Playa Norte

Edit Spot

About

A fun, but dangerous, wave: not radical, but not for beginners either! Nice spot if La Isla is too crowded, which is most of the summer.

Atmosphere:
All these spots work all year, but the summer months of January-March are always crowded. Other times of year you could have this spot to yourself!

Additional Info:
This is a beach-break straight onto rocks, so beware of the rocks. As with many spots in this area it has 'boulder' type rocks not reef-rocks...
Access to the water is on the beach to the left (south) of the point. All rocks have sharp shells and occasional urchins.

The locals have been digging up the sand along the beach lately. They have used it to make a more 'protected' beach area directly in front of the point break. This means that the beach break has many more rocks than last year and the waves come up the beach much higher during high tide (much less area to safely suntan/keep your stuff/etc). It seems like the wave shape of the beach break has been effected slightly as well.

Location

Access

From Punta Hermosa (about 43 km south of Lima) head into the town and look for the island (La Isla): the first beach to the right (north) of this is El Paso, further north is a small beach - Playa Norte, the surfing is on the northern end of this beach.

There is a beach break onto sand with mixed large rocks which isn't bad for bodyboarding. The main surf spot is a point break that is used for bodyboarding and short boards.

Walk	Instant access (<5 min)
Public access	Yes
4x4 required	Unknown
Boat required	Unknown

Wave Characteristics

Type	Beach break
Direction	Right
Bottom	Boulders
Power	Hollow, Fast, Powerful
Frequency	Very consistent (150+ days/year)
Normal length	Short (<50m)
Good day length	Short (<50m)

Ideal Conditions

Wind direction	SouthEast, East, NorthEast
Swell direction	NorthWest, West, SouthWest
Swell size	3ft-5ft - 8ft+
Tide	Mid and high tide
Tide movement	Rising and falling tides