How our surf retreat that had to move became a community effort to bring clean drinking water to more than 400 households in northern Peru.
When the rains hit, the desert becomes lush, and the ravines fill with water creating impassable rivers across the village
When the Forecast Changes Everything
Our retreats are about more than checking off activities. They're about participating in life in Lobitos: surfing, meeting people, and finding ways to give back to the places that make it all possible.
So when we heard about Super El Niño forecasts, heavy rains and potentially devastating floods expected across northern Peru we made the very tough call to relocate our November retreat. Sticking around would be too risky for our guests, and with both founders starting their own families, too risky for the babies.
It was not an easy decision but we also decided to close the Cafe part of the business, with a view to someday returning to Lobitos and firing it back up again.
As a team, we pivoted plans to head back to the Andes, Machu Picchu, Pachamama and Cusco, and then a small surf town called San Bartolo on the coast for our last retreat of the year,
This plan was a good one, but leaving Lobitos in the lurch didn't sit right. So we asked our team a simple question: If we're going to leave, how can we help before we go?
Danielle remembered a water-filtering eco-straw she'd once seen. Harold knew surfers working on water access in disaster zones. We started connecting the dots.
Packing would look a little different this time, half surf gear, half disaster relief.
A Few Surfers and a Very Good Idea
Filters fit for households, that last long after disaster strikes.
Harold called his friend Matt Montee, who connected us with Waves4Water, a surfer-founded NGO with a simple idea: turn every surf trip into an opportunity to bring clean drinking water. Pack a filter, share the knowledge, leave something useful behind.
They'd worked along the Peruvian coast during the 2017 El Niño emergency response, distributing filters with Peruvian big-wave surfer Gabriel Villarán. The stories included the US Embassy flying the team north in a military plane when the roads were washed out and conventional systems failed.
ReyPlast Peru, a national plastics company, coming through with 100 buckets, that somehow fit in Harold’s truck
This time, we were working ahead of the curve. Waves4Water helped us raise first funds, fast-track filters to our community in New York, and Gabriel connected us with ReyPlast, a Peruvian plastics manufacturer who agreed to donate the buckets needed for filter setups.
Hazla por tu Ola, a Peruvian NGO that focuses on protecting waves and coastal environments led by Carolina Butrich, also came on board. She committed to matching donations up to $3,000 USD.
Solgaard also stepped up, providing suitcases to help us transport the filters and giving us a platform to raise awareness about the water crisis facing Lobitos.
What started as a team meeting was becoming a network of surfers, organizations, volunteers, and people willing to pitch in.
Catching Rain in the Desert
Filters are one piece of the puzzle. But harnessing the rainwaters was another big piece. This region averages around seven centimeters of rainfall annually. During the extreme El Niño events in 1983 and 1998, annual rainfall exceeded two meters. (source).
Communal catchment systems rounded out the solution
The flip side of this potential crisis was an opportunity; what if we caught rainwater across Lobitos? The idea was to capture runoff from large roofs and direct it into storage tanks, creating collection points where residents could fill buckets and take water home for filtration. We set up some meetings with local NGO EcoSwell to pick their brain on how this might work.
Then, reality caught up. We were moving South and didn't have the capacity to design and build the systems ourselves. We shelved the idea. A few weeks later, Diego from EcoSwell called. A student engineering group from Colorado is coming in January, and he wanted to know if we'd found a team to take on the build.
We told him we'd killed the plan. He saw a way to bring it back to life. We agreed to partner, bringing funding and expertise together, the perfect way to round out the project.
Sometimes the missing piece isn't a better plan. It's the right people, and knowing when to ask for help that unlocks solutions.
After We Leave
We don't just want to drop off equipment, take a few photos, and call it impact.
Last year, La Onza supported Coast2Coast, a local NGO working with girls in Lobitos through surfing, confidence-building, and practical skills. Our community sponsored its first photojournalism cohort, giving participants tools to document their own community.
Building confidence and skills to impact the next generation of storytellers
Now, as El Niño approaches, these young women will document its impacts, interview residents, and help track how the filters and water systems are working.
The people who live here are the ones who will be here long after we've left. Their voices, and their experience, belong at the centre of this work.
Help Us Keep the Water Flowing
EcoSwell stepped back in to train our team of local volunteers to distribute filters, with families who face the greatest need receiving priority. A group of “Water Leaders” will also help neighbors access clean drinking water, while plans for the collection systems move forward.
Train the trainer with EcoSwell and our local volunteers
Our goal is to help more than 400 households access safer drinking water in a community of approximately 1,300 people. We're raising funds for household filters and the tanks, pipes, and materials needed to build rainwater collection systems. Hazla por tu Ola is matching donations up to $3,000.
We are aiming for a total target of $5,000 USD.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
DONATE NOW: A contribution of $50 provides a household with a water filter.
Heading to Peru? Get in touch about bringing a filter on your next trip.
Share this with your networks: friends, family, or your Corporate Responsibility department at work!
Lobitos has given us waves worth crossing an ocean for and a community that makes this place more than a surf destination. We can't control the weather. We can help people prepare.
Let's get to it.
La Onza — with Waves4Water, Hazla por tu Ola, EcoSwell, Solgaard, ReyPlast, Coast2Coast, and the community of Lobitos.
