Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1964, one of the hip sounds was a song which described how its lead singer was getting bugged driving up and down the same old strip. He had to find a new place where the kids were hip. Everyone back in those days was hip. They were getting bugged doing the same old thing. They were looking for something new. Mike Love, for it was he who took the lead vocal on the verse in The Beach Boys' "I Get Around", and Brian Wilson, who did the unmistakable falsetto ("I'm a real cool head", "I'm makin' real good bread"; yes, Mike Love really did write such lyrics), merged into one song the group's three principal obsessions in offering tribute to California and the newness of its summertime trinity of surfing, girls and cars. The guys and the buddies would cruise in their Cadillacs to the beach, never miss with the girls they met and impress them with their skills on a surfboard.
Surfing wasn't invented by The Beach Boys, but they sure as God caught its wave. And by 1964, the craze, still only in its Californian infancy, was hitting the beaches of Cornwall as well. The guys, assuming they were lucky enough to have a car, were driving nothing more hip than a Mini or more likely something distinctly un-hip such as a beaten-up Morris Minor. The girls wouldn't all be getting so tanned as California girls, but it mattered not. Newquay was where it was at. It was hip. It was new. There was no more getting bugged driving along the same old strip of the A23 to Brighton and doing the same old thing. Surfing had arrived.
It seems curious to relate that surfing is only some fifty or so years old and curious also to acknowledge that its global popularity owed an awful lot to one pop group, or more accurately one member of one pop group: Brian Wilson. A great deal has been packed into half a century of one sport. Surfing has formed its branch lines - windsurfing, kitesurfing - and it has influenced other sports. BMX tricks owed much to surfing and snowboarding is pretty much surfing on ice.
Reference to snowboarding is pertinent. It assumed the mantle of ultimate sports coolness (the more modern-day hipness), meaning that the guys and buddies of 1964 California (or Cornwall) became the boarding dudes of mountain slopes. They, in turn, breathed new life into sea surfing, inspiring ever more dudedom and surfiedom, now firmly established on boards for kitesurfing.
For the most part, surfing has remained the preserve of the surfie. But not totally. Quite some years ago it became a sport for all the family in Cornwall. Yet curiously, it hadn't, until relatively recently, become an activity that was actively picked up on and made into a tourism niche. Not in Spain at any rate. Now, however, in the endless search of the new and of ceasing to be bugged by the same old strip of beach for just lying on, "el turismo más cool" (yes, that is how it is described - "the coolest tourism") has acquired the status of latest tourism niche craze and one, moreover, for the coolest families.
There are parts of Spain where surfing offers greater opportunities for beach-related tourism than might currently be the case. The Basque Country and Cantabria don't figure in the general sun-and-beach scheme of things, but they do when it comes to surfing. And in Cantabria, they've developed a surfing tourism competitiveness plan, the first one of its type to set out a real strategy for attracting surfing tourists, of whom, it is reckoned, there are 1.5 million new ones each year (globally, that is).
Other parts of Spain which are deemed to be ideal for surfing are the Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Notable by their absence, however, are any of the Balearic Islands. But though there may not be surf around Mallorca of any real surfing potential, there is the potential, starting now to be realised, for surfing's branch lines, such as kitesurfing. And if it is the case that surfing and so therefore the wider world of surfing in its different formats is becoming "el turismo más cool", perhaps rather more attention needs to be paid to the active promotion of kitesurfing and windsurfing. Kitesurfing might be considered to be more an activity for Mallorca's dudes but, as I found out recently in talking with a kitesurfing school in the main centre on the bay of Pollensa, it is catching on with the family tourist as well.
The growth of surfing tourism is such that there is a drive to establish a "Surfing Spain" brand. Which seems fine, though it would be fifty or so years since "Surfing USA".
Showing posts with label Kitesurfing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kitesurfing. Show all posts
Thursday, June 05, 2014
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Go Fly A Kite, Kitesurfers
You probably have a Dutch dude by the name of Gijsbertus Adrianus Panhuise to thank or blame for kitesurfing in Mallorca. G.A.P. took out his first patent on a kite for kitesurfing in 1977, thus indicating that kitesurfing has been around rather longer than might have been imagined and also indicating how quickly different forms of surfing developed: board surfing was really only popularised in the late 1950s.
The history of kitesurfing in Mallorca is more recent - around the turn of the century was when it started to catch on - and it is a minority sport, the consequence in part of the absence of available beaches from which to practise it in summer.
For a time, kitesurfers would turn up on regular beaches, leading, as I once witnessed, to a fist fight when a kite almost decapitated a child. This was on Playa de Muro beach. There are no longer any rogue kitesurfers taking to the waters in summer where the beach is populated, though the same stretch of beach does attract kitesurfers in winter when there aren't sunbathers or swimmers to maim. Further along the beach, the part known as Es Comú, a rustic beach backed by dunes, there is an established kitesurfing presence in summer, one sanctioned sufficiently that during the recent fiesta in Playa de Muro, it was possible to give kitesurfing a go.
The Es Comú beach, because there are no hotels, houses or road next to it, is not contentious. The beach itself, except on Sundays, is quiet during the summer months. It is awkward to get to, if you have to hump your kitesurf kit, but its location is more or less perfect, the winds from the exposed coastline of the bay of Alcúdia affording good conditions for the sport.
Another beach, also exposed, is altogether more contentious when it comes to kitesurfing. As I understand it, Es Comú and the beach at La Marina by Barcarès are the only two locations on Mallorca where kitesurfing can be performed to any great extent. There is a further beach in the south, but the area is strictly limited. In the bay of Pollensa, kitesurfing has grown to the extent that it is no longer confined to La Marina, it is also practised from beaches by the two hotel complexes along the road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa - Club Pollentia and Club Sol.
But it is kitesurfing at La Marina which has caused most of the controversy, especially since the extension of permission for its practice earlier this summer and the establishment of a training school. The number of kitesurfers has increased significantly, and the local residents are distinctly hacked off as a result.
For some time, banners have been hanging from houses overlooking La Marina beach. One says: "Flysurf school, no thanks" (flysurf is the same as kitesurfing). The residents object to the kitesurfers for different reasons, one of them being safety.
Kitesurfing can be dangerous, but the danger is not only that from a kite which goes out of control, there is the danger that also comes from the location at La Marina and at others along the bay road. This particular road is notorious for accidents, some horrors having occurred on it over the years, especially by the bend in the road, right by where the objectors' banners can be seen. The road is dangerous because vehicles go too quickly or too slowly. Too quickly and they might collide with the constant movement of people crossing the road with their kitesurf kit. Too slowly, which is the case with many spectating drivers, and someone smashes into the back or takes it upon himself to overtake and go head on with a car that is moving too quickly in the opposite direction. Cars can also suddenly just stop or slow to park off the road with barely any indication, if at all.
The problem with the kitesurfing at La Marina is, from a road-safety point of view, that it has become a tourist attraction, and La Marina will continue to attract more and more kitesurfers because, and unlike Es Comú, it is right next to a main road and so easy to just park up and disgorge the kit. And the parking is another complaint the residents have, which is understandable. At times, there are vehicles all over the place, poorly parked. To this, there is noise, rubbish and everything else that goes with a concentration of people.
A compromise needs to be found and measures put in place to ensure safety, but it is difficult to know what this compromise or these measures could be or indeed who would initiate them. As too often with matters by the coast, there is confusion as to which authority does what, as the residents have discovered over several years in getting no joy from the town hall and the police and the Costas, to which should also be added the Council of Mallorca which is responsible for the road.
There is going to be a nasty accident one of these days.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The history of kitesurfing in Mallorca is more recent - around the turn of the century was when it started to catch on - and it is a minority sport, the consequence in part of the absence of available beaches from which to practise it in summer.
For a time, kitesurfers would turn up on regular beaches, leading, as I once witnessed, to a fist fight when a kite almost decapitated a child. This was on Playa de Muro beach. There are no longer any rogue kitesurfers taking to the waters in summer where the beach is populated, though the same stretch of beach does attract kitesurfers in winter when there aren't sunbathers or swimmers to maim. Further along the beach, the part known as Es Comú, a rustic beach backed by dunes, there is an established kitesurfing presence in summer, one sanctioned sufficiently that during the recent fiesta in Playa de Muro, it was possible to give kitesurfing a go.
The Es Comú beach, because there are no hotels, houses or road next to it, is not contentious. The beach itself, except on Sundays, is quiet during the summer months. It is awkward to get to, if you have to hump your kitesurf kit, but its location is more or less perfect, the winds from the exposed coastline of the bay of Alcúdia affording good conditions for the sport.
Another beach, also exposed, is altogether more contentious when it comes to kitesurfing. As I understand it, Es Comú and the beach at La Marina by Barcarès are the only two locations on Mallorca where kitesurfing can be performed to any great extent. There is a further beach in the south, but the area is strictly limited. In the bay of Pollensa, kitesurfing has grown to the extent that it is no longer confined to La Marina, it is also practised from beaches by the two hotel complexes along the road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa - Club Pollentia and Club Sol.
But it is kitesurfing at La Marina which has caused most of the controversy, especially since the extension of permission for its practice earlier this summer and the establishment of a training school. The number of kitesurfers has increased significantly, and the local residents are distinctly hacked off as a result.
For some time, banners have been hanging from houses overlooking La Marina beach. One says: "Flysurf school, no thanks" (flysurf is the same as kitesurfing). The residents object to the kitesurfers for different reasons, one of them being safety.
Kitesurfing can be dangerous, but the danger is not only that from a kite which goes out of control, there is the danger that also comes from the location at La Marina and at others along the bay road. This particular road is notorious for accidents, some horrors having occurred on it over the years, especially by the bend in the road, right by where the objectors' banners can be seen. The road is dangerous because vehicles go too quickly or too slowly. Too quickly and they might collide with the constant movement of people crossing the road with their kitesurf kit. Too slowly, which is the case with many spectating drivers, and someone smashes into the back or takes it upon himself to overtake and go head on with a car that is moving too quickly in the opposite direction. Cars can also suddenly just stop or slow to park off the road with barely any indication, if at all.
The problem with the kitesurfing at La Marina is, from a road-safety point of view, that it has become a tourist attraction, and La Marina will continue to attract more and more kitesurfers because, and unlike Es Comú, it is right next to a main road and so easy to just park up and disgorge the kit. And the parking is another complaint the residents have, which is understandable. At times, there are vehicles all over the place, poorly parked. To this, there is noise, rubbish and everything else that goes with a concentration of people.
A compromise needs to be found and measures put in place to ensure safety, but it is difficult to know what this compromise or these measures could be or indeed who would initiate them. As too often with matters by the coast, there is confusion as to which authority does what, as the residents have discovered over several years in getting no joy from the town hall and the police and the Costas, to which should also be added the Council of Mallorca which is responsible for the road.
There is going to be a nasty accident one of these days.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Surf's Up
Things you can't take to the beach - or shouldn't, must not: pets (goldfish presumably not, but mainly dogs); camping gear, cooking devices; boats, kites for surfing, jet-skis, super tankers, nuclear submarines - oh, and windsurf boards and sails. Or to clarify. Dogs are not irregular visitors to the beach, but no-one seems to much do anything about them; jet-skis, kitesurfs can be taken so long as they are in the "sports zones" or beaches set aside, such as - for kitesurfing - La Marina in Alcúdia and Es Comú in Playa de Muro. And also windsurfs.
On the beach in Playa de Muro three windsurfers were making their way back to shore. A lifeguard was on patrol. The whistle went and there ensued much gesticulation, discussion and talking into his two-way by the lifeguard. Plod arrived. Plod on water. Plod on a jet-ski, carefully brought into shore without the engine in full blast. More discussion.
Windsurfing, unlike jet-skis and kitesurfing is not particularly dangerous in terms of potential harm to other sea users. So long as there are not many of them and the windsurfer knows what he or she is doing. As soon as there are a load of them and those who don't know what they're doing, then there is the potential for harm. Hence, you cannot windsurf wherever takes your fancy. Them's the rules. Except for those who believe that the rules are there for others. It is not a uniquely Spanish thing, but there is a definite trait that says rules are for others - this manifests itself in various ways, one of which is bringing the windsurf board, the jet-ski or the kite to the beaches where they shouldn't be. Probably along with the dog as well.
The kitesurfing that occurs at La Marina has become something of a sightseeing spot. When the wind is blowing, as it often does there, the skies are full of colour and of Charlie Browners performing mobes. It is a spectacle. But unfortunately it is also quite dangerous. Not because of the kitesurfing per se, but because of the rubber-neckers, the Charlie Browners (kitesurfers) themselves and those drivers who just suddenly stop. The road here is a blackspot, which is why there are always floral tributes. The kitesurfers wander and run across the road to their cars; tourists pull up with little warning or poodle along too slowly. There's going to be an incident there.
Museum piece
More on museums. The Inca footwear museum controversy continues. The opposition Partido Popular at the town hall has denounced the extra costs of 800,000 euros for the museum. It says that it has been known for five years that extra funding would be needed and that the whole project has been a "botched job". Meanwhile, the projected new Pollentia museum in Alcúdia is to be funded courtesy of money from the central government. The sub-director for state museums, and there is such an individual, has promised the consortium (the town hall and agencies of the Mallorca Council and regional government) that the money will be forthcoming under budgets for 2011. So, work is unlikely to start till then. The level of funding has not been disclosed but is believed to be in the region of three million euros.
And still on local project funding. Threequarters of a million euros have been forked out to create the park by La Gola in Puerto Pollensa. This has been a colossal waste of money. It should have been reserved only to keep the water clean and free of the stagnation it has been prone to; the rest, pointless. Doubly pointless as the park is not being maintained properly. It is full of dog shit and litter and benches have graffiti. One has the impression that officialdom has washed its hands of the whole thing; there hasn't even been an official opening.
Palma bombs
Two bombs in bar-restaurants in Palma. No injuries. A third has gone off in the Plaza Mayor. There was a call purporting to come from ETA. The chief prosecutor for the Balearics believes that this indicates the likelihood of there being an ETA group on the island.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Shakira, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL0xp6XIp0Y. Today's title - one of the greatest songs ever.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
On the beach in Playa de Muro three windsurfers were making their way back to shore. A lifeguard was on patrol. The whistle went and there ensued much gesticulation, discussion and talking into his two-way by the lifeguard. Plod arrived. Plod on water. Plod on a jet-ski, carefully brought into shore without the engine in full blast. More discussion.
Windsurfing, unlike jet-skis and kitesurfing is not particularly dangerous in terms of potential harm to other sea users. So long as there are not many of them and the windsurfer knows what he or she is doing. As soon as there are a load of them and those who don't know what they're doing, then there is the potential for harm. Hence, you cannot windsurf wherever takes your fancy. Them's the rules. Except for those who believe that the rules are there for others. It is not a uniquely Spanish thing, but there is a definite trait that says rules are for others - this manifests itself in various ways, one of which is bringing the windsurf board, the jet-ski or the kite to the beaches where they shouldn't be. Probably along with the dog as well.
The kitesurfing that occurs at La Marina has become something of a sightseeing spot. When the wind is blowing, as it often does there, the skies are full of colour and of Charlie Browners performing mobes. It is a spectacle. But unfortunately it is also quite dangerous. Not because of the kitesurfing per se, but because of the rubber-neckers, the Charlie Browners (kitesurfers) themselves and those drivers who just suddenly stop. The road here is a blackspot, which is why there are always floral tributes. The kitesurfers wander and run across the road to their cars; tourists pull up with little warning or poodle along too slowly. There's going to be an incident there.
Museum piece
More on museums. The Inca footwear museum controversy continues. The opposition Partido Popular at the town hall has denounced the extra costs of 800,000 euros for the museum. It says that it has been known for five years that extra funding would be needed and that the whole project has been a "botched job". Meanwhile, the projected new Pollentia museum in Alcúdia is to be funded courtesy of money from the central government. The sub-director for state museums, and there is such an individual, has promised the consortium (the town hall and agencies of the Mallorca Council and regional government) that the money will be forthcoming under budgets for 2011. So, work is unlikely to start till then. The level of funding has not been disclosed but is believed to be in the region of three million euros.
And still on local project funding. Threequarters of a million euros have been forked out to create the park by La Gola in Puerto Pollensa. This has been a colossal waste of money. It should have been reserved only to keep the water clean and free of the stagnation it has been prone to; the rest, pointless. Doubly pointless as the park is not being maintained properly. It is full of dog shit and litter and benches have graffiti. One has the impression that officialdom has washed its hands of the whole thing; there hasn't even been an official opening.
Palma bombs
Two bombs in bar-restaurants in Palma. No injuries. A third has gone off in the Plaza Mayor. There was a call purporting to come from ETA. The chief prosecutor for the Balearics believes that this indicates the likelihood of there being an ETA group on the island.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Shakira, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL0xp6XIp0Y. Today's title - one of the greatest songs ever.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Day At The Dog Races
So I happen to pass by the Lluna leather shop in Puerto Pollensa, and Joana is busy swabbing the street. Yes, the street. There ensues a touch of small talk during which I comment, jokingly, that it's good for business to keep the shop front clean. Only thing is, this isn't a joke. What's with the town hall and the rubbish and the streets, asks I. The chap with the street-cleaning machine used to come by three or four times a summer. Not now he doesn't. I look down at the pavement that has yet to be treated with Joana's liquid. And afterwards I walk the streets, my head bowed.
I suppose the thing is that years of Greece, France and Spain have maybe inured me to the pavements or at least to what is on them. I observe much, but the walkways tend to pass me by, or I pass them by and over without much in the way of a glance or more detailed study. Until today. It's only when you really scrutinise what you're walking on that you realise that, yes, it is actually pretty filthy. Dog shit is one thing; the other is the regularity of stains of all sorts. And then I think again of all those nutters who take to the pavements without anything on their feet. You hope to God they don't go jumping into pools straight after without having been treated with industrial disinfectant.
There was this thing today in the press about a push to improve ever more the quality of hotels as part of a drive to attract more tourism. Which is all very fine. But you worry that there is an ever widening gap between the splendrous facades of tourism and the untreated splatters on the streets and sidewalks. And they want more pedestrianisation. Let's hope they find someone to clean it. Personally, it doesn't really bother me; it's that inurement, though I am as hacked off as anyone by crap or chewing-gum on the soles. But that's only me. There are plenty who are far more sensitive, and not without reason.
Maybe it's just all this "bloody country". Those aren't my words. They are the words of a bar-owner in Puerto Pollensa. The bar in question was closed today. Very unusual. Want to know why? They'd had the electricity cut off. Not that they hadn't paid bills; they had. It was just that they'd paid the wrong bills; someone else's. It was all a bit of an electricity company admin mistake - cock-up in other words. And so they were left with a day's loss of revenue and having to pay their bills before being credited for the ones that they had paid. I mention this because it's not the first time these particular people have had an issue with electricity bills. They used to rent a villa; quite a nice villa. Quiet area, with just a smaller place neighbouring; a smaller place belonging to the owner. Except that smaller place shouldn't, strictly speaking, have been there. The questionable legality of its presence didn't appear to deter the owner too much; not when it came to some jiggery-pokery with the electricity metering. They, it came to pass, discovered that they were paying for the other place's electricity consumption as well.
So having seen the street swabbing and heard the saga of the bills, I wandered off, examining the paths of Puerto Pollensa and mulling over lines about who let the dogs out or having gone to the dogs being quite literally the case what with the on-street dog powdering of the nose; lines about dog day afternoon as it is now past noon, or day at the dog races because of perambulation but with obstacles of a canine faecal variety. And then there's this noise as I'm staring down at the physical representation of the name Carrer Metge Llopis. I look up and it's this apartments development. Why are they working on this? Is this a tourist area or what? Is this August or have I been transported to November? What happened to suspension of works? So I'm looking up and I walk away and it's a sixth sense that makes me focus again on the pavement. It would have completely ruined my afternoon, had I stood in it.
KITESURFERS FACE FINES
Following on from the piece of 26 August, comes news, as noted in the "Diario", that kitesurfers who act with "imprudence" could cop fines of up to 3000 euros. Essentially what this refers to is if kitesurfing is practised in areas that are strictly for swimming. One of the reasons for the concentration of kitesurfers at La Marina in Pollensa bay is that the beach there is "free" in that there is no demarcation of a swim zone.
The kities are asking for an increase in the number of beaches that are designated for what is a fast-growing sport. They are also saying that their own diligence, when it comes to safety and training, reduces the risk of accidents. And one does detect a definite increase in responsibility, whether this has been out of personal choice or enforced. As an example, back of me in Playa de Muro there used to be kitesurfers in what is a swim area. Not now there aren't. I did wonder last year why the Guardia used to turn up now and then. Perhaps this was the reason. There was once an almighty set-to when a kite came down close to some kids in the water.
But kitesurfing is not the only thing that is banned from the beaches. Boats are also forbidden. Yet there is a guy here who these past couple of weeks has turned up every afternoon with his Laser and launched it off the local beach. The beach sign is quite clear. No boats. One wonders why the lifeguards don't say anything; they patrol up and down the beach regularly. It's not a case of spoiling people's fun, just that the beach and the sea have become potentially more dangerous since the advent of all the various bits of kit that nowadays manifest themselves. This is why there are "sports areas" off beaches. Let the sea be a free-for-all, and it would be chaos.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Nightswimming" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8sr4oCS94). Today's title - one of the great American bands, though you'd be doing well to get this.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
I suppose the thing is that years of Greece, France and Spain have maybe inured me to the pavements or at least to what is on them. I observe much, but the walkways tend to pass me by, or I pass them by and over without much in the way of a glance or more detailed study. Until today. It's only when you really scrutinise what you're walking on that you realise that, yes, it is actually pretty filthy. Dog shit is one thing; the other is the regularity of stains of all sorts. And then I think again of all those nutters who take to the pavements without anything on their feet. You hope to God they don't go jumping into pools straight after without having been treated with industrial disinfectant.
There was this thing today in the press about a push to improve ever more the quality of hotels as part of a drive to attract more tourism. Which is all very fine. But you worry that there is an ever widening gap between the splendrous facades of tourism and the untreated splatters on the streets and sidewalks. And they want more pedestrianisation. Let's hope they find someone to clean it. Personally, it doesn't really bother me; it's that inurement, though I am as hacked off as anyone by crap or chewing-gum on the soles. But that's only me. There are plenty who are far more sensitive, and not without reason.
Maybe it's just all this "bloody country". Those aren't my words. They are the words of a bar-owner in Puerto Pollensa. The bar in question was closed today. Very unusual. Want to know why? They'd had the electricity cut off. Not that they hadn't paid bills; they had. It was just that they'd paid the wrong bills; someone else's. It was all a bit of an electricity company admin mistake - cock-up in other words. And so they were left with a day's loss of revenue and having to pay their bills before being credited for the ones that they had paid. I mention this because it's not the first time these particular people have had an issue with electricity bills. They used to rent a villa; quite a nice villa. Quiet area, with just a smaller place neighbouring; a smaller place belonging to the owner. Except that smaller place shouldn't, strictly speaking, have been there. The questionable legality of its presence didn't appear to deter the owner too much; not when it came to some jiggery-pokery with the electricity metering. They, it came to pass, discovered that they were paying for the other place's electricity consumption as well.
So having seen the street swabbing and heard the saga of the bills, I wandered off, examining the paths of Puerto Pollensa and mulling over lines about who let the dogs out or having gone to the dogs being quite literally the case what with the on-street dog powdering of the nose; lines about dog day afternoon as it is now past noon, or day at the dog races because of perambulation but with obstacles of a canine faecal variety. And then there's this noise as I'm staring down at the physical representation of the name Carrer Metge Llopis. I look up and it's this apartments development. Why are they working on this? Is this a tourist area or what? Is this August or have I been transported to November? What happened to suspension of works? So I'm looking up and I walk away and it's a sixth sense that makes me focus again on the pavement. It would have completely ruined my afternoon, had I stood in it.
KITESURFERS FACE FINES
Following on from the piece of 26 August, comes news, as noted in the "Diario", that kitesurfers who act with "imprudence" could cop fines of up to 3000 euros. Essentially what this refers to is if kitesurfing is practised in areas that are strictly for swimming. One of the reasons for the concentration of kitesurfers at La Marina in Pollensa bay is that the beach there is "free" in that there is no demarcation of a swim zone.
The kities are asking for an increase in the number of beaches that are designated for what is a fast-growing sport. They are also saying that their own diligence, when it comes to safety and training, reduces the risk of accidents. And one does detect a definite increase in responsibility, whether this has been out of personal choice or enforced. As an example, back of me in Playa de Muro there used to be kitesurfers in what is a swim area. Not now there aren't. I did wonder last year why the Guardia used to turn up now and then. Perhaps this was the reason. There was once an almighty set-to when a kite came down close to some kids in the water.
But kitesurfing is not the only thing that is banned from the beaches. Boats are also forbidden. Yet there is a guy here who these past couple of weeks has turned up every afternoon with his Laser and launched it off the local beach. The beach sign is quite clear. No boats. One wonders why the lifeguards don't say anything; they patrol up and down the beach regularly. It's not a case of spoiling people's fun, just that the beach and the sea have become potentially more dangerous since the advent of all the various bits of kit that nowadays manifest themselves. This is why there are "sports areas" off beaches. Let the sea be a free-for-all, and it would be chaos.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Nightswimming" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8sr4oCS94). Today's title - one of the great American bands, though you'd be doing well to get this.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Catch The Wind
"Charlie Browner", "chicken bone", "donkey dick". At some point in the future, an Olympics will doubtless will be treated to an expanded lexicography as the games add yet another sport. Kitesurfing.
Windsurfing, which is an Olympics sport, is in retreat against the onslaught of the kite variety; at least that is so here. The gathering of kities (Charlie Browners) at La Marina beach on Pollensa bay has grown significantly over the years. Whereas once there were only a dozen or so kites, now the air over the sea seems to be filled with hundreds of inflatables of reds, yellows, blues, blacks, whites - a collage of multi-coloured technology grasped by those in pursuit of air time and the demonstration of "mobes", the tricks of the kitesurfing trade.
The La Marina kitesurfing exhibitions have reached the stage of the spectacular. They have become a tourist attraction in their own right. Drive along the coast road and see the cars stopped and the passengers disgorged with their cameras. Kitesurfing can be a dangerous sport and watching it is not without danger on what is a notorious stretch of road.
Surfing of all varieties has had its roots in communities of thrill-seekers. It is not so long ago that surfing was an obscure pastime; you can argue that the Californian early '60s saw the real birth of sea riding, when the local college kids would care whether they had enough money to fill the tank of a Chevvy in order to get to the beach and catch the wave. And from all this grew catch the wind, which brings us up to date and to the kitesurfing off the shores of Mallorca.
The communities of kities that take to the water and to the air are populated by those in constant search of the right conditions. It's as if everything else is put on hold when the wind is right and the kit can be hauled onto a beach in anticipation of a good cross-wind. Onshore and offshore winds are not the right conditions. Too fierce and the wind can be "nuking".
This is not a cheap or an uncomplicated sport. It can cost up to 1500 euros for all the kit, while the safety measures and the actual art of kitesurfing make for something more complex than may appear to those watching through camera lenses. The focus on safety is important. I had always understood that instruction in kitesurfing was banned here, but today's "Diario" points out that lessons cost 30 euros and quotes a guy from a shop called Pipe Line who offers such lessons. Perhaps the responsibility towards safety has persuaded the authorities to grant licences. Someone has to have been engaged in instruction; the growth in the sport locally hasn't happened just by chance.
PUERTO POLLENSA FRONTLINE UPDATE
Well the mayor has diverted his attention away from normal matters to do with water in order to tackle, if that isn't exaggerating things, the unrest surrounding the trial closure of the frontline. Not everyone is happy, which will come as no surprise. So the mayor's going to have a meeting with the unhappies, which begs the question - shouldn't he have done so before now? Whilst pedestrianisation has much to commend it (and one should remember that this is only as yet a trial), there is a point at which it becomes an inconvenience, whilst the exceptions, e.g. for buses, taxis, police and emergency and deliveries, make it questionable in the first place. "The Bulletin" today points out that the new road remains virtually unused, while the coast road remains the key thoroughfare. It's a fair comment, but only up to a point. Not only does the sign at the roundabout as one joins the new road point along the coast road to the "centre", thus obviously directing traffic away from the new road, the coast road is more direct. The new road is a bypass, not a means of access, even if roads off do create some of this access.
People are also whingeing about a lack of information. I drove along the coast road today and saw nary a sign saying anything. Maybe there was and I missed it, but what I did see were numerous no-parking signs taped up with bin-liners ready to be unveiled to an unsuspecting motoring public. The thing is, if you take away all the parking that is currently available, where on Earth are people going to park? And this includes not only residents but also those with hire cars staying at seaview hotels such as the Uyal. Presumably, it gets pushed into the side roads. And that is going to piss the residents off even more. Trial by road closure. Yep, reckon it will be.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - this great film with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek was set in South Dakota; the badlands refer to the terrain to be found there and in North Dakota. Today's title - hippy-dippy, British Dylan.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Windsurfing, which is an Olympics sport, is in retreat against the onslaught of the kite variety; at least that is so here. The gathering of kities (Charlie Browners) at La Marina beach on Pollensa bay has grown significantly over the years. Whereas once there were only a dozen or so kites, now the air over the sea seems to be filled with hundreds of inflatables of reds, yellows, blues, blacks, whites - a collage of multi-coloured technology grasped by those in pursuit of air time and the demonstration of "mobes", the tricks of the kitesurfing trade.
The La Marina kitesurfing exhibitions have reached the stage of the spectacular. They have become a tourist attraction in their own right. Drive along the coast road and see the cars stopped and the passengers disgorged with their cameras. Kitesurfing can be a dangerous sport and watching it is not without danger on what is a notorious stretch of road.
Surfing of all varieties has had its roots in communities of thrill-seekers. It is not so long ago that surfing was an obscure pastime; you can argue that the Californian early '60s saw the real birth of sea riding, when the local college kids would care whether they had enough money to fill the tank of a Chevvy in order to get to the beach and catch the wave. And from all this grew catch the wind, which brings us up to date and to the kitesurfing off the shores of Mallorca.
The communities of kities that take to the water and to the air are populated by those in constant search of the right conditions. It's as if everything else is put on hold when the wind is right and the kit can be hauled onto a beach in anticipation of a good cross-wind. Onshore and offshore winds are not the right conditions. Too fierce and the wind can be "nuking".
This is not a cheap or an uncomplicated sport. It can cost up to 1500 euros for all the kit, while the safety measures and the actual art of kitesurfing make for something more complex than may appear to those watching through camera lenses. The focus on safety is important. I had always understood that instruction in kitesurfing was banned here, but today's "Diario" points out that lessons cost 30 euros and quotes a guy from a shop called Pipe Line who offers such lessons. Perhaps the responsibility towards safety has persuaded the authorities to grant licences. Someone has to have been engaged in instruction; the growth in the sport locally hasn't happened just by chance.
PUERTO POLLENSA FRONTLINE UPDATE
Well the mayor has diverted his attention away from normal matters to do with water in order to tackle, if that isn't exaggerating things, the unrest surrounding the trial closure of the frontline. Not everyone is happy, which will come as no surprise. So the mayor's going to have a meeting with the unhappies, which begs the question - shouldn't he have done so before now? Whilst pedestrianisation has much to commend it (and one should remember that this is only as yet a trial), there is a point at which it becomes an inconvenience, whilst the exceptions, e.g. for buses, taxis, police and emergency and deliveries, make it questionable in the first place. "The Bulletin" today points out that the new road remains virtually unused, while the coast road remains the key thoroughfare. It's a fair comment, but only up to a point. Not only does the sign at the roundabout as one joins the new road point along the coast road to the "centre", thus obviously directing traffic away from the new road, the coast road is more direct. The new road is a bypass, not a means of access, even if roads off do create some of this access.
People are also whingeing about a lack of information. I drove along the coast road today and saw nary a sign saying anything. Maybe there was and I missed it, but what I did see were numerous no-parking signs taped up with bin-liners ready to be unveiled to an unsuspecting motoring public. The thing is, if you take away all the parking that is currently available, where on Earth are people going to park? And this includes not only residents but also those with hire cars staying at seaview hotels such as the Uyal. Presumably, it gets pushed into the side roads. And that is going to piss the residents off even more. Trial by road closure. Yep, reckon it will be.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - this great film with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek was set in South Dakota; the badlands refer to the terrain to be found there and in North Dakota. Today's title - hippy-dippy, British Dylan.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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