Caballito de totora

Chimú vessel representing a fisherman on a caballito de totora (1100–1400 CE)

Caballitos de totora are reed watercrafts used by Peruvian fishermen for the past 3,000 years, archaeologically evidenced from pottery shards.

Named for the way they are ridden, straddled ('little reed horses' in English), fishermen use them to transport their nets and collect fish in their inner cavity. The name is not the original name as horses were not introduced to South American until after the Spanish arrived in the 15th Century. They are made from the same reed, Scirpus californicus, used by the Uros in the Lake Titicaca region.

Fishermen in the port town of Huanchaco famously, but in many other locations practically, still use these vessels to this day, riding the waves back into shore, and suggesting some of the first forms of wave riding. There is currently a minor debate in the surfing world as to whether or not this constitutes the first form of surfing.