Thursday, 07 April 2011 16:27 |
The wind forecast this morning was predicting very light wind, however upon reaching the event site the wind was howling ferociously from about 25-30 knots with gusts up to 40 knots. Race director Olaf Van Tol announced that he would hold off on running the competition until the wind diminished a bit, and the wave conditions improved. Near 3:00pm the swell had built nicely and a few surfers took advantage of the clean breaking left and right hand waves, however the wind was dropping more rapidly than anticipated. All The Canary Islands occasionally suffer from calimas, most often in the winter months. The calima is a hot and oppressive wind and occurs when there is high pressure over The Sahara, which in turn drives a southerly wind towards Lanzarote. During a calima the air turns a red / brown color and you can literally smell the sand in the air from The Sahara Desert. The calima can last from half a day up to three days, and the aftermath is that everything on the island is covered in a film of sand. Near 4:00pm, Van Tol released all riders for the day mentioning that the skippers meeting is set for tomorrow at 12:00pm. The Lanzarote Santakitepro 2010 organized by La Santa Surf and sponsored in part by: Cabildo de Lanzarote, Ayuntamiento de Teguise, Lanzarote Reserva de Biosfera, Costa Teguise, Santa Surf, Servicio Insular de Deportes, Sand Beach Active, Club de Kite y Surf, Logistics World Events, Costa Noroeste, and Alayon. http://www.internationalkiteboarding.org |