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

After such an amazing autumn of sun and surf, things had to change at some point, and it change.
We saw some fantastic weather coming up out of the south west bringing everything with it, wind, waves and even some lightning here and there!! Love it. Funny though, how quickly the novelty of rain wears off, and fortunately the Canarian showers don't last too long either
Certainly made for some different conditions in the water.
Throughout December powerful westerly swells caused familiar breaks to work in mysterious ways, and a few less ridden spots started to play which is one of the bonuses of Canarian winters, variety being the spice and all that.

They say every cloud has a silver lining, never a truer word spoken.

I've no problem with listening to family and friends going on about how bad the weather is in the UK, knowing full well only a few days later we can expect the produce of all those dirty great weather systems Fantastic Fuerte Surf

It seems this autumn has been particularly unkind to western Europe, breaking all kinds of horrible meteorological record, ho-hum.

The silver lining then is the seemingly endless days of solid pumping N.W. swells doing their funky thing, and with only the odd day of wind, October and November have produced some fantastic sessions. The 3 day spell at Outside Rocky Point (Punta Elena) in Corralejo harbour scored heavy in early November, will be talked about for a while. It was like something straight out of the south pacific!

The western beaches are becoming a little more intense as these winter bombs take their toll, dragging the sand banks off the beaches and into deeper water. Most of the main beaches on that coast are closed to bathers this time of year. So some of the inside reefs have been offering conditions for those not wishing to face the full force of the northern shores. Surf schools take advantage of reformed waves , keeping away from the more established locations. Wind swells too have given the less experienced a chance to play up and down the east coast.

Crowds? There are definitely more people in the water this year. One of the island's more protected breaks has seen queuing like systems amongst 50-60 surfers!
With outsiders or "giri's" often told to leave the peak. All I have to say on this is this - it's frustrating maybe, but part of the game we play, so play nice and respect the local rule.

Besides, there’s plenty for everyone and everyone's been getting plenty!
Bit of wind this week, poo, I guess it's time for that admin to get done, Christmas cards don't write themselves!

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.

Hello everybody, and welcome to all the latest goings on in all things surf from the rock.
The summer is hanging on by it's finger nails and the winter swells are already flirting with us, the odd 2-3 days "here and there" are throwing good quality waves across the north and west of the island.
It's great getting back onto the reefs, but I love it when our beach breaks work down the west coast. It's rare, but you catch the sand bars on lucky days and it's happy days all the way.
One of the jems is a beach down past the village of Tindaya, tricky to find and the track there is hardly "hire car friendly" but that hasn't stopped a few making the trip on many days throughout september. Check out the pics!
The Spanish junior surf and bodyboard series held their latest competition just outside of Corralejoin the north last weekend, I didn't catch any results, but know quite a few of the local guys and gals took part so I'll see if anyone was impressing. I know I was getting run off the water by a group of knee-high-surf-bandits while enjoying a little sunset session after the comp' had finished. I'm not sure if I was actually ever that small!?!

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.


see ya on the beach..