Andalusian Dream 2012

It was a while since I travelled to Tarifa. More than 10 years ago I spent several days at Tarifa, when driving down to Morocco with Rudi Breitwieser. We were lucky and had some nice waves and strong Levante at Las Dunas.
But I said myself that I will return for sure to this wonderful area at the south western end of Europe, where Africa almost touches Spain. This time together with my girlfriend and some Slalomgear. So Kerstin and myself decided to jump on a plane and enjoy some days in Europe´s wind capital. And it was worth to travel there. 12 days, 12 great sessions: highwind slalom action at Las Dunas, speedsailing at Campo de Fútbal, lightwind racing and sailing in onshore waves at Arte vide, surfing and Wave sailing at Bolonia.
I got the chance to have several Slalom sessions with Ben van der Steen, current number 3 in the PWA Slalom ranking, Ludo Jossin, current number 19 in the world and Tom Malina, the best Czech Slalom racer. They all live there at the moment, were in a great shape and had their gear fully tuned.

While the last days of our stay we had the chance to see, how the locals at Tarifa celebrate their carneval. It was fun and we danced some Austrian Salsa with Kerstin in the Spanish crowd.

Really hope to return to Tarifa very soon. It´s great for windsurfing and surfing. Not one day was similar to the next. Always changing conditions, always windy. I had following gear in my bags:  two iSonics with 117 and 87 liters, an EVO waveboard with 76 liters, a Minimalibu trifin Surfboard in 8″- teh same I surfed with at my first trip, three Reflex III racing sails in 8,6m, 7,0m and 5,6 m plus a S1 in 4,5 and a Swat in 3,7. While the period of 12 days I used everything.
At the moment I am back in Austria, where the conditions are excellent. All the ice is gone and the water- and airtemperatures are ok. Tested my Reflex III 9,2 yesterday. While the upcoming days my plan is to test the 7,8 or 6,2 and a bunch of fins. In less than a week the next flight will start. This time to the North Shore of Fuerteventura.

Here is a little photogallery from the trip to Tarifa. Most of the shots are taken by Kerstin. Some are outtakes from the videoclips.