Southern Chile

Southern Chile surf travel guide

Anyone willing to take on regions IX Araucanía, XIV Los Ríos (they created a new region in 2007 and stuck it between 9 and 10!) and X Los Lagos, will need to have a lot of time on their hands as the remnants of the Pan American Hwy, Ruta 5, stays a good 60-100kms inland and coastal arteries diminish rapidly. Rivers are the key to access and roads often follow them as they carve through the green carpet of hills.

Regions to Explore

Unfortunately, Araucania features far too much, straight beachbreak that is both wind and swell-blown, plus there are relatively few southern headlands that provide either rivermouth or pointbreak opportunities. Try around Queule for either swell protection or exposed beachies at Playas Ronca and Cheuque, just north of the easily accessed town of Mehuin, which is in the newly formed Los Rios region. As the name suggests, this is the place to find your own rivermouth left before the ever-strengthening wind turns the sea into a frothy cappuccino. Curinanco area is rife with possibilities, provided the swell is small and winds are low, plus it is fairly close to the main city of Valdivia. Steep hills and rocky coves run down the coast to Playa Chaihuin, where the NW angle and rivermouth can help tame and sculpt the raw swell. Next road-serviced rivermouth is Huiaicoll and finally Barra del Rio Bueno, which has a lot of river-scoured bars. The spaghetti roads and forestry trails that lead into Los Lagos are best attacked with 4X4 since roads regularly flood and getting cut off is common. Little is known about the surf down here so follow the few roads to Llico Bajo, Huahuar or Playa Pinuno and hope you are not greeted by a freezing, blown-out mess.

A car ferry plies the treacherous Chacao Channel, while the proposed bridge to link Chiloé Island with the mainland remains unbuilt, but this truly is the end of the road for the PanAm. This incredibly beautiful, wild and desolate landscape is mainly settled on the east coast, huddling away from the gales that sweep in from the Pacific. Around the main town of Ancud, there are some proper north-facing protected options inside the channel and also out on the craggy Peninsula de Lacuy. The rocky west coast is comprised of the Chiloé National Park, with road access into Cucao. Here, the long, wind-battered, west-facing beach is not a good surf option with strong currents and whitewash as far as you can see, unless it is a tiny summer swell. It’s probably a safe bet to assume that somewhere along this indented, craggy coast there are some good set-ups, but nothing better than the waves found further north in Biobio.

Armed with the knowledge that quality recedes as you head deeper south, only the super-adventurous will attempt to explore region XI Aisén and only the clinically insane will be drawn to region XII Magallanes and Antártica Chilena, where the clue to conditions is in its name. If standing in the teeth of the Roaring Forties, hurling constant rain, sleet or snow in your face as you don your 6/5mm to enter glacial-fed water patrolled by orcas doesn’t faze you, then start planning your serious south Chile expedition and marvel at the fact that you are surfing at the bottom of the world!