Surfing in Chile aka drowning in Chile

I thought I was pretty good at surfing. However, after my first lesson in Pichilemu, I found out that I am completely useless and my non-existent arm muscles don't make it any easier.

In Pichilemu I found, as always thanks to Workaway, a volunteering position at one of the surf hostels. Pichilemu is a small seaside town full of both local tourists escaping Santiago to the sea in the summer and surfers from all over the world, as it is the best surf spot both in Chile and perhaps in South America, and not for nothing is it nicknamed the Capital del Surf = surf capital. So why am I going there? To find out that after all these years of surfing, I am absolutely useless.

Okayy, I'm still, perhaps naively, convinced that I'm pretty good at it, but only in some of the more "beginner" destinations where the waves are close to the coast and no bigger in size than me. Pichilemu, however, is the complete opposite of this. The waves here routinely reach ten metres, the currents change from day to day, and you often have to paddle for perhaps 15 minutes to get to the perfect spot, which in my case meant I was completely exhausted before I caught (or rather didn't catch) my first wave.

Back to the hostel. Quite often there were more volunteers than guests, which meant that we were quite often chilling (like cool surfers do). Most of the time it was helping with the front desk, cleaning, or in my case taking photos and videos for instagram and the hostels website. In the evenings we played guitars, had BBQs on the terrace or on the contrary went to bed at 10 because we were exhausted after all the attempts to surf.

What to do in Pichilemu?

So first of all, as you may have gathered, there will be SURFING! However, if you are more of a tropical and warm water lover, you might want to skip Pichilemu because the only way to get in the water here is with a wetsuit. Although it doesn't seem like it, Pichilemu is also suitable for complete beginners who learn the basics of surfing beautifully by the shore in milder water. It was only me, as an "advanced surfer" who decided to almost drown in the 10 meter waves.

The whole town and surrounding area has a very hippie vibe. Everywhere you will find yoga studios, wonderful cafes, street artists and many hostels with quite interesting concepts. One of the hostels is brewing their own combucha and organizes art exhibitions, live music or art workshops every weekend. If anyone asked where I got my hair cut in America, it was at 11pm at one of the hostel techno parties. I had a DJ next to me, and the hairdresser only had one lamp shining on me. He did cut the bangs nicely, though!