Monstrous Mexpipe From a Week of Pounding Swells

We saw this coming. All last week and into the weekend, Puerto Escondido has been going loco. And while there's been a few sessions there this season, we've not seen anything quite like this. A sustained run of back-to-back swells have sent the world's heaviest beachbreak into overdrive.

You'll recall? Four swells have been ripping across the south Pacific and marching straight into central and south America (but more on that soon). Anyway, all that energy in the ocean wound up to Friday's crescendo; big, beachie barrels that'll sooner crush you than let you out.

Forecast: Puerto Escondido

Taking a swing at this thing are the likes of Greg Long, Othmane Choufani, Tom Lowe, Jafet Ramos and a whole load of big wave aficionados. The thing with Mexpipe is, it's the world's heaviest beachie (fact) so you can wait out there for hours, all day, until you get into one that'll make you sing.

Anyway, this session capped out at 8ft@18 seconds shooting in from the SSW (198 degrees), which meant we're looking at waves in the 10ft range.

"These swells originated from two systems in the south pacific that intensified around six to seven days before the swell arrived," says MSW forecaster Tony Butt.

"The first was generated by a windfield associated with a low pressure that deepened about half way across the south pacific on Monday 10th May. It moved towards the northeast and maintained its strength for about 48 hours, generating a large, long-period south-southwest swell which moved towards Central America and Mexico.

"The second swell originated from a larger system that followed in the footsteps of the first: a huge area of storm-force southwest winds that began to form in the mid-south Atlantic on Thursday May 13, rapidly intensified and moved northeast until around Sunday 16th. This generated a second pulse of swell hard on the heels of the first one.

"The first forerunners of swell number one began to arrive at Puerto Escondido on Monday 17th, with the swell filling in until Wednesday 19th before ramping down again.

"Meanwhile, swell number two arrived on Wednesday 19th, overlapping swell number one and becoming dominant by Thursday 20th. It filled in until Friday 21st, with wave heights exceeding ten feet and only gradually ramping down over the weekend."

And what's more, we've got more to come from Mexpipe, as the swell's still hanging around and building again into the weekend. Stay tuned for more.