Peru

With over 2000 kilometers of coastline bordering the Pacific, spanning from the Ecuadorian border (latitude 4S) to the Chilean border (latitude 19S), Peru’s geographical positioning for swell could not be much better, open to virtually any North or South Pacific groundswells. Add to this that the coastline of this Andean nation consists almost exclusively of point breaks, and that just off the coast lies the Peru-Chile trench, the 12th deepest in the world at over five miles deep, and you have a country with practically unlimited surf potential.
The capital city where you fly into is Lima. Lima is a massive city of over 9 million people located roughly halfway down the coast. While the coastline to the south of Lima has some serviceable points such as Punta Rocas, Caballeros, Penascal (rights), Senoritas and La Isla (lefts) that are worth surfing if you are in the Lima area, and cop a lot of size and power (similar to Sunset Cliffs with size), the disadvantages of surfing the Lima area include crowds, marine layer, cold water, and semi-textured conditions. All things considered Lima is probably a better city to party in than to surf, but that’s another story.
Peru has a numbering system for its breaks similar to Baja. Kilometer -- 0 is Lima. Most of the Lima area waves are to the south of Lima between K-30 and K-100.  Beyond K-100 it is more sparse and unknown, but reputedly windier and less protected. While Southern Peru has some world class waves like San Gallan Island, a rare right-handed reef break on the inside of an offshore island 350 kilometers south of Lima, most intrepid surf travelers and diehard Peruvian surfers themselves tend to travel north of Lima in search of world class perfection.
If you have a limited amount of time, do yourself a favor and catch a Lan Peru flight to Piura, 1000 kilometers north of Lima. When you arrive in Piura you have arrived nowhere. The nearest surf is still over an hour and a half away, and keep in mind no one speaks English so you’d better practice your Spanish before you get here.
If you’re on the budget program, hire a taxi to Mancora and two and a half hours later you’ll find yourself in a small Peruvian tourist town with a beautiful left-hand point break that is ideal for intermediates, but not especially hollow or critical. If you catch it over holidays, normally New Years, Easter or Peruvian national holidays in July, you’ll find it bustling with South American tourists including hotties from Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia and whose presence on the beach more than makes up for any shortages of the wave itself. The water in Mancora is typically 10 degrees warmer than the water just an hour or two to the south, no bullshit, and normally you don’t even need a wetsuit. The warm Panamanian current prevails there, but just to the south the current intersects with the more powerful Humboldt Current from Chile and is pushed out to sea, hence cold water.
There seems to be an abundance of cheap accommodation here, and for about $30 to $50 a day you can get a decent hotel and three meals (slightly higher rates and less availability at holidays). The most expensive part of this trip will probably be the plane tickets that got you here (normally about $600-$800 round trip from Southern California to Lima and another $295 round trip to Piura), and the board fees you get stuck with.
Fifteen minutes south of Mancora is another smaller town called Organos that has an A-frame favoring lefts, and breaks on NW swells only. This beach also has a protected inside break ideal for beginners, and there are several small hotels here catering to surfers, all three star or under. Thirty minutes south of Mancora is a series of reefs and slabs including Cabo Blanco, the Peruvian Pipeline (Dec-Mar only) and Panic Point, a heavy left-handed slab similar to Rockpile on the North shore. There is a two star hotel catering to surfers right on the point at Cabo Blanco and I recommend this place for chargers and I don’t say that lightly. These waves are not for posers. The takeoff at Cabo Blanco is a dry tube no more than 25 feet in front of urchin covered rocks, and you have to surf the wave in the tube or you will hit the rocks, that is if you even manage to catch a wave in a lineup dominated by Peruvian tube specialists.
Not all the breaks up here work only on NW swells nor are they quite as sketchy. The majority of the points also pick up the more prevalent SW swell direction and even work best perhaps from April to November when the waves enter from a steeper angle and wrap into all the points, including Mancora, Panic Point, Lobitos, and other famous points a few hundred kilometers to the south such as Pacasmayo and Chicama which both can break over a mile in length. There are also a few excellent beach breaks like El Golf and Huanchaco, but these are not as common. Right-handers are scarce to non-existent in the north of Peru. The prevailing wind direction is a SE to S wind which is ideal for all the left points and reefs breaking on the inside of headlands, and many of the spots have a dominant offshore to side-offshore wind. There is almost no rain or frontal activity of any kind being a desert so weather conditions are predictable. The northern area around Mancora and just to the south is quite a bit sunnier than the Lima area though overcast conditions are still common.
While just about every good break in Northern and Central Peru has something that can pass for a hotel adequate for surfers, not to mention incredible restaurants serving fresh seafood and the best of Peruvian cuisine, and there are even cheap, modern air-conditioned buses to transport you up and down the coast and get you between the better known spots, the best way to surf in Northern Peru is still with a Peruvian surf guide and dedicated 4x4 truck. This way you can go where you want, when you want, and get dialed in by a Peruvian local who has eyes in the back of his head.
Enter Octopus Surf Tours, operated by Marco Antonio Ravizza, a.k.a. “Pulpo”, a.k.a. “Octopus.” Octopus uses over 20 years of experience surfing throughout Peru along with surf forecasting technology to practically hit the bull’s-eye on every swell and dial you into world class Peruvian waves that will blow your mind, but only after traversing some of the most desolate stretches of road imaginable between here and Mars. Tours include Piura airport greeting and roundtrip transfers, full-day surf tours and transportation, all hotels and all meals.
 
For bookings contact Wavehunters Surf Travel // Website: www.wavehunters.com // Email: wavehunters@Wavehunters.com // Phone: 760-494-7391