Surfing for Beginners in Chile

There is a lot to write about from our trip to Pichilemu, Chile so I am going to start with the motive for the trip:  Learning to surf.

 I think I have had a vague dream to learn to surf in the back of my mind since I was very young.  The movie Blue Crush came out in 2002 and I think it really brought this dream to the front of most girls' minds.  Living in Wisconsin, I never thought it would become a reality until one day I was thinking:  People always go on ski trips during the winter to Vail or other destinations and it seems really great, but I love the sun and the beach and the water.  Why can't I go on surfing trips instead?

Shea and I decided to go on our first surfing trip to Pichilemu, Chile and we couldn't be more pleased with the results.  I don't know if I will continue the theme of surf trips, but we were happy to try it out and succeed.  Since we have returned, we have dabbled with the idea of jointing the surfers on Lake Michigan, but still think it is a little absurd.

Back to the story at hand, we stayed at a hostel called the Sunset Hostel (that was a shout out to Eduardo the hostel owner) and as you would expect, the hostel keeper helping the owner also happened to be a surfer and was able to give us our own private lessons.  The lessons were a blast.  Our instructor's name was Phil and he was from Australia.  I think he was a phy-ed teacher by nature, but decided to spend a few months in Phichilemu to surf during winter.  With a true blue, real life Australian surf instructor at our side we were ready to go ride the waves. 

Here is a picture of us combing and waxing the board before we go to surf.  You have to comb it to get the old wax off and wax it to make it grippy for your feet. 

If you can't tell by our clothes, summer was winding down in the Southern Hemisphere and winter was creeping in.  It was very sunny, but the water was cold and the evening temperatures dropped drastically.  When the wind was blowing, I had to wear two jackets.

We surfed in wet suits and booties the whole time.  It was surprising how warm they kept us. I am in the blue and Shea is in black and gray.

 Below we are warming up a little before we "get our hair wet." (That is a surfer expression, i think).

Although there is no actual photo-evidence that we surfed, we did.  These pictures were all taken from the second day when the water was a little bit rougher and we were able to stand up on the board less.  Shea, however, was able to stand up and surf on her very first try.  I followed and caught on quickly as well.

Here we are out in the water with Phil, getting ready to hang ten, whatever that means.

In the picture below we are hanging out in the water with all the other rookies, waiting for the waves to come in.  I think that this was one of my favorite parts.  It felt really good to stop and enjoy the moment, just hanging out on our boards under the sun and rocking in the mild waves of the ocean. 

 As luck had it, there happened to be a big surf competition on the Thursday that we were in town.  I think it was a Chilean competition to qualify for nationals and it took place at a world famous surf spot called "Punta de Lobos."

The two rocks you can see are the classic view of Punta de Lobos.

If you look very closely in the lower right corner of the above picture you can see a surfer in green.  In order to make it out to the waves they had to cross the channel and get onto the land behind the big rocks.  It was almost as exciting to watch as the competition.  Below you can see one surfer sitting on the rocks watching the others who are surfing behind the rocks.

I felt really bad even asking this guy for a picture.  He was toast after coming in from competing.

And one last important detail for anyone who has seen Blue Crush, yes they did have someone on a jet ski who went around to help the surfers.