The History of Surfing

Though there is some debate, the first surfers were probably residents of modern-day Peru who lived around 2000 years ago.

These ancient Peruvians, who lived before the European conquest of South America, and even before the rise of the great Incan civilization, would practice surfing by riding the waves of the Pacific Ocean off their northern coast using boats made of reeds. These boats, made from the reeds of the Totora plant and known as Caballitos de Totora in modern Spanish (literally “little reed horses” in English), were straddled by their riders and paddled out into the surf, much as modern surfers still do when entering the water.