La Izquierda, "the left", is a reef break in the middle of Playa de las Américas, on a north-westerly swell with an easterly offshore, and it works at every stage of the tide. It is reliable from autumn to spring and mostly flat in summer.
January is its month, and the figure is the reason to come to this side of the island: eighteen clean days out of thirty, eight blown out, four too small. The north-east trade wind that takes two days in three from Famara blows over the island before it reaches this reef, so the mornings here stay clean while the windward coasts are white.
That is no secret. La Izquierda is often crowded, the locals sit deep and catch the sets, and the rocks under the take-off punish a late drop. Surf it early, sit wide, and take the waves the line-up leaves you.
Spot sheet
- Level
- Intermediate, Advanced
- Wave
- Left
- Bottom
- Reef
- Water
- 18 – 23 °C
- Wetsuit
- 4/3 mm → Shorty
- Swell window
- WNW – NNW
- Ideal wind
- E
- How often it works
- Consistent
- Crowd
- ●●●●○
- Danger
- ●●●○○, Rocks, Localism
Swell window, tide, level and hazards: surf-forecast and Surf Atlas.
A month in figures
In January, the month the forecast guides single out for this coast:
Shares of the month, from the published forecast statistics. The model reads a grid, so neighbouring breaks share a figure: this describes a stretch of coast, not this wave on its own. The other eleven months are not published.
