There’s a place in Peru called Chicama, which is where the world’s longest wave exists.  While some famous wave breaks around the world can be ridden for seconds, the breaks at Chicama can be ridden for minutes. The town of Malabrigo, unofficially called Puerto Chicama, is a port and small coastal city in north-western Peru, located in the La Libertad region, some 70km north of Trujillo city and this is home to the Chicama wave. It is around 600km north of the capital, Lima.

The swells responsible for Chicama’s famous waves are visible in the image below. This picture was acquired in 2021 with the Operational Land Image (OLI) on Landsat 8, one of NASA’s satellites.  This image shows row after row of waves neatly lining up as they approach the coast.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

According to Dr Andrew Thomas, an oceanographer at the University of Maine and ex-surfer, the swell is generated by storm systems and weather fronts hundreds to thousands of kilometres away in the Pacific Ocean – and occasionally the Southern Ocean.  As the waves propagate across the open water, waves of similar wavelengths (and speed) become sorted and start to travel together. “Because the coast of Peru is very deep, these large swells will continue their journey until very close to shore” said Dr Thomas.

Another feature is that the waves arriving from the open ocean roll nearly parallel to this part of Peru’s coastline.  This means that Chicama’s waves can progressively break along a long stretch of shoreline.

Credit: Jonathan, flickr

Chicama is a classic point break producing an endless left-hand wave that peels off as far as the eye can see. On a perfect day, you can count more than 50 lines of waves rolling in from the horizon toward the shore. Chicana provides a left-hander that peels for up to 4 km.

The coastal and oceanic conditions set up what Dr Thomas called a ‘dreamland for surfers’. So much so that in 2013 the area gained protection from the Peruvian Government against development and infrastructure that would harm the waves.  Since Chicama, the first wave to be listed in the Protected Waves Registry, dozens of more waves across Peru have been added to the list.

Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149605/worlds-longest-wave

More info: https://lclarktate.com/2019/09/12/surfing-chicama-peru-the-longest-left/