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Several Club members plan to go to El Medano, Tenerife for a windsurfing holiday on/around Monday 11th November for 7 days or more. Nowhere in the world offers guaranteed wind, but this location seems as reliable as can be and offers a variety of conditions. You are welcome to join them if you wish. The Club isn't acting as a Travel Agent. We can help to pair people up for accommodation purposes, but each person/couple would book direct online or with a Travel Agent, or pay another member for accommodation before they book it on behalf of a few. 

You can decide anytime to come and stay independently, but if you want to stay in a larger apartment with other members you need to commit within 2 days. Dave Martin and Andy Pepper will book their accommodation after 9am Wednesday 2nd October. Contact Dave now - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 07752 993137. John and Trudy will stay at Hotel Medano for 12 nights.

This video gives an excellent overview of the location.

Dave Martin spoke to a couple who visit the resort regularly in November and gleaned this about the conditions:
The North beach, Playa del Cabezo, at El Medano is definitely an experts wave sailing "beach" (more rocks than sand), but the South beach, where all the hire centres are is more user friendly. (https://www.azulkiteboarding.com/en/webcam-2/  https://canariaslife.com/es/camaras-de-tenerife/el-medano/muelle/). Sometimes a bit of shore break, but the main bay is bump and jump territory. There is a waveriding area upwind outside the harbour wall, which when Dave was there years ago was fairly benign, as he says he just got washed up onto a sand bar when things went pear shaped!

Here are some more details to help you decide if you want to go ....

Windsurfing Centre and Hire

Kit hire at Tenerife Windsurf Solution - 6days 355Euro or 7days 410 Euro. Insurance is 39Euro

Package Holiday Option

  • Jet2 Holidays offer flights and 3* Hotel Medano B&B £639pp inc 22Kg hold bag and 10Kg cabin bag and coach transfer. Flight is 9am out and 3pm take off to return.
  • Jet2 don’t offer any apartments. Easyjet and Tui don’t offer any package (flights and accommodation) holidays to El Medano.

Flights

  • Easyjet from Manchester 12.45 out, 18.15 back 11th to 18th £202pp with small cabin bag and a 23Kg hold bag, or £184 with a small and a large cabin bag. Flights from Liverpool may save £20.
  • Jet2 from Manchester, 9am out and 3pm back, is £313pp inc meals, 10Kg hand luggage and 22Kg hold bag (which is an optional extra charge that I’ve included). Going a day earlier and returning a day later brings the price down a little.
  • Can fly from Liverpool 8am out, 1.30pm back Tue 12th to Tue 19th is £235pp inc 2 bags per person and meals. Sunday to Sunday flights are available for just a bit more, or various other days.
  • Tui do Manchester flights 11th to 18th 8.40 out, 13.40 back for £213 with 10Kg cabin bag and an under seat bag. Hold luggage would add £44 or £54 per person.
  • Monday to Monday flights, if not the cheapest overall, are consistently cheaper than most other options

Accommodation - here's a sample from Booking.com -

Apartments for 6 people

Duplex in quiet zone, next to sea, fast WiFi, El Médano (updated prices 2024) (booking.com)

alquilaencanarias El Medano Mirazul Plaza Roja, El Médano (updated prices 2024) (booking.com)

Apartamento Corazón Urbano, El Médano (updated prices 2024) (booking.com)

Apartments for 4

Apartamento en el Médano, El Médano (updated prices 2024) (booking.com)

El Medano Playa del Cabezo, El Médano (updated prices 2024) (booking.com)

Bungalow Balancon duplex, El Médano (updated prices 2024) (booking.com)

Words & photos - John Lymer

What a gem this location is! Pant Yr Onnen Caravan and Camping Site is right on the shore of the lake, at Llangower, about 3.5 miles from the town of Bala. A pleasant distance to cycle. Pay £8 for a hook-up and your pitch is about 30 metres from the lake. Forego electric and you'll be right on the shoreline. Or you can book a Shepherd's hut. The views are fabulous and the light quite special when the sun penetrated gaps in the cloud. Looking down the lake, I could see up to 7 layers of distant hill.

Six members plus family made the late September weekend trip. Maybe more won't commit without the guarantee of wind. You do realise that will never come though? I admit, the forecast for our trip didn't bode that well. The direction was North Easterly, so blowing down the lake - so far, so good. Xcweather and the Met Office had both forecast 10mph gusting to 20ish. As it happened, that seemed quite accurate, though a few whitecaps maybe indicates a bit more than 10mph. Perfect 6.5m windfoiling (7.5m+ windsurfing) on Friday afternoon. It seemed easier than usual, or I've got better. The wind was very clean with none of the huge gusts that we're so used to and that does make a difference. Saturday saw a bit more wind around lunchtime, enough for windsurfing with 6.5m sails. Sometimes bigger would have been better, or swapping fin for foil, but we got out and we got planing, so that's a success! The conditions were also well suited to paddleboarding, kayaking and other boating activities that are popular here. Our members covered windsurfing, windfoiling, wingsurfing and paddleboarding. What a diverse bunch we are!

Here's a video edited from drone footage kindly supplied by a fellow camper.

And here are some stills showing the action ...

Click on a picture to see larger images then use the arrows or swipe to scroll through them

 

We need help from members! Please watch the shoutbox and/or Club Facebook group for dates and try and come when you can

Trees block Northerly/North Westerly/Westerly winds, so those of us doing wind powered sports are keen to manage them. The local bird watching group want more sight lines to the reservoir too, so happily we both want the same thing! We're working hard to combat where trees are encroaching onto the headland in the Nature Reserve area to the West of the clubhouse and have agreed with UU and the bird watchers what we can and can't do and when. The reservoir level is low now - in fact, much lower than we'd like it to be! The only good thing about that is it gives us a few weeks to pull up saplings and cut branches off larger trees in this area. We then cut these up and stack them above high water level (so they don't float away), ideally in a 'dead hedge'. The rotting wood is good for insects and birds then feed off these. And the whole lot shrinks in size massively over time.

Fred is leading the work. He's been going several times each week, sometimes with a few volunteers, and has achieved a lot! But it's a big job, so he/we would like help please.

We're using:

  • tree popper tools borrowed from the bird watching group - these grip small trees/roots and lever them out of the ground
  • mattocks (like a pick axe, but with a  wider, flatter blade) to clear around the base of the tree and sometimes to lever roots
  • rechargeable reciprocating saw and loppers to cut branches
  • brush cutter to cut saplings to about 30cm above ground, so the tree poppers can get to some tree stems

Then we have to gather everything and carry or drag it on a tarpaulin before stacking it near to the fence.

So, there's something everyone can have a go at, whether you like using power tools, hand tools, or prefer just to tidy all the debris away!

 

Here's Fred in his natural environment ...!

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Here's some of the area after trees have been cut to 30cm above ground

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And here's a pile of stumps pulled up in 3 hours by 1 person

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Address

West Pennine Windsurfing Club
Watergrove Reservoir
Wardle
Rochdale
OL12 9NT

WPSC is a not-for-profit Community Amateur Sports Club trading as WPWC