DAWN PATROL
8am: From within the city walls, the cobbled streets of the old town are a mere 11 Kilometres across the water from the coast of Africa. We have arranged to meet Ben at the southernmost beach of mainland Europe; Playa Chica, notorious as the wildest place in a Levante. Yesterday a catamaran was washed up on the rocks and smashed to pieces on the causeway to Isla La Paloma. With 40 knot gusts already howling across the straights, Ben reckons it will be even windier in the evening, so we pencil in to return at 6pm, which will be our final session of the day.
Ben is back in town, fresh from his victory in the Azores at the IFCA worlds, but we aim to put him to an even stiffer test of his ability and send him out in 50 knots at Playa Chica later in the day. He moved here three years ago, after coming for a training trip, but he then fell in love with a beautiful Spanish girl and never looked back. Now a family man and full time Tarifa resident, Ben loves living on the Andalucía Coast because of its variety of conditions, stunning landscapes and mild weather.
The decision is made to head to Canos de Meca, an unspoiled beach on the Atlantic coast about a forty five minute drive from Tarifa. Passing through town, it is amazing how many windsurf and kite shops line the streets and once we are cruising along Playa De Los Lances, the 7km stretch of beach just outside town, we pass the likes of the Hurricane Hotel and the various windsurf centres that serve this windswept coastline. Once out into the open countryside the landscape is awash with huge wind turbines, another reminder how important the influence of the wind is in this area, whilst quaint whitewashed villages dot the verdant landscape between the mountains.
