We called him Big Olaf. We called him Big Olaf.

The back of his bug didn't have the rear bumper. Oh, shit. So it just had the two little bumper support. Oh, the two prongers. Yeah, the prongers. Yeah, the mounts. So he jumped, my buddy Eric jumps on one side. I jump on the other and we're holding onto the rails.

Yeah. as he's leaving town to go to our camp because we had been priced out of the first campground. Right. You had to go farther out. Now we're in the second campground, Numero Uno. And there was a little bit of a dirt drive. Yep. And Eric hits, you know, a big Olaf hits a big pothole.

And Eric goes flying off. Oh, guaranteed. And Olaf doesn't stop. He doesn't know that he's off. No. Who does? And it's pitch black. Yeah.

Who knows if he's living, dying, land on his head. And Eric comes stumbling into camp 20 minutes later with this huge scuff on the side. of his face. For sure. Yeah. But we're all drunk and it, you know, that's just what it was. He comes home for, you know, Easter Sunday or whatever. His mom's like, what the hell?

He's got a huge raspberry on the side of his face. Yeah, so that was San Felipe. So we're getting back to explain to the younger listeners. There was an era that didn't have internet. You didn't have all these answers. You had this word of mouth. The waves were here. The party was there.

The girls were over here. The beer's colder. The tacos are better. there's lobster. Whatever it was, it was these big rumors that you had to go find on your own. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And like I said, the only thing that I had as my spiritual guide was the Baja book. So at least, at least when one of those trips, we were going to Cabo and we thought we'd take a shortcut. We ended up in La Poresema. And I was super lucky to figure out that oh, La Poresema, I saw that in the Baja book, which I was.

though we got to La Prisema, never fucking know, except that. Wrong term in Alp. And it totally got us through and over the other side. But the only thing that you could have counted on at that time, in my opinion, was the Baja book there. I'm sure there's other one. I keep on looking over there because I think, I don't have my glasses. GT's looking across the table here trying to read.

He's too old though, folks. Oh, wait. He's got his glasses now. I got my glasses right here. Hold on. Hold on. Michael. Here comes the Baja book.

You know, so again, it warms my heart that we have a few. There it is. This is the Baja book, too. A complete new map guide to today's Baja, California by Tom Miller and Elmar Baxter. Now. Sure, some of your listeners are familiar with this book. Oh, wait, did I get it from my parents? What is it say?

This is so good. Ninety-six. Yeah. For Greger. On your 21st, may your journey through life take you many wonderful places and your trips all be filled with fun. Oh, fun. Love mom and dad. 730, 86.

So seriously, you know, my dad bought a Volkswagen camper in 86. He bought a used Westphalia. Yep. At Thanksgiving of 86. Yep. At Christmas of 86. gave him this book. Yep.

So you know what I'm talking about. And honestly. And then, but you're my witness, Mike. I did not have that stage. That was in that damn, yeah. And because I gave him this book on Christmas, two days later, we were in his van heading south for New Year's. Now, you know, that's an eight-hour drive to the border.

Yeah. Or 10 hours. I was going to say, you did good. And a Westie? Yeah, maybe make it 14. But anyways. And so this book, again, was just, it was one of those things to be devoured. Yep.

To be devoured as much as the transistor radio may have had the sounds of the game, the Giants in my case, the Dodgers in your case, or the Lakers or whatever. This thing, I mean, I sat in the chair in my parents' living room, and yeah, I gave it to my dad, but I took it back from immediately. This is a present for me, although I gave it to you. This is a present for me. And, you know, in San Francisco, finding Baja content in your local bookstore was not. I went to the Rand McNally whatever map store in San Francisco and found this Baja book.

Yeah. This is fun. I will say, you know, like all these little dirt roads, I mean, Punta Canejo, for instance, I just, okay, so page 116 just happened to flip to it. So Punta Canejo. You've got some notes in those books, too. I think you had a little. Did I have a bonus next to that one? Because Punta Canejo. Did you just draw boners? So a soft one or a bainty triumphant bastard for the good spots.

So Punta Canejo was one of those spots that was in the book as a surf spot. And I believe Punta Canejo, if I recall correctly, that was kind of we would usually kind of try and get to Cabo kind of on day three. So we would do like get, you know, a third of the way down camp, surf, whatever's day one. Day two, this one particular trip in mind was, oh, this Canejo spot says there's waves. Let's check it. So we got to Canejo and we were going to overnight there. And sure enough, we got there and it was absolutely pumping. And it was, I think it was, well, it was a pumping left hander.

And again, we were the only ones in the water. And quite frankly, that trip, I wasn't with like full, like I was diehard surf guy. And the group I was with was not as surfy as I was. So I remember surfing a crap time by myself at that spot. And I must admit, I was a little nervous because it was kind of dark water there. And, you know, you always get a little nervous when you're serving by yourself of what might come and eat you and stuff. But anyways, we got great waves at Cana. Let me interrupt too, because that's another thing.

that kind of forms our character being of this age. Yep. We were little kids when Jaws came out and it messed me up. Oh, my God. Because there were great whites at my local beach. Oh, my God. Well, you know, San Francisco, the Red Triangle, there's great white sharks there, right?

Like, that is a known thing, right? And it's funny because I know this is a Max-related podcast, but like you brought up Jaws. I remember being in Hawaii, the summer is 75 when that movie came out. If I'm not mistaken, 75 or 76. Yeah. Okay. But the summer that came out.

77. Yeah. But the summer of that movie came out. I was in Waikiki and we'd surf that morning and I was with, again, I was on a buddy mine's parents trip and so I got to come as the friend. Nice friends. And God love my parents for letting me go. Anyways, we surfed that morning.

We snuck in and saw Jaws as a matinee. Oh, no. And I didn't know what that. hell to expect. Yeah. Mate. It. Yeah.

Torpedoed me. So then that night we surf the spot in Waikiki Kee called number threes, which if you, if any of you surf, you know, number threes is like, it's one of the, it sits, it's a reef that sits well far off of Waikiki. Is it like a quarter mile out of course? Yeah, it might be. I would, I would say maybe three quarters of a mile, but. A long flipping way out there.

But the point being is it was me and my buddy Kevin surfing out there. The sun was going down. We were still out. It was uncrowded. I never were in Waikiki, all the hotels. It was all built up. So it wasn't like you weren't in a metropolis. But, you know, it was, you know, but anyways,

sun's going down. And sure enough, a turtle, it turned out it was a turtle. But at one point, a turtle surfaced right near me. And I swear to God, I thought I was Jaws. I probably ran on top of the water all the way back to the beach. It freaked me out so absolutely much. But, but, and I did get chased out of the water once upon a time and Cabo is surfing out at Boko de Toulay, which is a spot out and around

the eastern Cape that breaks on a real kind of steep angle south like more of a hurricane south. Anyways, the ways we're firing. And it was, again, me and a buddy had been camping down there for about a week. And we were camping at nine palms, but we went over because the, the, the, the, the, well, we'd come up. And so Boga de Toulay has a little bit more, um, more of a barrel to it than we were surfing. Anyways, just me and him in the water, and I was paddling up a wave as he was going, and right there, a shark was in the wave with him.

So he took off, and of course I spun around. I don't know where the shark, if it followed him or whatever, in the wave, but the next wave they came, I spun around and went straight to the beach kind of in as quick as I could, and he's sitting out there, and I'm yelling and screaming, like, get out of the water, but that was, there's a fun little mexy, sharky tie it back to the jaws problem but so we've got seminal films yep on any sunday yep

feeding your love of bikes yep uh endless summer feeding your love of travel yep and what's over that next dune yep where's the surf yep and then the one that just messes us all up jaws yeah do you still think about that at all when you're in the water is it just part of your DNA one or do you do you okay I've had the good fortune to surf all over the world. You're in the industry. Yeah. And so and I, you know, I hosted the surf tour, the world championship tour. I hosted it for a better part of 10 years.

And so I, and I was fortunate because I announced, I announced the Hawaiian events, Tahiti, Brazil, Spain, and also South Island. Africa. And the shark threat in some of those places are a little bit more real than other specifically South Africa. And I'll tell you, it's probably not my macho thing to say is, yeah, I think about sharks. Now, do I think I'm actually going to eat eaten? No, but do you still think about it? Yes. Do I act upon getting eaten by a shark when I'm surfing Doheny at six in the afternoon, yeah, the water's pooey and it's muddy and you can't really see the bottom and yeah, you start thinking about sharks, but are you really going to get eaten? No. However,

if you're at Jay Bay in South Africa or you're surfing Cape St. Francis, that the endless summer wave, if you feel that there's a shark, get the hell out of the water because there probably is one. As a matter of fact, there is one. You just haven't seen it yet. So that's what keeps you from surfing Cape Cod these days. I will be, I will be man enough to admit I carry my girlfriend's purse. wants me to and yes occasionally the shark thought creeps in but i just don't let it ruin my life well have you talking about all these baha trips in the 80s and and whatnot did you have a feeling when you crossed back like i dodged a bullet oh hell yeah i don't have stitches i'm still driving the car that i came down in oh 100 and yes i had stitches and yes i had stuff stolen and yes i mean you know we

there were I mean so one of those drunken spring break trips as I'll call it you know but one of just you know a drunken Rosarito trip so I went we and this was literally we bailed out of school 245 shot straight to max got hammered at the LaFonda the restaurant you know bar hotel thing at LaFonda and then we were heading back and um this might not be something I'm proud to tell you, but I'll tell you because I'd like talk about getting over the other side of the border. So we're waiting in the line at,

we were waiting in the line and one of the girls, we were waiting in the line to cross back in the United States and the border line was a little long and one of the girls had to take a piss. And so we go, I'm like, oh, I'll take you in. So we go into the, you know,

the federal building where we could go take a pee. And I'm standing there outside the bathroom waiting for her to go. And I'm got my hands in my pockets and I'm fiddling around. And I realized I had like a fucking joint like wrapped in a baggy half smoked in my pocket. Right. And it wasn't well, hey dad, it wasn't my joint. Truly it was one of the girls. I'm like, what the fuck are you doing that?

And I meant to throw it away. And I never did. And that was back at the bar. Like she had it at the restaurant earlier in the day, but obviously we got all messed up. And so anyways, so I'm realizing as I'm fiddling in my pockets, I had a bunch of pesos and stuff in there as well and my car keys and some other stuff. But I wasn't driving at that point, but I had my car keys on me with change in a bunch of other shit in my pockets.

Well, anyways, I realized, I'm like, oh, fuck, I got a half a duby in a bag inside my pocket. I'm standing in this federal fucking building. Anyways, so they must have been monitoring me or something because she comes out of the bathroom. We start walking out and some immigration guy was like, excuse me, sir. And like we're literally like hand on the door walking out the building and just, oh fuck. So like, excuse me, sir, can you come in here? And I'm like, who me?

And they're like, why would you want me? They're like, well, we saw you filling around like, what's in your pockets? And I'm like, Nothing. Oh, no. So they take me to this room, like, you know, like a anti-room or whatever. I mean, like a interrogation room for lack of a better term. And this one officer is like, can you have to your pockets for me?

And I'm like, yeah, sure. And in one move, I put my hand in my pocket, thumb back the doobie in the bag, grabbed all my change and my keys and shit and kind of threw it on the table in like a big commotion. and like yeah there it is and the dude that subterfuge whatever he's like all right thanks let me go i swear to god i walked out of the room because the girl was like literally waiting outside the door in fucking tears we got back to the car and like so when we got over the border yeah you asked the 20 minutes ago have you ever been that one i sure as hell did because listen to bring again I promise you on my hand on heart that was not my weed and it was stupid of me not

to throw that immediately away or whatever that everybody knows better than that you know and so because and there's so many other things you can get off on in Mexico legal or illegal to like do that was just the stupidest freaking thing and and by the way I never even made out with that chick after that anyways so but anyways so when you're talking about getting over the border like a big woo moment oh yeah that was one. You know, there was, in that kind of mid-80s time frame, there was another island that we used to go surf off of called Nativiodot. And we would fly in on little like puddle jumpers. And a couple of those trips, I mean the wind, because that island has a couple really crazy ways, it's a really good beach break there.

The winds blow offshore there every day a gazillion miles per hour. and if there's any sort of swell, it's super open to it. So I did that trip quite a few times, and I must admit that was always another one. That little plane, getting on and off that island in the wind, was always like a thing, oh, we made it home kind of thing. But, I mean, again, surfing an island off of Baja, nobody around forever, and it's just you and your mate's just scoring incredible waves.

And, oh, man, yeah. So anyways, a lot, for me, the few getting over the border thing only added to the reason to go. Yeah. I mean, yes, Baja, magical freedom, but there's always mischief in it. You know, you're always, there was always, you know, hey man, you're always walking a fine line. Like, you know, one stupid drunken move and, um, and, um, and, you know, luckily, I never really had any other than the federal cross-the-border one. I never really, yeah, I got chickened down by some federalies here and there,

but luckily, there was never nobody, and yeah, I guess I did get thrown off. Slam and definitely, but the point being is, it kind of was all part of it. Like, it wasn't, it just never seemed like you were at super at risk, and it was a, bummer because there was a time there when we fast forward pretty significantly into the probably mid 2000 2000 you know maybe 2005 2010 when there was a lot of stories of banditos and people get in their cars taken and and and a few of my surf friends you know who were super jet ski like shoot down launch skis at you know down by the paymex plant and go surf they they've got they got cornered by black cars and one of them lost their big rig and all that stuff.

So that was happening. And it was such a bummer that that was coming up. And it was, it was real. But at the same time, when I went down in that period, it was like a lot of people backed out. And it almost kind of recaptured a lot of that, that emptiness that was there. Because again, go drive in downtown L.A.

If you end up in the wrong neighborhood, you might lose your car. Yeah, might, something might happen. If it's a nice car. So, and that's why also, though, I always did, through my experience, as quickly as I could get out of any of the city stuff for me, like Hussein wasn't my destination. You know, Tijuana for a Caesar salad wasn't my destination.

I always just wanted to go out and get lonely somewhere in camp and get dirty. Although, although I've had some really fun, you know, we did our little Baja expedition where we were on dirt. I think we did about, what, 300, 400, 400, 400, miles. Yeah, yeah. 350-ish, I'm sure. And most of that was dirt.

That was a lot of fun. And that adventure is super fun about, I love the exploration. I love, like, I love hitting roads that people commonly don't hit. But then there's also, you know, riding 1960s motorcycles that, I mean, even if you got a stock garage, half the shit's archaic, you can't, you know, so half the adventure is getting your shit to make it through, you know, like, you know, unfortunately, Dorma has bike broke. Had a terminal failure.

Yeah, but. But that led to another adventure. Which, I mean, you. So, okay. Set up the story. Yeah, okay. Okay. So I'm just going to set the scene.

After, so Jorma, unfortunately, he builds bikes with Hayden. He knows what he's doing. Had a terminal failure. We're not going to go into that. But it was five-ish hours on the side of the road at least. Yeah, we were just south of Ensenada finally getting. Just south of all the traffic. Where that checkpoint is.

We're probably two miles. Manadero. Yeah, exactly. We're two miles north of the checkpoint. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, we were 20 kilometers north of Santo Tomas. Right, which was where we were going to hopefully turn off the road and go do dirt all day. And have an adventure.

Because this was like 10 in the morning, I think, where we broke. So we spend the entire day there. And Hayden and I run off to get apart and then we can't adapt the part. And then we end up getting towed 20. Yeah, we towed to Santa Tomas. 20 kilometers to Santa Tomas. And then we ran into a little, a little. Is that a Freudian slip already?

Yep. We ran into a little repair shop. Do you want to take it from there? So we go. We're finally getting to Santa. We're a little fried. Let's put it that way. So we get into Santa Tomas on dark, towing, to Dorma's bike in.

Bike to bike. Yeah, like his motorcycle. Bike to bike and I'm in the back. I don't think I have flashers on my truck. No, no, no. So I was just flashing the turn signal one way. But luckily we made it there. And so luckily, Mike, we get a hotel, a room at, you know, in the backside of the little Mercado right there in Santa Tomas, which is super charming.

Something mission hostile. Yeah, super awesome. And they're like, oh, we'll feed you food and here's a couple of rooms. No problem. And subsequently they let drama keep his bike there. But before that, so we get the rooms and they're like, okay, you can pull around back and you can park behind a gate. And as we were pulling around back and parking on the gate, we live. look to the right and there's a little mechanics garage.

A classic open. Yeah, open, like better than a shed, but, you know, like, you know, kind of, but I don't think there was a garage door that we were going to shut. It wasn't a garage door that I saw for sure. And you could see that they were a local mechanic and we could hear people arguing and stuff and making a little bit of commotion. So we walk over and they're working on like a little Honda 50 motorcycle. well it turns out that the two mechanics are brothers and they happen to be dwarves and and dwarves is the correct thing to say and he just can't make that up yeah and so so there's two dwarves working on arguing with each armato this and benoci and badeo you and whatever and so

mericio and heronimo there we go and and i'll tell you man i put it up in my story and people are like thought that we made this shit up you just can't make it up but that's the beautiful Diyaba, right? And Hieranamo had a pet lamb. Timo, who was eating your tire or Jorma's tire. Well, he was eating every, I eating everything. So anyways, so we actually had them take a crack at Jorma's electrical issues, which at that point, everybody else's, but mine seems like patients that'd run out, but I was so entertained.

And I was kind of like interpreting because there was a time I could speak, I would never say I could speak fluent Spanish, but I was, I could, you know, I took a, a couple years in high school and then a couple more years in college or whatever so i could speak spanish and again going down there a bunch certainly better than hated right and so so i was kind of their interpreter um which was about every third word and we're talking about electoral anyways but i mean if that isn't the epitome of a baha adventure that's what you just don't know what's going to turn around the corner these guys these guys wouldn't quit nope they they they and they have had the reasonable facsimile of the part.

The same part you guys went to Ensenada to get. And then we didn't have the connectors. And then we're trying to come up with the connectors. And they were so crafty about, oh, no, no, no, no, we can reuse this. And we can, they, no. But the point being is those mechanics, having broken down in Baja more than a few times over the course of my years down there, it is incredible how industrious you can be. Yeah. When Craig and Auto Parts isn't on the corner of your street.

No, I mean, it's incredible. We've had stuff welded in the middle and nowhere. I mean, it's just, but, and it's all part of the fabric of it. Yeah. And then we finally got into this little hostel. Yep. And it was well past the time that the kitchen was open. Yep.

But she opened it for us. There were four hungry boys. Yep. And it was stacks of cassidias, keep them coming and tortas. Yep. And I don't even know if we had a cold beer after that, but anyway. But that's the hospitality. That's the hospitality.

And I think we probably should leave it right there. God, there's so many more. It's just so crazy. I don't want to kill your, yeah, you know, my infamous five-hour podcast, right? Let's just give me a couple more minutes on what it's like for you to ride motorcycles here. Yep. Versus what we did there and other trips that you've taken there. Yeah. What's the difference in the mindset? Again, is it like the waves just don't have anybody there?

Yeah, well, you know, because the interesting thing, too, about growing up in Southern California in the 70s into the 80s, especially Southern Orange County, like the area we're at, you know, it wasn't fully developed. So we had a lot, you know, like nearby is Ortega and Salaback Mountain. So we had a bunch of fire roadie kind of trail stuff that we could ride up until at least certainly through that time so so again I feel blessed I always tell everybody I do not take where I live for granted I love where I live you know and those memories so so that riding was always fairly accessible very similar riding to what we were doing fire roadie elevation but but again and amen Mexico.

Your shit breaks. You know, things aren't at a fingertip away. It's different languages. It's different currencies. It's different, you know. You know, again, I'm riding a triumph motorcycle. Has there ever been a triumphant motor? You know, and, you know, which, which does serve to say, though,

staying at Granja della Esperanza. Yeah. Yeah. So. Hector's place. Hector's. So we go to that. So we end up in Osso Negros, at Hector's place, which it turns out that not only is he, you know, the lawyer behind getting

the land rights for the Nora and all the, all the road passage rates. Yes, with all the Aheados and all the farmers. Yes, he does that. And he's a champion in, I believe, the Stock Baja class. Yeah, class 11. Yeah, he won last year's score. But what's even crazier is he sees us on those bikes and him and his brother are like, oh my God, my grandfather was running down to La Paz. like in the 50s, I think he was saying? Yeah. And he had all these photos. So he came back the next morning with all these photos of his grandfather.

Trailblazing all that stuff. And then shortly thereafter, once they started running the Baja, he raced on a triumph down there as well. Yeah, Hector's, Hector's father. So Hector's the oldest brother, J.C.'s the young one. And fairly significant years between them. But their father and uncle were, the first guys to put on dirt bike races in Baja.

And when they brought those old photographs out, so sick. Again, you guys can look at those things and pick out every bike in there. Immediately. And Hayden's head exploded because they were racing these little 200 cups or something. The little tiger cubs, yep, which God forbid you would actually do that. But what's super neat all about that is those dudes saw our bikes and were just like, oh my God, I got something to show you.

Yeah. And again, that's all part. And they put us up in their, oh, my God. Yeah. They've got something to show us with the, with the octopus and the, those, the octopus steak,

carne, burrito things that they, oh my God. It was shockingly good. But, but I guess not to, not to keep this going any longer. I guess my point,

so riding from, the other thing, though, I've done crazy fun street rides down into Baja. Again, once you, I mean, Ensenada, going through Ensonata,

it's a bummer. All right, let's face it. Like, I mean, that's as good as a traffic jam as you're going to get anywhere in the world. It's just a bummer. But once you get past Cincinnati, like, you know, I've ridden big touring bikes down there and stuff, you know, the Harleys and I got a gold wing that I won't, I'm not ashamed to admit that I ride. Anyways, the riding is unreal. It's empty and it's two lane. But the main thing is just like, you know,

once it's around dusk, it's probably best to get off the road, you know, a little earlier than that, more than likely. But, but again, if you want to search. If you want to ride dirt, if you want to fish, if you want, I mean, you want to do spring break, you know, for me, I'm really fortunate that that's always been out my back door. Again, I guess maybe I take it for granted, but I don't because the memories are so darn special. And I've been also stoked because I've gotten to share it with my kids the same way. And, you know, I turned 55 not terribly long ago. 55 year old out there. That's right. But, you know, we did my 55th at K-55 with my three sons,

surfed, you know, for three days and served our brains out. But, you know, 55 at 55, I thought that was kind of cute. But the point being is that that really encapsulates the Baja thing. Because, because I'll take it for granted that it's close, but I'll never take it for granted that if that was ever taken away from me, it would just be a vacuum. that would slurp my soul to the depths, you're right? So there's just so many faces of bah on it and never, it never gets old. Well, we're going to leave it right there, folks. I managed to shave four hours off of his last podcast by limiting this one.

I said I was going to come in with my basketball shot clock and get you to one hour. So, hey, thanks for that. It really good fun time. Yep. And we've got to hook you up with Nick Ashley and his boy, Ben. Nick, I can't wait to get a microphone in his hand. Hey, where can people find out about you? We didn't talk about all the other stuff that do.

I don't know if you want to or want to, but do you want people to follow you on Instagram or anything? Yeah, well, I mean, I think you said it, GT with five E's if you want to, you know. That's GT with five E's. Yeah, GT, E, E, E, whatever that is. On Instagram. That's my Insta. My brand is called Von Zipper. We make sunglasses and goggles and stuff.

And honestly, my whole trip being thing, it's always been centered around to have more fun. than everybody else or actually bringing people along to have more fun. And Von Zipper is just an extension of that. And I've been really fortunate that I've been able to, you know, kind of chase my hobbies through the brand and the brand becomes my hobby or whatever. You're living the brand. And I'm really fortunate with that. So anyways, but if you ever see me broken down the wrong side of the road,

please pick me up and I'll do the same to you. How about that? And there's a pair of sunglasses in it for you, folks. All right, G.T. Hey, thanks for making some time for Slow Ball. Love you, Mike. Well, I enjoyed that conversation. I hope you did, too.

Greg Tomlin's a great host, great talker. Great to see that book that his mom gave him in 1986 so he could go to Baja safely. If you like what I'm doing here, folks, drop a five-star review on iTunes, say something nice about me. It really does help people find the show. Tommy Adkins and Broken Me Adventures.

Thank you for your kind recent reviews. and you head over to slowbaha.com. I've still got all the merch in while you're there. You can click that donate button. You can drop a taco in the tank. That really does help me keep the show going. And it does put a little spring in my step. I'm going to be honest with you, folks.

It really does. Eric Lippincott over at Camp Tech. Thank you, Amigo. Doug up there in Sisters, Oregon. I hope our paths cross soon. Thanks for dropping some tacos in the tank. Kaven and San Jose slid an entire taco tray in. Thanks, I hope you're enjoying the show.

John Alderson, thank you, Amigo. Appreciate the donations. Thanks for dropping the tacos in the tank, and thanks for helping me do what I do. And in closing, to paraphrase my old Baja loving friend, Steve McQueen, Baja's life, anything that happens before or after is just waiting. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you, her vineyard, Adobe Guadalupe

winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table, bookended to an intimate dinner at night, their house bred Azteca horses, Solomon, the horseman will get you on a ride that'll just change your life, the food, the setting, the pool, it's all spectacular. Adobe Guadalupe.com For appearing on Slow Baja today, our guest will receive. the beautiful benchmark map 72 page Baja road and recreation atlas do not go to Baja without this folks you never know when your GPS is going to crap out and you're going to want a great map

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