Lobitos, Peru surfing - January 15 & 16, 2011 - Perfect

by David and Josh Schneider
(Los Organos, Peru, South America)

Summer weather (in Peru) was already here with very warm beach temps and cool water in Lobitos, slight offshore breeze at 11:00 a.m., picking up later but cross/offshore all day.

Summer surfing starts in N. Peru in December for early north swells and a few south swells are also coming through. N. Peru is basically from Talara (most western point of Peru) north, so picks up norths well. But spots like Lobitos (just north of Talara) and others will break great also on some south swells.

Surf was consistent for the two days, slightly less on Sunday but still bringing sets up to solid 8-foot with most in the 6-foot range.

The number of people surfing varied. At "El Hueco," the super hollow and critical point, got up to around 12 people. Lobitos at one point must have had 30 or more out. But with the sets and long long waves with various fast section, they were spread all over the place and not crowded.

Unbelievably on Sunday morning when we got there around 9:30 a.m., there were only a couple of people out. Wow!

At the Muelle "pier" there were 0-a few people out, good waves. We didn't check out "Piscinas," a little farther north on the beach. It is supposed to be good, too. The waves are right in front of the main parking area and huge beach for local families. The bottom at "Lobitos" breaks off a rocky sandy reef and immediately peels down an all-sand beach. The sand becomes shallow for a long way on the inside so kids can play in the water and never be near the surfers outside.

It is a long paddle back out at "Lobitos" itself, so you will see a constant stream of surfers, guys and gals, walking back up the beach.

Unfortunately, the sand does not always stay where it should be and Lobitos itself does not break good if the sand disappears. Then its time to head to other close-by surf spots.

Our friend Iñigo hit the waves with his super-hot kite surfing in this unusual late south swell on Saturday afternoon. I'll try to post some pics of him later if I can get some off a more zoom-friendly camera.

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