Sea lion and sea – 1, Sarah - 0
Staying in Curanipe, we hired our boards and wetsuits from a friend of Max’s, Cotelo – full name Jose Manuel Alarcon – who runs Swell Sur surf school and shop right on the beach in town (swellsur@gmail.com). He’s a super cool guy who kitted us out with everything we needed, including the all important booties: thanks to the Humboldt current the water averages 12C! But once you’re suited up it’s no problem. The fact that there were sometimes sea lions in the water with us kind of shows just how chilly it was.
International man of mystery Max Mills of course knows all the good surf spots around that part of region seven and eight and we tried out most…Curanipe, Pullay, Constitucion and most memorably Buchupureo. Buchupureo means ‘big wave’ in Mapuche. We only surfed there once, and I gave myself a black eye, but we stopped off a few other times and some of the waves the guys were riding there were just phenomenal – especially to a beginner like me. Phenomenal and frightening!
Most of the time we stuck to sunset sessions and our favourite: the green flash. Green flashes happen at sunset, when you’re watching the sun go down over the whole Pacific and just as the last piece of the sun dips below the horizon it turns green or sometimes turquoise as the sunlight comes through the ocean. It’s beautiful to see, and an especially serene moment if you’re floating on your belly on glassy water past the breakers. Green flashes happen on the Atlantic side, too – but you have to get up for sunrise to see it!
Over the month we spent in Curanipe I made the transition (it’s mainly a mental one) from “someone who's tried to surf a few times” to “beginner surfer”. The waves are not easy in Chile, and it takes a huge amount of courage sometimes to go back in after you’ve been thoroughly washingmachined, but they are great waves to learn in because, frankly, if you can deal with the Pacific you can deal with anything. So it’s been tough but well worth it for a learner, especially if you have a patient teacher like I did.
Chris also caught the longest wave of his life at Curanipe with an exciting 30 seconds straight!
We used soft boards but Cotelo shapes too, we had a little look around his surf shack – which is unfortunately now a surf container thanks to the tsunami last year – and he had some beautiful-looking stuff on offer. One day…!
There´s another ´one day´ for Punta de Lobos, just south of Chile´s surf capital Pichilemu (or the world´s surf capital if you believe the posters), where we stayed but didn´t surf during our awesome roadtrip from Curanipe up to Viña del Mar with Max and Lina.
But one thing’s for sure – we’re firmly hooked and cannot wait for our next surf spot! Surf en Peru...?
SARAH
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