Chile Delivers...

Wow.  What else can I say?  After a couple of days of big difficult surf in Pichilemu we headed south and were rewarded.  Too much to mention and we promised secrecy on the spot names, but I will try to give a good summary:

Typical Chilean coastal countryside - a lot like I assume California was 50 years ago. 

1) Lefts - There is a perfect lefthand setup around every bend in the road.  Insane! In CA these waves would fetch million dollar gated houses and crowds above 100.  Here they are empty of surfers and costal land lots cost around $15000 USD.

2) Food - After gorging on empanadas y completos (footlong hot dog with saurkraut, tomato, avocado) we have finally found our rythym getting good produce and meats in the market.  The food is good here, and cheap.

3) Roads - The roads are in good shape, when there are roads.  We spent 4 hours on washboard dirt roads that I thought would shape my fillings loose (thank you Dr. Benyami, they did not).  We were rewarded with 4 hours at a sand bottomed left with nobody around.  Big fast hollow and fun.  I kept saying to Genji "Where are we?" and "is this real life?" or when we would be running back up the point watching sets pour in we'd say "well would you look at that!" (inside joke).  Big green mountains with pine trees right down to the water.  Cows, chickens, dogs, sheep, farmers, horses, ox and carts, everything has a very old world feel and uncrowded.  One Chilean finally came out and said we could stay in the house on the point for 10 bucks a night.  We may return there after we get our own car.

4) Chileans - They are friendly and helpful.  We stumbled upon a left hander hidden to the south of Constitucion.  We hoped in the back of a truck to get a ride and check the camping situation, and driving it was Ramon Navarro, Chilean surf legend and big wave superstar.  We took that as a good sign we were in the right spot.  The wave was not working but he said it would improve.  We paddled out to 2 ft onshore junk, and watched as it turned into reeling 6 to 8 ft left barrels.  Ramon was killing it doing airs, getting barrels, and hooting for us on our waves.  There were four of us out.  Again I was saying "Is this real life?"  We ended up camping there for the night, drinking chilean wine and BBQing fresh fish.  We have benefited from having a local guide show us some waves, and we are also looking forward to being out on our own, with our own schedule.

Hitching a ride with Ramon Navarro.

Learning by doing - We did not have dinner one night but we had a bag of black beans and some tomatos and some of Genji's spice mix.  The Chileans were laughing at us but several hours later we got the nickname "Los Gringos Frijoleros" and everybody ate the beans.  We are also learning Chilean Espanol the easy way (i.e. the hard way - full imersion).  The pronunciacion es muy differente de espanl mexicano.  En Mexico chicken es pollo (poy-yo) but here it is Pollo (poe joe).  We have been lost several times and laughed at for our spanish even more times, but we are getting better.

Pescado fresca ($2 from the fisherman) y gringo frijoles.

At one point an all the way drunk Chilean with one eye handed a halfway drunk Genji a chainsaw and said to "corte un poco madera para la fuego".  A group of all the way drunk Chileans was delighted as Genji took to dismantling several downed trees working with headlamp and vino tinto.  He got the nickname "El Maestro".

This morning the crab were running, and we watched a small village work together to catch them.  They would run the boats all the way up the shore at full speed and everyone would work the get the crabs out of the net.  Then they would hook the boats to a two ox team to pull them off the beach.  We will buy crabs from them for dinner, later when we return to surf the low tide.

 Chilean Boat Ramp.

We have been in the Epicenter of the Tsunami damage since yesterday, there is a lot of destruction.  The Chileans give a confused look when we drive by, but a wave or head not is always returned with a warm smile or wink.  Juane says the people are happy to be alive after all the destruction and loss of life.  Later today we are helping a non profit that is building homes for the victims paint a few of their houses.

Chilean Segway

La China Fuerte!  Our rental car is a trooper and depite my dislike of Chinese made products it is standing up to the punishment.  We have driven it through mud puddles, up dirt roads, down side alleys, on the beach, in the city.  Our guide Juane lost his lisence due to a traffic accident so we are doing the driving.  He also tends to lose his wallet, the keys, his trusty blackberry, and his mind once a day.  We think it is from too much pakalolo but he is putting us on good waves we would not be able to find without him, so no complaints.  It will be interesting if we can find the waves when we are on our own.  That was a lot, time to get some food and check the surf.  Cheers for now.  - El Gringo Alto. 

The Land of Lefts

There is no shortage of breaks in Chile. It seems that every nook, cranny and bend in this swell pounded coast holds its own take on what an epic lefthand pointbreak should look like. This is not an exaggeration, I am floored by the quantity, and quality, of waves we have seen here. My back, arms and legs are not happy with me, but I am very happy with life at the present. This is only the second opportunity that we have had to work on the blog because we have been too busy surfing and driving between spots. Right now it is 12:20pm, low tide is in two hours and we are looking to score again.

We ate dinner and sat around the campfire with this view.

You can stay right in front of this wave for $20/day, all inclusive.

We have also enjoyed seeing Chile and its culture. Most of the areas that we have seen so far are rural and rustic. Not in a bad way, in the best sense. I am sure that the average person you talk to would be able to voice complaints and areas for improvement of quality of life. Nonetheless,
people are friendly and seem to be happy. Kevin has made a habit of waving at everyone we drive past and he usually gets a wave in return, or at least a blank, "oh my god, that's a huge ginger scarecrow", stare. When we were in Constitucion, looking for Pocha Sandwich, Kevin was a minor attraction and we had kids chasing after our car to help us with directions. Another time, a small shop owner told us that Kevin was the tallest person she had seen in her life: she must have been at least 50.

This guy ran a block to help us with directions after he saw and was amazed by Kevin.

"La China Fuerta" it's no surprise people are amazed when they see such a big Gringo step out of such a small car.

Well, there is more that i could write about, but i really want to get some food before low tide shows up and it's time for another marathon surf session.

Shoots for now everyone!

Genji

in Chile

OK folks, we made it to Chile.  our flight arrived early and we ended up waiting in the airport for 4 hours, until finally realizing that our driver forgot us.  It was about 6am at this point so we hailed a cab who tried to put our board coffins in the trunk.  Eventually we got them strapped to the roof on top of the floormats from his car, but whenever we went more than about 15 MPH they would flap making a loud thwapping sound.  We ended up getting lost and finally found our way to the hostel at around 7 am and went to sleep (the first real sleep in 48 hours) only to be awakend at 9:00 to hit the road. 

We made it to Pichilemu and found waves.  It is sort of a big dissorganized swell though so hard to get the good ones. The jump from the rock was gnarly the first time, big 10 foot top to bottom slamming a dry kelp covered shelf.  You have to time it just right.  We made it off without much incident (Genji jumped a little early and started paddling, but the shelf drained as he was still on it and he basically went off a waterfall staright into a cauldron of whitewater)  I ran for my jump after seeing that and about pissing my suit. 

We got a few good ones and got worked over by a few.  There are very few surfers here.

It is pretty here, a lot like california in fall.  Sunny, cold nights, warm days, lots of stars.  So far good food.  Will post more when we find better connection and keyboard that is normal, although that may not happen.  We are now headed back out tp the point to check the new swell, and if it is no good we will drive south towards iquique and conception tomorrow in search of waves. 
Kevin

San Salvador Airport

Yes, that is a Subway in El Salvador.

You wake up in San Salvador, some guy in uniform is telling you, in very rapid spanish, that you can't sleep where you are. There is another flight that leaves from that gate before your flight to Lima. Guess it can't be helped then, an eight hour layover is never spent in one place, we move to another part of the terminal.

We are definitely on our merry way to South America. Kevin tells me that the swell will be solid for the first week or two, I take his word for it. We are under way, there's no turning back now, so who cares about the surf report? Chile has great surf potential, in five weeks of surfing we are bound to score great waves, some mediocre waves and maybe even get skunked. Either way I am glad to be embarking on this trip and really lookng forward to getting into the water.

My journey started three weeks ago when I left my house in Hawaii. Thank you to everyone who let me crash on their couch, gave me a ride and even just showed up to hang out. I appreciate it and hope to see you all again soon.

Shoots for now!

-Genji

How it all started

Sitting here looking out into the El Salvadorean Jungle, it seems a bit sureal to already be on our way.  The idea for this trip was hatched from a friendship formed surfing in San Luis Obispo.  I met a Japanese/German-Alaskan Inuit from Hawaii named Genji, besides the fact that he's a short chubby pacific islander and I'm a lanky haole and an honorary ginger card carrier, we're pretty similar.  We both like getting up at 5:00am to scrape the ice off the windshield for low tide & east wind.  Well maybe like isn't the right word, but we are willing to do it for a shot at good, uncrowded waves.

After school I moved to the valley to work in a construction management and commute surf on weekends and mornings, and he moved to Hawaii to surf, aside from the few times a year he commercial fishes in Alaska to earn money to fund his surfing (not a bad gig eh?).

We decided to try surfing in El Salvador in 2007 and lucked out as a month long flat spell ended the day we arrived followed by 7 days of consistent swell.  The day after we left a hurricane showed up and blew the most of the country to bits.

I dropped by cereal spoon and picked up my camera to get this shot of Genji about to paddle out to a dawn session at a right point in El Salvador.

Warm water entered into our criteria for surf travel and in 2009 we chartered a boat in Indonesia for 2 weeks. Several other friends also made the wise choice to blow a whole years vacation time on one trip, and we had a blast.  Two for two, the surf travel bug was starting to burrow in deeper.

Giving the indian ocean some ginger juice.

No coffee needed, thank you.

In 2010 Genji took another trip to Indonesia and I visited Jessica in New Zealand.  We both got good waves, but it felt like something bigger was brewing. We decided to meet up in mainland mexico later that year and surf a long empty left pointbreak on some land owned by a mexican drug cartel.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, I swear.  We didn't get killed by any trafficantes and we actually got more good surf.  

"How was your vacation? Too short."  Lord knows how many times I've heard this one from co-workers, and I tended to agree with that sentiment when it was me coming home from a trip.

We were having fun on our surgical strikes and getting good waves and meeting interesting other surgical strikers (typical profile is married with a 9 to 5, a mortgage, and one week a year shore leave from the Mrs. to surf as many waves and drink as many beers as possible.  You know who you are).  But we dreamed of posting up a little longer at some of these spots, to really see them at their best.  There is always the next swell with a better wind forecast, or the next moon with better tides, some rare magical combination that is bound to happen without you.

Magical Happenings from our first Indo trip.

 We hatched a "dream trip" itinerary that was the discussion over many beers and many years "If you had a year and unlimited money, where would you go?".  Pie in the sky type stuff.  Then we started to realize that living in the places we wanted to see was in many cases cheaper than the places we actually lived, and the discussion started evolving into actual planning.  Due to significant others, families, work, investment opportunities, and the lack of funds for a years worth of plane tickets, we decided on taking 6 months and trying to see some of the top places we'd chosen.

So notice was given at work and to roommates (Genji told his goats), stuff moved into storage, Girlfriends kissed goodbye with promises of safe return (tan and fit as a bonus), and flights were booked to head to Chile.  After a month there we will visit Costa Rica.   Then we will return home for a bit of recharging and family time (Fishing for Genji) before heading to Indonesia for 2 months (Genji is reading over my shoulder and wants me to clarify that he will be in Indo for 3 months.  What a one upper he is).

-Kevin

The road home starts with leaving...

As Genji says, "the road home starts with leaving".  Thats getting a little deep but its true.  Its been a long road road to get to where I am, typing this on the tail end of 5 years of work in the Silicon Valley.  They have been some of the best years of my life, and I've even had to ask myself "Why I am making this change?" especially when life as I know it is pretty darn sweet.  


Well, a recent fortune cookie foretold "All that is needed to make something incredible happen is to take the first step".  The timeliness of this foretelling was not lost as me, as it was earlier that day I had booked a flight to Chile setting the wheels in motion for a big change to my normal routine.  It of course remains to be seen if Panda Express fortune cookie writer #324 was speaking the truth when he came up with that one, but either way this dream has been brewing up a long time for both Genji and I, and we aim to see it through.    


Now neither of us is typically the blogging type, just as most of you are probably not the blog reading type.  We will minimize useless blog-common banter about crappy iPhone reception on AT&T or the fat kid we saw at walmart or hipsters.  This will be straight up tales from the road with pictures to provide the backdrop of what are finding.  This should also serve as a good motivator for me to wear plenty of sunscreen, because I don't want my Mom seeing that I've gotten burned. 

Wintertime lines in California

Our goal is simple, to explore a few of the more swell exposed coasts on the planet, eat some new foods, meet new people, and see how other cultures spend their time.  Hopefully this becomes a learning experience and a chance to surf some perfect waves.  Welcome to our story, and stay tuned...
-Kevin