Red Letter Day: The Playas

RIDER & WORDS: Xavi Corr
PHOTOS: Samuel Cárdenas
LOCATION: Playa Chica, Tarifa
DATE: Sunday March 17th, 2024

If you’re preparing for a photoshoot, where the timing is everything, then you need a reliable photographer – and a reliable alarm. Thankfully, as you can see here, Xavi Corr has both.

My alarm went off at 5:50am and I grabbed my phone quickly and checked the wind reading from Tarifa town. The levante was firing. I got out of bed and went to my window – the skies were clear, the conditions were finally lining up. Let’s go!

Sam Cardenas and I had been thinking about shooting the sunrise on the Playa Chica beach at Tarifa with really clear skies and views to Africa, but for nearly two months things just weren't lining up. Normally when the levante is firing, it whips up the seas across the Straits of Gibraltar, so the mountains of Africa are either really hard to see or you can’t see them at all. The other common problem for shooting that happens a lot is the levante brings in clouds and you lose that golden morning light, the magic ingredient in getting great shots. And the last big problem is that sometimes the levante wind dies down overnight, and I needed strong winds to be able to get the height for the shots we wanted.

I called Sam who was already at Playa Chica, and he said everything was looking perfect and to meet at 6:30am to start shooting. I had the car packed already from the night before, so I grabbed something to eat for the car and headed to the beach. Playa Chica, Spanish for “small beach” is just on the Mediterranean side of the island that sticks out from Tarifa, marking the boundary that splits the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. On the other side of the thin walkway is Tarifa´s world famous Big Air spot, Balenario beach. The view from the Playa Chica looks east to the opening of the Tarifa Port, with the mountains of the Moroccan coast in the background.  The levante blows straight onshore, and the sun would be rising in the background so we could get that silhouette and golden morning light shots.

​​The levante wind was building from around 25 knots and gusting to 35 knots. I rushed to set up my 48L FG board, 625 MA front wing and 3m XPS wing and rushed out on the water. After warming up with just some basic jumps, the wind started to pick up even more and now I could really start to have some fun. The really hard part of the process was trying to line up the background with the tricks I was doing. Sam wanted me to be either in front or above the background so it was really hard to know when to jump to end up being in the perfect place.  Sam was on the beach and using his hands to signal when I should jump but half a second too late or early and it didn't work. After half an hour, I came back to the beach to chat to Samu and check the photographs, and for every 10 or 15 photographs that were so close, there would be one or two epic shots that were just right.

The light was changing by the minute and the window to get the shots was closing quick, so I headed out again and the wind kept building. I was the only one out on the water, and then I just started to have one of those epic sessions when nearly everything starts to work, sending big fronts, board offs and backflips. Samu waving his hands around, sending me to one side or the other quickly before the morning light washed out. Samu finally called me into the beach, I was nervous to see his face to see if we managed to get the shots we had been planning, sometimes these things just don't work out as well as you hope. As I was getting out of the water, I was really anxious to know how it had turned out, but when I saw Samu with a massive smile I knew it was all good. We started to roll through the shots right there on the beach and it was such a buzz to see the photos right there and then.

Doing photoshoots is so different to competing and freeriding, but I really hope it helps others share the feeling I get when out on the water in these amazing places. What made it even better was both Samu and I are from Tarifa and we have worked together lots. My head is already full of ideas and locations for the next project with him.