Team Windjeri’s mission 2014 – A long and weary journey

Team Windjeri and Gollito Estredo in El Yaque

We had some bad luck as we have had a 48 hours long journey from Fortaleza- to Sao Paulo over Lima to Caracas to finally get on the Caribbean Island of Margarita, with 3 flights delayed and 2 nights passed at the airport. This is something that apparently happen more often when travelling in South America and that you really should take in consideration when booking close time scheduled flights! Hugo wasn’t really aware of how long the travel was going to be and with all this delay, there were some moments he nearly went nuts! Luckily we had better luck- with our board bag excess weight and almost hadn’t anything to pay for our each 50kg weighting windsurf equipment during all the travel.

Hugo sleeping at Caracas airport

Once in the airport of Caracas everything was going fine. We took our last flight to Margarita which is only 30 min away and were really happy to finally get at our final destination!! Once in Margarita, everything was well organized thanks to El Yaque’s local hero, Windjeri Team and our friend Gollito Estredo, as he picked us up straight at the airport, organized us a nice place to stay and got us known with the local place and the local people. El Yaque is just around the corner of the airport Porlamar, so in only five minutes we passed by the checkpoint at the entrance of El Yaque. 

Our first impressions of the place were clearly awesome. White sand, Palms, windy weather, loud music and a beach full with beautiful girls. Hugo and I were impressed by this atmosphere here and were definitely happy to have come to this place. Gollito drove us first to the center where we would store our equipmen. It’s at the side of the “Sharks” Restaurant and it’s the place where Gollito, Cheo Diaz and Co. store their equipment, eat and relax too. 

Gollito doing a Backloop on a windy day in El Yaque – Pic: Tom Brendt

After only not sailing two days, Hugo was already only thinking about rigging up his stuff get into the water! A group of young local windsurfers were all impatient to see Hugo sailing. They took chairs from the center just to sit in the first row at the beach and watch Hugo’s show. A lot of young guys are sailing in El Yaque. Thanks to the generous help of local Windsurfers Gollito, Ricardo, Cheo, Juan and others, they receive some windsurf gear. Many of them are motivated and enjoy every day many hours on the water, trying either to land new tricks, or challenging each other with speed races. Local Heroes like Ricardo Campello, Gollito Estredo, Cheo Diaz, Deivis Paternina, Yoli de Brendt and more are big inspirations for them. 

The conditions so far on the water were not the best, as the wind was really light and gusty, but we still could train every day with big sails. In El Yaque the wind comes from the left and the water is choppy with some little ramps coming in sometimes. It’s very good to train for competitions here as these factors makes it trickier to perform tricks. Something that we really enjoyed too, is to sail near the shore, in front of the people, with loud music and a good ambiance. This is new for us and makes it an amusing atmosphere sailing at this beach! 

Local kids and Hugo

The third day we were here we made a 2 km down winder to “La Punta”, which is a flat water spot. This spot is amazing for its flat water on both sides! You can also train jumping moves on port tack by catching little ramps. With this two spots and different kinds of conditions I would say you get a good overall training.

As for food until now we ate at the Shark’s Restaurant at the beach. There are plenty of choices of menus to eat and everything is for cheap prices. A chicken plate with rice and vegetables for example cost only 3 US Dollars. So if you are thinking to go to El Yaque, we definitely recommend you to try out this place! 

Safety: After what we saw and heard El Yaque is really relaxed and safe! The entrance of the place is secured by guardians what means not anybody enters and leaves the zone. We already walked severell times in the dark to the beach and back home and everything is just chill and relaxed.

El Yaque and Hugo de Sousa

Another thing that really amazed us is the positivity of the kids here. They are all looking as if they had nothing to worry about, are smiling all the time long and don’t stop joking. This was just putting a smile on our faces and makes us want to joke too ?

Some strong wind days in El Yaque are forecasted for this weekend, so it’s probably going to be epic! Next week a trip is planned together with Gollito. We will travel by car to visit new spots for 2-3 weeks. Places that are apparently perfect for sailing, so we are really looking forward for the upcoming days!

El Yaque is a small paradise beach, with great people, a great ambiance, good food, safety first and lots of windsurfing! It’s definitely worth a visit!!!

Aloha, to be continued….. Loick

Loick Spicher

•  Team Windjeri’s mission 2014 – A new project, Part 1