Maciek Rutkowski & friends ride a secret spot - WINDSURFLIFE Episode 5

Maciek Rutkowski rides a secret spot at Tenerife’s west coast. The spot is normally known as a world class spot for boogie boarders but with Calima winds it can transform into a windsurfing spot. Maciek shared the monster waves with Tenerife resident Dieter van der Eyken, local Jochen Stolz, German globetrotter Adi Beholz and Croatian racer Enrico Marotti.

It was a dangerous session and could have ended badly before it really started. Maciek walked on the lava rocks, the tide was up and a big wave nearly smashed him onto the rocks. He luckily made a quick decision, which was correct and jumped towards the top section of the wave. Watch more in his vlog. Maciek again shows, that he isn’t only a racer. The extrovert Polish windsurfing pro can go big in waves, too. Chapeau monsieur Maciek!!

Dieter van der Eyken, who is really experienced in waves of that format, stated about the special session in the last week of February 2019:

The session at a the other side of the island was pretty intense… The spot is usually a surf spot but in rare Calima wind days with swell it can give some excellent windsurfing conditions for big wave riding. The setup is kind of a slap wave that breaks on volcanic rocks with not much room for mistakes. Some of the sets were so big that it closed out the channel and you could easily get in a very uncomfortable situation. To get in you had to jump off the rocks and swim a bit out till you got in the wind line. You have to time the sets a bit that you don’t get caught on the impact zone. Ones you are out it’s relatively “easy”. It’s a proper point break with a channel. The most important thing after that was the wave selection. The waves were really fast and pretty hollow, some closed out quickly. For my first session there I was playing it pretty save and got out without any broken gear (which not too many could say in the end).. It’s definitely a place that makes a bit of natural selection and even the best rarely get out without any broken gear.. Enrico got very lucky not to hurt himself badly when getting washed up onto the rocks after getting caught too deep (at which point you have no idea where to go). Jochen broke his mast and sail on his very first wave. So even when you know the place you still can get caught by surprise. It was a sick experience nontheless and hopefully we will score some more of those conditions over the next winters on Tenerife!