Words John Carter, Noah Vocker, Philip Köster, Timo Mullen//PhotosJohn Carter
Lanzarote is the eastern most of the Canary islands and believed to be the first that was settled. Most of its windsurfing is concentrated in Costa Teguise on the east coast, but in the north of the island lies a wavesailing jewel, Jameos del Agua. In the midst of a cold snap in the UK, a promising forecast for the fabled break appeared and Timo Mullen and John Carter felt the lure of trading snow for sun and swell. With the Canaries calling they flew out to meet talented locals Noah Vocker and Philip Köster at Jameos and scored a solid session. The crew tell the tale of how it all went down.
SOCIALLY CONNECTED My first sojourn to the Canary Islands was nearly thirty years ago, way back in 1990! Before I first travelled there, I will always remember drooling at the images in Windsurf of the early pioneers such as Gary Gibson, Farrell O’Shea, Nigel Howell and Scott Poulter ripping it up in the turquoise waters and all captured by the legendary surf photographer Alex Williams! Those guys were legends back then, living this enviable lifestyle out in the Canary Islands, strutting around in fluorescent surf gear, custom Lodey’s and most likely with hot girls in tow! To us mere mortals it seemed like they were living the dream!
It was during that time that out of the blue I received a hand written letter through the post from Rich Foster, an upcoming sailor back in the day, asking if I was up for a two week trip to Fuerteventura, all expenses paid. As a totally inexperienced and naive photographer this offer seemed amazing back then and I literally jumped at the chance and of course replied by return of post! Little did I know I would be sleeping on the floor (or in a board bag on the beach), living on lentils and also spending half the week in the back of a car crammed full of windsurf equipment and smelly wetsuits. But that was all part of the experience back then and the misery was the most memorable aspect of that early trip abroad.
Back in the 90s obviously there was no internet, no real forecasts and if you wanted to book a flight you had to go to a travel agent and do it in person. Trips to the Canary Islands were reserved for the bold and adventurous windsurfers who came back at the end of winter ridiculously suntanned with crusted faces and bleached blond hair! For us stuck back at home in the UK we would only find out if these guys scored months down the line when the magazines hit the shelves! In those days you just went. Each day you would wake up and see what the weather would bring. Nobody had any idea if a swell was coming or what time the wind would blow. A trip to the Canary Islands was a big deal; the islands were our version of Hawaii!
Looking back on my first trip, there was barely a breath of wind on the north shore and we ended up down south in Sotavento after a chance meeting with Dave White who informed us it had been nuking every day while we had been twiddling our thumbs up in Corralejo! I headed down with Rich Foster and his roommate Corky Kirkham who had also headed out to Fuerteventura from Newcastle following a similar path hoping to become a professional windsurfer! The wind howled and we slept in board bags under the stars at Sotavento. There was never a dull moment on the trip, it was all new and exciting and I guess you could say we were then living the dream ourselves!
Fast forward to 2018 and oh how times have changed! We have forecasts galore, accessible with hourly updates, flights virtually every day at bargain prices and all available to book by laptop or phone at the click of a few buttons. Whatever you get up to will most probably be on some sort of social media within a matter of hours or minutes for the world to see! You don’t have to move off your sofa to check the forecast or book a flight and can even see the beaches via web cameras just to make sure what conditions are like! Yep we know when and where it is going to blow, how big the waves will be, the best tides and can time it to be there without wasting any days waiting around for the conditions to pick up! I have now been to the Canary islands more than sixty times, so to a certain extent gone is the excitement of the old days, but on the other hand the game of scoring the best possible windsurf sessions has become way more efficient. Welcome to the modern world I suppose, now we live it, share it and everybody gets to see it, but even then I still get excited when I head to the Canary Islands especially when waves are involved.
ESCAPE One, ‘beast from the east’ seemed plenty for winter in the UK, but when they announced a second ‘mini beast from the east’ was on its way it was not long before I had a call from Timo Mullen to see if I was up for a trip to the Canary Islands. We knew that the ‘beast from the east’, not only meant probable snow and freezing weather in the UK, but also that same low pressure would most likely be sending solid swell resonating south through the Atlantic towards the Canary Islands! Once again, the internet played its part in our decision making process after I spotted an incredible picture on Instagram from Lanzarote local Noah Vocker sailing a mast high wave who was calling for some similar conditions in the upcoming days.
PLAN Timo sent Noah a direct message via Instagram and after a short conversation we were booked to leave the UK and fly into Lanzarote the following evening. Flights back from Lanzarote were all sold out, but there was an option to cross by ferry and to fly back from Fuerteventura so the plan was hatched with that slight added complication. Once again through a few more clicks of buttons, a car and cheap accommodation in Costa Teguise were booked and everything was in place for three days in Lanzarote and one in Fuerteventura, covering four days of predicted wind, waves and warm sunshine!
Scanning through Facebook on the way to the airport I saw a post from Philip Köster, saying that he was at home in Vargas in Gran Canaria and was looking forward to the upcoming forecast in the Canary Islands. I decided to send him a quick message saying we were headed to Lanzarote just in case he felt like a change of conditions and within minutes he had replied that he might catch a ferry over for the peak of the swell! Now the pressure was on, we were committed to this trip and were also dragging the world champion on an eight hour ferry ride to join us, let’s hope our resident local Noah Vocker knew what he was talking about! Once again victims of social media, it did not take long before the word spread that we were heading to Lanzarote and the likes of Lena Erdil, Tristan Algret and Corky Kirkham were all keen to join us.
EASY TRAVEL Flights to Lanzarote were a mere £50 for the outbound with ‘EasyJet’ and we opted for speedy boarding which gives two items of hand luggage onboard. Windsurfing equipment was an extra £42 per board bag each way and one personal luggage up to 23 kilos was an extra £34 per journey. As always with these low cost airlines the extras all add up, but at least you know where you stand! After escaping the freezing snow in the UK at 7am, we landed in Lanzarote by 11am and were loaded into our car and on the road by 11:30! We decided to check into our apartment before hitting the beach and had to laugh when our room turned out to be round the back of the hotel facing a pile of junk and debris, easily on par with the horrific hotel from the ‘Inbetweeners’ movie in Magaluf! The view aside, we had clean beds to sleep in and were certainly not intending to spend too much time at the hotel if we could possibly help it. We were soon joined by our old mate, Corky Kirkham, who had caught the ferry from Fuerteventura to come over and sail for a few days. As soon as he heard we were coming there was no way he was going to miss out! Plus as a Canary Islands resident he is lucky enough to score the locals discount on all ferries and flights between the islands and Europe! At 51 Corky is still as keen on windsurfing as he was when I met him way back in 1990, which is awesome to see. He owns a small house close to Rocky Point in Fuerteventura, and works in a bar in the evening to help fund his lifestyle that still involves windsurfing every day possible!
COSTA TEGUISE With the swell set to kick in the following morning we decided to check Playa de Las Cucharas at Costa Teguise, home of the Pro Centre run by ex PWA sailor Antxon Otaegui and the Windsurfing Club Las Cucharas, both excellent schools located in the bay. Situated on the east coast of the island, a mere twenty minutes from the airport, the spot is a large bay which has sheltered areas perfect for beginners, while on the outside is a reef that can light up for extreme jumping when the swell kicks in. Northeast winds are side shore from the left, generally picking up steadily in the morning with the prime months being April until September, although the trades can blow any time of year. Around the bay are plenty of places to stay, along with numerous bars, restaurants and places out of the wind for the family. Out in the bay the likes of Tristan Algret and Lena Erdil were busy on the water tuning up their slalom equipment for the upcoming PWA season and with beautiful blue skies and 25 knot winds on offer, both Timo and Corky were tempted out into the bay to join them for a quick blast.
HIGH POINT By 6pm we were done and dusted on the water so decided to head to the magical viewpoint at Mirador Del Rio. It was about a thirty minute drive from Costa Teguise but well worth it as the views down to neighbouring island La Graciosa are absolutely stunning! Rumour has it that this island is home to one of the best waves in Europe, but with our plan already hatched that discovery will have to wait for another trip somewhere down the line!
JAMEOS DEL AGUA The next morning we were up early doors ready to head 20 kms up the coast to one of the island’s premier wave spots, Jameos Del Agua. Breakfast in the hotel was not an awful lot better than the view from our terrace but at least we could steal some fresh fruit and Spanish omelettes that would do us for lunch!
A huge iron crab sculpture welcomes you into the tourist area at Jameos, but the spot we were there for was further down the volcanic landscape in the form of a perfect point break and reeling waves. The actual car park and tourist centre are there because of amazing natural lava tubes and caves as well as an extraordinary underground restaurant and bar. Windsurfers could originally park right on the water’s edge here but to keep the beauty of this spectacular viewpoint unspoilt the track has been shut off at the top meaning a five minute walk to the beach with your kit. We heard it was a €5000 fine for driving down to the launch area so our vehicle was to stay well and truly at the top of the track!
Jameos is a left hand point break and north swells wrap around the top of the island and into a decent section right on the point, followed by a solid shoulder that wraps into the next bay which is slightly less powerful. On its day this wave is reported to be the longest on the island and is heavier on a low to mid tide for windsurfing, but on a big swell will pump right through high tide! The entry point is a small keyhole in the jagged reef and it pays to be careful as you come in and out of the water as there are a few rocks hidden below the surface that could easily destroy a fin.
With a forecast for 1.8 metres at 13 seconds we were hoping for a bit more swell. The wind was already blowing a good twenty five knots, but so far the predicted groundswell was not really showing. With that said there were still some half-mast ramps straight off the beach signalling the opportunity for Noah to head out and show us why he is one of the best youths in the Canary Islands with his incredible array of jumps. We were not too worried about the conditions since the next day was calling for thirty knots, 2.8 metres at 10 seconds and all the locals were extremely confident that Jameos would be firing. Apparently Köster was going to catch an overnight ferry from Gran Canaria along with his long standing caddy Jorge Vera who is also a ripping sailor. Last summer Köster had bailed a warm up session in Vargas right before the Pozo world cup to come and sail Jameos, so if he reckoned it was decent we were sure it was going to be a solid day. By late afternoon the first forerunners of the new swell were starting to wrap around the point and we were given a taster of what was in store for the main brunt of the swell. Timo and Noah sailed until they could take no more and all in all it was a solid day on the water.
FIRING! After another evening lapping up the view of our debris on the balcony of our ‘Inbetweeners’ style hotel, the next morning we decided to quickly check on Playa de las Cucharas, before heading up the coast to Jameos. From the first afternoon when all had been relatively calm, overnight the reef had come alive with logo to mast high waves blasted by thirty knot howling north east trades. Up the coast towards Jameos all the breaks that had been dormant the previous days were now totally firing; today was our day I had no doubt about it! Philip Köster had messaged us that he had made it to Lanzarote and would be with us shortly after picking up Jorge from the airport. By the time we hit the quaint fishing town of Punta Majeres we could already see the waves rifling down the point at Jameos! Back in Fuerteventura in 1990 I was happy just to be out in the Canary Islands whatever the conditions, but today I was excited because I knew it was game on and we had some of the best sailors in the world who would be going off!
THE KÖSTER SHOW Once Philip Köster hit the water it was soon apparent why he is four times world champion. On his first wave he nailed a perfect goiter and then went straight into a flawless taka, setting the tone for a non-stop perfect display of pretty much every trick in the wavesailing dictionary. Within half an hour he had busted out a bone dry double loop, tweaked airs, takas, grubbies and a one handed goiter as he toyed with the race track section of the wave.
With Köster on fire, everyone else on the water seemed to naturally step up their game and it was not long before Timo and Noah were hitting back with huge hacks and goiters of their own.
LOCAL CUISINE By the end of the day we were famished and frazzled and decided to stop at a local style restaurant called Sol y Luna in Punta Majeres! A delicious local meal topped off an epic day in Lanzarote and was a far call from my lentil meals every night in Fuerteventura almost 30 years ago, the beer still tasted the same though! With one day remaining on this short Canary Islands mission we made a plan to wake up early and most likely head to Fuerteventura! Once again through the wonders of social media, Iballa Moreno, reigning women’s world champion answered a random message and agreed to join us at Cotillo for a sail the following afternoon. But that’s a whole other story to be continued…watch this space!
NOAH VOCKER Timo sent me a message about a last minute trip he was planning, the forecast looked pretty perfect so it was a no-brainer! We started the first day with a jumping session in the morning, nothing special, but he really appreciated it, as it was 25º, sunny and not snowing like back in the UK! The afternoon brought a bit more swell, which was a good warm up for the epic conditions the next day. We saw Tristan Algret (who was here for slalom training) going on the rocks twice – a 4 piece mast, sail full of holes and destroyed board, not too good for starters! Next day was ‘the day’; we arrived at the spot at 11:00 with Tristan. Timo already had a good session in the bag at low tide, logo high waves on the inside and some pretty big monsters on the outside reef! It looked pretty gnarly! Philip, Jorge, Tristan and I went in for a session together, we scored an amazing two hours riding some sick down the line waves starting only 3m away from the rocks. I had a decent hour in the water until I decided to hit the big section on a proper set. It was probably not the best idea as I got catapulted forwards with my two feet in the straps and got washed! It took me a week to be able to walk more or less properly and three weeks to be back on the water, but it was still worth it!
It was incredible to have Philip down here, the waves weren’t as expected but it was well worth it! We had some solid waves and having the world number 1 at your home spot is…. priceless! It was amazing to see what you can really do with this wave if you are the best in the world! Some pretty radical moves where going on, big one handed goiters on the rocky section were the move to do! He came for one day with his good friend and caddy Jorge Vera, who is an awesome sailor too!
TIMO MULLEN My very first windsurf trip abroad was to Lanzarote with my parents when I was 14 in 1987!We stayed in Costa Teguise, which back then was a pretty quiet small resort. I remember the windsurfing was amazing and we sailed the reef at las Cucharas every day. I learnt how to loop on that trip and it was also that trip that showed me what windsurfing was all about!
I have always wanted to return to Lanzarote as I have had such fond memories of my times there but I didn’t think it would take me over 30 years to return!!This year I chose to stay in the UK again for the winter as I figured that after the awful winter we had last year it could not be as bad this year, well I could not have got that more wrong!We had snow, ice, ‘Beast from the East’, but hardly any windsurfing so I was desperate for some good sailing and some heat! I spotted the Canaries were going to get their first hit of trade winds to start the spring season and a pulse of swell. All the usual spots would be cranking like Pozo and El Medano, but I wanted to ride some waves, so I figured Fuerteventura or Lanzarote would be the place to end my wave drought!
Planning these sort of last minute trips is always a bit of a logistical nightmare as once you have spotted the perfect forecast you are at the mercy of the airlines to get you there. Easyjet is my number one choice as they always take windsurf gear, yes you have to pay for the privilege but 100% they will take it! This trip involved a bit of flight juggling but where there is a will there is a way!!
Social Media these days seems to lead the way in all walks of life, fortunately or unfortunately depending which way you look at it, pro windsurfing has been swallowed up by it. Personally I am not a fan, but you have to embrace it for the sake of your sponsorship. I have found though its benefits are keeping in touch with friends all over the world. I have admired the talent of Noah Vocker from afar, I like his attitude and style, he likes to let his sailing do the talking rather than his Instagram account, the way it should be! So ironically I managed to get hold of him on Instagram to let him know we were coming to visit Lanzarote. Having Noah around was great and kept us on the right track to sail the best spots on the island.
The sailing was sick, Jameos is just like a spot I sail in the Outer Hebrides, in fact it is virtually identical. Breaking in front of a pretty ominous pile of lava you have to be pretty confident to hit the first section before the wave opens out and mellows a bit as it fires off down the line. The first section does have consequences though, if you get it wrong 100% you are on the rocks, but if you chose to miss the section you pretty much have missed the best part, so it really is a ‘do or die’ type of wave. I think we scored it at a good size to be fun, it was about logo high with a few bigger sets which was perfect I guess, I’d say with the swell direction more from the NW then the wave would probably wrap towards you much better, we had quite a NNE wind swell on the days we were there so the wave was more critical right in front of the rocks!
The standard of sailing at the spot is very high, Noah and the locals all rip to a world class standard, you had to be on your A game here to shine!Oh and did I mention that Mr Köster turned up? Yes, as expected he was ripping the bag out of the place, but I gotta give move of the day to Philip’s best mate Jorge (Spanish George) who nailed a very impressive frontside 360 right in front of us all as we sailed out through the channel!
I had just taken delivery of my new Severne Mako Quad 84L so I was stoked to have plenty of wind and waves to try it out, I was stacked on my 5.0 and 4.5 Blade for the whole trip, it was a good virgin run on my new board and 84L is a great size to take as a one board for this sort of short trip.
I will 100% be coming back to Lanzarote very soon, I loved the vibe and the sailing, it is a lot different to the other Canary Islands and I think a perfect place to bring my family as there is a lot more to do and see on the island than just windsurfing.
PHILIP KÖSTER The easiest way to get to Lanzarote from Gran Canaria is to take the direct ferry that leaves 23:00 from Las Palmas and gets there at 6 in the morning, so I had quite a rocky night on the boat on the way over! Jameos Del Agua is a quite a well known spot in the Canary Islands and Lanzarote has also the reputation of having the best surf spots in the archipelago. Having Timo and Jorge in the water was super fun and also the local Noah Vocker, he has improved a lot since the last time I sailed with him. Normally in Lanzarote you never sail with less than 4.7, Gran Canaria must be super windy for it to be working actually. I sailed on 5.0m and 93 litre board, as I needed that extra bit of sail to be able to plane on the inside. The sets break very close to the rocks so you don’t want to be without wind. I am always happy to check other spots around the Canary Islands, I definitely would not like to train in one spot the whole summer, that would make me frustrated. It was a very fun, short and sweet trip!
