Ian Fontaine, like all QS competitors, jumps at the chance to sneak away for a bit of barrel drenched down time, and earlier this year he chose Mexico as his destination of choice.

“I went with friends from my Surfclub ´29hood Surfclub’ (29 is the number of our council Finistère in Brittany)” he told us.

“We stayed there for 11 days at the start of November. The waves are barreling and as hollow as Hossegor ever gets and what´s so good is that it works every morning til 12. It’s a punchy beachbreak right and left. You are pretty much assured to get barrels every morning if the swell is here.” He continued.

“In the afternoon the onshore comes up, so it’s surfable til 2pm then the wind and the sun are too strong, so you chill in the swimming pool, play volleyball, or you go explore under the palm trees. Then a good Corona at night and some good tacos.” Sounds pretty dreamy hey?

“There’s barely anyone out when you look outside of Puerto, just few friendly locals, who are chill if you talk to and respect them. It’s really a good playground for learning how to surf barrels – everyday 5 hours of barrels for 10 days is equivalent to about 8 months in France. That was the main purpose of our trip: ride the barrel and get PITTED”

So hit play and watch Ian thread some perfect sandy bottomed pits with some high-performance flaring thrown in for good measure: