Puerto Escondido's Oscar Moncada Oaxaca Tourism Overall Performance winner September 13, 2012

September 13, 2012

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Puerto Escondido's Oscar Moncada Oaxaca Tourism Overall Performance winner

By: Mike Cianciulli

Update: Click here for the photo and video slideshow

Over the past three months, gigabytes upon gigabytes of video clips have flooded the Surfline servers. And a handful of the best rides have featured a stylish regularfooter who calls Puerto Escondido home. Oscar Moncada's tube sense at Zicatela is second-to-none, as demonstrated by his late drops, flashy maneuvering under the curtain and overall dominance in his home lineup.

Moncada set the bar early by kicking off the Wave of the Summer presented by Nike season with an eight-foot racer and never looked back. And by living up to the criteria by possessing "outstanding skill, commitment, courage and style while consistently riding the most challenging waves available at Puerto Escondido," Oscar was deemed the winner of the Oaxaca Tourism's Overall Performance Award, netting $5000 for his efforts.

"Oscar's performance is second to none, not just this season, but every season," Overall WOTS winner Greg Long says. "He's the most exciting to watch out there."

Surfline sat down with Moncada to see what motivates him to excel at the heaviest beachbreak in the world -- which just happens to be in his backyard.


TALK ABOUT HOW YOU BEGAN SURFING. I started surfing at about seven years old. My uncles Juan Ramirez, Miguel Ramirez and Rodger Ramirez were the first generation of surfers in Puerto and they started taking me out to surf.
GROWING UP IN PUERTO, WHO WERE SOME OF THE GUYS YOU LOOKED UP TO? I was surfing more when I was about 12, and I started looking up to Omar Diaz, Raul Noyola, Coco Nogales and, of course, Roger -- he's one of my favorite tuberiders.
DESCRIBE THE WAVE AT PLAYA ZICATELA. The wave is a sandbar, which means it's pretty hard to tell if it's going to be perfect. It doesn't always break in the same spot. But it can go from really bad to really perfect in like one minute because of the offshore winds we have from the mountains. So everything can change in like one second -- from really ugly to really good conditions, peaky and just perfect. The wave is pretty heavy and really shallow. Like really hollow. And it's really fast. You have to paddle really fast to get into the wave and make the drop. WHAT TYPE OF BOARDS WORK BEST OUT THERE? Normally, I use shorter boards when Puerto is in the six- to eight-foot range. Depending on the size of the waves, I would probably use from 6'10" to 7'2" and a little thicker to get through the bumps. But if it's bigger, like the last few swells in Puerto, everybody was riding 8'6"s and 9'2"s. But normally that's what Puerto is - about six- to eight- and maybe ten-feet - that's the typical-sized surf during our swells. (In Cali, what you call twelve-feet is what we call six- to eight-feet in Puerto.)
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE WAVES THIS SEASON TO PREVIOUS YEARS? I think the last month in Puerto was pretty much as good as anything I've seen from the past few years. Although, I probably saw the biggest wave ever last year when a couple guys got in an accident and David Langer broke his leg. That day was probably like forty-five or fifty-feet. But definitely this last month...I won't say best year ever, but I would say August was one of the best months we've ever had. WHO WERE SOME OF THE OTHER STANDOUTS THIS SEASON? There were a lot of people charging this year. For me, one of the crazy guys was Kohl Christensen. It was his second time in Puerto and he was just charging. And, of course, Gabriel Villaran, Ricky Whitlock and some locals like Jose Ramirez. Of course...Ian Walsh and Mark Healey. Mark Healey, for me, is like the craziest guy. Out there, he looks like he's just surfing a four-foot wave. Like in 20-foot waves, he has his hand out, trying to stall for the tube. Yeah, I think that guy is too gnarly; he's the man.
DID HAVING THE WAVE OF THE SUMMER EVENT PUSH THE PERFORMANCE LEVEL IN THE LINEUP? Of course. After the first of June, there was a new swell and all the little locals kids like Cesar Petroni and a lot of the guys from California and Brazil were charging more. And that's good because you can see better surfers in the water and everybody's pushing the limit even more. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF BEING A PROFESSIONAL SURFER LIVING IN PUERTO ESCONDIDO, MEXICO? Well, if you have a sponsor, it's really cool. But many of people here don't have a sponsor and it's really hard for them. They're doing surf lessons, and also trying to work somewhere else, but there's not that much good money around. I don't know how guys can make it out every morning to go surf, then go straight to teach surf lessons, then come back in the afternoon for a surf...and they have families. So I guess it's not too easy. WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELED OUTSIDE OF MEXICO TO SURF? I go to Hawaii almost every winter. And I've been to Brazil, Chile, Tahiti and Europe. I went to Bali a couple times. I've never been to Australia -- I would love to go there.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WAVE IN THE WORLD? I would like to say Puerto, of course, but Tahiti is amazing. I saw that wave [Teahupoo] and it was pretty big. I didn't surf the biggest day, but I surfed it six- to eight-feet and that wave is just amazing. The place is beautiful...the mountains in front of you. But of course I love Puerto Escondido. I live here. For me it's everything about the place: the people, the food, the beach is right there, the party is right there, the restaurants are right there so you don't need to go anywhere else. You're in one spot and you have everything...from parties to surfing, a lot of girls, a lot of beers. You don't need anything else. WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO WITH THE $5000 FOR WINNING THE OAXACA TOURISM OVERALL PERFORMANCE AWARD? I'd like to go somewhere in Europe this September. I don't like to spend September in Puerto because it rains a lot. It's been a long season for me at home, like four months, so I'm thinking I'll go to France for a little surfing and then a couple other countries, like a few other cities I've never been to. Maybe Sweden or somewhere like that. Something totally different than what I'm used to in Puerto...go to the cold.
WHAT'S SOMETHING EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT OSCAR MONCADA? What they shouldn't know? [Laughs]. No, I'm a pretty easy, mellow guy. I'm really spoiled -- I love to be here in Puerto. I love his town. And I love my house. I love my family. I love to be here. But sometimes after three or four months, you need to get out of here. Get some different air. And then when you come back, it feels amazing.