Unfortunately the eighth day of the Fuerte Wave Classic hadn´t as well a good forecast. Clouds, some rain and light wind from nortwesterly direction all over the day. The organisation decided to run a beach cleaning at the beach of Majanicho together with Cleanoceanproject, which is located in the North of Fuerteventura.
Dario Ojeda cleans up
Since the first edition of the Fuerteventura Wave Classic in 2009 Wim and his Clean Ocean Project team are partners of the event and have already cleaned up several beaches. This year it was the beach of Majanicho, which got pimped a bit. All of the riders filled up several plastic bags with trash, broken glass or tar.
We talked to Wim, who runs the project from the beginning on and he told us following: “The Cleanoceanproject was born 10 years ago, because we could not stand the situation at our local beaches at the North Shore any longer. Actually they looked like a dump, all sorts of trash all over the place. Nobody was looking after it. So we started working on the project. Since then the beaches on Fuerteventura´s North Shore are much cleaner now, the support of the local governement is growing and the attitude towards the ocean, the beaches is changing little by little. It feels great!”
After the cleaning session the crew of the Cleanoceanproject prepared a nice barbecue for all the riders and helpers.
All the cleaners
The plan for the afternoon was to run again a tow-in surfing session, but the waves at Puertito or on the North Shore were not suitable. Too strong winds and not enough order in the waves. The race committee also checked out the beaches around Corralejo and the conditions did not fit as well. So the competition was called of for day 8.
The next two days should bring massive waves. Orlando Lavandera told us: “Two years ago in 2009, when we had the massive waves at Puertito the forecast had shown 4.2 m high waves, but for Thursday there are waves with almost 5 meters predicted. So we can expect something massive!”
The wind will turn more to the north or even northeastern direction, which should be better for the next session at Puertito. For today it´s enough time, to re-check all functions of the Jetski and the riders can reload their batteries to be on form 100% while the next two days!
We talked to the locals Will Ward and Albert “Mandrillo” Ferroni about their experiences at Puetito the last days.
Will going out at Puertito
“Yeah, it was a solid day we had three days ago, but but not the biggest. I have sailed the channel upwind, which was not there which made it harder. Maybe I should have sailed up from the beach . I was gutted I did not make it out the back, but I am ready for round 2, ding ding! I was sailing on a Witchcraft 78, Ezzy Wave Panther 3 5.0, Maverix stilo 300 and Tecno Limits full carbon wave boom. Looking forward to the up and coming forecast, fingers crossed!” (Will Ward about his last session at Puertito while the FWC, Will lives for about 7 years in the North of Fuerteventura).
Albert Ferroni close before the wave catches him
“I am living on Fuerteventura for about 24 years now and know Puertito very well. 16 years ago I sailed the spot for the very first stime in my life. It´s a very dangerous spot out of my view. Now I will turn into 42 years soon and still I am scared, when I sail out there. In general it´s better to have massive swell. That makes the sailing more save. You can catch a wave further outside and ride it earlier. On the big day 3 days ago I used a 5,3 Simmer sail with an Power-X mast and my special North Shore custom board, which has been built by Jürgen Hönscheid back in 2009. It´s a classic shape with a length of 246 cm and a width of 52 cm. I am already old and my style is a bit old, too! But the board fits me and is super strong, a dynemaa construction!” (Albert “Mandrillo” Ferroni, born in Roma, Italy, runs a sailrepair shop at Cotillo and lives almost a quarter of a century on Fuerteventura, because he loves to ride big swell)
