Santiago “el Aguja” di Pace’s desire to be in the water all the time makes him defy the laws of time. While some 48-year-olds struggle with traffic, tie knots and cholesterol, he fights to ride the biggest wave and go in the deepest tube, and on top of that, he wins championships.

As one of the coaches of the Argentine national team, Di Pace leads by example. Last Wednesday he won the El Buey invitational, an international tournament that featured some of the best in the world. The locals of that spot have the Argentine as a reference, he has been surfing there for 25 years and, as a good man of experience, he won surfing the biggest wave of the day.

He spoke to DUKE and this is what he said:

How do you feel about the result? How does this victory rank in your heart?
25 years ago, in 93, I won the international championship in Pichilemu, in the final against Titi de Col, who was my idol at the time. With the money I won, I came to Arica, I got to know Arica for the first time, and now 25 years later I was also lucky enough to win an international title in a championship like this one, which was with high-level surfers.

I have beaten my idol, Sebastián Correa, again, so this is a very important achievement for me. I think it is the most important of my career, I still can't believe it, it seems unbelievable.

Looking back, it seems like the first round bomb was a tough blow... You were surfing without a life jacket and on the final day you put one on. How was the process? To go headfirst?
When I threw myself, I was already wearing a life jacket. I already had those life jackets that are for flotation. I only started running with a life jacket this year. When I saw that bomb, I dove in head first, knowing that it was an opportunity to pass the series. With that bomb, I knew I was going to pass.

Of course it threw me into the deep end, it punished me quite a bit, it was hard for me to get out, but the experience of racing here in El Buey has always been that I've thrown bombs more or less like that knowing that afterwards there will be a hard knock. But well, one is prepared for that.

Do you feel the passing of the years, the age in those seas?
Yes, you can feel the years. You try to continue as always. What you feel the most is the tiredness after the long sessions. You can be competing with the young guys at the same level, but the recovery is not the same. You end up much more tired and that was what happened to me in the semi-final. I felt very tired the first 20 minutes from the day before. Luckily at the end of the semi-final I was able to change the air and I realized that I could fight to reach the final. Thanks to the last 10 minutes I caught two good waves that took me to the final.

And in the final, what was your focus?
In the final I realized that I was better off betting on the right or waiting for a big left. I knew that when I was where I like to be, where the right-hander comes in, a peak comes in, which I call the west peak, which is bigger than the other right-hand peak and that there is also a very big left that is perfect. That's where I found the big left that I grabbed halfway through the series.

I knew that if I was there I could achieve a good result. If I got the waves, I knew I could, not win, but be among the top three.

And when you found out you were the champion, what did you think? What did you say?
In the water they were informing us about the results. They told us that Toto was first and I was second. So I had no choice but to hope for something better than what I had and luckily the biggest set of all appeared, which was that big right that I dropped a big drop and raised my arms. Because I raised them I lost my balance and fell at the end. Luckily they gave it as a completed wave because I did the drop completely. I think that made the difference.

I knew that with that wave I would win the championship and the moment I saw it I remembered my friend Julio, a friend of mine from Pichilemu who passed away two days ago and when I saw the bomb I said: “Julio sent me this.” So luckily when I was dropping there was a moment when I could have caught either the big right that I grabbed or the left. The board didn’t fail so it was the decisive moment to win the championship. That big right was what defined the winner.

I had caught that wave. All I wanted was for no more waves to come in and I told the guys “forgive me, but I hope it flatlines, no more waves come in.” I took those minutes calmly and luckily something happened that I never thought would happen, winning a major international championship with surfers like the ones here like Cristian Merello, Álvaro Malpartida, Sebastián Correa, who are three big riders of weight. Toto himself, but we already know what the first three I named mean, as well as the local Germán Varas, León Vicuña. It was a very important victory that I never thought I would achieve.

You have been going to Arica all your life, you even nicknamed it “the Hawaii of the poor”, how did you decide to spend so much time there?
The first time I rode in El Buey was in 2003 and I fell in love with the wave and from then on I started building a quiver every year. Now I have an eight-board quiver here, so I have the obligation to come because every time I come I do so with a backpack, a small bag and the suits, nothing else.

I know it's hard to find waves as good as this in the world with so few people, waves like I like or waves as powerful as those in Hawaii. That's why at one time we used to call them "the Hawaii of the poor." Those who didn't have money to go to Hawaii came to Arica. The truth is that every time I come to Arica it's a dream because I have my friends, my boards and my waves.

There was a big fuss on social media, many Peruvian fans were upset because Toto didn't win. It was a close final, how did you see it?
It was a very close final. I know that some Peruvians probably saw Toto as the winner, but it was clear that the two biggest waves that came in, the biggest left one I surfed and the right, the last one, was the biggest wave of the series. This is a big wave championship and the judges voted for the two biggest waves of the series, so go cry to church.

What's next for Aguja?
Staying here in the north of Chile for another week, going to Mar del Plata for a week and then going to Punta Rocas a week before the Pan American Games to continue with the work of getting more places for the 2019 Pan American Games and trying to win the Pan American Team Games. That is the short-term goal.

Afterwards I want to visit Hawaii during the season and continue surfing like I have been surfing. I still have the same mentality as when I was 20 years old, which is that surfing is the only thing that interests me.