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How Surfers Saved South America’s Best Pointbreak (Video)

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Apr 9, 2025 9:18 AM ET

The Chilean footprint is quite unlike most countries. Its fingerling profile boasts 4,000 miles of coastline – by comparison, California clocks in around a trifling 840 miles – and with that length, paired with a prominent swell source, welling up from the South Pacific Ocean, it’s a prime location for surf spots, dotting the nooks and crannies that stretch from the southern tip down by Antarctica, all the way up to the north near Peru. And mostly, it’s chock-full of lefthand pointbreaks.

But one spot stands out from the rest of the pack, partly due to its high-performance consistency when its sized appropriately for mere mortals, but more so for its ability to handle some serious size. That spot is Punta de Lobos. If you’ve seen any big waves out of Chile, it’s likely been from Lobos.

And Lobos almost vanished entirely, on account of some coastal development, which would’ve destroyed the wave and transformed the surrounding headlands with luxury developments. Thankfully, surfers banded together to save the spot, and Lobos lives on today. Below, surf vlogger, traveler, and documentarian of all surf eccentricities, Dan Harmon, tells the tale.

“There is one break that stands above them all,” Harmon sets the stage. “Chile’s most famous surf break, and one that you most certainly will have heard of. The very spot that put Chilean surfing on the map. A fun, rippable wave on most days. But also a break that can handle anything the South Pacific throws at it. On the biggest of biggest swells, the place transforms into a freight-training lefthand pointbreak. However, Chile’s pride and joy of wave-riding was almost destroyed by development and privatization. This sent the place into a years-long battle to protect the break.”

Harmon continues to explain how Chilean big wave legend, Ramon Navarro, along with the Save the Waves Coalition, fought back against the development to save the spot and conserve the wave.

By 2017, Punta de Lobos became the world’s seventh World Surfing Reserve, protected for future generations of surfers – both locally and visiting. Here’s Ramon in his own words about the fight:

“I was born on Punta de Lobos and I love Punta de Lobos. I’ll fight to protect it, and all of Chile’s coast—but it has nothing to do with what I want. It is for the future.

“I know I can’t accomplish much on my own. I think everyone sees the right thing to do: Stand up to save some of these special places before they are gone.”

Long live Lobos.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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