SURFING SOAPBOX:Waiting for the storm

Greetings Laguna,

I’m in the small surfing beach town of Pichilemu, which is home to local surfing legend Ramon Navarro.

I’m writing from a rather overcrowded Internet cafe on a cold dreary day. They’re blasting Snoop Dog and it’s 11 a.m.; I left the local disco a couple of hours ago and they were playing the same music.

I guess the Chileans like hip-hop.

Outside on the streets, hundreds of people are milling around, shopping, eating at the local food carts or just hanging on the corners talking while the “rat” dogs follow them around hoping for a piece of food.

It’s quite different from the life we live in Laguna, with nice restaurants and laws that thankfully keep the stray dogs off the streets.

I never thought I would be endorsing that law that keeps dogs on a leash, but these darn dogs are some of the scariest things one has ever seen. You only hope you don’t catch anything while walking by them — it’s that bad.

Yesterday, we visited a polluted estuary that was a bright, frothy, thick green — so sickening we nicknamed it St. Patrick’s, with a smell so strong it could bring the toughest person to his or her knees.

I thought Aliso Creek was bad; but actually it is, when you factor in the technology and resources that we have to clean up such tragically polluted creeks.

The waves are picking up, and the wind is beginning to intensify, as a storm is expected tonight.

There will be rain with powerful winds for the next two days, while the wave heights are expected to reach 10 feet or higher. The anticipation mounts as fellow surfers Timmy Turner and Brett Swartz wait impatiently with me.

Yesterday, the two got their truck stuck in the sand while loading up our personal water craft.

I can feel a storm brewing — the only question is, how big will it be?

Peace.