Better late than never!
Back in April this year I poped out to Mundaka, below is a quick report!“Basque”ing in the Sun.
Mundaka is a pleasant, quiet, seaside town in the province of Bizkaia, it also has the best left hand break in Europe!
With this in mind me and Jez from Murky water surf kayaks headed off for 5th annual (I think) Mundaka European surf Kayak championships. Winter 06 – 07 has reputedly been the best ever surf season with waves over 10ft common! Before we arrived at Mundaka the wave had been working for the past 100 days. Then we arrived and it went flat, very very flat! The event organisers however would not be beaten and moved the event 9 miles along the cost to a small beach break called Bakio. Here consistent sets rolled in for Europe’s best to do battle with. The event had a very laid back atmosphere and was split into two classes. HP boat (High Performance) & IC boats (International Class).
Due the relaxed nature of the competition I was never to sure where I ended up position wise, in my HP heat I found myself up against two of the event organisers and the Spanish national champion and oddly enough didn’t make it through my first heat! Never mind. In the IC class I did much better progressing through one heat and until I was disqualified for snaking on one of the Irish team! (Snaking: The surfer who is farthest inside at the initial take off point is entitled to that wave for the duration of his ride. However, if a surfer takes off on the white water behind the first surfer, he will be penalized if the surfer taking off at the peak is forced to pull out and loses the wave.)
In conclusions Mundaka is a terrific spot; although we had no surf while we were there it is easy to see the potential for this epic spot. There are a few bars dotted along the harbor serving coffee and cake in the morning and fantastic tapes’ beer and vodka orange late into the night & early morn.
The Basque organizers put on a great comp and an even better dinner and party that I will definitely be going back to next year hopefully with a little more surf. At the end of play after two days of extreme competition Edu Etxebarria won both the IC and HP class & Darren Bason & Dessie McGlinchey sharing a second and third each. In the Juniors Chris Hobson cleared up and Tamsin Green did so for the ladies, IC master was won by the very lovely Garry Alcote!
posted by Pete @ 7:37 AM
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