We met up with one of the best longboarders in Mexico.

Israel Preciado is a Mexican surfer born and raised in Sayulita, a get away surf paradise in the northern Pacific Coast of Mexico. He started surfing as a little kid and has always had a thing for bigger longer boards, back in the days when Israel started surfing the average opinion was that if you came with a big longboard, you couldn’t surf. But as soon as Israel got in the water everybody could se he was ripping on that big log.

He’s one of the nicest guys we have met during our travels, he took us into his Mexican life and let us stay in one of his houses, showed us the secret spots around Sayulita, took us on a crazy road trip down south along the Pacific Coast and learned us some very useful Mexican street language.

Growin up as a surfer in Mexico is’nt the same as in any other country. For example when Israel grew up, he was drafted to the competitions in California, got the Visa and everything, but couldn’t pick it up in time due to the some endless bureaucracy issues. He decided to go anyway and jumped on a bus to Tijuana. He went up super early and at 4 a clock in the morning he took his wetsuit on,  jumped on his board and started to paddle across the US/Mexico border. There is a rivermouth there which is famous for having tons of sharks and very soon he did see ha few fins pop up around him. He went so far out there was no swell visible anymore, paddled for some hours and when he was far across the boarder he started to paddle towards the shores of San Diego. He took of his wetsuit walked a bit threw the bushes and sat down to wait for his buddie, thats when the border police showed up.. They arrested him and questioned him but Israel is such a nice guy and was only a little kid back then so somehow he talked him self out of the situation and they thought it was a pity they already had made the call about arresting him.. Instead they said, try again tomorrow..

He did’nt. But he did’nt give up surfing either. Today he works with property managing as well as doing private surf lessons. Check out his website, he is one of the most professional instructors we have met. Both me and Linn grew so much surfing with him, “put a little bit of more weight on your frontfoot”, “turn that board a more with your rail”, “paddle over here” etc. etc. It’s stuff you have heard before but Israel just nailed it and took our surfing so far. If you want to start surfing our improve it even if you are good send him an email and uncrowded waves around Sayulita is included.. He will hook you up with a house too for pretty much the same price as a room in a cheap hostel, just that it sleep tons of people and are very luxury with AC, balcony, kitchen, etc. Not to mention pointing out the best local taco stands in town.. Woow those fish tacos were so yummie!

And yeah, don’t forget to check out his modeling at Quality Peoples.