Detailed review by trivago traveller
After attempting a Windsurf renewal course with the Flag Beach crew, I am writing to share my poor experience. Their course blurb states "we are very lucky in that some 20 minutes drive away we have an ideal beginners teaching lagoon. All our beginner / renewal / improver courses run in this lagoon, where there is shallow (1m), protected water with a sandy bottom. This allows us to cater for everyone's needs."
The lagoon to which they refer is on the west of the Island in a small Lagoon near El Cotillo. The lagoon is tide dependent, & the 'Sandy bottom' is covered in rocks. This is hardly ideal for beginners who fall off a lot onto rocks, & is not good for confidence building. If I had known, I certainly would not have booked. Anyway, the 4 hr days were in fact only about 3 hours of water time as it took time to get there & set up the equipment. There was only 1 instructor to 7 of us, of which 2 were doing an intensive 1 day introduction! Each time, his attention was taken by the people doing the intro, so we hardly got any instruction. On the first day, I was basically told to get on with it as I'd done a few hours before whilst the wind was an exceptionally strong on shore wind! This meant we had to keep dragging our boards out into the lagoon as we kept getting blown back onto the rocks & it was pretty soul destroying. It also didn't help that the boots supplied had very thin soles, so every step or fall onto the rocks was very painful and I ended up with very bruised sore feet. I am also surprised that helmets weren't supplied as anyone falling in head first could be very dangerous with the rocks everywhere. Sorry to say that I was very dissappointed & felt a bit cheated by their description of what I would get from the course & it's location - I'll leave it for others to make up their own mind, but I am so angry at the experience I felt I had to share to make others aware....
Flag Beach Windsurf and Kitesurf Centre1
