The day began with a tranquil breakfast of coffee and honey pancakes, a tranquillity soon to be broken by the arrival of twenty-five kids armed with colouring pencils and impressive artistic talent for drawing waves. The first event of the day was a drawing competition to illustrate International Surfing Day (or ‘International Tourist Day’ according to some of the
more confused artists…).
The twenty-minute timer began and a silent concentration fell over the group, disturbed only by the scratching of pencils and the occasional shout of ‘no me copies!’. An abundance of waves and surfers, birds, fish, seaweed and shining suns began to materialise on their papers. Point breaks, a-frames, lefts, rights, barrels and even some more imaginative waves that can only be described as ‘cave-waves’, all accompanied with surfers having a good time surfing. Which, coincidently, is exactly what happened next.
After awarding each of the four winners with their prizes, a globe, it was down to the beach for a beach clean-up and surf lessons. As if the elements had prepared in advanced the wind had dropped and the waves were rolling in at a friendly 2ft.
If I thought these kids were talented at drawing waves it was nothing compared to their skills at riding them.
Against this backdrop of Peru’s next generation of pro-surfers, the rest of us began the beach clean-up. Two-by-two we ran about the sand, filling bin liners with litter and comparing with each other to see who had picked up the most.
Many waves and full bin bags later we all walked back to the WAVES office for a BBQ. Hungry tummies were filled; happy, salty faces scoffed burgers in the sunshine and exchanged excited stories of their waves.
This was my first time celebrating International Surfing Day and I can’t imagine a better introduction. If ever I have one that is filled with more creativity, excitement, surfing and sunshine I’ll eat my board wax.
