Jose

Poco a poco estamos cediendo los espacios públicos: parques, metros, trenes, centros comerciales, gimnasios, piscinas, polideportivos... Tiramos de coche, peli en casa, instalaciones privadas de urbanización o cascos con cancelación de ruido. Ojalá pronto la Ley de Costas.🙏

Here is another "funny" story about the Spanish 🇪🇸 administration I used to do paddle surf on a lake near my house Picture it. I had my inflatable board, and spent a lot of my summer mornings enjoying the nature and still water, with no one around It was one of the best parts of my year Then... the government decided you needed a license to do that Sigh Fine. I didn't want any trouble, and as stupid as I thought that was, I applied for the license It cost money and took a year to process. One full year to get a piece of paper that says I am allowed to stand on a floating board But any way... I got it. And I went back to the lake Then I found out that each license is only valid for one specific body of water I had three lakes near my house... so I needed three licenses Oh man So I applied for three licenses, paid three times, and waited again. That summer I was only able to enjoy paddle surf in one of the lakes, but it was something Eventually I got them, so the next summer I went back to the lakes. I was finally, fully, completely legal Then a new regulation came in. Life jackets were now mandatory I found out about this while already on the water Three guards in a motorboat came after me at full speed. They told me I had to leave immediately. They threatened to detain me if I did not get out of the water right now I paddled back to shore ❌ No warning ❌ No grace period ❌ No letter ❌ No email One day it was fine, the next day three men in a boat were chasing me across a lake because I did not have a vest on THAT WAS ONE OF THE DAYS I DECIDED TO LEAVE SPAIN FOR GOOD First one license. Then three licenses. Then a year of waiting. And in the end, three guys in a motorboat treating me like a criminal for doing paddle surf on a Tuesday morning I now live somewhere else. No paddle surfing here, but I do wake surf in the river. And no one has chased me yet