A recap from Save the waves' CEO on the caballito tour on Australia's coastline
The East Coast Activation Tour (ECAT) 2026 was a five-day traveling surf and conservation journey that brought together an international delegation of surfers, researchers, and ocean advocates to connect Australia’s World Surfing Reserves from the Gold Coast to Sydney.
Organized by Gold Coast World Surfing Reserve to celebrate their 10-year anniversary, the tour followed directly after the World Surfing Conservation Conference 2026 and made nine stops along the coast.
The ECAT tour included 22 surfers, researchers, and conservation leaders from Peru, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, the United States, Bali, and Australia. Among the key figures was Carlos Ucanan Arzola, known as “Huevito” — the King of the Caballito — Traditional artisan fisherman and WSR Ambassador for the Huanchaco World Surfing Reserve in Peru. Also part of the Peruvian delegation was Magoo De La Rosa, 7x Peruvian National Champion Surfing , and Carlos Antonio Ferrer, a Save The Waves Vision Council member and manager of the Huanchaco WSR. Members from other visiting World Surfing Reserves included Laura Zumbado from Playa Hermosa World Surfing Reserve, Efrain Olachea from Bahia Todos Santos World Surfing Reserve, Almendra Gomezleyva from Puerto Escondido World Surfing Reserve, Pato Mekis from Punta de Lobos World Surfing Reserve, and Roberto Arakis from Rapa Nui. The tour also included the Peruvian Junior Surfing Team — Catalina Zariquiey, Brianna Barthelmes, Bastian Arevalo and Alejandro Bernales — visiting Australia for the first time ahead of competing at Snapper Rocks.
The centerpiece of the tour was showcasing the Caballito de Totora, a traditional Peruvian reed surf craft carried from The World Surfing Reserve of Huanchaco. The Caballito — meaning “little reed horse” — has been used by fishermen and wave riders in northern Peru since roughly 3000 BC. Made from tightly bound totora reeds grown in coastal ponds, it predates the modern fibreglass surfboard by thousands of years.
The tour traced a course through Australia’s East Coast World and National Surfing Reserves, linking the surf communities designated and supported by Save The Waves Coalition and National Surfing Reserves. Key stops included the Gold Coast WSR (Snapper Rocks to Burleigh), Lennox Head, Crescent Head, Angourie, Port MacQuarie, Norah Head and the Manly-Freshwater WSR, and ending in Bondi — the latter holding special significance as the site of recent terrorist attack in Australia. The Caballito riding the waves at Manly was described as a historic first — adding another international cultural layer to the break’s storied legacy.
The ECAT tour served as a living embodiment of the World Surfing Reserve network’s mission: to connect surf communities across borders, celebrate the cultural heritage of wave-riding, and reinforce the case for coastal protection.
The reserves aim to protect significant surf breaks from threats such as inappropriate development, with sites selected for wave quality, environmental characteristics, surf culture, and history. By threading the ancient Caballito through each reserve, the tour drew a direct line between humanity’s oldest ocean traditions and the modern conservation imperative.
As the tour concluded in Bondi / Sydney, the Caballito was transported back up the coast to its permanent home at the Robbie Page Royal Indigenous Surfing Museum in Kempsey — a fitting resting place that connects Peru’s pre-Inca wave-riding heritage with Australia’s own Indigenous coastal traditions. The ECAT 2026 stands as a culturally rich activation, demonstrating the power of WSRs not just as legal protection instruments, but as living communities united by a shared love of the ocean that connects us all.
