BOSS BEACH

Cotillo – the very name used to strike fear into mast manufacturers. Its notorious waves gave birth to many fledgling pro careers and death to many rigs in wave sailing’s formative years. Located on the NW shore of Fuerteventura, it’s a beach break with a reputation as one of the heaviest in the archipelago and deservedly so – when it comes to Canarian beach breaks, Cotillo is the boss. On their final day of a four-day stint in the Canary Islands, John Carter and Timo Mullen on a high from an epic session with current men’s world champion Philip Koester in Jameos Del Agua in Lanzarote decided to go 2 for 2 and sail with women’s world champion Iballa Moreno and take on the challenge of Cotillo! John, Iballa, Timo and Corky Kirkham tell us more about the session and their relationship with the island.

- John Carter, Timo Mullen, Iballa Moreno, Corky Kirkham

JOHN CARTER

Located just a twenty-five minute ferry ride from Lanzarote, the crossing to Fuerteventura is relatively simple if you are organised. Our only slight issue was that we were not allowed to drop our hire car on a different island to the original pick-up. Fortunately Cicar (www.cicar.com) had an office right at the ferry port in Playa Blanca so we were able to drop it there and then rent another car from www.cabreramedina.com in Corralejo port in Fuerteventura, who also allowed an airport drop off. That saved us a lot of money not having to pay for a car on the ferry and also made the whole multi-island adventure much easier; it was just a matter of hand carrying our luggage on and off the Fred Olsen ferry. As for the board bags, they have a luggage vehicle that easily fitted all the equipment and made the journey relatively effortless. A passenger single on the ferry is around 30 euro and there are plenty of seats inside and out on deck for you to enjoy the scenic journey between Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Lobos island. Just to make sure we were not leaving behind a totally epic day in Lanzarote, we had woken at 6am, driven to Jameos and checked the spot before making our final decision to head to Fuerteventura. The swell had dropped slightly from the previous day, so we headed to Playa Blanca for the 10am crossing, to hopefully score a session at Cotillo in the afternoon on the building tide. There are three ferry companies that operate between the islands and with a very short crossing time, a day trip would not be out of the question.