Investing in Peru's blue, not oil, barrels

Often while travelling the people you meet, the cultures you drink in, the experiences you soak up lead themselves to an epiphany, one so strong in that moment that the next five years of your life are planned instantly.

You make promises to the people you meet, you vow to lead a better life, spread the word of the cause that slapped you upside the head. Often though once home you fall back into old rhythms and the colour and strength of those momentous ideas wane slightly.

But surfer Angie Takanami is having none of it.

A recent trip to the surf rich but oil dominated coast of Peru opened her eyes, and meeting local surf and eco tourism guide Harold Koechlin sharpened her focus.

Takanami is now making a surf documentary named Double Barrel, following Koechlin's dream of turning a crumbling oil-dominated surf town, Lobitos, into a sustainable surf village.

“It shocked me that here you could have some of the world’s best waves under threat from a drying-up oil industry, and lack of education to the people who rely on the coast to survive,” Takanami said.

“Lobitos itself is a town built and later, destroyed by oil. There are drills that pump 24/7 outside your simple surf lodge, and the town itself is like a scene from a zombie movie, it’s literally been left in ruins since the civil war.”

As the oil begins to dry up in the region these towns are being left to crumble and decay. As oil reserves shrink the companies and their money pull out leaving towns and their inhabitants with few options to eek out an existence.

But Koechlin believes he has a very viable option.

“[Koechlin] shared his dream with me of putting a dollar value on the waves and proving to the government that the waves would be a more sustainable source of income for Lobitos than the oil, which is already running out,” Takanami said.

“He stressed that there needed to be big change to protect the waves in the area, and we got talking about a goal of turning Lobitos into Peru’s first eco-surf village.”

And from here the idea of creating Double Barrel was born.

The documentary is not meant to attack big oil directly but is meant to raise awareness of the area’s ecological needs and provide the locals with an alternative way to live.

“The film is all about raising awareness about ecology, over consumption of oil, and ways we can all re-think our daily movements in order to help preserve our oceans, and ultimately the surf,” Takanami said.

The ultimate goal of the documentary and more specifically of Peru local, Koechlin is to protect the plentiful and brilliant waves of the region and provide a sustainable future for the locals.

“Harold envisions The Lobitos Project as being the first eco-surf village in Peru, possibly the world, and in conjunction with this his goal is to create the Lobitos Eco Surf Zenter, a sustainable surf tourism business with the ultimate goal of protecting the waves as an infinite natural resource for the next generation, the kids, to enjoy,” Takanami said.

To help Takanami and Koechlin's vision become a reality you can pledge money to the documentary's making with Kickstarter, right here.