Gran Canaria produces most of its wind thanks to the geography of the island. It’s basically a big round mountain sticking up in the middle of the Atlantic. As the wind streams across the ocean, it hits this big lump of rock and is forced to go either over it, or around it. The result is that in any given wind direction, if you go to either side of the island it will be howling. For example, with a standard summer 15 knot trade wind from the NE, you head to either the NW edge or more typically the SE edge and you will have up to 3 times the wind. Same goes with an east or west wind. If you head to either the north shore or the south shore, it will be 10-20 knots windier. The landscape on the south shore is generally much flatter, meaning it can handle a larger variation of directions. Pozo for example is sailable from straight north through to ENE. However the north shore is lined with steep cliffs and this is why the wind angle is so critical. So after more or less 5 years without even trying to sail the north, I saw some photos of PWA ripper and Gran Canaria local, Josep Pons, sailing the mast high waves of El Paso whilst I was away in South Africa. When I got back he was frothing about it, but with the NE trades kicking in early this year, I never got the opportunity to give it a second chance. That was until this December. Having arrived back from Maui I was pretty psyched to get out there. Maui had been a trip of huge waves and very light winds, so whatever El Paso had to offer would be child’s play…. or so I thought.