Lanzarote, Island of the Volcano (52 images)

The Island of the Volcano

Lanzarote is, to the surfer, both heaven and hell.
Its waves are amongst the best in the world. Waves that have never been surfed, reefs of rock and sand, continuous swells from the Atlantic... A barely explored surf paradise, in spite of being a territory of the European Union and with constant flights carrying tourists.
The main reason for this "secrecy" is due to its natives' character. The local surfers don't allow strangers to...
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The Island of the Volcano

Lanzarote is, to the surfer, both heaven and hell.
Its waves are amongst the best in the world. Waves that have never been surfed, reefs of rock and sand, continuous swells from the Atlantic... A barely explored surf paradise, in spite of being a territory of the European Union and with constant flights carrying tourists.
The main reason for this "secrecy" is due to its natives' character. The local surfers don't allow strangers to surf into their divine waves. They maintain a battle to dominate what they consider theirs, and prevent the surf tourism from "stealing" their space, their waves, their perfect waves because they break at a low depth -one and a half metres- over a rocky bottom that makes them extremely dangerous. Last year, a local surfer, David Infante, lost his life surfing the waves of El Quemao.
With their peculiar personalities, the local surfers make these waves even more dangerous for those outsiders who try to surf without their permission. Evil looks, insults and even threats to prevent anyone from surfing into those tubes of water that Nature curls up "only" for the locals.
They even throw stones at the photographers to try to prevent the images of their waves from leaving the island.

The surfing community has nicknamed the island the Hawaii of the Atlantic.
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