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The pioneer of Surfing in Mar del Plata

 
Texts Photos Pablo Etchevers

An ideal spot for tourists to have their baptism on the waves. A surf school that also teaches a philosophy of life and a passion.

Visit to the Surf School in Mar del Plata
Daniel Gil is one of those magical characters sheltered by the city of Mar del Plata.

His philosophy of life and his passion for the sea turn his surf school into an ideal spot for tourists to have their baptism on the waves.

No sooner is this place visited than the feeling of surfing becomes the protagonist. Tattoos, beautiful women, tribal drawings, necklaces, colorful flowers carved on wood, and boards of all shapes and sizes contribute with their colors and codes to this fascinating world called surfing.

The Character of a Film

His fanaticism for the water began as a child. Every summer, his father would take him to the sea shore. He remembers that when he was about 7 or 8 years old, during the summer holidays, he would devote himself to watching how some small wood boards would surf the waves when thrown into the water from some of the Mar del Plata breakwaters. He would spend hours watching this singular show which, though simple, meant everything to him.
Visit to the Surf School in Mar del Plata
Thanks to his father’s profession, as an adolescent he was lucky enough as to travel and see several Latin American countries. When he was 16 years old, during a trip around Miami, he discovered a surf shop where he found photographs of regular people over a board, riding the sea waves just like his beloved pieces of wood would. And the attraction was such that those photos generated a radical change in his life.

He had to get himself a board so that his dream could come true, but that would not be an easy task. In 1962, no one had the slightest idea of what surfing was. His father, by then the vice president of the Club Boca Juniors, entrusted him with the task of escorting the team in each of its tours abroad. And he did, taking advantage of every trip to discover a little more about his dream.

In Brazil, near Río de Janeiro, for the first time he saw a surf board and, of course, his owner, who after twenty-five days let him get on it. Some time later, a trip led him to the Peruvian capital of Lima and there he met the Waikiki Surf Club, first Peruvian and, why not, Latin American surf school. Three of its surf boards would leave towards Argentina after that trip and it was on May 3, 1963 that they had their first contact with the waves of Mar del Plata. As time went by, that day was declared National Surf Day by local surfers.
Visit to the Surf School in Mar del Plata
School of Life

“Surfing is life”, are the first words to welcome the students. The number of kids, youths and adults wandering about the facilities of the Kikiwai Surf Club confirm that each day of the year.

When he is not in the water, teaching, he is expecting the new visitors to “wake them up” and invite them to be part of this fascinating world.

His academy works as an encounter and integration center for those who do not have the slightest idea of what surfing is and for those who have practiced this activity for a long time.

Course say take an entire day or one week. It depends on the availability of the students. First, the necessary theoretical knowledge of relaxation, breathing and concentration is acquired outside the water in order to learn how to stand on the board and keep balance. For such purpose, the school has simulators that enable students to practice the various positions on solid ground before they adopt them in the sea. When the moment comes to get into the water, the student has a baggage of knowledge that will allow them to know what is to be done and how.
Visit to the Surf School in Mar del Plata
At present, young Daniel is sixty years old, and it is forty years since he has adopted surfing as his philosophy of life, which he teaches and transmits at all times. He has nine children, all of them surfers, but he asserts that surfing has given him hundreds of children in his life.

“It is the sea’s task to massage your mind and your body. Surfing is the way towards purification. You only have to feel like doing it. There are no impediments whatsoever. You only have to set your aim and start. That is enough to manage it and your life will change completely”, he asserts with so much passion that it is impossible not to believe him.

    See also:
Hotels and accommodation in Mar del Plata


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This place is a real school to learn the sport as a result of the safety provided by a calm sea which is not so deep and has very good waves.

 
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