Costa Norte

Peru has arguably the world’s longest surf-history. Around 2500BC, way before Hawaii was even inhabited, the indigenous people were riding the Pacific waves on their ‘caballitos de totora’, single-seated ‘sea-horses’ made from reeds. And there’s plenty of surf here; northern Peru receives loads of Antarctic SW swell, which form the longest lefts in the world on countless perfectly positioned point-breaks. Plus there’s groundswell from Aleutian lows in the North Pacific, while a sailable southerly wind builds along the coast almost all year long. But many of these pearls go unridden as vast swathes of the arid coastal landscape are very sparsely populated. Some spots are only accessible via off-road tracks and notions of ‘safe’ travel are pretty vague. ‘Welcome’ to the Land of Lefts!