Spot Guide: El Cabezo, Tenerife
El Cabezo in Tenerife is a perfect spot for training with a lot of variety, but it can also be punishing.
Overview
Cabezo is a perfect spot for spending the European summer or escaping the southern hemisphere cold. Easily accessible from Europe via low-cost windsurfing friendly airlines its a perfect windy summer getaway.
Why bother coming? See the video below:
And some retro action with Bart David (Flight Sails):
Getting There
Map
Flights
You’ll want to ensure you fly into Tenerife South. This airport is a 10min taxi from where you’ll stay in El Cabezo.
Oversize luggage for arrivals is downstairs at a semi-hidden spot in the airport. Don’t carry your gear up the stairs, there’s an oversize lift to the side of the staircase. There’s a small walk to the taxi rank. Easy.
Taxi’s
Taxi’s are no stress. They’re metered and the drivers understand windsurfers needs. My driver carried thick 500kg rated pull down straps (not ratchet), and after strapping my triple bags to the roof even asked me if I was OK with the amount of tension on the straps not to squash my sails — awesome!
Cost: Total one-way costs will be approx €25 with kit. From memory its €15 for the ride and €10 for kit bags. Easy!
Staying There
Accommodation
Your best bet is AirBnb, windsurfingtenerife.com, ownerdirect.co.uk if travelling with friends or families.
If travelling single, ask some windsurfing mates for a hook up. If travelling around before the PWA Cabezo event there’s usually a heap of people around looking to share a house.
You can expect approx €25/night for a share house with mates.
Equipment Storage
You can either rent a house with a place to store equipment, or rent a seperate place to store kit.
Your options for seperate kit storage include:
- Wet Watersports in El Cabezo — €55/week — less for longer-term;
- Message Sandro on Facebook Messenger.
If you know any other spots shoot me a comment!
Kit Rental
You can rent kit from TWS Windsurfing, or other shops. TWS have made a bunch of instructional video’s on moves so support a shop that’s doing more than the basics.
Sailing Resources
Live Wind Readings & Webcam
There’s a resource called Bergfex which everyone uses for real-time wind readings locally.
Link to website in box above. See screenshot below:
Wind Forecasts
There’s a wind forecast service called Muchovento.com.
I’m unsure what model they use but it seems relatively accurate. Windguru is still good for a longer term overview, with Muchovento recommended by the locals.
Direct link to Cabezo below:
http://www.muchoviento.net/index_en.html?El%20Cabezo
Tides
There’s no direct measure of tides at El Cabezo. However the island is pretty small so the link below for Santa Cruz works quite well.
El Cabezo Overview
The spot is pretty easy to sail, or can be punishing dependent on what you want to train.
Map
The place features several spots which offer different things. See colour coded map below.
A GPS log of a session I had can be viewed in red which provides a good idea of launching, and sailing the blasting and wave sailing zones.
Launching
You can either launch to the north of the death rocks or south of the rocks (the main spot).
On the south side you’ll want to try to launch towards the upwind side of the spot to avoid being dragged into the death reef or Godzilla. Godzilla is the name of a large rock marked in pink that you don’t want to make friends with.
On high tide its pretty intense launching. Don’t rush it. Just wait on the rocks spot with your rig held high for a gap in the sets then go for it.
Easy Blasting
On high there’s a wave that comes in providing a few ramps to hit or consequence-less wave rides. Its usually a bit more windy up here for when its too light to sail at the main Wave Sailing spot. Great spot for practicing wave moves and jumping.
Just don’t gybe/tack to close to the death rocks which may result in a set pushing your kit into the rocks and completely destroying it. On low-mid tide this isn’t a problem.
Wave Sailing Spot
On mid to high tide this is a fun spot. The waves essentially break over a triangular reef which offers either repeated topside hits on the upwind section, or a few down-the-line hits before kicking off the wave and powering out of the danger zone. There’s also a few ramps to hit.
If riding the upwind section you can ride the V-bank upwind all the way to just south of the death reef for a nice run up for a jump.
If you’re greedy riding the downwind section of the reef or make a blow a turn on low tide you can expect to be pushed by the relentless 3–4 sec period wind waves onto “The Rocks”.
Harbour Wall
A spot that works on low-tide for both beginners and advanced. Usually more exposed and winder than Cabezo it works when a swell pushes across its shallow reef. You can ride pretty deep without fins touching and if you make a mistake the current will flush you out into deeper water. Not great for jumping though.
The Rocks
These are a collection of reasonably sharp rocks of various heights with holes in them and hidden sea urchins. Not great fun. On low tide when I ended up on them I usually wait for a set to pass and then body drag out to a reasonable depth before water starting. If you sail the main wave spot, you can expect to become good friends with the rocks.
If you get fully washed up you can either walk back out to the break, or walk up to the beach and derig in shame.
Godzilla
A massive rock that wants to destroy your kit.
If you get washed up close to it, there’s usually a lot of current moving around so you’ve got a good chance of swimming your kit away.
Don’t be a dick
Cabezo is inundated every year by kooks and pros alike. Imagine if this was your spot. Respect the locals. Show courtesy. You’ll get plenty of waves, so share them around.
If you haven’t wave-sailed before get to know the rules:
What to do when there’s no wind
There’s some good write ups elsewhere. Check them out for ideas:
Top tips?
Have any tips to add to this article? Shoot a comment below! Thanks!
