May is the start of the Oaxaca season. Storms deep in the Southern Ocean begin sending swell north across the whole Pacific, and Zicatela takes it in deep water and stands it up on sand a few metres from the beach. That is the wave the country is known for and it is the reason to be specific about who this month is for.
The eastern Pacific hurricane season also opens in the middle of the month and runs to November. Those storms are a swell source as much as a hazard here: a system spinning off the Mexican coast produces the short, powerful pulses that make Puerto Escondido what it is, and it also produces the currents the town warns people about.
Carrizalillo is the answer to all of that. It is a cove ten minutes west, down a long staircase, where every school in town works, and it is why a mixed group can book Puerto Escondido at all: one of you surfs the beach break, the others learn in the bay.
