Tarifa Spain! one of the windiest places in the world and home to all the best kite surfers. From here we wanted to paddle from Spain to Morocco, which is Europe to Africa. The only problem, is that it is illegal to cross it via a surf ski. A small amount of swimmers each year get picked to do it, but this channel is probably the busiest shipping channel in the world, so restrictions are tight.
I landed in Spain and drove to a local surf ski dealer who was going to rent me a surf ski, I bluffed and said I had all the approvals. I then when and met a boat Captain I had lined up and I waved a fake piece of paper in front of him and in broken Spanish said it was the approval letter.
I had fooled everyone and now I was ready to cross to Africa. The roaring Westerly kicked in to about 40km/h and we were surfing to Africa, runner after runner, we were hitting great speeds and reached Morocco 4 hours later.
The crossing was so much fun, great conditions and a lot of shipping liners to dodge. We made the boat ride back to Tarifa and standing on the marina was the guy who I rented the surf ski from. He looked furious! and in Spanish he gave me an absolute mouth full of foul language. He found out that I didn't have approval and that I was reckless and stupid crossing that channel.
He was right... I didn't talk back, I copped the serving as I deserved it.
At the end of the day I paddled from Europe to Africa with a roaring Westerly behind me, popping from one runner to another.