THE SET-UP

This is an amazing freeride and freestyle lagoon with a huge expanse of waist deep, flat water. The bottom is a mixture of sand and earth and you can walk between 250 and 500 metres from the shore, making it a perfect place to learn. Better riders have a couple of options: just in front of the Urla Surf House chillout area is a 400 metre stretch of flat water that’s perfect for freestyle; then, upwind of where the schools teach, the spot gets deeper and small kickers form – ideal for boosting off when the wind gets up or for foiling. Long tacks are possible here as the lagoon is over five kilometers wide.

Upwind of the spot, the water remains flat thanks to the small harbour that reduces the lumps and bumps on its leeward side and is where wakestyle obstacles are set up. Urla Surf House has one of the four kite parks that are legally opened for kiteboarding in the world and for the past few years it has been a regular stop for the Kite Park League. So, should you tire of the various other disciplines, there are kickers and sliders to learn to hit!

There’s another spot, somewhere unknown to the internet, other than from a few scarce instagram posts, oh, and Aaron Hadlow who headed there to shoot part of his 2012 web movie, Aspire; his fourth and final movie with Andy Gordon, which is widely considered his best. Urla Surf House can take you there, where you’ll be treated to a wind over sand spit that creates dead-flat water on the downwind side and a hurdle to jump over, (should you have the courage!) as seen in Aspire.