Surfers waving goodbye
2005-06-27 13:21
Mundaka, Spain - Something is missing this year from a Spanish beach that's a magnet for top-rated surfers from all over the world - waves.
The beach at this picturesque village is famous for tubelike waves that unusually crash left-to-right instead of right-to-left. Mundaka is part of surfing's World Championship Tour, and merchants depend on the estimated 10 000 surfing buffs that flock here every summer.
This year, however, the waves look like mere ripples lapping at the shore.
Some say politicians have botched it all by allowing dredging of the sea late last year to make it easier for vessels to leave a shipyard about 4km away.
Oceanographers from the Basque government are analysing the waters off Mundaka but have not reached a conclusion on what's gone wrong.
"This year we don't know yet whether we will host the championship," says Michael Dobos, 37, from Deland, Florida. He's a surfing instructor who has lived in Mundaka since 1997.
"What happened here is incredible. This is a protected marine area, but politicians don't care," says Mertxe Arrasate, 51, owner of a small hotel.
Local surfer Iker Erauzkin, 26, is not sure where the problem lies. "It could be the dredging, but it could also have something to do with nature itself, he said.
Whatever the reason, he said, the surfing has been dismal since January.
Tubular shape
The famed Mundaka wave used to run in a lovely tubular shape far from the shore, moving steadily across an estuary and giving surfers a nice, long ride. Now it breaks nearer to the beach and doesn't pack nearly the same punch.
Many surfers have already started travelling to the south of France.
"We live from tourism. In the summer more than 10 000 surfers gather here. If they don't come we'll run into difficulties," says Maria Rosario Alkorta, who works in a hotel.
Craig Sage, a 47-year-old Australian, runs a local surfing shop and is one of the organisers of the World Championship. He has lived in Mundaka for more than two decades and is one of the pioneers of this sport on the Basque coast of northern Spain.
"Surfing tourism is essential for this place, but there is something more. Mundaka is the symbol for surfing in Europe. If we lose it, it will be like losing part of our soul," he said.
- AP