TIMO MULLEN
I have been coming to Fuerteventura for over 20 years; I love the place! As a young single carefree windsurfer it offered everything – reliable trade winds and waves during the day and in the evenings you could hit Corralejo hard, mostly starting and finishing the night in the most famous windsurfing bar in the world, “Corkys”! Wind the clock forward to the present day and Fuerte’ still attracts me back every year, but these days it is for the family friendly villas and hotels on the north shore where slides and water parks for my kids take precedence over ‘Jaeger Bombs’ and ‘Strawpedo’s’!! One thing however that doesn’t seem to change much is the windsurfing conditions. If you know where to go, the north shore of Fuerte’ has some of the best wavesailing in the world, and one of my favourite breaks to sail is Cotillo.
Cotillo has a fearsome reputation, as a kid I would stare in awe at the crazy pics of Rusty Marshall, Gary Gibson and Corky Kirkham in solid mast high Cotillo, I remember my one thought was always “How the hell do they get out through a wall of mast high whitewater, never mind being able to ride the wave!” Now whenever it is pumping at Cotillo that same thought I had as a kid still goes through my mind, “How the hell do I get out!!” Cotillo is for sure one of the most fear inducing beach breaks in the world at anything over logo high, especially at low tide the wave is basically a close out, but if you have the balls, endless van loads of kit and perfect timing then Cotillo can offer up some of the best and most powerful lips to hit on a windsurfer. On this trip I’d say we scored it pretty much perfect size, solid logo high with occasional bigger sets, big enough for Cotillo!