Surfer Profile: Ramon Navarro

Highlights:
I have been a two times Billabong XXL nominee for paddle and tow disciplines, I have won the Punta de Lobos Ceremonial tournament three times and I have surfed Waimea and other Hawaiian breaks. Three times champion in ceremonial Punta de Lobos Big Wave co

 Standing on the cliffs looking down at massive left-hand waves reeling off forever, I wondered why there was no one out. It looked pretty darn good, and the waves had some thick sections across the middle. I wanted to get out there. so it’s down the magic cliff, paddle across the magic channel, around the magic Morros, and across the magic channel I went, thinking that all was good. As soon as I hit the lineup and the first big set came through I was away with the fairies, racing down one of the longest points in the world, stuck in a rip that my smallish board had no control over whatsoever. As I cam to the bottom of the point I suffered a few massive close-outs on the head before paddling for the keyhole and safety. Lobos is on heavy wave.
The next time I saw Lobos was a photo in the Billabong XXL of a massive left wall and a surfer taking off on a paddle board. The size of the wave gave me a cold chill. Knowing the wave, how gnarly the paddle out is, how dangerous the rocks are and knowing full well the strength of that current that shows on every solid swell, I knew what that surfer had put himself through to get to that spot.
The cliffs make a perfect viewspot of the lefts, as well as the two giant ‘morros,’ the two monolithic rock structures that sit on the tiny offshore island that. Giant waves boom up behind the morros, and whole you’re watching from the cliff side the swells march from deep south and wrap around the island, allowing surfers very little chance of getting safely off the island, and into the lineup.
“I love the feeling of surfing in big waves,” says Chilean charger Navarro. “It I simply this that is my motivation for surfing these waves, that I love it.”
Chile has for a long time been on the big wave radar, and some teams of big wave surfers have been down there looking at a few of the big spots, but when it gets seriously gnarly, there is usually no one around. This day at Los Lobos, when the XXL photograph was taken, there was no one else in the water.

Punta de Lobos. Point of the sea wolves – inspired by the barking sea lions of the area.

Lobos in Chile is a great wave, a super long left-hander that runs for ever. A good wave here from the outside take-off to the beach is about as long as the whole wave at Jeffrey’s Bay. It has a number of sections, and all of them work on different tides and different conditions, but there are three factors that never go away from Ramon Navarro’s local break

1. The paddle-out

2. the current

3. the size.

The paddle out must be one of the sketchiest in the world of big wave spots. First you climb down the cliff, then you paddle across the channel and hook onto the island. Clamber around the island to the two big rocks. As you stand on the island you watch giant walls of water bearing down on the island. Your jump-off is off the top of the island, straight into the take off zone. Mis-time the jump off and you’ll be rolling around on mussel beds, getting smeared by ferocious walls of white water and getting seriously smashed around. Surfers have broken bones and boards here, without even getting off the island.

Los Lobos is often mammoth. Every now and then a photo, often of Ramon, sneaks its way into the surf media and everyone goes, like, Whoah’ what’s happening in Chile? Laird Hamilton, for one, has been doing some serious research on big waves in Chile and there are rumours floating around of some giant waves way down south as well as in the far north.

Apart from being a fearless big wave surfer and waterman, this friendly, peaceful, Bob Marley-loving dude is quite fierce when it comes to the environment as well, being a member of eco-groups and campaigning against pollution. When asked what bums him out the most in the world, Ramon’s answer is simple, ‘fucken pollution.’

It is Ramon’s first time to Dungeons and this could go either way for the goofy-foot charger. ‘With regards Dungeons and the Red Bull Big Wave Africa, all I want to do is charge and have fun.’

‘nuff said.