Arguneguin update

More news about the project that will destroy Arguineguin's wave, one of the better waves of Gran Canaria.
J.J.Cabrera, in his blog, has published a letter from ADES (Surfing Deffense Association) according to the project in Arguineguin, if you want to read it (in spanish) click here.
By the way, if you want to leave a comment in "Ministerio de Medio Ambiente" website, you can do it here (the name of the project is Proyecto "Regeneración de la Playa del Perchel"), in case you don't feel like writting, you can copy and paste the letter from ADES published here.

Animayo 09

This weekend in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, we have the "Festival Internacional de Cine de Animacion", for more information www.animayo.com

Powers Of Three

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. (Vincent van Gogh)

A surf video starting with that sentence looks really promising to me, just over the sentence you have a small trailer, but I really recommend to click here and watch the full movie, 34 amazing minutes.

A surf video away from the tropical waters and the star system, a surf video about men in waves of consequence.

Saturday 30th

No wind today in Pozo Izquierdo, perfect beach day for swiming, snorqueling, fishing... but if you want wind and waves, you just have to go a little bit north, the wind in too north for Pozo (NNW) but on the east side of Las Palmas (La Laja and Jinamar) there's wind and waves, but be careful if you go there, is not that easy and in Jinamar you have to be really careful with the rocks downwind.

Good news

Good news from PWA, looks like in Pozo Izquierdo will be waves (men and women) and slalom (men), for more information click here.

Winter photos (2)

While in Gran Canaria windsurfing can be done more than 300 days a year, it is also true that the trade winds during the winter are not as consistent as in summer and when the wind is too light you can always find a good place to go surfing. To see more photos click.here.

North Sails photoshoot

(Photo by Claus)
Alessio Stillrich and Moritz Mauch in the North Sails photoshoot. The guys from North Sails really pushing his grom team, Alessio and Moritz have been doing photos with the 2010 sails for the North Sails brochure that will be in the best windsurf shops mid June.

Pozo, 50 years ago

It may seem incredible to us now, but the beach of Pozo Izquierdo, is called El Arenal (something like "Sandy Beach"), on the picture you can see why, even though today is not much trace of that sand. The wind mill has also disappeared, but if you look on the reef right in front of El Viento (the restaurant) there are still slight traces of what was the wind mill.

Windy faces

During the last two months we had a few days with really strong winds, and I tell you, when gusts are over 35 knots, you start to do funny faces.

Oceans

Here you can see the Oceanstrailer, it's already impressive on the computer, so can't imagine how will be on the big screen.

Away from the crowd

Sunday in Gran Canaria, Pozo is a little bit crowded, in Vargas is quite a few people sailing too, but you can always find a place with nice conditions and away from the crowd.

Sunday 24th

Claus on 4,2 Katy on 3,3 the first ones on the water this morning.
The day started slow, with big clouds and light winds, but right now the wind is strong, no clouds at all and some little waves. Full tide at 13:56.

Wind update

Everything changed, wind picked up a lot, 3,7 now, full tide was at 13:13 so with the tide going down, the waves are supposed to get a little bit better this afternoon.

PWA Ulsan World Cup, Korea

After five slaloms completed, those are the ressults in Korea:
Slalom men:
1·Antoine Albeau (Fra)
2·Micah Buzianis (USA)
3·Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Sui)

Slalom women:
1·Valérie Ghibaudo (Fra)
2·Karin Jaggy (Sui)
3·Alice Arutkin (Fea)

Robby Naish, Stand Up Paddle at Jaws

Saturday 23rd

Saturday starts well, a little bit gusty at the moment but already ok for 4,7.
We will update the sailing conditions in Pozo Izaquierdo arround lunchtime.

Arguineguin's death

Bad news for the environment and the surf comunity, we just recieved this plan from the "proyecto de regeneración de la playa del Perchel"(Perchel beach regeneration project) in other words, an agressive intervention on the coastline which will destroy one of the best waves of the Canary Islands, a long right hand point-break in the south of Gran Canaria, and this time is not a hotel, a harbour or a shoping center, is the "Ministerio del Medio Ambiente" the responsible of this destruction.
Javi Medina will not surf again one of those long waves from the town till the factory.
Iballa will never do another bottom turn like this in one of those wonderful winter mornings in the south.
Miguel won't have another vission like this from his Mandala.
And this kid, who wanted to start surfing, won't do it in his own town.

Pozo Air Force

Fliyint in the photo Fito and Dario, two of the Pozo locals, they surf, they can do all the moves, but more than anything, they can jump. Of course they're not the only ones, I will keep on posting photos of high jumps from the locals guys.

Aritz Aranburu deffeats Kelly Slater

The spanish Aritz Aranburu wins in Teahupoo his heat againt Kelly Slater with the best score so far in the competition.

For more information, photos and videos go to www.billabongpro.com.

Qtre by Quattro

Just arrived the first Quattro boards specially made for Qtre, starting to develop a board for Pozo Izquierdo.

Changes in Mistral

Mistral starts a colaboration with Anders Bringdal and Ernstfried Prade one of the co-founders of the brand and designer of the brand logo will be in charge of the graphics on the boards.

For more information you can visit Mistral´s website.

Perfect day

Perfect blue sky, strong winds and some waves this sunday morning, just the day we were waiting for the North Sails 2010 photoshoot with the grom team in Gran Canaria, Moritz and Alessio did a great job this morning with the 3,7. Of course we can't show you the sails at the moment.
Now in Pozo the wind is really strong, the kids were on 3,7 this morning, but now is 3,7 for the big guys.

Weekend photos

At he moment we are having an amazing weekend al looks like sunday could be even better. If you want to see more photos click here.

Saturday update

Really good conditions for wave sailing today in Pozo Izquierdo, with strong winds (3,7 earlyer this morning, 4,2 now) and nice waves, a little bit more than half mast on the sets.

Thursday and Friday

We are having strong winds again in Pozo Izquierdo, the weekend looks promising. If you want to see the photos from the last days click here.

Xavi Torres interview

Xavier Torres Isaac, national secretary of the class funboard.

What’s your role in the federation?
-I’m the national funboard secretary, and my job is to represent the class, the sailors, coordinate events, push the sport forward a little bit.

There is no funboard federation, so, does it depend on the sailing federation?
-No, there’s no funboard federation, there’s the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation.

What’s the situation now in the federation, because there seems to be a little hitch, right?
-Yes, a few months ago there were elections in the Spanish federation, and although windsurfing is not what motivates them most, because what motivates them are the Olympic classes, as they then provide grants, at least allow us to do, and that's much, so we are in the organizational system of the federation itself, so we are doing competitions, having results and that’s a lot.

What’s happening in Catalonia that appears to be the most active area of Spain in windsurfing?
-What has happened is that I started here, I’m not just national secretary, I’m also Catalan secretary, that’s where I started doing things, and when everything was working at regional level, then I did the jump start at the national level to see if people still wanting to do things.

What prompted you to get into such trouble?
-Well, It comes from blood, and in 1992 we created a club in Premia de Mar (near Barcelona) for which I am president there and we used to do races, competitions and that was rising, so in 2002 I went to the spanish championship, it was when Mr. Pavón was giving up (the national secretary at that time), and the funboard class wasn’t in a good situation and no one was eager to do anything and then I said, good first we start in Catalonia, and learn how it works and from there we will be expanding and that’s how it was.

By the way how have you seen the Spanish cup here in Pozo Izquierdo?
-At the organizational level is to be congratulated, Eduardo Diaz from Secondreef did very well, everything has worked very well, at the judges level we work with the federation and we have a team of people that works fine, the level of the participants has been very high, very good, and well, organization has to be congratulated and all the people who have registered and have contributed their bit too.

And finally what do you think about Pozo Izquierdo?
-It’s such a good place for a windsurfing competition, there’s infrastructure around, is perfect for events and competitions especially for the waves as it has been proved by all the years the World Cup has been done, but basically , Pozo is good, is easy, the participants are comfortable ... have to keep doing things here.

Tahitian jewel

While wind and swell direction was wrong to run the competition at Teahupoo, not far from there it was another reef perfectly oriented and Kelly Slater and Manoa Drollet were there.

Magazine tests

Fanatic boards are doing great in all the tests. Click on the images to enlarge and see the details.

Teahupoo live now

The best surfers of the world, live right now from Tahiti, a little bit messy and with wrong wind, but some good waves anyway.
To watch it live click here.

Simmer Style, Gran Canaria

Winter photos

New desktops with photos from this winter in Gran Canaria, to watch them click here.

Teahupoo delivers

Not huge but good conditions the first day in Tahiti. The spanish surfer Aritz Aranburu defeted Dane Reynolds in heat 6 of the first round.
For more information, photos and videos go to billabongpro.

Sunday with no wind

The same in Austria and Pozo Izquiedo, at the moment winds are too light for sailing, you can click here lo see the updates from the slalom in Podersdorf.

Fresh fish

We just recieved new surfboards, a little bit of everything but more than anything "FISHES", Pat Rawson and Matt Biolos have been shaping in the Pukas factory, so we have some boards from them.

Girls Windsurf Camp

Last weekend in Tarifa was the Girls Windsurf Camp, organized by Roxy and the Moreno Twins, and of course the wind was there to welcome the girls. :)
If you want to see more photos click here.

Super slo-mo tube

Incredible…

Billabong Pro Tahiti 09

Today starts the waiting period for Billabong Pro Teahupoo, for more information and live webcast, click here.

Good news, Pozo will be a wave event!

Good news, finally the event in Pozo Izquierdo won’t be Freestyle but waves, not Super Grand Slam this year, just one discipline (Grand Prix), but at least is the one all the Pozo locals wanted, waves!
For more information you can click on the image and go to PWA’s website.

Cutre sails

We just recieved the first set of Cutre sails, they will be available this summer at 1000€ the four sails set.

PWA's new website

New image for PWA's website, better design, easyer to use and improved download speed. Take a look at it if you want to know what happened on the second day of the Dwarf8 PWA Surf World Cup.

Slalom, the battle starts

Today started the Dwarf8 PWA Surf World Cup, Podersdorf (Austria), Antoine Albeau won the first slalom, but failed to advance in the first round of the second, while Bjorn Dunkerbeck entered in both finals.
To read the full report go to PWA website.