Some new dad surfers went to Baja, all the way down to Todos Santos, a surf/sleep-on-the-beach/fish-taco kind of mecca a thousand miles from TJ. And they took the kids, three of them, all under the age of two. For two weeks. And they got some surfing in. And they made it back. All of them.
If one of the party hadn't been Heidi Julavits, the editor of the Dave Eggers-y magazine The Believer, and if she hadn't written about the trip for T: The NYT Magazine's Travel Issue, this trip would have probably only circulated as a myth, a touchstone kept alive by girlfriends and wives as they try to convince their surfers that having a kid wouldn't change things that much. Really.
Baja for Beginners [nytm]
God grant me the serenity to be that mellow...I freak out when we take our five week old son to the market...
[5 weeks? congratulations for even leaving the house at this stage. -ed.]
These men are as gods to me. Hence forth I will speak their names in reverence.
As a surfer who is married to a surfer, I must say that surf trips with little peanuts are not that bad to pull off (way better than long ass road trips that end at the doorstep of someone's house where you have to spend your entire weekend "vacation" trying to keep your kid from either destroying your guest's things or refusing to sleep).
Other than the ridiculously LOOOOONG plane rides (actually that is the one hellish part to pull off), you're usually travelling to very laid back destinations (just make sure they have their shots). There's some awesome "family style" surf spots/camps around the world (check out Salani's Surf Resort in Samoa).
I would say the gnarliest part about the article was that the guys were surfing Todos Santos - not an easy, inviting wave. If I was one of the wives on the beach with my bebe, I'd be freaking that my husband was paddling into extremely hazardous surf (more so than usual breaks) - the remote camping would be nothing in comparison! Besides, in Baja, the more your experience involves isolated places (read: no federales and lots of camping equipment), the safer you are.
[and the less you have to worry about disturbing the neighbors. -ed.]
We were in Todos Santos for Christmas with our then 15 month old son. Granted, we didn't exactly sleep on the sand -- we had an open air casita on the beach, complete with a few friendly centipedes -- but it was a blast for everyone. Our son FINALLY up and walked on the soft dirt roads. And Papa even got in some good bone-crushing boogie boarding in the extra monster-sized waves that showed up over the holidays.
I would highly recommend it to anyone! Nature is the best playground for kids. Our son started to say "stars," "moon," "beach" and "turtle." He just loved it. And far from being worried, I was MORE relaxed letting him explore in the wild than in our local park.
I'd send on some pics, but not sure how to add theme here.
P.S. It was also a great place to wean him from the 3:30 am nursing 'cause, as some one else said, you don't have to worry about the neighbors!
Hmm... we are working on weaning the lil' critter from the nighttime nip. Perhaps a trip to the Baja is in order. Hey honey! I just got a great idea...
If you need a casita, let me know!
So funny, I finally got around to looking at the slide show for the Baja article and find our neighbors, who we missed in Todos Santos by about a week!
Crazy small world!