Finalmente!

The first week of my trip to Chile was busy. I was catching up with family and trying to get things ready for the next two months of easy-breezy windsurfing. These types of things  can be done easily if you're here for a week or two. You would throw down your credit card, rent gear, stay some place next to a windsurfing spot and drink a lot of pisco sours between sessions. Awesome. But, the cost of car rental is pretty high in Chile. I think the other renters I spoke to said they were spending something like 750,000 Chilean pesos per month. This comes out to about $1500 a month. For a week or two, if you just want to get to the water, that's the best way to go, but for me to throw down $3000 for two months (whilst *cough*, being unemployed), really didn't seem like a reasonable option. I eventually figured out a way to make things work with a bit of difficulty and luck. I'll get to that part in another entry.

When I finally made it to my selected first destination of Pichilemu and settled in, the wind predictably died for a few days.  This was fine, as I was able to figure out how the surfing thing works here. I was able to get some help putting footstraps on my board too.

My first session finally came and I didn't have to drive anywhere for it. Right in front of the hostal where I am staying, there is a beach called "Infiernillo". Infiernillo beach can have anything from a overhead barreling wave all the way to a long mushy close out. This particular day, we had some sets that were head high or slightly over. Yes, it was kinda heavy, the same way Waddell will surprise you with an overhead close out on a day dominated by windswell. The wind cranked up to a good 5.0 condition and we managed to get an hour and a half of good sailing. The wind is slightly onshore at this beach and the wave gives you maybe one or two turns most of the time. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Waddell Creek, but going the opposite direction. With a slightly bigger swell, it gets pretty sketchy with big hollow closeouts being the normal fare.

I rather enjoyed working backside this day. I've been trying the shove-it for nearly a year on starboard and have yet to land a clean one. Backside wave riding is great way of learning this move, from what I hear.

The shorebreak, even on a small day, was challenging at times.

I didn't get a lot of pictures, I guess I was trying to sail. "Trying" being the operative word. I didn't have much of a concept of how different it would be to sail waves on port tack rather than starboard. Turns out, it's really different. Even the simple task of hopping over whitewater going the other direction has turned out to be a challenge. Juan was actually in town for this session, but we couldn't get synched up for getting a picture of him out there. I'll get some photos up of his visit next time around.

Did you know: Easter Island is owned by Chile. I guess any remote and practically uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean has to be owned by someone.