El Medano Session Reports

[Slappy]

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First day on the water in El Medano. I got out early, second kite up at around 10:00. Forecast was for 15 knots and wind was still building at around 14 knots so I took out the 12m. It quickly came up to 25g30 so my 12m + SB was waaaay too much kite.

Conditions on the water weren't great. Swell was only knee to waist and because it was high tide there was no decent wave options. So it ended up being like riding English Bay out in the middle of the bay with windswell mixed in with chop on top.

Only board I brought was the Wave Bandit 4-10 so I guess it will just be strapless freestyle when the tide is high.

The reef is pretty nasty too, solid rock and only 1-2 foot depth at low tide. I hear the wave sets up really nicely at the right tide though.

I would like to try out Cabezo break but I hear the windsurfers spaz on you if you do.

I went to the back of the bay to try for waves there but there are all sorts of submerged rocks and ended hitting one then getting turfed on to the beach.

Water is about 18 and air about 24 degrees.

I got a GoPro so I'm going to see how it goes doing Session reports with it. It's great to take pictures with too.

This morning should be 25-30 knots so I should have a better time with the 6.5m today.

[Slappy]

Day two on the water in El Medano, much better than day one.

25g30 but this time I had my 6.5m. Swell was waist to shoulder and the reef wave was working.

Sadly I strained my Achilles some how, didn't feel anything until I woke up the next day but having trouble walking on it now. Hopefully I will only have to miss one day.

I also put a huge gash in my board rescuing this guy in distress' board. His board landed on top of mine and the fin cut through the foam down to HDPE base.

On top of that I noticed a crack in the base from where I hit that rock yesterday.

At least with my softtop it's still rideable, either of those incidents would have put an end to epoxy boards.

[Slappy]

Well my Achilles is still messed up today so I might not even kite here again >.<

You'll have to settle for iPhone shots from shore.



I think that El Medano is actually a place more suited to windsurfing than kitesurfing. I'm really missing flat sandy beaches that give good wave options to kite.

The reef wave here is good, but it's tricky and a bit sketch as it's solid rock and some sections only a few feet deep. You also have the rotation here that likes to blast in to waves at top speed from behind instead of picking up a wave and riding it in to the reef.

The best area is by far Cabezo beach but again the reef there is sketchy and the windsurfer's don't like kiters there.

[Slappy]

El Medano spot info

Getting there:

Getting to Tenerife from Canada is quite a pain, there are no direct flights and no decent connections. My solution was to do a combo trip through London and take a few days there on either end. XMas flight retun YVR <-> LON was around $800 and LON <-> TFS was about $200 (that includes upgraded fare whith 1 checked bag) for a total of $1000. Trying to book the same flight direct to Tenerife will get cost you about $1800 and you'll be stuck with 17 hour layovers in London instead. Non peak flights could probably be had for $800 total.

I booked all flights with BA and they allow any sized bag as long as it's under 50 lbs, they don't care what's inside it. I took my Ride Engine Tactical Trolley (awesome bag) with my 4-10 surfboard and 6.5/9/12m kites (this bag can also fit 5-1 OR Jester nicely or 5-2 Cab Secret Weapon if jammed in).

LON -> TFS was 4.5 hours and the retun was only 3.5 hours.

I considered booking through Barcelona instead but it was going to add about $300 per person.

El Medano:

El Medano is a really nice town with a very Spanish feel. Most of the local shops speak mediocre english but it isn't a problem. The food is fantastic, fresh local seafood diner for 10 euro, large and creative salad options for 8 euro. The town is very windy so spouses/kids might be a bit put off by that. Everything is walkable in town but there are lots of reasons to rent a car to visit the other spots on Tenerife.

The beach in town is quite kid friendly and although it's still windy there are areas that aren't too bad for spouses.

Weather:

Winter is a bit on the chill side, it's not Hawaii. Nights of 18 and days of 24. Plenty warm on the no wind days but a bit cool in 20 knots. Water is 18 and brisk to swim in without a wetsuit but very doable, unless surfing or kiting or WSing people swim without wetsuits.

It pretty much never rains in El Medano and even if it's cloudy inland you'll get breaks in the cloud at El Medano.

Surfing:

There are 5 options for surf in town (and many more around Tenerife):
1) The inside of the point which you can see in the above video, which is a nice longboard break
2) The "surf" beach south of town, which is short ride beach break good for beginners
3) The outside of the point on calm days (this is the main kite/WS wave when it's windy) which is a quite nice left for longboard and SUP but it's over a shallow rock reef
4) Cabezo beach north of town, the same shallow rock reef but going right
5) Jaquita beach north of town, this is a sandy beach break but much better than the "surf" beach

You can rent hard or soft boards and SUPs for reasonable prices at many places.

Kiting:

The kite beach is south of town (just south of the "surf" beach) and called Flashpoint Beach. It's really busy and a total gong show. At low tide there is some beach break to work with but there are submerged rocks at mid or high tide.

Most of the kiting is just on chop in the bay and it's mediocre, might be fun for boosting on a TT but there are a lot of kiters and no set boost spot like the honey hole so it can be hard to find open water to boost on.

It only takes a few tacks to sail up to the reef wave, maybe 10 minutes. The reef wave is good but hard to read and a can be busy with WSers blasting up from behind you on to your wave.

People also kite right over the reef between the point and Cabezo but you need a leash and will end up bumping off the rocks if you fall. For those brave enough it looked like very nice waves.

The best looking waves were up at Cabezo but it's a WS only spot for the most part.

Windsurfing:

Looks like a really good spot to WS, lots of 25 knot days that bring waist to shoulder high swell with them. Very active WS scene with about equal numbers of WSers to kiters. Lots of places to hire WS gear from.

Two launches:
1) south of town just south of the "surf" beach
2) Cabezo beach north of town

Wind:

The wind comes in 3-5 day spurts and blows 24/7 during that time, often between 20-35 knots. Then it will be calm for 3-5 days. Even on the calm days a thermal usually sets up at some point during the day giving you 12-16 knots of wind for a few hours of the day but it's a short window.

Even though the airport is only a few km away the TAF forecast isn't much use and the wind can be 30 knots on the water when the airport forecast is calling for 15. Windguru GFS 27km did a very good job forecasting.

Good wind meter here https://cabezo.bergfex.at/

Webcam of the point: https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webca ... edano.html
Webcam of the launch: https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webca ... edano.html

With the time difference though you can only really see anything on the webcams after midnight or early in the morning our time.

Snorkeling:

The snorkeling is decent all over as there is no rain there is no run off to murky the water. Also since there aren't too many sandy beaches the water is very clear. Pick any of the rocky reefs and you'll find a decent variety of fish and crab, again not Hawaii though and no coral reefs.

Other stuff:

- Zoo is worth a day for sure.
- Water park is decent but a bit on the chilly side in winter, not sure it was worth it.
- Volcano is worth a day but if you want to summit you'll need to book 2 months in advance as they only let 200 people summit a day. Be sure and book your cable car ahead of time even if you aren't going to summit.
- Google directions are a bit lacking for Tenerife
- Los Cristianos touts can be annoying

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