This article appeared on page 76 in issue 186 of Boards Magazine

Fuerte Much Fun

Extreme Holidays offer tailor-made adrenaline-driven windsurfing, surfing and/or kite surfing packages to one of the most respected and reliable watersports locations on the planet Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. Our office-bound Production Editor Duncan Slater thought it looked too good to be true, so he cut the shackles chaining him to his desk, packed boardshorts, sunscreen and his better half and made it to Gatwick before we had the chance to stop him... Pix and a more rounded outlook on life by Elisa Bergersen.

Fuerteventura has long been a top choice for British windsurfers looking for a warm-weather playground just a four hour flight away, it boasts consistent wind, swell and sun. We've been going there since we first learned to plane, and since then we've remained enchanted as through every phase of short-board evolution funboard, speedsailing, wavesailing, dedicated slalom, bump'n'jump, freeride, freestyle Fuerteventura has provided the perfect conditions. And now, even with the advent of affordable long-haul travel, Fuerte's black magic keeps us coming back Sotovento in the south still boasts a premier PWA Freestyle event, and was the venue for Bjorn Dunkerbeck's recent World Speed Record attempts. Further north, Glass Beach, Cotillo and numerous other venues provide the world's best wavesailors with days to remember.

Wind and wave stats for the Canaries in general, and this island specifically, are the stuff of wet dreams! The summer months see NE-NW trade winds blowing between Force 4 and 6 pretty much every day, pushing waves in on the east coast, while Atlantic low pressure systems produce meaty swell on the less hospitable west coast. In the winter, winds are more often easterly, broadly lighter and less consistent, flattening off the east coast's waves. But on the west side, the Atlantic storms produce truly frightening sized sets, having had a couple of thousand miles to form and build.

Some recreational windsurfers might, not unreasonably, feel a bit intimidated by Fuerte's reputation. This really need not be the case though, as even the hardcore beaches have their mellow side too, and there are plenty of venues offering a sheltered alternative when the wind and/or waves get a bit much for your liking.

Enter Extreme Holidays; designed to cater for all even beginners have the chance to explore the water for the first time. Watching the best as they ride, trick and jump to their hearts content is all very well, but it can be pretty daunting for a water virgin to step out and have a crack in those same conditions. Yet with the Extreme Holidays approach no face is ever lost, as the right conditions, location, kit and motivation are always chosen. With 100% supervision, coaching and encouragement from possibly the most patient instructors on the planet, all on new generation learner boards, first-timers get out, get the sail up and are happily sailing around the bay or lagoon in less than an hour. Equally, every level up to hardcore wave-addict are well catered for by Extreme Holidays...

Fuerteventura is also infamous as a barren, volcanic, sand-blasted hellhole for those unlucky enough to be shorebound be it through choice or necessity. But actually the island does possess a beauty all of its own. While not exactly chocolate-box pretty, the African-moonscape topography is stunning, with mountain drives to the highest peaks, palm trees and phallic cacti till the goats come home... and the best Spanish-African influenced food for those with a post-Mediterranean palette. During a week there are ample chances to appreciate the island¹s aesthetics as so much of the beauty is just spitting distance from the best beaches. The instructors are more than happy to supply names, places and an idiot proof route to guide you on your way of an evening so even the hardest of socialisers will never be without a cause.

Extreme Holidays?
The concept for Extreme Holidays is simple get together small groups of surf-sport enthusiasts, fly 'em to Fuerte, put 'em up in comfortable hotels, provide all the boards, sails and kites they could possibly need, throw in an experienced instructor-come-guide-come-lifeguard-come-chauffeur for each of windsurfing, kite surfing and surfing, give them each a Nissan Patrol 4x4... then let the guests call the shots. Simple, but highly effective!

All the Toys

• F2 boards (75L190L; wave, freestyle, freeride & beginner designs)
• Arrows rigs (4.2-7.1m; wave & freeride designs)
• BiC surfboards (6'7"-10'; suitable for all standards of surfer)
• More kitesurfing kit than seems entirely healthy (mainly Naish, with
• Flexifoil & Cabrinha)
• Wetsuits & harnesses for everyone
• A jet-bike and wakeboard (for rescue and no-wind/wave action)
• 3 luxury Nissan Patrol 4WDs (complete with air conditioning & multi-CDchanger)
• 3 bloody great big trailers
• ...all, miraculously, kept to an almost new¹ standard.

All the Choice
You will be met every morning by your (British!) instructor/guide/Fuerte-guru: Introducing Sam, all round top man with a long history at Outdoor Adventure in Cornwall teaching all-comers windsurfing and surfing to all levels, a veteran of South African & European surfaris, with a super-keen attitude to windsurfing, a relaxed view of life and an unhealthy interest in joinery! (Witness Psycho the shower and the pair of kit-boxes lovingly crafted into the front of his trailer...) Those majoring on another activity are equally well catered for Tam, long-term island resident and short-term-thrillseeker, overlooks the kite surfing group while Ben is pure, pure surf...

Dependent on conditions (usually some swell in the morning with wind picking up in the afternoon, invariably hot!) you'll be given the choice of what you want to do and where you want to do it: Surfing, big-board freestyle, sightseeing, wakeboarding, sunbathing, sleeping or a leisurely breakfast in the morning; then maybe a hectic off-road adventure to a quiet lunch. After lunch it could be wavesailing, freestyle, freeride (or, if You're that way inclined, kite surfing) all afternoon; then a visit to one of the island's better surf emporiums on the way back for beer o'clock? Knackered as you'll be, you know it makes sense...

All the Breaks
Extreme Holidays windsurf nomadically at locations all over the island from Cotillo in the north to Sotavento in the south, including many quality flat water, bump'n'jump and surf spots along the way. Thanks to internet forecasts (check out www.estadodelamar.es & www.weatheronline.co.uk), mobile phones and hard earned local knowledge, you can be sure that if there's wind and/or swell your instructor will know where best to score it, and his Nissan Patrol (with its capacious trailer full of kit) can get you

there easily and in style. In practise, this means you're unlikely to end a day frustrated save for acts of God (who, judging by this island, is a windsurfer anyway so shouldn¹t give you too much bother) the wind's usually blowing somewhere or isn¹t far away. If you're keen to surf too, Fuerteventura is keen to please (as are the Extreme Holidays crew) and satisfaction is hard to avoid...

Cotillo must strike fear and awe in the hearts of many, as its public face has always been the massive winter swell that it holds. Posters in the nearby surf-shop Magma are testament to this; windsurfers challenging wave-mountains down-the-line ... and often coming out second best! There is a friendlier face though; Cotillo also offers way more approachable open ocean sailing in the summer (albeit with quite a shorebreak to challenge mere mortals) from an amazingly long, deep white sanded, slightly crescent beach with only a few small patches of rock. The wind generally blows cross-shore, offering good starboard-tack jumping and there's often a good (and surfable) wave at the town end of the beach.

When you're all surfed out there's a handful of traditional cafés only a short walk away, which overlook the bay (and anyone who won't admit to being absolutely exhausted). Mercifully free from mass-tourism, the guys who own these places are possibly the friendliest people you could imagine serving your aprés-surf beer and tortilla, and the atmosphere of the warm sea air and rocky landscape can only be described as heaven.

Glass Beach is a well renowned and pretty reliable wavesailing spot. Where the sand dunes meet the sea on the north-east coast, a wave breaks over a rocky point. Combined with the prevailing cross-offshore wind, this place offers one of the best rides in town. Given its reputation, crowds can become a bit of a problem when conditions are good sailors tend to form up in to a chain; gybing onto a wave off the point, riding it in to the flat water near the shore, gybing off and heading back out. Straying out of line can result in a painful visit to the rocks downwind as there is only one breaking section of wave. Given the right conditions, the crossing to Los Lobos (a small volcanic outcrop off Corralejo) is do-able from here on freeride kit.

From a shorebound perspective, Glass Beach is a must. The endless sand dunes which cradle the beach are absolutely stunning, and for anyone who has not seen this kind of scenery the recommendation can't come high enough. You can find yourself completely surrounded by the hottest, whitest sand a brilliant desert only minutes from the water's edge still close enough to watch the 4x4s come and go, tipping the wide-eyed sportsmen out into the
blue.

Playa Blanca sits right beside the Fuerteventuran capital of Puerta de Rosario and boasts a perfect sandy coupla-mile stretch of beach. This is often the venue Extreme's windsurfers choose to taste a little surfing action as the water is often empty, the waves well formed and breaking the entire length of the beach but not too gnarly, and the rips (towards the north of the beach) are sufficiently low-key as not to cause concern. Kite surfing is also becoming increasingly popular (yet, given the space, unobtrusive) and it even has windsurfing potential in the right weather.

Once the thought of paddling out again becomes just too much, you'll find a little bar on the beach conveniently situated staggering distance from the water. This authentic beach-bar, albeit small and alone amongst the dunes, provides the best excuse to put your surf board away, enjoy a swift cerveza and contemplate where best to exercise those aching shoulders next.

Caleta de Fuste (a mere roll out of bed as it's your home for the week mid-way down the east coast, minutes from the airport and less then an hour from anywhere) provides all that anyone might ask for. Mainly cross-shore port tack on the way out, there's a meaty offshore reef, a fun-size inner reef perfect for fledgling wavesailors and completely safe flat water inside the harbour for freestyle, beginners and improvers. Under water, the bottom is sand and sharp/slippery rock, so for those not used to rocky floors, boots are recommended. Caleta is popular with only a handful of local sailors, further populated by a small and relaxed Austrian windsurf school and a (thankfully, none-too-busy) jet-ski hire operation, meaning that space on the water is plentiful and disputes unheard of...

For anyone who doesn't fancy getting wet here, amenities are plentiful. With the town sitting right next to the beach, there are plenty of good shops, bars and restaurants close by to indulge in. This being probably the most British part of the island, even the most home-sick traveller would feel comfortable, yet look closely and the Canarian culture is still bubbling underneath. This is probably one of the top spots for hardened sunbathers as the beach is totally exposed to the sun, yet it never feels too much because of course the wind is always blowing. However when you're feeling all bronzed-up and ready for some action, the local camels are ready to give you a jaunt down the sands.

Sotavento has long been home to the annual Fuerte leg of the PWA World Tour, now renowned as world-class freestyle territory, long-known as the premier speedsailing venue on the planet and is as ingrained on the windsurfing psyche as the carve gybe. The wind here is, literally, phenomenal having funnelled through the island's volcanic mountains, it tangs offshore over crystal clear flat water (though it very occasionally picks up swell in late summer) and chiropodist-friendly sand with an enormous lagoon forming at lower states of tide. The two Rene Egli centres (one at either end of the super-long beach) guarantee that it will always be busy on the water, while the amazing accelerated wind means you¹re unlikely to want to fly much sail freeride for the power-hungry and fearless...

Seeing this beach for the first time is breathtaking. As you travel south down the coast road, the landscape opens up to expose the bluest water with the whitest caps and hordes of the most contented looking sailors you've ever seen. From a spectator's point of view this must be a windsurfer¹s heaven, as the numbers are plentiful. Always judge a good restaurant by how many people are prepared to eat there! By that token, Sotavento must be five-star...

Aprés Surf: While Fuerteventura is undoubtedly a windsurfing Mecca, its main cash-cow is the British family package holiday. Caleta (and to a greater extent Corralejo) thrive on the tourist-euro so bars and restaurants are everywhere. Thanks to the prevalence of families, eating and drinking options are plentiful and everywhere thins out reasonably early most restaurants having calmed down nicely by ten, often closing by eleven, and bars, normally closing by around 2am, are blissfully free of gaggles of drunk lads-abroad and empty after the parents and kids have gone to bed. Impossible to overlook in Caleta is Molly Malones Irish bar and epicentre of the instructors evenings; beware the potsheen (yes, the illicit Irish moonshine that sends you blind) lacing their nuclear B52s! Smaller bars (such as Tequila) can easily be found in Caleta to suit most tastes off the main thoroughfares though do be prepared for some hits and misses (and karaoke) along the way. The cabs are reasonable prices around the island and so a trip to Corralejo in the north is a must. Here you can find a multitude of surfy shops, bars a-plenty and fantastic restaurants out around the harbour (where you absolutely have to sample the paella at way affordable prices). This is also the home of the famous Corky's Bar, where the late license pulls in every windsurfer from around the island (...Europe and the world) to play pool on the large veranda and drink plenty of Canarian beer with like-minded souls. The Rock Bar, with quality live music every night, is also a popular hang-out. Off the beaten track, and away from the tourist centres, bars and restaurants are much more traditional, boasting some authentic Canarian-Spanish gems. Many of them are devoid of much custom yet provide the best food ever sampled. If given the chance, make your way to the fish restaurant down in Pozo Negro (worth it for the amazing off-road drive there alone), or the café/restaurants in the old capital Betancuria an incredibly remote town hidden at the centre of the island and completely untouched by the British hand, nestled amidst a volcanic network ready for any explorer to be smitten. This is probably one place on the island where time really does stop and the scenery just has to be absorbed

 

No Worries! A stress-free, week-long surfari Extreme Holidays really take the guesswork out of exploring Fuerteventura. 3 groups are kept down to an absolute maximum of six people in each, all of a broadly similar bent and standard enough for a good social, but not so many as to produce conflicts of interest and there never seemed to be a problem with kit selection. Crowds too can be avoided why sail a stacked break when you can drive to and park up (literally on the beach) at one of many secret spots? With conditions perfectly suited to surf-sports, and kit perfectly suited to the conditions, this has to be one of the best bets around for as much quality time on the water as you can handle. From a social and leisure point of view you couldn't hope for a better holiday. The Extreme crew really look after every member of the group, whether you're an extreme sailor, surfer, socialiser, shopper or sunbather. They make sure you see the beauty of the island, the potential of the wind and waves, and the all-round importance of what it is to have an unforgettable holiday.