Crystal blue seas on the north shore.
Cribby Discovers Gran Canaria with Bjorn Dunkerbeck.
I usually make our readers green with envy as we go brown with sunshine, spending much of the winter in the Southern Hemisphere. But this year we've stayed on the northern side of the planet, (albeit visiting a very southerly European destination) and met someone who makes us look....
"Hello tourists" Bjorn says, "you look ill!" Our strobe light skin was as clear as monofilm after months under thick wetsuits in Ireland. In total contrast Bjorn Dunkerbeck had just arrived back from Feurteventura and was burnt and blistered from too much windsurfing in a shorty.
My trip to the Canaries was conceived at the Ireland PWA event last year, when the Canary crew (Vidar, Orjan, Gerald and Bjorn) stayed on a few extra days to check out our windsurfing and Guinness conditions. During an evening in one of Dingle's fifty three pubs, Bjorn described growing up in Gran Canaria, learning his repetoire of languages and windsurfing skills, nipping around the knees of Euro tourists when he was a little beach punk, at his parents windsurfing centre. In this conversation he tried to convince me that Gran Canaria was not just an ugly island but that it also had it's charm.
When I first heard of the Canaries long before windsurfing came into my life, I envisaged "a paradise of yellow birds fluttering in and out of palm trees." But after seeing the windsurfing images of Pozo from media and friends, all illusions of this tropical dream were understandably lost.
After an eight hour flight delay though, "worst suspicions jumped out on me like a horror film! The eye sores stretching for miles. A never ending motorway weaving it's way through landscapes of rubble like driving through an endless constuction site, tourist hotels the size of shopping malls stacked on top of each other, ghostly plastic litter flapping in the wind, fat tourists with beer bellies as big as trampolines, walking around in Speedos!!"
It wasn't until Bjorn started showing us around that these impressions changed. "A continent on one island" we remembered him saying, whilst following his rallying van around volcanic mountain corners, the earth around us errupting with green explosions. Before we knew it, we were 1500m above the clouds! The tropics were replaced by Greek orange groves, trees in full pink blossom like China, a pine forest with the rich smells of Canada and a green hillside of goats and rocks which as Bjorn pointed out, looked identical to Ireland. We were miles away, mentally and physically, from Gran Canaria's south coast.
Green Gran Canaria.
Tall rocks and cacti, painted with rich red oils at sunset looked like Mars and was totally silent and spectacular, with church bells and dogs barking in distant deep valleys below. "Begrudgingly, I have to agree the views and scenery are absolutely breathtaking" she admitted much to Bjorn's delight. However, she was unconvinced about Bjorn's favourite Gran Canarian tapas dish of mountain goat "stronger flavour than lamb, it's delicious!" he'd claimed.
Concludingtheday, Bjorn, Maria and myself watched a total lunar eclipse, before zigzagging down the rest of the mountain back to sea level. After a five hour tour, Bjorn had proved that Gran Canaria truly had many sides to it's personality.
Bjorn chilled right out in a Gran Canaria cowboy village,
high in the mountains.
Like Gran Canaria, you can't judge Bjorn by his cover either. As he effortlessly kicked mere mortals butts, with his spikey hairdo, 6'5" of muscle and a voice as deep as an ocean he was labelled 'Terminator'. But some of his mates call him Dunky, the big guy (by day) or the little drummer boy (at night). He's way more down to earth than Terminator, and for that matter, most of the other world tour windsurfers. A complete beach bum, yet professional, committed to friends and family and totally considerate of others. And as you've probably guessed, if Bjorn ever gave up his day job of being a windsurfing champion, he'd be a great tour guide.
Windsurfing:
Gran Canaria is arguably the world's best windsurfing location as it's produced three world champions; Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Diada Moreno and Marcos Perez. It's also the windiest place in Europe, if not the whole world, boasting eleven and a half months of wind a year. So why is Gran Canaria very rarely on the list of most people's 'must visit' windsurfing locations?
Bjorn on his day job.
If you've seen the photos or video from the PWA World Cup events at Pozo, where even the 100 kilo Dunkerbeck uses a 3.5m sail, I can understand you not wanting to visit. However these nuclear conditions aren't found during the winter, instead casual 5m weather exists and often has good wave riding.
Bjorn explains how the wind works; "Because Gran Canaria is round, the wind gets squeezed around the widest point of the island. So if the wind is from the north, go to the most eastern point which is Pozo." Bjorn hides behind his van pulling his hat down to imitate the strength of the summer winds. "But when the wind comes more from the east, head further south, to Bahia Feliz or Maspalomas."
One utterly windless morning whilst we were chilling out in the pool at the Dunkerbeck centre in Bahia Feliz, Bjorn dropped in to tell us there was wind in Pozo, only ten minutes away. Despite the light onshore breeze from the opposite direction in Bahia Feliz, the ‘squeeze effect' at Pozo was generating twenty knots of wind! So, check Pozo with your own eyes every day.
"When there's a big north swell the best wave riding conditions are at Mosca Point" Bjorn explains "but if it's small, go to Vargas which has a strong beach break. West swells are mostly blocked by Tenerife so we don't surf or sail on our west coast, instead we go to Maspalomas in the south where the west swell wraps in for good surf and side off shore wave riding conditions, in an easterly wind."
Surfing.
Bjorn takes us surfing on the north coast which gets clean waves, since it is rarely windy. From a restaurant balcony in a white Lego like village clinging to a rocky point, we can see reef and point breaks stretching in both directions. Bjorn points to some swell lines, which were getting steep over a reef out to sea. "Not to be fooled" he explains, "those waves peak higher than this balcony on a big swell." Thankfully not this day! We dived into crystal clear blue, warm seas and perfectly formed fast moving surf. We managed to surf many venues in between drug crazed shanty towns on the outskirts of Las Palmas, vast northern shores to the southern crowded tourist beaches thick with sun tanning lotion, beached red whales and looming hotel structures in places like Peurto Fatso and Punta Del Beergut.
From a restaurant balcony Bjorn pointed to some swell lines which were getting steep over a reef out to sea. "Not to be fooled" he explains, "those waves peak higher than this balcony on a big swell." Thankfully not that day. From the balcony we can see reef and point breaks stretching in both directions along the north shore, with the surf spray creating atmospheric scenery, blending the distant Tenerife with the mountains of Gran Canaria. We surfed many venues from a drug crazed shanty town on the outskirts of Las Palmas, the windless north coast, to the crowded tourist beaches thick with sun tanning lotion and beached red whales in the south.
Pozo Isequirdo.
Looking across a motorway to a moonscape of brown dirt and rock, there's a seaside village dwarfed by modern electric windmills. It's sign posted intimadatingly ‘To The Cemetery' and ‘Pozo Izequierdo'. Passed wind torn plastic covering banana and tomato plantations, passed the cemetery and beyond a desert wasteland where litter is forced to cling to anything and everything by the horizontal wind gravity, we enter Pozo from the north. The first view is of colourful buildings casually stacked on top of each other like shoe boxes, piled together for protection on the heavily pebbled beach, frightened equally of the terrifying seas boiling beneath their balconies and sand blasting winds inland.
Entering the fishing village kids were cycling amongst white washed buildings. A hand painted sign with an arrow reads ‘windsurfing shop' by a beach car park full of camper vans, kit and windsurfers jumping the white water. In a fresh wind, with this wonderful view of easy windsurfing, Pozo looked nothing like the ominous sand blasted venue we've seen on TV. It feels quiet and gentle and Spanish.
We go to La Ola Bar today and every day. The owners welcome windsurfers as a mother welcomes kids. Despite not having a sea view, it reflects windsurfing, is the local haunt of world champions and only a few doors away from where the Pozo twins grew up.
Gran Canaria Locals.
Brothers Vidar and Orjan Jensen, PWA double looping heros were brought up on Gran Canaria, instead of their native country Norway. Lucky for them.
Mrs Jensen, Vidar and Orijan's mum, was the local school teacher at the small Norwiegen language school which her kids and the Dunkerbeck kids went to. After school, back in 1977 Mrs Dunkerbeck, Bjorn and Britt's mum, taught them all how to windsurf, when they were about seven or eight years old. Judging by the professions they all pursued , it seems she was their careers officer too.,
Vidar Jensen has a string of successes on the world tour he's little known for, regularly finishing on the podium for many years, including winning the Costa Brava Freestyle World Cup last year and finishing fourth overall in waves in 1999. One of his toughest rivals for 2001 is going to be his younger brother Orjan, tipped for PWA stardom after winning the PWA Ultra Manouver in Holland last year.
Other born and bred Gran Canarian locals are the famous Pozo twins, Daida and Ibella Rueno Moreno and Marcos Perez, the 1998 Production Wave Board Champion. Other names to look out for in the future are Jonas Ceballos, not only the Spanish Junior Champion in wave and freestyle, but also their 2000 senior champion, and Dario Ojeda, both found regularly flying high through the Pozo skies.
Guy at Pozo.
Gran Canaria Fact File:
Windsurfing:
Winter:
4m smallest sail.
Average 5m.
Side shore wave sailing twice a week
Side on shore four times a week
Good for intermediates to experts.
Summer wetsuit or shorty, no boots.
Summer:
3m smallest sail
4m average
Good for advanced or experts.
Side on shore seven days a week!
Shorty or summer wetsuit.
Getting there:
Sportif
Accommodation:
The Dunkerbeck centre
(Gran Canaria) 0034 938 762958
Food:
Drop Inn Bar at the Dunkerbeck centre.
Who's it for?
Winter;
Windsurfers travelling on a tight budget who like excellent bump 'n' jump and good wave sailing conditions in the warmest place in European winter.
Summer;
Windsurfers who want the world's most extreme and consistant bump 'n' jump conditions.
Ideal for week long holidays as flights are only four hours, departing from most UK airports.
Kit hire.
The Dunkerbeck centre uses Neil Pryde equipment, including much of Bjorn's old PWA kit, which you can either use on site or take elsewhere, to Pozo for instance.
Bjorn and Proof.
After over a decade of wanting to see Bjorn beaten, now that we've seen him second on the podium, exactly what he achieved seems to be sinking in. Bjorn actually stayed on top of the world from his teens to his thirties, and is by no means finished....
"Bjorn is going to win the waves again this year" Gerald Leikermoser of Proof says confidently, "there's nine events on the calander, so let's say six happen, think about it, who's going to beat him in that variety of conditions?" That's a strong argument, as Bjorn does have a very all round ability.
"None of the PWA sailors recognise last year as counting because there were only two events to make a world champion." Gerald adds.
Proof is the Gran Canarian custom board brand owned by Bjorn, Gerald and Carlos Sosa who've been making most of Bjorn's and other top world cup riders boards for years. Now that his contract has expired with F2, Bjorn wants to promote his own brand. Bjorn does the R&D, Carlos and Tad (ex Vitamin Sea shaper from the UK) shape the boards and Gerald runs the marketing and business.
We asked Bjorn what he was thinking standing on the podium for the first time in second place.
"Well it wasn't the first time; I'd been second before when I was 17, the year before I was first." He says jokingly. "It had to happen sooner or later, I'm surprised it took as long as it did! Last year was kind of short with only two wave events, so there was no room for a mistake and I had my worst result I ever had in the world cup in Ireland finishing seventeenth! Then a fourth in the Aloha didn't really do much for my overall."
Were you pissed off at all?
"No. Not at all. I know exactly what happened; we had a few good contests, but not many of them. I was unlucky that Gran Canaria and Sylt didn't happen as I usually do pretty good there" (Bjorn has won almost every event in Gran Canaria and Sylt for over a decade!) "The races that we had were pretty good, but a lot of short courses which don't really suit me. Hopefully next year it's going to be better."
Gerald agrees shrugging his shoulders "Bjorn didn't care at all, in fact he was quite pleased about coming second on F2, not his own brand Proof!"
With SSM leaving, do you think the tour will be better in the future?
"Well they never really did what they promised, that was the problem. All the contests we have now, we have with them, or with out them, regardless. So I hope whoever takes it will do a better job instead of a whole lot of empty promises. I'm definitely going to carry on doing it for a few more years, stepping down to just wave sailing…. No! Stepping up to just wave sailing! There's more and more good sailors in each discipline and less and less sailing for the overall title. Hopefully we're going to have six or more wave contests for this year which should be pretty interesting, and since there's more specialists concentrating in the waves, that's what I'm going to focus on and hopefully improve my performance.
It was always the PWA idea to hold events in more radical places, like the ones in Fiji, Baja or Australia, where conditions are excellent. What I want in the future is some contests in real heavy, radical wave sailing conditions.
I want to sail more in good places around the world because when you do a lot of world cup sailing, you actually have little time to travel to exotic and radical places, as the contests rarely take us there. I want to sail those places before I get too old to actually hit the lip hard, so I guess now is the time to do it!"
Are you going to be more motivated riding your own brand Proof?
"No. My motivation's never been what I've been riding for, it's more my attitude on the water. I want to perform as well as I can and win every contest I enter, (although it hasn't always worked out that way)" he laughs "My motivation is for self improvement."
Of course Bjorn has nothing to proove. At fourteen years old he entered the first ever world cup in Feurteventura and within four years became the world champion, kicking Naish's butt when Robby was in his prime at 26 years old. Bjorn's now 31 and with his own board brand under his feet and without "someone in an office in Austria telling me what to do" 2001 is going to be a very exciting year.