Playa de la Canteria

Tucked beneath towering cliffs on the island's northern tip, Playa De La Canteria is a small, sandy cove that offers both lefts and rights over a forgiving sand bottom. As the tide rises from mid to high, a peak pulses in the center of the bay, delivering playful, crumbly waves. At high tide, the focus shifts: a defined left forms off the main peak, while the eastern flank produces a fast, often hollow right that peels sharply along the rocky shoreline. Best on a mid to high tide, this spot handles west and northwest swells, with light offshore winds from the east keeping things clean. Ideal for intermediate surfers seeking a scenic, uncrowded alternative to the island's more famous breaks.

Best Surf Season (October - March)

The North Atlantic roars to life during the autumn and winter months, and Playa de la Canteria is right in the firing line. Between October and March, the average wave height sits around 1.5-1.7m (5-5.5ft) and the average period climbs to 11.7-12.7 seconds, which in our book means real groundswell. The swell window is dominated by NNW, NW, N and NNE directions, and the strongest pulses on the N-NNE-ENE window hit the beach with genuine power. The trade-off is wind: the NE/NNE quadrants are the dominant wind directions all winter, so only a relatively small slice of the time (7-11 percent) does the wind swing offshore into the S/SSW/SW/WSW quadrant. Those are the magic windows. When a low-pressure system tracks through the Bay of Biscay or the NAO drives a strong Atlantic storm track, the sets can turn shoulder-to-head-high and bigger, with clean, lined-up waves breaking on the north-northeast facing sand.