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Vilayta and Alex “Guirre”, Canary Islands:
It was the fifth or sixth time that Seis called us because a swell was coming, but in his voice we noticed a certain stress, because the year was coming to an end and this could be our last chance to run the event (the last two winters have been the worst in history concerning big waves).
The conditions seemed to get good and therefore we decided to start the event. We prepared the equipment, skies, boards and ropes. The waves were really big, it looked like it would become a good day for tow in surfing. But not everything would be perfect. With everything ready to get out at El Muelle, they forbid us to launch the skies as El Muelle was closed because of the storm. Shit, that storm was exactly the reason why we wanted to go out. They didn´t mind that it was an international event, that people had come from Ireland and England, that there were television reporters following us, that it was a promotion for Puerto de la Cruz and the Canary Islands, but o.k., this is surfing and we already know that…..
Even with much less swell we went out the following day (even though not at El Muelle that was still closed but at Playa de Martiánez, don´t know what is more dangerous…??). The waves weren´t very big but we could see the potencial of El Bravo and learn from the people coming from outside the islands, learn from their equipment and their experience and most of all, have a good time together which after all is the most important thing. We had great moments together with Duncan and Paul (alias “meat party”), thanks a lot!
Guirre and me want to thank La Santa Surf, the government of Puerto de la Cruz, the sponsors and most of all Seis, for having invited us to this event and for working that much to get this event running after all. We hope that it was the first one of many to follow, because otherwise we wouldn´t be able to contact the people having that much more experience than us and beeing together with them is the best way to learn. For us this is very important. Gracias!
Fernando Peres, Canary Islands
The story started past Thursday with checking the internet every hour until Saturday. We went to El Bravo three times a day once the swell got above 2 meters, having a little bit of north in its direction and the winds similar to the ones predicted for Monday and Tuesday. Saturday Seis called me to ask my opinion and I told him to start the event despite the wind. Finally we made a decision and it was “go for it”.
Saturday night was o.k., but Sunday night I slept until five in the morning and couldn´t sleep any longer until I had to go to work after I had been on the balcony and seen the power of the swell that already was coming in. From that moment on I was full of tension. I worked until 11:30 thinking about everything but my work. Afterwards I went very quickly to Punta del Hidalgo to get the skis. We made the preparations and calmed down a bit. We left and arrived at El Muelle which was the meeting point. They told us that we could not launch the skies to the sea because of a high sea alert (at all ports at the north coast of Tenerife this always happens).
We checked the options of launching the skis at Punta Brava and Martiánez and Martiánez was the better option but the late afternoon caught us and left us with not enough time to do tow in, all that watching these incredible waves braking outside El Muelle, at El Bravo, in front of the fortress and in front of Martiánez, with a light but acceptable wind.
continue >>> action photos by Jose V. Glez
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