By the time we reached the local windsurfing centre, called Puerto de Palos, the wind was already 25 knots, gusting 35. Not bad considering Windguru had been showing 8 knots! Across the sea of white caps the mountainous landscapes on the far side were rising majestically from the water with all sorts of subtle colours in the rock formations and vibrant patterns caused by erosion over the centuries gone by. Down the far end of the lake clouds of dust were being thrown like whirlwinds by the stiff breeze. None of the locals seemed stressed. This just seemed like an averagely windy day at the office and they were fully confident it was just going to blow stronger and stronger as the afternoon progressed. Patrik reckoned a few weeks ago it had blown over 80 knots and days of 40-50 are pretty standard. For freestylers – and even wave sailors – this place is a windy heaven, but equally today for our slalom crew this was going to be a solid challenge. According to Patrik it’s sunny here pretty much 98% of the days and it rarely rains, perhaps five times a year. So we set about exploring the lake with Gonzalo and Marco stacked on 7.0s, occasionally getting slammed in the stronger gusts. By the end of the day they had both put in a solid four hours on the water and by the time the sun was setting, the wind was gusting well over 40 knots. Yep, it seems like this place can live up to its reputation hands down!