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Published: October 29th 2010
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Mundaka 6-8ft. After a month in Portugal we entered Spain in the Galicia region. At this point in time the weather was pretty bad and we had a couple of rough nights sleeping in the van, copping the full brunt of the wind and rain straight from the ocean. We kept free camping all along the coast but didnt find many waves due to the weather. Also, after september most shops and tourism places are closed, so there wasnt much else to do except head towards France. The scenery in that part of spain was pretty epic though. It was very green and mountainous, totally different from the dry and arid mediterranean coast.
One day we arrived at a well known surf spot called Rodiles. We got there late afternoon after driving for a while looking for a place to camp. When we got there the wind was affecting the surf but i went out for a paddle anyway. My first attempt at getting out failed and i was dragged down the beach. I came back in disheartened and then the wind really started howling and it was raining heavily. I almost gave up and went back to the van but i
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Look for the snapped board... One of many. saw two guys paddling out from a different spot on the beach so i decided to give it another shot. The effort paid off because the rain cleared and the wind dropped off as soon as i got out there. Turned out the other two guys were from New Zealand and we had it to ourselves for a while. We got some good waves, then within about 20 minutes there were 20 locals out there!!
We ended up pulling our van up next to the Kiwis for the night. The next day was no good for surfing so we did nothing and contemplated whether or not to leave. During the day people came and went checking the surf and by nightfall we had a crew of 4 white GB vans chilling in the car park. There were four guys from NZ and two van loads of guys from Southern England. We decided to stay another night and spent the night in the carpark playing drinking games. Good bunch of people and good times!! The next morning the boys were up before sunlight, suiting up and rushing down to the beach. The waves were really perfect. We were the first
out but the locals quickly followed and mood turned very sour. Rodiles is renowned for its very aggressive surf localism. We found that out the hard way!! The locals told us all to f*** off in Spanish. I couldnt quite understand them but i definitely got the gist! They wouldn’t let any outsiders paddle near the take-off point. One of the locals got one pommie guys on the inside and held his head under water by standing on his head on the sand bank. What a top bloke?! There was a fist fight between two Spanish guys as well. I stayed out for about half an hour and had some really good waves so i decided not to ruin my surf by getting involved. Ive heard about localism at places like pipeline but never experienced it firsthand. So, i’ve promised myself to never give any waves to Spanish surfers back in Australia!! When then headed for Mundaka...
Mundaka is Europe’s most famous surfing town with an excellent left hand sandbank forming at the mouth of the Gernika River. The day we got there it was fairly average and decided to give it a miss. The next day it was
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Big Mundaka Barrel 6-8ft but a little choppy... Too big and messy for me!! There were some hellmen out there early and soon the crowd followed. There were jetskis dropping people back in the mariner every 10 minutes with snapped boards. It was great to watch but a shame not to be out there surfing such a famous break. It wasn’t worth the battle against 30-40 people swarming the peak on 7ft guns. We hope to head back down here next year to give it a go.
Not far from Mundaka, we stopped for a couple of nights in San Sebastian. It’s a very classy city with tapas bars everywhere. We had all sorts of tapas at various different bars throughout the day. I told dini I would buy her a pair of boots for winter since she has put up with my surfing shinanigans(?) for so long. We spent about 5 hours looking from shop to shop with no success. I reckon i endured more suffering in 5 hours than she did in the last 2 months!!
Next stop France.
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