I have just come back from a European holiday where I was lucky enough to spend some time in Tarifa (Spain). Having read about this place since I was a young fella, it was exciting to have the opportunity to spend some time there - with all the "driving on the wrong side of the road" and the "cannot understand a word of Spanish" thing going on... Since I had such a good experience, I thought that it might be worthwhile mentioning it here.

Flew into Malaga, then hired a car for the coastal drive to Tarifa. I hired gear from "Volare", which sits right on *the* windsurfing beach just outside of Tarifa. The gear was the current season's (aka 2012) Starboard/Severne kit. And they even knew how to rig it right - I didn't even attempt to add more downhaul!

I rented gear two sets of gear, on two of the days, at about $70 Aus per kit per day (aka: over 2hrs solid of sailing per day), which I think is pretty good - that price even includes insurance for the "smash the nose" sailors! On offer were some wave (something multi-fin), freestyle-wave (Kode) and slalom (iSonic) boards, sails were Severne S-1 and Gator's -> I selected the 2012 Starboard Kode** and the Gator's.

The beach at Volare is pretty safe, with cross-shore conditions most of the time -> the sun/temp is warm at this time of year (June) but the water is a little cold so a shortie is needed; the water state was bump-n-jump with at least 50 sailors out; lots of beginner kiting in that area too, so fun time for all. And the guys at Volare were great to chat with, and very welcoming.

So if you have the chance to Travel near Spain during Australia's winter, it is definitely worth a few days out of your trip for a guaranteed sail!


** It is worth mentioning separately, I have ridden previous season Kode's before, but wasn't ever really too impressed, ie: they were ok, but didn't really stand out from other brands/models. Having ridden a few RRD freestyle-waves in the last few years, it struck me that they weren't particularly good at any one thing, but overall, nothing came close to the ease-of-use/all-round-handling. Well, I am going to say that this seasons Kode has surpassed the RRD experience.