Arrived in Santiago after three weeks on the road, getting some good results on the WQS. To them that surf, Chile is known as the ‘Land of the Lefts’, and I was keen to get me some.

Hooked up with Heath ‘Hunter’ Joske and Nick ‘China Doll’ Riley, then picked up a 4×4 truck and headed into the Santiago CBD to pick up another friend, Benny ‘The Rapist’ Serrano. Benny has been living in Chile for the past year and was going to be our guide during our “epic” adventure. Spent the next three hours driving down one blocked off road after another (the result of the recent earth quake) before arriving at our first destination, Punta de Lobos.

Benny had organized accommodation at the local surf camp. The place had amazing, luxury cabins. After booking in, we found our way to the bar and ordered a meal. We’re waiting for dinner to arrive when Benny receives a text from a girl he’s met. “Gotta go”. He grabs the keys to our pick-up and is out the door. There is some debate about his ability to drive a 4 x 4 until dinner arrived and hunger overcame any worries we had about the safety of our truck, which was insured, so even less concern.

Two bites into dinner and the lights go off. “That’ll be Benny, taken out a power pole” Joske joked. Laughs all round. Candles issued and eating continued. Five minutes later Benny staggers into the bar.

“You’re not going to believe what just happened”. He was driving down a dirt road, turned the wheel to go around a corner, and “nothing happened!?” Nothing that is until a spit second later when the truck slammed head-on into a power pole, snapped the pole in half, wrote off the truck and trashed several boards, including a couple of mine. He then got out of the truck – stepping carefully over the live wires surrounding it and walked back to the camp. So ended day number one.

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