Punta Conejo 17 years ago

This place has a weird vibe for me. I don't normally believe in that kind of stuff but I really do feel it here. In 1991 I drove here to Punta Conejo with a friend (Johnny-O) for a 3 week surfing/camping trip. We bombed down here in my pickup truck loaded with camping gear and surfboards to find triple-overhead waves that were too big for me. Johnny-O (my bud) was shredding it up and loving it. It's a boulder bottom covered in sea urchins that I didn't want any part of. Eventually it backed off and the surfing was awesome for both of us.

Suicide: A few days after we arrived (in 1991) a German girl (named Stella) comes to camp with a big bandage wrapped around here neck. We hear from other campers that the night before we arrived she had stabbed herself with a big knife while sitting at a camp fire with them. She somehow got out of the hospital even though her boyfriend took here there and explained that she was suicidal. The next am I was up at dawn watching waves when I heard screaming coming from her and her boyfriends tent. She burst out and climbed to the top of their van with a can of gasoline. When she started to pour it on herself and the van everyone out checking the waves (including me) started screaming for her boyfriend. He came out of the tent naked right as she was trying to strike a match and grabbed her. He pulled hard on her leg and she smashed to the ground. He then beat her a couple of times and it looked like she was out when he went back into the tent. A second later she was to her feet and off running down the beach. We all screamed again and he emerged again this time putting on pants. She went a ways and then jumped in the water and swam out past the HUGE waves. Just outside the breaking waves with everyone watching from the shore she raised a hand, waved and then dove down. The boyfriend swam out after her and screamed and dove and screamed her name over and over looking for her. She had intentionally drown herself... She did not appear again for 3 days. The fish had done a number on her. It was not a pretty sight. The Federal Police questioned all of us and took the boyfriend away. We explained what we saw and he was released back to camp a few days later. We learned later that before she came out of the tent he had awakened with a rope around his throat and her tightening it down. We also heard that they had been experimenting with the local cactus plants and peyote recipes...

Accident: About 5yrs ago my friend Johnny-O died in a car crash in Baja. We had not been in touch for a while since he had gotten married and moved there full time. He was a great dude though.