It’s no secret Venezuela has produced some of the world’s best windsurfers but amongst its waters lies a hidden treasure, the island of Los Roques. Diony Guadagnino and Ricardo Campello team up for a voyage of discovery in their homeland.
Words Diony Guadagnino// Photos Caro Chopite & Andres Neher
THE SEARCH Ricardo Campello and I had the privilege to visit Los Roques as early as 1999 during the first and only international ‘hip and hop’ island to island windsurfing race in Venezuela, the ‘Los Roques Rumba Winds’’. Rumba means Fiesta (Party) and it was one of the most fun races I have ever taken part in. Ricardo and I were only 14 and 16 years old at the time! Even World Champion Micah Buzianis showed up along with many other International competitors, they had no idea what to expect and were blown away!
The Los Roques Archipelago consists of approximately 350 Islands in total and it’s considered the largest marine park in Latin America covering around 40.61 square kilometers. If you know where and when to go, it also has some of the best waves in Venezuela! Ricardo and I have been competing on the PWA tour for over 13 years, travelling the world and spending a great deal of our time in Hawaii and the Canary Islands. We started with freestyle at our home in Playa El Yaque, Isla Margarita, but we were always in love with waves. Our dream was to go to Hawaii. We both started off our career with the same sponsors, we travelled together a lot but at times had different plans, but we both would always be looking out for that special venue with perfect waves, no crowds, warm weather, blue waters, easy access and also inexpensive! Honestly, let’s be realistic, these ingredients are hard to find and together seem just a bit too much to ask for! Incredibly, we actually didn’t need to look too far from home, Los Roques has everything you want in a dream spot, perfect waves, turquoise water and no crowds!
FIRST TASTE After learning more about the island’s potential from friends, I decided to plan my first decent windsurf trip with Gollito. We scored some fun small to medium size surf, I remember windsurfing one wave and clocking in nine turns! I couldn’t believe it! Nine turns on a head high wave? Down the line, at home! I was shocked but I still wanted more! I wanted to score bigger waves get to know Los Roques a lot better!
“ The entire wave was barreling almost all the time, so if you wanted to do a cut back you would need loads of speed and be committed 100% ”
MODES OF TRANSPORT! Since then Ricardo and I have been returning constantly every year to Los Roques! Ricardo even bought himself a Pro Marine speed boat! That is how he gets to Los Roques now, definitely very convenient to have a boat there, since that is the only mode of transportation once you are there! With the boat you can take your own equipment, the only thing is that it’s always better to travel there on a very calm day for your journey to be enjoyable. In rough seas it can be super gnarly, especially as Ricardo loves to drive like a crazy man!
I personally chose to always travel by plane so I can travel with my girlfriend; I thankfully get support from Aerotuy National Airlines to get to Los Roques, which takes approximately 35 minutes from Caracas airport and 50 minutes from Margarita Island when there are flights! At the moment all flights only leave from Caracas. I normally send my gear by boat since the aircraft from Aeortouy is small and can only take a small board bag and a
small sail bag! This way I can take all my toys for all conditions!
WINDY SEASON The wind and wave season here in Venezuela is from November to March, and is the best time to travel to los Roques; it is also conveniently our off season for the PWA tour. My favourite months for Los Roques are from December to February which is the best time of year for wind! Los Roques normally blows a bit less than Playa El Yaque, which for waves does not really matter since most of the spots are down the line with side off shore wind and starboard tack. You could find some onshore spots to jump at the outer reefs, but it’s super shallow and dangerous if you lose your gear!
Ricardo and I normally spend Decembers in Margarita with our family for Christmas and new year and right after we would normally head to Los Roques.This Christmas, Ricardo had already planned on going to a national slalom event on the mainland which I did not plan on going to so I decided to head straight to Los Roques on my own. My Los Roques quiver consists of:
Me: 84 kg.
Hawaiian fishing harpoon.
SUP Nahskwell HV Surf 7’11 and 1 paddle.
Windsurf DG Pro Model wave board 83L.
Windsurfing AFS-1 Foil board 110L.
6.1 Kazuma surf board.
HSM wave boom, 2 x 370 and 2 x 400 HSM wave masts.
3 Hot Sails Maui wave sails, 4.5, 4.6, 4.9 and 1 Freestyle pro 5.3 which is ideal for foiling in 6 to 14 knots of wind.
On arrival we were warmly welcomed by our second local family of Enielito Narvaez Mata with the news the waves had started pumping that same day and he said that tomorrow was supposed to be even bigger! I was so excited and pumped up! I hardly could sleep that night! We woke up the next morning at 5am for a dawn patrol with my friend Oscar, he has a small Boston Whaler with a 15 HP engine. Ricardo and I use it when we are there, it’s perfect because you can handle it by yourself, when the waves are too big you can beach the boat alone and have easy access to some point breaks with very shallow waters! So we took off from Gran Roque at low speed since the ocean was rough and started trolling to catch some fish for lunch and dinner. It took us about 20 minutes to get to Francis Key, a bit slow, but we would have fresh fish to feast on, so it was so worth it! We usually catch around ten small tuna’s called Trompe Hierro. When we made it closer to the island, the sun started to just peek out and we were able to see the waves! The swell was on fire and the entire reef was covered with white water from the Point to the Gran Roque (Main Island). The Swell angle was perfectly north, 1.5 meters with a 15-16 period swell with the tide rising from low to high. The wind was side off shore around 14 knots; what an amazing welcome from Los Roques!
THE SPOTS Sure enough that day offered some sick wave sailing with mast high sets! I would say La Gillette is one of the gnarliest waves here in Venezuela, it is not a long wave but super intense! It starts peeking on the out side but when it hits the super shallow reef that is when it jacks up to be a fast, thick barrel! The best swell direction for Los Roques is North, a bit of North West or North East works as well but not as solid! Los Roques mostly offers wave conditions for advanced and experts! It is not the best place to learn how to wave ride! The entire bottom is normally very shallow with all sorts of live corals. There are four wave spots on the same coastline, starting from the East you will find the Point with a wooden shade shack right on the beach. It is the most consistent wave, good for windsurfing, surfing and stand up paddle! Following on about 1km downwind to the east you will find Casa Verde, (Green House), it starts breaking with a bigger swell and is also good for all water sports with a long peeling right, it also has a coral reef right in front of the break so you cannot let go of your gear or it will be shredded. If Casa Verde has some size it can connect at times to La Pasa, which is in the middle of the bay and following La Pasa is the heaviest wave, La Gillett!
FRANCIS KEY There is a club on the Island of Francis Key where you can rent all sorts of equipment, Windsurf, Surf, SUP, Kites, Kayaks, and you can get private lessons with the locals! Some of the guys even speak English! For snorkeling or diving it is probably one of the best places in the world with some of the most beautiful and exotic turquoise blue waters you will ever see! For flat water sports, conditions are a dream come true, you have unlimited space, perfect for those who just want to get away from it all. There is a strange magic to these islands, a spiritual rollercoaster that can make your head spin, but in the end it comes down to the people! There are around 1,500 people constantly living on the Archipelago, some on the main Island and a very few that want to be alone on other remote Islands! All the inhabitants live off tourism, and everyone is very dedicated to their work. Take it from me, they treat you like part of the family! At nights you find the plaza always alive with a great local atmosphere and everyone having a good time after a hard day at work!
THE RETURN During the national slalom event Ricardo was bummed he missed that good swell, he went absolutely nuts when he saw a few pictures! So naturally he did not hesitate to plan his escape from Margarita to be sure not to miss the next swell. Shortly after, we all spotted another decent swell on its way! It seemed like it would hold up for a week but the only down side was that it had too much east in it!
Ricardo organized everything anyway, Antoine Albeau, 22 times world champion, was at the same time visiting Venezuela with his girlfriend, so he also jumped on Ricardo’s speed boat for an adventure with all their gear with plans to score some insane waves! On the way over even Antoine was telling me that it was hard core! Antoine is very extreme at everything he does and for him to say it was gnarly it must have been insane! He told me that one big wave covered the entire length of the 33 feet boat, soaking everyone on board! Thank god they made it there safely. It took them six and a half hours to make the 171 nautical miles (317 km) journey by boat averaging a speed of between 16 and 30 knots. The next morning I went to wake up Antoine and Ricardo early at Francis Key, we saw some set waves at Casa Verde but they were not what we expected!
When we hit the water, the waves looked like there were dropping rapidly instead of increasing! It seemed like the swell came at night or just did not come at all because it was from the East/ North East! We still had an awesome day foiling, kiting and stand up paddling! Unfortunately Antoine had to leave after a few days! Ricardo stayed for a while and we scored some super fun head to logo high waves at Casa Verde with a swell that came unexpectedly. It lasted for about four days with the waves offering a huge variety of moves such as aerials, off the lip, goiters and air takas! Ricardo even screamed to me on the water that he pulled off a double air taka! I was like dam! I did not believe him but my good friend Eniel, who was also kiting in the waves, told me that he saw Ricardo pull a strange move from far away! Ricardo was praying that we got it on film; unfortunately it was not recorded since it was in the inside at La Pasa and a bit too far away! I told him we would have to come back so he could do it again!
RELAXING After scoring these conditions, all day sailing in the intense sun, you would think we would be exhausted, but it was the contrary. When the swell dies and it is flat we would go fishing, which is always one of the most exciting parts of the trip! There is a huge ecosystem of marine life on the island, sharks, turtles, huge whale sharks, dolphins, manta ray, octopus, lobsters and conk and we would eat fresh tuna sashimi, Kagami, conk, lobster and octopus; you name it we eat it! I would also foil when the wind is light, or just visit unknown secret locations where only the locals would take you! We also surfed at some virgin peaks with only three friends in total!
“ How blessed we are having such an amazing country full of magical places like Los Roques! ”
PARTY TIME
Night life in Los Roques is awesome, there is always something to do! I personally did not go out often on the Gran Roque, but my good friend Eniel had his birthday party on the tiny Island of Botoqui, all his good friends and family went. The plan was to kite and windsurf, then teach his family and friends how to paddle, then have a BBQ and party to death! That’s exactly what happened! We set up a tent in the jungle in the middle of the Island just in case it would rain. A good friend of Eniel named Bigote was the DJ, they had disco lights and everything which looked so sick illuminating the entire island, not very natural looking but still different! Every one partied till dawn, then at daylight we all tried to get a couple hours of sleep in hammocks but it was so difficult because it was blowing 30 knots and I wanted to windsurf! It was so hard to resist!
JACKPOT Ricardo had to go to Margarita but he planned on returning very soon to score a bigger swell we had spotted coming! It was a weird swell that pointed North with a bit of West in it, but the period was only 7-8 seconds! So we were not expecting much! Perhaps if we were lucky some fun small waves at Casa Verde or the Point! We really wanted La Gillett to go off since that is the heaviest wave but the low period forecast didn’t hold much hope. Ricardo returned for Carnival and one early morning he gave me a call and told me that it was firing and that it was huge! His voice was so excited, I could not believe it! The forecast was totally off! That is just how it is sometimes! We were so blessed scoring that last swell before leaving! It was the biggest swell of our entire trip and it lasted two complete days! We just had to windsurf at La Gillett! When we arrived I studied the waves for a bit just to see where the very shallow spots were! The entire wave was barreling almost all the time, so if you wanted to do a cut back you would need loads of speed and be committed 100% or just go for aerial manoeuvres! Ricardo sailed amazing that day! I also had some really fun waves, some sets were a bit over mast high! The wave is so dangerous and shallow; I was nervous but luckily was able to stay in control!
ROCK STARS
Ricardo went on the rocks after a big aerial where he was clipped by a section and lost the wind in his sail, luckily he and his gear survived ok and he came straight back out! Immediately afterwards he was on another sick wave, he launched a radical off the lip but nose dived and went straight onto the rocks again! This time La Gillett did not forgive him and destroyed his sail into two pieces! Afterwards we went surfing and it was my time to pay the reef tax with some massive wipeouts, huge cuts on my back and even bigger dings on my board ! Despite all this, the conditions were incredible and it was my best ever season on Los Roques. I met some unbelievable local people and I am very grateful to everyone who made our entire stay so special, especially Eniel Narvaez, Cleinis Narvaez Mata, Mr. Eniel Narvaez, Ziulmary Romero, Tia Elena, Chichi, Gorge, Carolina Chopite, Andri Salazar, Oscar Cisneros, Ricardo Campello, Elias y Lotte and Bigote y Cleynis!. At the end of our trip we did a voluntary beach cleanup and filled fifteen garbage bags full of trash. We, the Venezuelans, have no idea how blessed we are having such an amazing country full of magical places like Los Roques! It is in our hands to take care of it and make it a better place! If you would like to know anything further about Los Roques feel free to contact me on my social networks, Instagram: dionyv69, Twitter: @dionyv69 and Facebook.com/DGV69.Good Vibes
