#WINDSURFLIFE EP5: Secret Spot

April 1, 2019 Created by Chris Yates

Maciek Rutkowski, Dieter van der Eyken, Adrian Beholz & Jochen Stolz Sailing a Gnarly 'Secret' Slab in Tenerife

In February a rare forecast lined up for a secret slab in Tenerife when a solid swell and rare Calima winds cropped up. That meant that Maciek Rutkowski (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails), Dieter van der Eyken (Severe / Severne Sails), Jochen Stolz and Adi Beholz (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg) all headed to this secret spot to score an extremely testing session with several narrow misses.

Maciek Rutkowski on the latest episode of #WINDSURFLIFE:”New #WINDSURFLIFE!!! Episode 5 is strictly classified! Secret spot on a secret island in a secret ocean! Secretly big and clean waves, and secretly great fun with the boys!! Please don't tell nobody! with: Enrico Marotti (JP / NeilPryde), Dieter Van der Eyken (Severne / Severne), Jochen Stolz and Adi Beholz."

Dieter van der Eyken: "The session at 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 slab 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 out a bit till you got in the wind line. You have to time the sets a bit so that you don’t get caught in the impact zone. Once 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 safe 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 nonetheless and hopefully we will score some more of those conditions over the next winters on Tenerife!”

You can see episode 5 of #WINDSURFLIFE @ https://youtu.be/GELzXw8ClbU

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