Whats so special about Tarifa?
The blaze of colour on Tarifa beach is amazing. It’s as if a multi-coloured quilt has been laid over the sea. The colours shift and swap places, dip down and reappear from nowhere. To the uninitiated, what is going on out there on the water must be nigh-on unfathomable. But to those in the know, this is the place in Europe for water-sports. Welcome to kite-surfing’s mecca, Tarifa, on the southern tip of Spain. Known for a while now as one of the premier windsurfing spots in the world, in the last year Tarifa has seen an explosion of interest in kite-surfing. Water-sports adrenalin junkies have discovered that if you attach a large kite to a harness and jump on a mini-surfboard with footstraps, you can, well, fly. Kite-surfing adds the elegance of surfing to the speed of windsurfing, not to mention massive ‘hang-time.’ And the winds of Tarifa are a kite-surfer’s dream. As I discovered on my first visit in 1999, wind is what defines the Andalucian town of Tarifa. Or rather, two winds, wh
