THAT DAY
I’d been tracking the swell for about a week and did what I had to do to be ready for a long day of action. By about 10:30 that morning I received a phone call from Felipe, one of Chile’s best wavesailors. Felipe and a handful of other locals were loading their trucks for Topocalma and Juan Luis, one of Chile’s top surfing photographers was with them to shoot. What was waiting for us in the private hacienda of Topocalma was absolutely incredible. Perfectly peeling waves were rolling into the bay, the wind was cross offshore for 4.0 – 4.5 and nobody was there except us and one other truck. I grabbed my 81 litre Quad to have enough floatation for the gusty winds as the wave lines up just behind a huge rock. That makes the place a bit tricky to sail, but is also the reason why the wave gets so smooth and perfect. I sailed for about five hours in the best conditions I’ve had in years; I didn’t want to come in! Every wave was breaking like a liquid half pipe, some of them allowed 5 or 6 turns right under the lip!
LOCALS
The locals are mostly unknown in the international scene, but they have some serious down the line skills. Benjamin and Diego Fabres, Alex and Mathias
Vargas, Felipe, Delio – these guys all rip hard and would cause some upsets if there was a PWA contest here one day. I’m sure we’ll read their names far up on the list of results of the IWT event, which is being held this September in Matanzas. It’s incredibly fun and inspiring sailing with the local crew if you treat their territory with respect. We sailed until dark and then all had pizza, beers and Pisco Sour (the national drink) in hotel Surazo after the session.