Chile: Simple Pleasures and a Blue Mission
Posted on July 11, 2008 @ 8:52 AM
By James Pribram
Alone in what seems to be in the middle of nowhere, driving west on a rugged dirt road, the sunrise in my rearview mirror, the full moon setting straight ahead … My mind is free as my eyes ping-pong back and forth between the road ahead and the road behind. I’ve never experienced such a sight … or such a moment of bliss. I can’t begin to describe just how beautiful this moment in life is, perfectly captured in the most amazingly clear and vibrant colors … and then lost to the next moment.
Reds and oranges blaze the sky behind, as this pure Jesus-like white light of moon screams before me. Somewhere in the world young boys and girls are lying on their backs in the countryside staring up at the sky, dreaming their own dreams. This is my dream… searching for perfect waves.
Chile has come a long way in the world of surfing, a sport now anchored here by big-wave superstars Ramon Navarro and Diego Medina. With these two guys leading the charge, surfing is big and certain to go bigger. Just last year the country hosted its first WCT event in perfect, grinding, hollow lefts – an extreme showcase of surfing in the rugged crux of this lower east corner of the South Pacific wild.
Rugged … to say the least. And, yes, the water is cold. It’s May, which corresponds to November in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s been said that if you can surf well in Chile, you can surf well anywhere. Just getting used to wearing a 4/3 full-suit was a good start for me … then the booties. Some wear gloves and a hood. I remember my first trip to Chile in 2000. I was with Hawaiian Roy Powers, who absolutely hated surfing here because of the frigid waters, but to me the cold is only a part of what makes Chile rugged.
At most spots you have to scale down huge cliffs, often to get to an extremely treacherous beach. Then you have to negotiate the paddle out through exposed reef with cross-currents running like Class-5 rivers. At some spots the paddle out can take all your energy leaving very little for catching a wave. Then, when you finally catch one, you have to contend with kelp so thick it can stop you dead in your tracks and pitch you into those monstrous black rocks that loom straight ahead.
All in all, there are so many variables in surfing here … it’s unbelievably challenging. Despite this, the crew of surfers I’m with on this trip will likely have less of a problem than most who come here. Will Henry, founder of Save The Waves, has put together an all-star cast of surfers who rip and are environmentally active. We’re here to begin filming a new documentary entitled All Points South, which aims at detailing the sensitive environmental issues at the crux of today’s surfing in Chile. In this spirit, I’m honored to be traveling with well-seasoned journeyman Keith Malloy, Canadian coldwater king Raph Bruhwiler, surfer/filmmaker extraordinaire Timmy Turner, and Huntington Beach hero Brett Schwartz. Huge. Flat. Warm. Freezing. Hollow. Mushy. Hey, if there are waves, these guys are out there, no matter. With smiles on their faces, too – which is probably what I admire most about them.
We often try to split into two groups to soften the crowd factor and to show respect towards the local surfers. Actually, at this precise moment, cameraman Vince Deur and I are driving west towards the coast and a little secret spot we happen to know, while the rest of the crew heads for more points south.
The Mission
Chile will always be a special place for me. It was only a year before this that I commenced my first ‘eco-warrior’ project with Save The Waves and The Surfer’s Path. Since then I have been to Panama, the Canary Islands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and Japan, reporting on the environmental issues that threaten their coastlines. I have traveled with Will Henry on
most of those trips, and along the way we’ve met rare individuals, like Josh Berry and Dave Rastovich, who are out there fighting the good fight on behalf of surfers everywhere. We’ve been to parliament in New Zealand, marched for the Rio Itata, met with government officials in the Canaries … all for the same cause: saving the waves – for this generation and for every one thereafter.
A couple of years ago the film Blue Horizon featured a segment on Rasta surfing in Chile. I remember watching in awe – not because of his surfing ability (extraordinary; he reveled in the empty lineups choosing to surf on any board except a conventional thruster) but because he seemed so inspired by all that rugged wildness and Chile’s unique character.
Watching Rasta surf Chile in Blue Horizon re-motivated me – not so much in the act of surfing, but by catalyzing a new appreciation in me of this South American land and its people’s way of life. Watching the fishermen work the seas and the rivers, using oxen to pull their boats in and out of the water, witnessing this simple but intricate way of life … it makes me want to live more like that, enjoying the simple pleasures of life. It reminds me that we don’t always need more. In fact, sometimes less really is more, especially when it comes to
considerations of our environment.
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