Doing Business : American Rides Wave of Surf Boom : A secluded spot is not so secluded any more, thanks in part to a former Laguna resident.

Gregg Henderson has found a surfer’s paradise, a house five minutes from some of the best waves in South America, well-shaped beauties, rarely crowded. He has a little surfboard factory and shop that earn enough for him and his Chilean wife to live on. He helps organize an occasional surfing contest, and he rides the waves whenever he wants.

What more could a boy from Laguna desire?

On an overcast Saturday morning in the South American summer, Henderson is wearing shorts and a T-shirt, looking out from a rocky point at endless sets rolling toward a distant beach. Only a half-dozen surfers can be seen.

“Last summer was the first time I saw anything here that resembled a crowd,” he says. “I counted and there were 25. In California it would be 150.”

But he worries about that. Maybe he shouldn’t be doing so much to promote surfing in Pichilemu. Maybe he should try to keep it more to himself.

“I don’t know if I’m helping to create too much of a Chilean crowd here,” he says. “The sport is just booming now. It’s happening.”

Since he opened his Seawolf Surf factory last March, he has sold about 100 of his custom-made boards for more than $300 each. When he helps local merchants organize a contest, 5,000 people show up to watch.

The surf at Punta de Lobos (Wolves’ Point), about three miles south of town, can be spectacular on good days: waves of 15 feet and higher. It isn’t always that big, but there is usually something to catch, Henderson says. “This is like California, but with consistent surf.”

Henderson, 34, grew up in Laguna. He began surfing young and loved the sport but hated the struggle on a crowded wave, he says. “I quit surfing in California when I was 20 because I was sick of getting in fights in the water.”

He attended universities in Colorado, California and Hawaii. He worked as a carpenter, surfboard maker, bartender, cook and ski instructor.

One day, he left California, headed for Latin America in his pickup. He took his time--a year--surfing Central and South American beaches along the way. On the snowy Andean slopes east of Santiago, the Chilean capital, he found work as a ski instructor and met his wife-to-be.

In Santiago, he went looking for Chilean surfers, then a rare breed.

“I found about 10,” he says. “One of them brought me here. We showed up here and it was breaking. It was so good I freaked out. And here I am.”

In those days, about eight years ago, the waves of Punta de Lobos were empty. But now, middle-class Chilean youths are suddenly discovering surfing. They often start surfing on beaches west and northwest of Santiago, but they soon find Pichilemu.

“Any Chilean who surfs, surfs here,” Henderson says.

Surfer magazine, published in California and distributed internationally, has printed information on Pichilemu, including a full article about two years ago. “Now,” he says, “people come from all over the country and all over the world.”

The word is out. Pichilemu is in.

In recent months, he says, about 40 foreigners have come to surf, and if the water here were warmer there would be more. The Chilean coast is washed by the cold Humboldt Current, which comes from Antarctica, and wet suits are customary.

Still, the water here is no colder than Northern California’s, Henderson says. “Guys from Santa Cruz say the water is identical.”

Pichilemu fell from fashion decades ago as a beach resort. It is 150 miles southwest of Santiago by road, some of it rough and unpaved. Most of the visitors were provincials, and they did not bring much money. But the surfers still come.

An organization of local merchants called Friends of Surfing has sponsored annual contests since 1990. Washington Saldias, vice president of the Pichilemu Chamber of Tourism and a founder of the club, says more than 30 foreign surfers have participated in each contest, and many more Chileans.

“It’s a public attraction because of the publicity it gets on television and in the press,” Saldias said. The media coverage has given millions of Chileans a glimpse of the town’s quaint charms, including horse-drawn taxis called cabritas , and its many miles of gray-sand beaches, interrupted by picturesque outcroppings of brown rock.

Now, with the publicity, more tourists are coming. New motels and restaurants are opening. A four-story apartment building, Pichilemu’s first “high-rise” building, is near completion. And a Chilean businessman is looking for financing to build a four-star hotel, Saldias says.

“They want to make Pichilemu into a mini-California,” said an article in the Sunday magazine of El Mercurio, Santiago’s leading newspaper. “And they are succeeding.”

The road into the town is being fully paved, and land prices are skyrocketing. Henderson says his lot is worth 10 times what he paid for it 3 1/2 years ago. It lies on three acres of piney slopes near Punta de Lobos. The house is a trilevel, California-style home with wood siding and decks. A geologist from Santa Barbara has bought a nearby lot and a cardiovascular surgeon from Santa Cruz is eyeing another one. Both are surfers, of course.

“Surfing has revitalized this town,” Henderson says. “I knew it was going to boom with surfing, but I never had any idea it would be this fast. The merchants are stoked.”

One businesswoman especially stoked is Adriana Padilla, owner of the small Hotel Chile-Espana, where many foreign surfers stay. When she began operating the hotel four years ago, Padilla says, it received 10 or 15 surfers a year. “Now there are 50 a year.”

She looks through the day’s page in her registry and finds six Australians, three Argentines and two Brazilians. Two Frenchmen have just arrived.

“Surfing has made Pichilemu known around the world,” Padilla says. “When they make comparisons of the surf, many say it is like a second California.”

Craig Eady, an electrician from Australia, is staying at the Chile-Espana. After a day in the water, his face is sunburned and his eyes are red.

“Came here about three weeks ago,” Eady says. “Just doing a little surfing trip.” He says he plans to stay for two months. Two friends from Australia, also electricians, have recently flown over to join him.

“The surf is great,” he says. “The waves are very good quality. Probably the best thing is that the ride is very long, so there can be a lot of surfers on the water.”

Just after lunch, Henderson is staring out at Punta de Lobos from a table in a restaurant. “The waves are pretty big now. Surf’s up, definitely,” he says. “I should be out there.”

Silvia, his wife, gives him a look, as if to say, “You have surfboards to make. How can you go surfing?”

“It’s part of my job, I try to explain to her,” he says. “If I don’t surf well, then people don’t respect my product. So I’ve got to get out there and surf.”

Henderson reasons that if the surf at Pichilemu becomes too crowded for him, it isn’t the last surfer’s paradise in Chile.

“This is pretty good, hard to beat, but I’ve found places that are just as good,” he says. “I get in my truck and I go exploring. I get on the water and surf waves I know no human being has ever surfed before. And that’s a trip.”