Pacasmayo Spot Guide

Pacasmayo is the most northerly of the handful of endless lefthanders in the La Libertad region. It catches loads of swell, peels forever and is often referred to as Chicama's big brother, as it will always be bigger and hold much larger waves than its more famous neighbour. It is also claimed to be a longer ride on the rare occasions that that a 12ft (4m) S-SW swell transports surfers on a 2.5km marathon from the tip of the point till it smashes into the pier in town. Rides have been timed at 4mins and what makes it probably the longest wave in the world is it doesn't section off like Chicama, which has a longer headland, but a couple of gaps in the wave. Pacasmayo starts off with a hollower, squirting section as it spins down towards the exposed engine of an old wreck, then mellows into a wall of varying steepness with little pockets and crumbling lip-lines, perpetually motoring northwards with symmetrical precision. A perfect day would see low tide incoming, double-overhead SSW swell, light ENE wind and hope it is a weekday for lower crowds.

To get the longest wave of your life you are going to have to work for it and the northward sweeping current reaches epic proportions when it's big. Most walk back up, but getting through the rocks, wreck, urchins and stingrays can be tricky, so those with the arms will paddle back by heading straight out to sea then across to the point in an effort to avoid the rip. Sitting still to rest means going backwards. This has meant that local surf businesses have bought zodiacs to the line-up, greatly increasing the wave count of the wealthy and annoying the paddlers with fumes, wake and bad etiquette. Kite-surfing has grown massively as the afternoon cross-shore provides the power to launch and saves the arms from the paddling. High consistency for some kind of rideable wave (9/10) and these days it is often crowded (7/10) with large groups of foreign and South American travellers.