Klitmøller
The once sleepy fishing village became northern Europes windsurfing mekka in the mid 90´s. This was the place to go when You wanted to do serious wavesailing at the north sea. The reason for that is the bend in the coastline which gives one of the rare opportunities in Denmark to sail west wind directions more or less sideshore. Plus the sometimes huge waves that come to this part of the coast. So everybody who considered him- or herself as serious wavesailor came here. The wind was good, the waves were good, parking was easy, campgrounds and appartements offered plenty of opportunities to spend the night, parties in the Braendingen or the one or other appartement were legendary, the mood was cult.
In 1995 the guys from the surfers magazine started the first soulwave contest. This contest combined windsurfing,surfing and kiteboarding under the name of soul. Parties have been legendary. At the beginning the contests were all held at the several Klitmoller spots. Now they move to places like Hanstholm, Aggers or Norre Vorupor according to the actual wind- and swell directions. After running the soulwave for 10 consecutive years it was reorganized in 2006 and now takes place under the name soulfiles. It is now a combined windsurfing and surfing contest, culturally spiced up by a short film festival.
Klitmøller has also become the center of danish surf / windsurf / kiteboarding culture with the NASA club residing in the shack at the western end of the road playing a very active part in organizing events and acting for boardrider´s concerns in local politics.
Local and part time local crews, that once stuck to Klitmoller no matter what direction the wind has, moves around a lot more nowadays as for some wind directions (for example westerly winds) other places fit better. Where once with westerly winds Klitmøller was packed, now You´ll find very few sailors in the bay.
But the place still is the perfect base camp with all the campgrounds, the windsurf / surf shop, the restaurants and the Westwind Surfshop & Cafe right at the parking lot.. It used to be okay to stay at the parkings at the beaches overnight but the reckless behavior of some has put an end to this. Thanks to those stupid idiots the police is now taking a heavy toll from the ones who camp here.
|