Surfing In Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Surfer and a boat
The thing is…Fuerteventura… there is a lot of wind.
So there will be lots of windy days.
Days when you can either sulk, or play tourists on the volcano or somewhere…
..or go surfing anyway, it’s for sure better than home. Actually, there are so many spots, that almost every swell and wind combo produces a winner. A spot with surfable clean lines.
The island of Fuerteventura is very desert-like and dry and you would have to collect all the trees on the whole island and cram them together to get a small forest. Volcano cauldrons are much more common.
When you are not surfing you can go and carve the curves in this La Oliva skate park.
The most famous part of Fuerteventuras coast is called the North shore. It lies surprisingly on the north of the island :). A dirt road about 20km long follows the coast on the north shore and if the first few drives will leave you excited for the amazing lunar like scenery it will pass:). Because of the road the 20 km drive takes quite a long time so you are better of going around it through Corralejo, Majanicho or Cotillo depending on which part of the north shore you want to hit.
North shore road.
Bring plenty of water and extra fuel… :D
Just kidding. North shore is quite popular and there are people driving up and down the road all the time. From time to time you do have to be careful not to get stuck in the sand and not to kit those sharp volcanic rocks with your car while parking.
For some reason people here love to build walls out of rocks. Landscape is full of them.
The walls act as a protection from the wind, especially to stop the wind from blowing away fertile soil.
Because without those walls you could only see soil in the distance flying away towards southwest :)
Fuerteventura sky is always interesting. Most peoples Canary islands photo postcards are always full of sun so I off course assumed that you have blue bird skies all day every day. This is not true. Weather changes very fast and you have lots of clouds flying over the horizon.
Most people describe the weather as an eternal spring. Meaning it will be really hot in the sun out of wind, but most of the time you will be wearing flip flops and a hoodie.
This is the island that “hides” the best spot in the area.
The island lies just off Corralejo and is called Los Lobos.
IMG_0539
The spot lies on the side facing Fuerteventura and is also called Lobos. It is a looong right hand point break. When it’s really good it’s dominated by locals, but even when it’s crappy it’s still really good :)
Man on top of the volcano.
This is me on top of one of the volcanic cauldrons near Lajares.
That’s me walking inside of the volcano.
If the swell is big and the wind is from any of the north directions then it’s time to head down south towards Las Salinas. There you will score perfect offshore waves breaking fast and near the rocks. It’s not for everybody (beginners) but its crazy good. Oh, this is a monument in the middle of a roundabout before Moro Jable. Children staring at the sky…I have no idea what it represents.
This is Las Salinas.
We were checking the lineup and there were like 4 people in the water. Waves very crazy fast, closing along the reef. The conditions looked perfect but not much surfing was done. Failed takeoff, closeout… Then this dude arrived. Parked like a local, slowly changed in the wetsuit, paddled out like a local straight through the rocks and dropped straight into a multisecond tube on his first wave. And made it.
Or maybe he was just sun sensitive and wanted to stay in the shade.
This is the spot we surfed later on. It was really good until the offshore got too strong.
There are plenty of empty roads to go longboarding.
This one goes towards Los Mollinos. And damn, I wish I had brought a surfboard along with my longboard.
The cliffs at Los Mollinos.
On the map it seems like a mid sized town but in reality it is literally 4 houses. Which when you think of it makes sense. The whole island has 70.000 inhabitants and it is not all that small. It takes about 3 hours to get from the north to the south end.
Searching for waves and protected beaches on the west coast.
This looks like straight from the Farmville.
Rare combination of wind and swell kicked in at Gran Tarajal and this was the results.
Left point break and strong offshore at Gran Tarajal.
Enter the water from the point. You have zero chances to get to the lineup straight from the beach.
Another visit to the south facing coast of Fuerteventura.
Time to say goodbye.
Scenery down south.
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2 Comments

  1. says: Peter

    lived on fuerte for 3 years. you gotta know the place as the wind usually messes the ‘known’ spots. but fuerte can be really good with empty lineups (if you know where to go). leave your longboard at home – you won’t need it there… ;)

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