Was surfing invented in Peru using small fishing boats made from water plant reeds?
Modern archaeology indicates, as many Peruvians have long claimed, that surfing was invented on their north Pacific coast by pre-Columbian cultures using reed boats to surf the waves. These boats are similar in shape to surfboards but are made from the reeds of a plant. Pottery from as early as 200b.c. unearthed in Peru shows wave riding was invented long before any surfers even set foot on the Islands of Hawaii. The modern Peruvian’s Inca ancestors, called the Kontiki’s, fishing along the Peruvian coastline, first rode the waves in the Pacific Ocean. Huanchaco is a village along the Peruvian coast in which, even today, the local fisherman use the reed canoes called “little reed horses” . A link to this ancient Inca past is evident as “modern” Peruvian fishermen stand on the tails of their “little horses made of reeds” and ride the small boats to shore after a long day of fishing. The reed is a cultivated crop. Planting it is similar to planting rice: one must cut the roots and deposit
