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Eurojem: El Quemao
29° 39’ N, 13° 22’ W
Where: El Quemao, La Santa, Lanzarote, Spain
What is it: Pipeline-style barrel breaking over a shallow, urchin encrusted lava ledge. Starts to break around 4ft, can be ridden up to around 12ft.
Best winds: SE is straight offshore.
Best tides: Depends on swell size and direction, but in general mid tide is best. Low tide is usually a bit too gnarly. High tide can also be good.
Season: October - March. On a full winter cold day, a good sealed 3/2 should do it, when water rarely dips below 17° C. Summer is warm, trunkable until the end of October.
What boards to bring: Boards for barrels. Length to get in early, but not too much, pintails to hold an edge in the tube. On a solid 6-8ft day average length is around 6’10”.
Who’s in the line-up? El Goma, El Chispa, Jose Maria, Charlie Gomez, Eric Rebiere and various psycho boogers.
Swell window: Needs big mid-Atlantic low to generate a clean, long period groundswell. West swell is favoured as it hits at more of a makeable angle, but NW or N swells can give deeper, gnarlier barrels. On N swells, a sick right can turn on too. What you need to watch out for though are the local winds, which can be out of control for days, even weeks on end.
Nearest airport: Arrecife, 25 mins by car.
Did we mention? The bottom at Quemao is an urchin super colony; evil black spiky things literally cover the reef, so try to stay off it. Also, there’s a crew of gnarly local ju-jitsu bodyboarders who train at the gym overlooking El Quemao and absolutely charge the place.
“El Quemao is incredible, it’s one of my favourite waves anywhere. It’s the only place in Europe where you can feel a true Pipeline-style take off…” Rebrix liked the wave so much, he even bought a house nearby.
Eric Rebiere's Golden Rules for Surfing El Quemao1. Get the tide right, because at high tide all the bodyboarders will be in the water, and it’s impossible to catch a wave. You might catch it best and least crowded between low and mid-tide, but not at full on low, when it goes dry.
2. Sit behind the bowl. You’re never too deep at El Quemao, there’s no second bowl like Pipe that you can get caught behind.
3. Paddle hard down the wave face when you take off. Often the offshore wind is really strong here, and can hold you up in the lip. If the wind gets under your board, watch out.
4. When you pull into the barrel at El Quemao, just stand up. You don’t need to pump much - just stand there and enjoy it.