Ramón Navarro’s a hero of mine. In college, I spent six months in Chile and a handful of weekends missioning down by private bus from Viña del Mar to the oceanside hamlet of Pichilemu to surf Punta de Lobos. On one such occassion, I witnessed a hooded, goofy-footed figure pumping down the line on a screamer. Between sets, the morning fog and my hood muffled the ambient noise. When Ramón clicked a turn right past me, the spray he threw was a break in the silence, and he continued on. “Damn that guy’s rad,” I thought.
I knew who Ramón was beforehand. But since seeing him in the water, I’ve followed his exploits, from spearheading protecting Punta de Lobos to surfing giant Cloudbreak a little closer. Call it a pride for Chilean-ness post six months of my formative years, but objectively Ramón Navarro is a badass. Just ask Greg Long.
In his most recent example of badassery, Ramón and friends may have just discovered and tackled the largest wave in Chile, called Santa Marta. Besides the color of the water, the wave could easily be mistaken for Maverick’s.
“This weekend marks a milestone in Chilean surfing,” said Ramón in an Instagram post. “Santa Marta, which might be the biggest wave in Chile, has been discovered and conquered, and there we were to witness it. The story isn’t over, but we are launching a trailer for a special chapter of Los Buscagigantes that we are making with @cerveza_corona who are supporting the project. Happy to be part of this team of friends and coworkers.”
For the unfamiliar, Los Buscagigantes is a series that follows Ramón and friends in their search for large surf – the most recent full episode sees the crew track a swell to Easter Island, mounting some giant tubes at an undisclosed left pointbreak.
To see more episodes of the series, check out Rodrigo Farias Moreno on Vimeo.
