UN #SDG6 #SDG14 PWA Windsurfing and Kitesurfing World Cup, Sotavento , Fueterventura

I went to Costa Calma, Fuerteventura, thinking I was going to take a holiday! Instead I walked into a “live” Case study of how  Top-tier Sports as an ICH CREATED a Resort where there were none in the 80s because of Windsurfing and Kite-surfing World Cup! World records in sports were broken here on the lagoon and beach of Sotavento! It was amazing and inspiring to watch the different athletes practice and professionals teaching at the local Pro-windsurfing and Kite surfing School.

So the opportunity was created and there has been, from inception, a strong Sustainability ethos to the ICH creators, which predates any concept about UN Sustainable development goals.

I ended up at the locals Surfer Cafe for 2 weeks daily and was asked to join their Salsa and Karaoke nights while Champions, male and female teams, prepp-ed for the World Cup in July 2022! I loved the Super casual, unstructured talks around the table at the cafe! The food was super healthy!

I didn’t realise all this was happening until I did the art sketch above, then the Art became a catalyst for me to observe the Practices! People were also very willing to chat openly because they saw my  Art sketch and felt that it aligned with their Surfer life ethos!

From our talks, I identified a local UN #SDG6 Water Crisis that pits the Global Surfing Champion Leagues community against Developers of a later era 4 star hotels chain ! There were problems with Corporate Social Irresponsibility and issues of accountability in the Partnership between Government Enterprise and the large Costa Calma hotel conglomerates that impacted adversely on the Water security (UN SDG 6) for ALL of the local communities along the beach of Costa Calma! They have been without running water for 6 weeks! Many small business struggled post-Covid19 lockdown, because they could only access water 2hrs a day. There were continued failure to repair the Main Water Power access for months! There were threats of Lawsuits by frustrated local residences. Complaints to local governments fell on deaf ears!

At one point I saw a protestor brought his shampoo to bath in the hotel water feauture! Locals were so frustrated with the lack of water for locals, while the 4 Stars hotel chain had an over-flowing decorative Water-fountain at the entrance, many felt a sense of injustice and deprivation!

Local Graffiti Artists voiced a lot of protest (their art was the reason why I asked the World Champion Surfers Cafe about the issue!) flagging a lot of UN SDGs issues.

So it was at this point, I arrived at the Surfers Cafe and began auto-ethnographically documenting what I witnessed daily between the Art, the World Champion Surfers “cliques” and the #SDG6 Sustainability issues for locals! 

Talk about Ruining Paradise with Corporate Social Irresponsibility! 😦

Nevertheless I enjoyed Costa Calma and Sotavento! I also loved the messages on the Tees sold at the Pro-surfer’s club: “Protect the Ocean! Respect the Ocean!” ❤ UN #SDG14

These are some pics & videos of their last World Cup Championship 2019! (c) @fuerteworldcup

Windsurf Freestyle World Championship 2019 (c) @fuerteworldcup, 2019

Windsurf World Cup Slalom 2019