What you can see on the Costa Calma webcam
The camera belongs to a water-sports school on Matas Blancas beach, at the northern end of the resort, and looks south-east across the sand to the sea. On a windy day the water in front fills with windsurfers and wing-foilers, and the size of the chop shows at once how hard it is blowing; on a quiet one you can see the shallows and how many people have come down to the beach. It is a time-lapse of the day rather than live video, and the picture is small, but it is a quick wind check for this stretch of coast.
Wind on the water at Costa Calma
A kite, windsurf and wing-foil school on Matas Blancas beach, at the northern end of Costa Calma, runs this camera. It looks south-east from the top of the sand: a strip of beach in front, then the sea, where on breezy days windsurfers and wing-foilers cross the view. The sun rises over the water ahead, so in the morning the sea glitters and the picture is backlit.
The image is small and soft, shown as a time-lapse of the day, but it answers the questions that matter here: how much wind there is, judging by the sails and the white water, and how many people are out on the beach.
The calm coast and the windy coast
The name means "calm coast": the beaches here lie on the leeward side of the island, sheltered from the Atlantic swell that pounds the west coast at La Pared, only about 4 miles (6 km) away across the isthmus. The trade wind still blows along the shore, though, and just to the south begin the beaches of Sotavento, Spanish for "leeward", where a lagoon fills behind a sandbar at high tide and the windsurfing world cup has been held many times.
When to watch Costa Calma
Fuerteventura keeps the same time as the UK and Ireland all year. The beach faces south-east, so the camera looks into the morning sun and the picture is clearer in the afternoon. The trade wind blows most steadily from June to September, when sails fill the water; in winter the resort is popular above all for the sunshine.
Around Costa Calma
The Sotavento beaches and their lagoon stretch south towards the Jandía mountains. La Pared and its surf beaches are a short drive across to the west coast, and the long sands of Jandía and Morro Jable lie about 14 miles (22 km) further south.
Visiting Costa Calma
Fuerteventura airport is about 43 miles (69 km) away by road. Matas Bay, the school on Matas Blancas beach that runs the camera, teaches kitesurfing, windsurfing and wing-foiling and hires out the equipment, so the webcam doubles as a look at the conditions before a lesson.
