Acapulco was the first famous Mexican beach resort, coming into prominence in the 1940s as a place for millionaires and Hollywood stars to vacation. Other Mexican resorts have passed it up in popularity, but Acapulco still seems to be standing strong. From my short time there it seems to be big, brash and crowded. As with all the other Mexican towns and cities on the Pacific Coast it’s situated in a magnificant bay framed by sharply rising lush green mountains in the background.
The Cliff Divers of La Quebrada
If any of you were old enough to regularly watch The Wide World of Sports on ABC you probably watched the annual cliff diving contest in Acapulco. Here’s a sample of it below.
Well it’s still going strong and it’s one of the most popular tourist attractions of Acapulco. There are multiple shows a day with one afternoon show at 1pm and a number of evening shows with the last one including fireworks. I caught the 1pm show from an overpriced restaurant overlooking the divers.
I ended up staying about 40 minutes south of downtown Acapulco in the newer, relaxed resort area of Diamante. It was walking distance to the surfing area at Playa Revolcadero. The brothers I surfed with from Ixtapa – Leo and Edger – referred me to Micha at ACA Surf here. I had planned to surf four days here. Day 1 was great. I spent about an hour with Max as a coach and an hour on my own. Max was born here, but grew up in Orange County and played water polo and swam at Santa Ana High and at Santa Ana College. After a career as an electrician he moved back here, married a local woman, and is raising a family here now.
There was a large rainstorm throughout the night before day 2. The waves were a small, frothy mess from the storm, so no surfing then. Then on day 3 the surf popped up to 5-8 feet. I was here so I rented a board from Micha and tried to go out. I got pummeled. The surf was large, heavy and consistent. I was by myself and got held down pretty hard a couple of times going out. There was no one out surfing at all, so I decided to come back in. While the waves were bigger and the paddle out was longer at Playa Linda in Ixtapa, they weren’t nearly as heavy as these waves were. Gato in Sayulita (who is a good friend of Micha’s) warned me that the Acapulco waves got really heavy when they got larger, and he was right. The forecast was the same for the next day, so I didn’t even try again.
While I only really got one day of surfing in, at least I had some really nice walks from my apartment to the beach. I also met another great set of Mexican surfing instructors here in Micha and Max. It’s really cool they also know Roger Ramirez in Puerto Escondido, Gato in Sayulita and Leo and Edger in Ixtapa. It’s a nice, friendly surfing community here in Mexico.
My Airbnb was in a beautiful new apartment in a small complex that was still being completed. The apartment I was in only came on line in January. I almost felt more like I was staying in a new hotel rather than an apartment.
