A history of Flag Beach
Find out how Flag Beach water sports centre started out and how we have grown over the years. It’s a story of hard knocks, flying success and a lot of wind and water.
- 1987November Ben Thomas secures a license for a watersports centre on a beach close to Corralejo with little support from friends and foe. The location was considered a long way from civilization and it was thought by many that no customers or tourists would travel so far. Ben staked his Flag in the ground anyway, an act which would eventually coin the beach’s name “Flag Beach”.
- 1988February A deal is struck with ALPHA to supply windsurf boards and the local Neil Pryde dealer for rigs.
- 1988April Equipment arrives but still working on the hut!!
- 1988May Finally our 4m x 5m container “hut” is erected, painted and prepared. Flag Beach opens its doors for business for the first time with 9 boards and 15 sails.
- 1988November The centre changes board and rig suppliers to Tiga and Neil Pryde.
- 1989June An extension is added to store rigs and a rescue boat as well as our increasing stock. Flag Beach is now at 22 boards and 39 sails.
- 1990Summer Tiga and Neil Pryde equipment is replaced with Fanatic and ART. We now have 34 boards and 70 sails.
- 1990October A further extension is built to store more boards and rigs and to give the boys more room to work.
- 1991May The centre is demolished and all beaches in the area of Corralejo are “cleared” of all bars, kiosks, and stands. Flag Beach continues to operate from a van on the road, providing a reliable service to our clients.
- 1991August After a long and arduous 3 month wait, we are granted permission to build a new centre further back from the sea’s edge. Work starts immediately on the 19m x 6m hut. After working late into the night, our new centre opens 5 days later.
- 1993March Plans are submitted for a second 12m x 6m hut… and… we are still waiting…
- 1998July Flag Beach Windsurf Centre celebrates 10 years with a beach party for 1200 people that goes on late into the night.
- 1998August Kitesurfing starts to surface in the sports world and Flag Beach begins offering kite rentals.
- 1999August Kitesurfing is now an established sport with Flag Beach being one of the best places to learn.
- 2003 Flag Beach celebrates its 15th anniversary with a massive beach party, barbecue, open air concert and DJs on the beach, all night, for some 2000 people.
- 2004 We create a new mobile surf school under the commercial name of “Island Boarders”.
- 2008 We now employ over 20 staff. Island Boarders has expanded to 3 classic red Land Rovers and Flag Beach celebrates its 20th anniversary.
- 2009June Shock! Horror! We are given 2 hours notice to empty our hut and it is raised to the ground by the local authority. We continue offering our services from our makeshift “central” close to the water’s edge; sofa and sun shades included. It is a long, hard and sunny summer and a wet winter but our clients proved to be immensely grateful and supportive.
- 2009June We are informed we can have a new hut. This time 10 m x 5 m and after 4 gruelling days the hut is up, painted and stocked. We now have an office and Internet connection.
- 2012April We now offer offer kitesurf, windsurf, surf, bodyboard and SUP courses and rentals for all levels. We are still a Fanatic Boarders centre and have North kites and sails. We also have a fleet of 3 semi rigid 6 m inflatables for use on our kite courses, a fleet of Renault vans and Land Rovers for transporting our clients and in addition we have a town location that we use as a sales point with classroom for theory courses, garden for barbecues and it is just off Rocky Point, so a great location for grabbing a surfboard or SUP and walking down the beach.
- 2015May Our beach licence which came up for renewal was contested by another interested party and it took 4 months to secure it. We put our heart and soul into fighting for our licence and the business we had built up over the last 28 years. With our new licence secure we continue to offer the best and most reliable water sport courses on Fuerteventura.
- 2016April We introduce Hobie Cat Sailing and start to offer rentals as well as courses.
- 2018 Flag Beach celebrates 30 years!!!
- 2020 For the first time in 32 years, we close the business for 3 months due to COVID.
- 2022 After 34 years, the local council decides it no longer wants a building on the beach. From now on we load a van with the gear and bring it to the beach every day.
- 2023 We open a shop in Cotillo, mainly for surfing and kitesurfing and as a local booking point for customers staying in Cotillo. We also start a free shuttle between Cotillo and Corralejo for customers who have booked courses.
- 2024 We open a shop close to the harbour in Corralejo, from where we run all our kitesurfing and wing foil classes.
