El Palmar debuts an open of surf, bodyboard and parasurfing

The beach of El Palmar, in Vejer de la Frontera, will be the setting for the first edition of the Open Surf & Bodyboard El Palmar. The event will bring together regional surf and bodyboard events in the under 18, open and women's categories, alongside an event of the National Parasurfing League included in the calendar of the Spanish Surfing Federation. The competition does not yet have a fixed date. The organisation opened on October 26 a period to call the event that closes on December 20. Within that period the day of the competition will be announced with four days' notice, so that the events are held in the best weather conditions.

There are still places left. The planned quota is at 80 percent, according to Antonio Sánchez, of Club Yerbabuena, the organising body. Anyone who wants to take part must complete registration through the email opensurfbodyelpalmar@hotmail.com. The open includes a parasurfing event, a discipline the organisation wants to make visible. Débora Espinal, of the B-Life association, has defended the need to «make adapted sport visible and check all its capacities» and has stressed that «it is extremely important that people without disabilities interact with us and give us the opportunity to practise this sport in nature». Sánchez has presented El Palmar as «a space of unity for surf, bodyboard and parasurfing». The details have been announced at a presentation in the Palacio Provincial in which the second vice-president of the Diputación de Cádiz, Javier Vidal; the president of the Mancomunidad de Municipios de La Janda, Javier Rodríguez; the delegated councillor for Beaches of the Ayuntamiento de Vejer, Manuel Jesús Melero; Antonio Sánchez, of Club Yerbabuena; Jaime Herraiz, of the firm Gemswell Surf Madrid, main sponsor, and Débora Espinal, of B-Life, took part. Vidal has pointed out that events like this promote the province as an active tourism destination, and Rodríguez has valued that the open helps to break the seasonality of tourism. To register you have to write to opensurfbodyelpalmar@hotmail.com. The period estimated by the organisation to call the event ends on December 20, and the date of the competition will be announced with four days' notice.