Kitesurfing Californians found the perfect beach in Baja. Then they gentrified it
LA VENTANA, Mexico — Days after Kirk Robinson got fired from a corporate job he hated, he and a windsurfing buddy loaded their gear into his Volkswagen van and headed south from Los Angeles in search of a mythic beach.
It was the early 1990s, and the two had heard vague reports of a remote spot near the end of Baja where the wind blew strong and smooth from noon to sunset.
In about three days, they covered more than a thousand miles with no luck. They were tired and discouraged, studying a map at a restaurant in La Paz, when they noticed a broad bay about an hour south that looked like it might have potential. After a few beers, they decided to give it a shot in the morning because they had nothing better to do.
The final stretch required coaxing the old VW over a steep mountain and across a blisteringly hot, frying-pan-flat desert. Then they reached the bottom of La Ventana Bay.
There they found "epic wave conditions for, like, three days nonstop," Robinson recalled. "It was just incredible."
In a fit of escapism
