Discovering the Roots of Surfing in Peru

Image Name: The Surfing in Peru

For at least 3,500 years, fishermen along the Peruvian coast have been making reed-bound boats and surfing the waves back to shore. Three-metre-high waves crash onto Playa El Mogote in the northern Peruvian seaside village of Huanchaco. Gazing out into the beach, a mix of locals and international tourists surf in the Pacific, but around a curve in the coastline, the arched prows of caballitos de totora line the beach, their bows pointing towards the ocean. For at least the past 3,500 years, Huanchaco’s fishermen have been using these reed crafts to surf.

The Ancient Craft of Caballitos de Totora
Known as tup in Mochica, one of Peru’s extinct Indigenous languages, or caballitos (“little horses”) in Spanish, these ancient crafts are made with tightly tied bundles of totora reeds that grow in freshwater ponds near the coast. Their signature upturned, narrow bow both slices through and pop up over the waves. The Pacific is anything but peaceful here, and in recent years its epic swells have been drawing modern surfers from around the world.

But for those who have lived on this coast for thousands of years, caballitos were the only thing that could punch through the waves to help them reach their fishing areas before letting them surf their way back to the beach. Huanchaceños who still make caballitos are proud of their crafts, which some have claimed are one of the world’s earliest surfboards. Yet, every year fewer people here are learning the art of cultivating totora and constructing caballitos. Now, this ancient tradition is at risk of disappearing in the next few decades.

A Rich History Challenging Common Beliefs
Surfing is commonly believed to have been invented in Hawaii, with petroglyphs depicting people riding waves dating back to at least the 12th Century CE. Yet, the Chan Chan Museum near Huanchaco and the Larco Museum in Lima display ancient ceramics showing people and gods using caballitos to surf, fish, and even transport prisoners, predating this. Renowned Peruvian historian María Rostworowski believes these ceramics may date back even earlier to at least 1400 BCE.

“Nobody here fishes with a wooden boat,” said Carlos Ucañan Arzola, one of Huanchaco’s last caballito makers. “Totora is traditional and ancestral, from the Mochicas (also known as the Moche culture dating from the 1st-8th Centuries CE). This totora was preserved in Chan Chan,” he added, referring to the 7th-Century Chimú city whose center is only 5km from Huanchaco.

Image Name: Ancient Craft of Caballitos de Totora

The Practicality and Craft of Caballitos
Caballitos measure about 4m long, a little under 1m wide, and can carry loads up to 100kg. When they’re dry, the boats weigh about 40kg, but after a morning fishing, they can weigh twice that and must be set upright on the beach to dry for a day or two. Today, Huanchaco’s roughly 40 remaining fishermen all still use caballitos when they go out to set or check their nets. However, as large commercial fishing boats have encroached on the coast, and an increase in erosion and litter often leaves the nets tangled or ripped, fishermen say the trade is becoming less profitable every year. As a result, many Huanchaceños have turned to tourism or left to seek opportunities elsewhere.

“There are only three men in my generation who fish on a caballito,” said 30-year-old Edwin Blas Arroyo, who started learning to fish on a caballito from his uncle and grandfather when he was only seven.

Cultural Pride and a Symbol of Heritage
Even as more young people gravitate from fishing to tourism and away from these ancient surfboards towards modern ones, the caballito remains the symbol of Huanchaco. “In Huanchaco, there is a community that’s remarkably proud, conscious of their past, the heritage of their culture and their knowledge, which dates to the times of the Mochicas and the Chimús (12th-16th Centuries), people who were intimately linked to the sea,” wrote Marina Quiñe, a professor of marine biology at Lima’s Universidad Científica del Sur in her study The caballito de totora in Huanchaco.

According to Enrique Amayo Zevallos’, author of Sea and Waves: Rite and Sport of the Tup or Caballito de Totora to the Modern Surf Board, surfing for sport, competition, and ritual was usually done on a craft similar to a tup, called tupe, made with a combination of totora reeds, bamboo, and sea lion skins. The rituals lasted up until the Spanish banned them for being pagan. “The purpose of [the tupe] was to have fun cutting through the waves of the sea, or surfing,” Amayo Zevallos explained. Today, only the tup, which has historically been used for both surfing and fishing, survives. Jordi Rivera Prince, an anthropological bioarchaeologist who specializes in ancient Andean coastal fishing communities, noted, “The design of a caballito is virtually unchanged in the past 3,500 years … It’s history and living culture at the same time.”

The Delicate Art of Totora Craftsmanship
Totora reeds are a delicate crop, and cultivating, harvesting, and transforming them into seafaring vessels is an art passed down through the generations. Fishermen bind the reeds so their triangular stems fit together perfectly and there are no pockets of air left between them. It takes days to dry the fresh reeds and hours to make all four bundles needed to assemble a new craft. Today, most fishermen tie the totora with nylon cords, though in the past they used thin ropes of braided llama fur. With the wear from heavy waves, strong equatorial sun, and abrasion from sand and stones, caballitos don’t last more than a couple of months, so the cords are saved to make new crafts.

Conclusion:
As you explore Huanchaco, you witness a unique blend of ancient tradition and modern surfing culture. The caballito de totora stands as a testament to the ingenuity and resilience of the Peruvian fishermen who have navigated these waters for millennia. This ancient craft, potentially the world’s first surfboard, connects the past with the present and highlights a rich cultural heritage that deserves to be preserved. As tourism grows, it’s essential to support and honor these traditions, ensuring that the legacy of the caballito de totora continues to ride the waves for generations to come.