My lad (19) wants to have a go at surfing. We’ve booked a week in Gran Canaria on a monster deal. Loads of surf schools there. Is it a question if just checking out Trip Advisor reviews and picking one with good ratings?

I’m probably only going to do a day as I don’t like the sea much and I’m good at falling off things. He reckons he’ll do 3-4 days.

Looks like there is some MTBing as well. Can take helmet, etc but obviously not bike. Anyone have any experience of riding there. We’re staying near San Agustin but it’s not a massive island so assume can get bussed somewhere to ride.

First time we’ve split family hols. My better half is taking my daughter on a weeks ‘beach leave’ post her A levels. I think I’ve made the better choice!

Maspalomas has Bjorn Dunkerbecks Surf School, he’s pretty handy at windsurfing and the school is a mix of Wind and Surf..

In probably the most reliable surf locations too… there are a couple of other Surf Schools there, don’t know about them though.

Never biked on the Island, can’t help on that bit.

Thanks for that BB. He did say if he took to surfing he’d fancy a go at windsurfing so we’ll check them out first.

Added bonus is it’s a decent sized resort, so plenty to eat/drink and enjoy and loads of Accommodation. Beaches are great and cleaned every morning..

👍

If you’re after Bike Hire then I’d recommend Free Motion

I’d taken my helmet and riding gear with me. I phoned them up at 4 one afternoon to inquire about what bikes they had for hire, and picked up an immaculate Specailized 29er at 9 the next morning. They do a service where they’ll deliver it to your hotel. They were really helpful and recommended the bike which was perfect for the terrain. It’s a bit like riding on the surface of the moon. Great fun!

That looks fun. I’ll check them out, thanks.

MTB – another recommendation for Freemotion. V slick operation with nice well set up bikes. I hired some Specialised FS and carbon road bike from the Plays Ingles site.

It’s not just helmets though, I ended up having to buy shoes and a water bottle having not brought these (I know – forced to spend money in a decent bike shop, the horror…) On thing for biking: winter is high season, and they scale back on things like group rides after march.

On the terrain and riding: it’s far from just barren volcanic, you’ve got proper mountains over 1900m, with pine and other forests, and even bits described as jungle (Google La Selva de Doramas). I did one group ride with Freemotion, which wasn’t brilliant as it was a very mixed ability group, led by a roadie down mainly landover tracks. What was good was starting over 1000m and riding to sea level. Quite a few MTBs about and lots of v interesting looking trails.

Surfing: we stayed in the North near las Palmas which picks up loads of swell and is solid with surf hire and schools (which can be annoying when surfing the town beach, but hey…) Not sure how reliable surf is in the south but probably not an issue for learning.

You need a car to see the place. The density of the mountains and also people (las Palmas is Spain’s eighth largest city) means it can take a while getting from A to B. Autoreisen are great for hire.

I’ve been on two Freemotion tours. The ‘No Sherpa’ tour was an absolute rock fest with lots of hike a bike (Niko’s very long video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QabfZHmCu2g), and another much mellower tour through the ‘Green North’ (NoPro edit: https://youtu.be/LkNH0y1r5Ng)

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I hired the above bike from Freemotion. Good service.

Rode from the beach up to the top of Pico de las Nieves and then back down via the Guayadeque trail. I believe you can get uplift if you don’t like climbing as much as I do!

Thanks all. Useful advice there. I might hire a car if the alternative are lots of slow buses or taxis. Don’t think I’ll bother with a tour. Just hire a bike and download a route,

Thought I’d just update this thread. Ended up riding with Free-Motion on the ‘crater’ tour which was fab, and ended up doing stand up paddle boarding as surfing looked a bit of a commitment and we had loads of other things to do. Went with ProSurfing and they were great.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gi9vhC]Gran Canaria – June 019[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

My lad was way better than me. I got the hang go it at the end after falling into the Med a few times.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gi9bKi]Gran Canaria – June 019[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

I’ll post a few more pics on a riding thread when I get a min but the highlight of the riding for me was the scenery.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gi8YoT]Gran Canaria – June 019[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

Cheers for the recommendations.