by Bryan Jáuregui, photo: Jocelyn Mathe

Laura and Paula with children

Once you have the love for surfing, nothing else works,” says Laura Cassity, one of the most dedicated surfers in Todos Santos. “I moved to Todos Santos in 2003 to teach and drove 40 hours down from Humboldt, California. At the end of that drive I pulled right into Los Cerritos and surfed until the sun went down. All I could think of the whole time I was driving was, “Get me to the beach!” Now 6 months pregnant with her second child, Laura is finding it increasingly challenging to surf every day as she likes to do (and as she did in her first pregnancy). “Really, it takes me 10 minutes just to maneuver the wet suit onto this body now.” And not just the wet suit—picture trying to paddle out to catch a wave with a 20 pound butterball turkey strapped to your stomach and you get a pretty good idea of the challenge…and the passion for the waves that keeps pulling Laura to surfing with baby on board. Fellow surfer Jeannie Day, a.k.a. Pickle (as in pickled-looking skin from spending so much time in the water) understands that passion well. “I can’t imagine anything that would make me happier than surfing. It’s a whole different universe.” Growing up in states not known for producing surfers, Illinois and Iowa, Pickle didn’t learn to surf until she moved to San Diego at the age of 26. And even then she didn’t have any formal surf instruction—her friends just threw her in the water with a surf board and she figured out the rest for herself. On a surfing road trip to Mexico in 1993 she connected with an old buddy from California building a house in Todos Santos, Steve Meisenger, and has been here ever since. “Living in Todos Santos is so ideal because I can go surfing any time I want.” Adds Laura, “Todos Santos may not have the best waves in Baja, but we do have a nice surfing community. Surviving in Baja can be challenging at times, but being able to surf and maintain this lifestyle connected to art and nature is so important to us and makes it all worthwhile.”