Is Puerto Escondido the most unpredictable wave in the world? Now Now Media’s Place of Thorns certainly made the case. Bianca Valenti is no stranger to studying Puerto’s mix of closeout and mind-melting barrels. But this summer she seemed particularly attentive to its moods and tubes. In a series of posts online she offered some thoughts on waiting for those rare visions to come to fruition.
Valenti’s righthand cylinder, in contention for the 2024 SURFER Big Wave Challenge, comes as the Bay Area native’s revamped training and meditative mindset has her “feeling my best ever.” Here’s what she had to say after successfully threading her Bob Pearson needle over the sand:
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“As we age, catching better waves is about wisdom and updating your programming. Just recently I updated mine, got back in the gym 3x a week after a 3-year hiatus, cleaned up my nutrition, hydration, rest and recovery programming. Started placing value on delayed gratification and durability rather than immediate satisfaction. Updated my equipment. Became way more monk-like about pacing, patience and wave selection. Rest days are now a ritual and dropping into a deeper practice of patience and calmness (not easy) is something I’m getting better at. Proud to share I’m feeling my best ever and seeing these videos is also validating because I can see my gym training is also showing in my body 💪🏾 🤭 once you commit to the program with the heart and the mind the body knows what to do and the spirit lights right on up! ¡Viva maturity!”
Valenti’s maturity manifested again on a day that didn’t go so well. After four hours in the water and swinging into a closeout, she wrote, “Some people say this wave is a challenge others say it’s a close out — right now I’d say both of those statements are 99% true 🤣Actually the latest funniest comment I’ve heard from an onlooker is that it looks more boring than fishing but that she wouldn’t dare touch her pinky to that heavy water — also pretty true hahaha. That’s the #girlsuodate for now and it looks like this guy did me a favor otherwise I would’ve pumped into the bucking bronco bounce house danger zone! This was on hour 4. I got impatient and the 5 waves after mine were 5 of the not closeouts all morning.”
But Valenti also shared some valuable perspective after waiting in line for yet another closeout: “As for the theme song of this reel yes I’m having FUN taking on challenges like this is a privilege and builds resilience AND I’d like to call in some LUCK 🍀 because I’m here now. Surfing is one of the most challenging sports in the world …if anyone wants to challenge me on that I welcome you to…and that’s why I can’t get enough of it! Just that one little vision getting inside this wave has me wanting more. And if anyone wants to go to Indo soon — some predictable wave perfection sounds DREAMY — but Mexico I still love you and you will always have my heart.”
Related: Watch: Everything You Wanted to Know About Puerto Escondido (And Why It’s In Trouble)