42INTERVIEWRUSSELL GROVES
Once the summer season is done, do you
head off on trips yourself?
Being on the water is all year round on Lanzarote.
June/July/August are the windy months with waves in
Costa Teguise. October through to March we get waves
on the north shore. So it is only a case of which board
takes priority in the bag. Costa Teguise is now my
home again and so it is where I go on the water.
I had a B&B in the north of the island in Maguez, and a
windsurf/surf/kite/mountain bike academy for 15 years.
I travelled every day, riding the best spots. It was
hardcore discovery with many excellent wave riders.
I sold everything and moved back to Costa Teguise,
where I could sail kinder swells that did not punish my
body so much. I also wanted to stop all of the driving
and searching.
Would you ever move back to the UK or is
this it, Lanzarote is your permanent
home?
I have no plans to move back to the UK but you never
know. Lanzarote is my home. I have lived here longer
than anywhere else.
uk
WIND
SURFING
“I travelled every day, riding the best spots. It
was hardcore discovery with many excellent
wave riders.”
Any final shouts, thanks and praise?
Who do I thank? Well everybody, I would not be here
now without you. I am riding Fanatic and North Sails at
the moment with Maui Ultra Fins. But thanks also has
to go to all the designers and manufacturers I have
been involved with over the years. R&D has been a
large part of my life.
My passion is to ride waves and be one with the
ocean, which is like a form of meditation. This year I
coined the slogan: ‘living to ride’. And that’s what I tell
everyone: ‘live to ride’.