FANTASY SURFER PRESENTED BY BOOST MOBILE: Rip Curl Pro Search Chile Preview

Aamion Goodwin - A big bottom turn on a big Chilean left.

The latest mystery location for the Rip Curl Search WCT takes the ASP World Tour to Arica, Chile for the 4th of 10 events on the 2007 Fosters World Championship Tour (June 20 - July 1)

For the third installment of the Rip Curl Search WCT event, the boys over at Rip Curl took a different angle than what might have been expected. With such success in the form of last year’s event in Mexico, many expected the event to find a permanent home "Somewhere in Mexico". But the 2007 Rip Curl Search WCT will be held in a completely different location; Arica, Chile.

While not as secretive as last year’s event, this year’s location holds quite a bit of mystery as well. Not many have ventured to this land to sample some of the best left-hand reef breaks in the world. As odd as that might sound, there is one reason why the majority of travelers have stayed away - the cold weather. Full-suits and booties are the norm in this area, and sometimes even that isn't enough to keep you warm.

Some of you might recall a brief segment close to the area, featured in the video Drive Thru: South Central America. The segment reveals some exceptional waves in brutally cold conditions and could give a good idea of what the event will be like in June. Remember, Chile lies in the Southern hemisphere, where the heart of winter is in mid-June.

So what can we expect from this event?

Well for starters, the wave is almost guaranteed to be world-class. The Rip Curl crew has searched the world for a location that is good enough to live up to the hype of being the feature wave in this unique event.

The wave is predominantly known as a left, but there are rumors of an amazing right-hand portion as well. The word so far is that the event will likely be held at the left, with other locations in the area on standby if the main wave fails to cooperate.

And what does this mean for your Fantasy Surfer teams?

In general, you can expect a lot of the surfers that you normally would have selected for the cancelled Fiji event to do just as well in Chile. Goofy-foots such as Damien Hobgood, Bobby Martinez and Cory Lopez should do just fine on their forehands here.