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GRAN CANARIA: WHEN THE STARS ALIGN

Gran Canaria – home to some of the best port tack jumping in the world….and some fun starboard tack wave riding when the stars align! John Skye reports.

WORDS – John Skye // Photos – Jose Piña (windsurf), Fran Rodriguez (wing)

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Perspective
I love where I live. From a windsurfing perspective, I don’t think there are many places (if any) that offer the level of consistency of winds that we have here in Gran Canaria.

It’s not always 3.3 weather ‘full power’, but what we have is almost year-round 15 knots +, which is just amazing. However the only issue I have here is that it becomes a bit like groundhog day. Yes you can go on the water almost every day, but 95% of the time for wave sailing it is very similar, with onshore wind from the left, with somewhere between waist to head high waves. What I miss is the variety of the UK and the excitement and anticipation of a good forecast and the subsequent chase.

North shore

Luckily that is where the north shore comes in; 5-10 times a year the stars align to give something a little different. It’s pretty rare and the days that are actually really good are very few and far between, but when they happen it gives a proper hit of search and score that is hard to get here. In theory it should work more, but this island is a strange place. It is basically a round mountain in the middle of the sea. When the wind hits the island it bends around it, accelerating on either side to give strong winds. Therefore taking a typical summer day of NE trade winds, the north shore is mostly very light onshore as the wind sort of bounces off the mountain and comes back on itself. Meanwhile, on the far side of the island in the SW, there is no wind at all, perfect glassy ocean for the tourists to enjoy all summer. Then on either side of the island it’s windy. The west coast is the most ‘cliffy’, and therefore the wind tends to be very gusty close in and unfortunately there are not really any spots to sail. Whilst on the SE coast is where you find all the famous spots like Pozo, Arinaga and Vargas. The east side of the island is much flatter, so the wind is much more consistent, which is why it’s so popular for windsurfing.

Wind angles

For the north shore to work therefore, you need either east or west winds, which bend and accelerate along the north and south shores. If it was that simple however we would have epic sailing most of the winter, but unfortunately it’s not so simple. Like the west coast, the north is much more ‘cliffy’, and therefore the angles of the wind need to be perfect and consistent. Often in the winter you can be surfing in total glass with the wind at maybe 100 degrees ESE. It will then turn slightly to 90 degrees and pick up to 25 knots in 10 minutes, causing one to rush off the water and rig up as quick as possible! Then what tends to happen is it rotates a bit further to maybe 80 degrees, and the 25 knots side-shore drops to 5-10 knots cross-onshore. Therefore to get that golden wind direction there is often a window of 4-5 degrees, which means the chase is often in vain.

Golden

This spring however the stars did align and we had the golden direction. Enough wind to just about plane on a 5.0, perfect side/side-off direction and best of all, some fun sized waves. Actually the waves are often the other issue, with the north shore being much more exposed to the northern Atlantic swells. A couple of the spots handle the big stuff, but with sketchy launches everywhere it can easily get too big. Luckily this day it was pretty much perfect. Logo high, easy launch, wind for 5.0 and just 3 of us out on the water. It doesn´t get much better than that. Then when you add in master lensman Jose Piña, it’s the icing and cherry on the cake.

Tuned

Back in the day I used to be really set up for this type of sailing. With frequent trips to Maui and the autumn Aloha Classic I always had everything tuned perfectly. That is no longer the case and as launching and landing in the north is not really a fun experience, it’s more a case of set and forget as it’s such a mission to come back in and experiment. Luckily the RRD Cults are great for this, but I switched from my go-to thruster set-up to quads. I find in general I like the thruster better in onshore conditions as it gives good speed for jumping and in wave riding, lots of drive through the bottom turns to keep speed through the wave. However when it’s down the line and the wave is powerful, I don’t need that extra drive, so I prefer the quad set-up which seems to allow for quicker reactions and changes in direction on the wave. This day I opted for the K4 Asymmetric Incinerator 9´s in the front and some 15 cm proto Claws in the back. It seemed to work great thankfully and it was probably the best session I have had all year.

Thanks

A massive thanks has to go to Ulises Aguiar Vera, who lives in the north of the island and always lets us know when it’s looking good. Josep Pons is always the one that wants to sail there. He will go out whatever the conditions, including when it’s massive and zero wind. I have to say I am a bit more selective in my older age, but it’s so nice to have someone fully motivated. Plus he is so competitive, which is great to push a bit. Often days like these are  sketchy and the consequences can be quite severe, but when I see Pons smash out an aerial on a solid set, I just have to push as well! The wave we sailed is a heavy slab and timing it right is critical. Too early and there is nothing to turn off, but a millisecond too late and it’s total punishment. I definitely had a few heart in the mouth moments, but that is what makes it fun.

Game changer

After a couple of hours the wind dropped slightly and switched a tiny bit onshore. Those conditions for me in windsurfing are some of the worst. You need speed to attack waves like these, but with light winds and onshore wind it’s impossible to get that speed, so it gets a bit frustrating. However that is where the wing has been a game changer. Light onshore is perfect for the wing, so swapping the windsurfing gear for a Beluga wing board and a Wind Wing 5.0 I was back out for more. You have to take advantage of these days after all!