Welcome to all and to all, welcome.
I guess the big issue needing to be aired is..

THE BANNING OF ALL WATERSPORTS ON FUERTEVENTURA!

Yes my fellow beach bums and babes, it seems that Fuerteventura's Cabildo (the Mayo's office) have tabled a proposal that would basically prohibit all water based sports, inc surf, kite windsurf, fishing, etc from designated zones and beaches around the island.

Fantastic!

However don't panic!   yet,   there is still a long way to go.

This original proposal has been made public, and as expected, has been met with rejections, around 750 rejections more or less!! These objections have come from various groups, including the local councils and their legal counsel, sports associations, shops and businesses, and of course the local people who use the island's beaches and coasts and have done since man invented the goat!

The next step is for the Cabildo to go away and assess these objections and amend the original proposal as they see fit. As you can imagine, the objections range from the damaging effects on tourism, legal issues regarding restrictions on public land, to the thought of "Surf Police" roaming the coasts searching out those aqua-terrorists surfing the secret spots!
The Cabildo are expected to return in 4-6 months with a new and improved proposal, and again the public will be informed and again any objections can be raised and registered, and again the powers-that-be will go away and change the revised document however they feel appropriate.

After this, THAT'S IT! no further changes can or will be made. Whatever the final document says will be passed and put into place.

The general feeling amongst those that will be effected is that watersports won't be banned but more likely to be regulated. There may be zonal areas for individual sports, zones for the surf and kite schools, quota's and area's for sport fishing for a few examples. The ayuntamiento in La Oliva(the local authority covering the popular "north"of Fuerteventura) has already proposed such zones since the original announcement, so are obviously not too concerned.

There is also the plan to continue protecting the more fragile area's of the island, with the dunes outside of Corralejo already receiving growing concern.
The island is very proud of its creation, and of its work as a "Bio-shere", actively protecting the environment.

There are thoughts of possibly creating a "natural park" in a similar way they have in Lanzarote with the Timanfaya Natural Park, and Teide in Tenerife.


WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

For now we wait. There are forums and facebook campaigns you can get involved with already, but it will be after the next round of meetings and talks, hopefully sometime in the summer, as the proposals become more finalized that support and signatures may be called for.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=337875405282

If you have any more info, any new info or would like to know more about the situation, please get in touch.

Otherwise, surfs been trifick!

As ever, keep up your posts guys for local advice and how-to's etc, and if anybody has any good action or comedy-action shots/photo's/videos they would like to see up on the page, I'd love 'em!!
Dont forget, if you want any advice for any watersports on Fuerte, holidays trips, courses etc please drop me a line/text on (0034) 664 830 103, or write to me on richie@awol-holidays.com