Yes, yesterday I had a shitty day,well, it wasn’t yesterday, it was two days ago, Sunday, July 30th. But as I wrote yesterday, we will leave the title at that.
For the record, I’m going to try to summarize as much as I can, but it’s that… I find it hard to summarize what happened that day. I put you in a situation, wow, I’m going to make you a small introduction:
Imagine that you are a Canarian girl of 23 years,with the face of guiri (of tourist), who left an island in the middle of the Atlantic a few years ago 5 years to look for life and that, now, kites all over the world world,representing your island and
to her country
(or so she thinks). It turns out that this little girl does not have a hard,but she does not care, she wants to show that everything is possible,even if it costs her sleepless nights and the nerves that produce an empty wallet (more than one will know what I am talking about). Imagine, also that they have been traveling for 7 months in a row, fighting with flight attendants, hiding kilos through the airports so that they do not charge you burradas, trembling before going to each check-in counter, begging to be allowed to get on the bus (bus), or the taxi, or wherever …!! And, of course, who likes a suitcase 150cm high that weighs about 32kg? (where it turns out I keep my material). I already tell them, to nobody. ________________________________________________________________
to her country
(or so she thinks). It turns out that this little girl does not have a hard,but she does not care, she wants to show that everything is possible,even if it costs her sleepless nights and the nerves that produce an empty wallet (more than one will know what I am talking about). Imagine, also that they have been traveling for 7 months in a row, fighting with flight attendants, hiding kilos through the airports so that they do not charge you burradas, trembling before going to each check-in counter, begging to be allowed to get on the bus (bus), or the taxi, or wherever …!! And, of course, who likes a suitcase 150cm high that weighs about 32kg? (where it turns out I keep my material). I already tell them, to nobody. ________________________________________________________________
Having made the introduction, let’s get to the mess:
It turns out that, the problem,I not only have with the means of transport,but I also have them (we have) on the same beaches where we train. How? Yes, it is not the first time that the police persecuteus, want to fineus, or that people call us… (of I do not understand well of what, but of something very bad). We seem to be thieves or criminals. Hello?, Are we just doing sports?,A sport that brings money to the island? A sport that is clean?
, A sport that uses the energy of the wind? A sport that leaves no trace or despercidios?
And I tell you one thing, yesterday I learned, that ignorance is very daring – and very dangerous.
As every day, I was going to my favorite kite spot in the world (and if you know me, you know that I have traveled half the world and that I can comment on the subject); the lakes of Cotillo in Fuerteventura.
The Marrajo beach in Cotillo, Fuerteventura. A unique place in the world
Boy! Which is that people do not realize that we have one of the best places to practice kite in the world IN THE VILLAGE OF COTILO, on the island of Fuerteventura. And… I do not know for what reason, but today, that little beach, playa del Marrajo, is still not a kite area (in another post I will explain why this place is so unique and special, let’s see if we fix something). One of my theories about why AUN is not a kite zone is because… It will be that there is not enough beach for bathers.
Ah, wait!, which there is, which wikipedia says that, “the length of the coast of Fuerteventura is almost 326 kilometers, of which 77 are beach”.
Okay, discarded. I will continue to try to build theories of why. Well, to the mess, like every day / summer since 2011,I got into the water to train, with the bad luck that a man with his fishing rod, wanted to fish at the same time as I did to train. And, in the same place.
I promise you that, super polite and with an angel’s face, I approached the lord to ask if he would mind moving a little bit higher so that he can fish quietly and those of us who kite, do not take the bait. Close to understanding me or moving 10 meters higher, he started yellingat me, insulting me and telling me to fuck off, that he wasn’t going to move. With my face checkered,after they had yelled at me in the face, I went on to my own thing. But… The fisherman, did not give up and, since he could not catch fish quietly, he thought it would be a good idea… Trying to catch me. The hook grazed my thigh, but the one who came behind me was caught and… Luckily not in an ear, a hand or an eye… He hooked him by the leash.
My state of nervousness and disbelief was maximum. I was shaking. I didn’t understand anything.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why was all this mess going on if I just wanted to go and kite quietly? Did I miss something? DidI do something wrong? The gentleman left but (after riding a chicken and half the beach was altered),when he left, of course, a lot of bathers entered the water. I thought: well, what a (sorry for the bad ways), I will wait for them to come out and jump where I can, in the end, we all have the right to use the beach. When passing by these bathers (who were already getting into the deep part so as not to let us pass), something happened to me that, I never thought would happen to me in life because I was doing sports (in another situation I would have understood). People started yelling at me,hysterical:
“Get out of here, you can’t be here”, “this beach is ours”, “as you approach me I break your head”, “to take for ass, out of here”, “asshole, get out”, etc.
One of the several faces I probably had at the time.
And this was yelled atme… Well, every time I passed by them. The first time I stopped super quiet to try to explain that if they stayed where I was (behind us) nothinghappened, since it was impossible for the kites to fall on them and so we can all enjoy the beach. But, well, it seems that no one wanted listen to me and reason, so, after listening again to the insults a little closer, I sat on the shore, made dust,to ask myself why I deserved to be threatened in this way for being sport (in the place where I have been doing it for a long time) 7 summers).
The people, not content, came to me on the shore to keep shouting at me,
Threatening to call the police if we didn’t leave. “Please gentlemen, call the police to explain that they have just threatened me several times with breaking my head,” I replied. (…) I still couldn’t believe what was going on. Is all thishappening seriously because we got 3 to kite where we do every day?After screaming and more screaming, people, seeing me crying in pieces, seemed to want to listen. I don’t know to what extent, but I think they understood me, or at least I felt sorry for me. Some even asked me for forgiveness (that way, everything is said).
Kite is NOT dangerous
From that day, I’m left with the people’s ways; at no time, no one asked me where they could bathe so that I could train, I simply They shouted for me to leave (when I always stop to explain to people the safety zones and it doesn’t bother me that no one is bathing in the water). In fact, my
little brothers
have always been with me on the beach and in the water and absolutely nothing has happened. From that day, I am left with the little brain of all those bathers, with the shouts, with the insults, with the threats, with the eyes full of hatred. From that day I am left with the impotence that people did not understand that I was not killing anyone, I was just training, Iwas just doing sports, I was just trying to take the name of Spain, the Canary Islands and Fuerteventura a little further through sport. From that day, I am left with the sadness that flooded me to see how stupid he is and that the humanbeing can be.
little brothers
have always been with me on the beach and in the water and absolutely nothing has happened. From that day, I am left with the little brain of all those bathers, with the shouts, with the insults, with the threats, with the eyes full of hatred. From that day I am left with the impotence that people did not understand that I was not killing anyone, I was just training, Iwas just doing sports, I was just trying to take the name of Spain, the Canary Islands and Fuerteventura a little further through sport. From that day, I am left with the sadness that flooded me to see how stupid he is and that the humanbeing can be.
But, above all, I keep the faces of the children of the fathers and mothers who shouted, threatened and insulted me, when I took them on my back to kite, as I do with my sister in the photo above
😉
(zas).
If you’re reading this, whether you kite or not, I want to tell you something:
We only have one world to share. Do we share it or do we kill ourselves for it? It’s in your hands. We can all be in the water living together. WE ALL have the right to enjoy these special beaches (windsurfs, babies, grandparents, kites, surfers, majoreros, canariones and “Spaniards” as someone said that day). NO ONE deserves to be threatened or made to feel afraid, least of all for playing sports. NO ONE deserves to be nailed in the face. RESPECT and EDUCATION is a right, but also a DUTY,not to be forgotten. Please inform yourself before talking about things you don’t know. Study, ask, because by asking you get to Rome. Be trained, because the smarter you really are (you don’t think you’re smart), the more wise and meaningful decisions you can make. Smile more, because then you will receive more smiles back and the world will be better. And, remember, just because I have a kite, a skateboard or a surfboard in my hands, doesn’t make me a criminal.
Do we live together? Or better we break our heads with kite boards? You will say.
PS: Ayuntamiento de la Oliva, Costas, or whoever is responsible for that beach, if you are reading this… I would love to be able to meet with you.
THANK YOU for reading,
Julia Castro teaching her 10-year-old sister how to kite
Facebook post link: http://bit.ly/2fr4IIF