Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Oct 17, 2005 - 06:53 AM Sports

Because of its legendary "sandbank left," a great 200-yard wide wave that sweeps into the estuary from the Cantabrian Sea, the Basque fishing village of Mundaka has been host to the Spanish leg of the surfing World Championship Tour for decades. But recently the wave has shrunk, to such an extent that the 2005 event had to be cancelled. The good news is that it is expected to return for 2006. Visit Mundaka, or read on.

The wave had been noticeably reduced since 2003, due, according to a study by the University of the Basque Country, to dredging carried out by a local shipbuilder's. But the effects of the dredging did not end there or then, as the large amount of mud and sand deposited on the nearby Laida beach blocked the natural course of the river and forced it into a new channel near to the beach, leading to the total disappearance of the wave in 2005. The surfing event's cancellation was a disaster for the four local hotels, a highly significant source of employment in the village (the population of the entire borough is 1,800), but El País (16/10/2005) reports a Basque Country environmental representative as predicting that the wave should be back by next autumn, though it is "hard to know" when it will have completely recovered.