On the cover photo: Lacalle Pou reflects after receiving the presidential sash yesterday at the Plaza Independencia in Montevideo. Is he thinking about the waves? Credit: Agustín Martínez

After that casual interview that I made to the elected president of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, I unexpectedly received a call giving me very specific and protocolary instructions to withdraw my “special” invitation to his inauguration yesterday, March 1, 2020.

I was told that the special guests were directly from the president-elect. I am not a fan of these events, but I felt that I should honor his deference and so I followed the instructions.

As a surfing journalist, I found it curious that the very profession that usually brings me to the beach, took me away from it, to a very different place, organized in a different way, structured and protocolary. I also found it interesting to mix with the bunch of powerful people with whom I shared the “special” rectangle of the Plaza Independencia in Montevideo.

I felt like a bit of an outsider, I didn't know almost anyone, I think I was the only one there who had a mate and who, in the heat of more than 30 degrees, wore Bermuda shorts (it's worth saying that there was no dress code on the invitation, the heat ended up proving me right and those who were in suits suffered visibly).

In front of us were President Bolsonaro of Brazil, Piñera of Chile and Duque of Colombia, among a hundred dignitaries from around the world. Press from all over covered the event, there were military parades, orchestras, dances and horses and a host of other details.

And it was all because of a surfer. Involved in such a multitudinous event, in the middle of so many important people, of so many transcendent events, I stopped to think that the one who was the great protagonist and who would direct the interests of Uruguay for the next five years, was first and foremost a surfer.

Tired of the preconceptions of which we were victims, of vagabonds, of thugs, of irresponsible people, and a lot of other things, that was what I felt from my humble place in the great event.

Just as there are surfers who are CEOs, PhDs, millionaires, royalty, etc., now there is one who is a president. And mind you, there are also vagabonds, thieves, drug addicts, and everything else; so, you can no longer generalize about surfers; they come in all colors.

Now, that neighbor from the Barrio Obrero in La Paloma, Rocha, Uruguay, like that one from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, or the other one from La Guaira, Venezuela, can dream that her son, who is a surfer, will become president.

And, it is true, becoming president is half the battle; the other half is making a country work better. And that is now the wave that Luis Lacalle Pou will have to surf, very far from the real waves.