WRITTEN BY Lyndsay Harper
What happens when you drop a bunch of salty, feral athletes and anglers onto the Baja peninsula with only a loose plan and a couple tanks of gas? After a winter spent holed up, that’s exactly what we did. We hightailed it to Baja to chase the kind of weirdness you only find in the chaos and heatwaves of the desert—a mashup of dusty roads, cacti, and trippy coastal views.
We split the trip up—two crews, two routes, with a rowdy rendezvous in the middle. Our team of anglers drove up to wrangle roosterfish in Mag Bay at Los Locos, where Team Free Fly’s Alec Lucas works as a guide.
The other crew, made up of surfers, divers, and photographers, stayed south to chase Baja’s legendary swell off the East Cape. We met back up in Todos Santos to swap stories and celebrate the best of both worlds. Our favorite kind of trip—the kind that sends you home with a shit-eating grin on your face, and a bag full of gear and stories, all smelling like sweat, diesel, and a week’s worth of fire-roasted fish dinners.
Dive into both trips below, and check out some of the gear our crew relied on—from dialed-in packing lists and innovative new angler essentials, to laidback, beachy staples that have a really nice “I’ll take another mezcal margarita” ring to them.
Vamanos, y’all.
Alec Lucas’s friends joke that he’s part fish. While he might not have the sharp spines of a roosterfish, the way he navigates the water is uncanny. He puts those skills to use down in Magdalena Bay with Los Locos Fishing, where he works as a guide about half the year—and recently pitched us an idea. A dream trip, really.
Alec wanted us to send all of Free Fly’s most feral anglers down to Baja so he could show them around his stomping grounds. It took zero convincing before flights were booked and everyone was on board (we’re still hearing about that one from finance). Sage Johnson flew down from Katmai Trophy Lodge in Alaska. Paul Sonnen came over from Florabama, where he works as a sportfishing captain. And Evan Geiselman—an accomplished surfer with a fly-fishing habit—came in from Florida to round out the crew.
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- Arrived in Baja and immediately hit the road for a quick strike mission over to the East Cape.
- Spotted roosterfish by driving trucks along the beach. Seems chaotic, but it's just high-energy, fast-paced sight fishing.
- Drove back to Todos Santos to meet up with the surf crew for dinner and drinks on the beach.
- Capped the night in the pool with beers and tying flies before the drive to Mag Bay.
- Long day of travel. Five-hour drive up to Mag Bay.
- Welcomed with a meal cooked fireside overlooking the bay—snapper and Hacha scallops on the menu. No complaints.
- Launched out of Puerto San Carlos and crossed Mag Bay by panga.
- On the far side, we loaded the panga onto a truck and crossed a stretch of land to the oceanside.
- Launched the panga again to a small fishing camp on a remote cape.
- Borrowed a local’s truck to reach the other side of the cape for surf fishing.
- The landscape was wild—alien desert meets the sea. The crew fished from the beach and off the rocks.
- Afterward, we reversed the whole process: back to the fish camp, back to the panga, and back toward Puerto San Carlos.
- On the way, Evan caught a few waves straight from the boat. Unreal. A perfect wave, firing in the middle of nowhere.
- A few gray whales surfaced right next to the boats. They were absolutely showing off.
- Ran far offshore in pangas—you feel every bump and wave in those things.
- Chased yellowfin tuna and yellowtail. Everyone caught something, but the yellowfin of the day went to Evan.
- On the way back, we ran into a group of whale sharks, surrounded by bait and game fish. Sage and Paul cast to the fish around them while Alec and Evan jumped in to swim alongside the sharks. An absolute explosion of wildlife.
- Finished the day with sashimi from the fish we caught.
- Last day. Everyone landed a roosterfish. A solid way to wrap five days of non-stop adventure. The kind of vacation that sends you home in need of a vacation.
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4:00 AM surf sessions. Luxuriously long midday naps. Mind-melting sunsets. This is what life in Baja looks like when you’re hitting the waves with a crew of dedicated surfers and adventure photographers looking for a little R&R.
Emi Erickson, a big-wave surfer from the North Shore, comes to Mexico every year during the flat spells of Hawaii. Usually she heads farther south to Oaxaca, where the waves offer sizable training grounds. This time, she traveled north to Baja—where the waves are a little more playful and a little less daunting—to meet up with Rachael Tilly, three-time WSL Longboard Champion, Christa Funk, surf photographer, and Nicole Gormley, filmmaker and diver.
The crew of waterwomen flew into Cabo from all over the world, then piled into cars for a two-hour drive along windy, dusty roads to the East Cape. There, they arrived at their homebase for the week: a small boutique hotel that stood out against the rusty, desert landscape with its white adobe walls and beachside pool. A welcome retreat from the region’s sun-scorched terrain and pounding waves.
The days that followed blurred together in the best way—early start times, sunrise surf sessions, and avoiding the heat of the day. Wake up to catch the best swell at dawn, then head back in around 9:00 AM to hunker down, nap, and recharge. Fueled by coffee, crossword puzzles, and very strong AC.
Once the most relentless hours of sun had passed, the crew would head back out—fully rested and ready for whatever came next: off-road excursions, diving along the coast when the waves were flat, paddling back out at sunset, then unwinding beside a beach bonfire. Each night ended back at the hotel, under a blanket of stars you only see when you’re miles away from civilization, with nothing but the sound of waves and a few wild dogs nearby.
