Hey everybody, a friend of mine just got back from Flagbeach where the following happened to her. Just think you should know:
After looking forward to the trip for months and saving for a long time (we are both students), 19 August we arrived at Corralejo, Fuerteventura. Because we planned to go to Flagbeach most of the time, I left my kite in the paid storage of the Flagbeach surfcentre (€ 62,- for two weeks). The first week everything went well for me and I was able to take the kite out on the water every day (except for the many times my windsurfing boyfriend took it of course) practicing my first jumps which was so much fun. My boyfriend on the other hand had had some trouble. He wanted do the kite- windsurf rental combination was. The staff first said it would be possible the second week. Some days later the boss said the kite- windsurfrental combination was not possible at all during high season. I told him that I never saw such a thing on the website, but his sister maintained that the restriction was and is on the website as well. I have never found those little letters beneath.
They also rented out his rentalwindsurf board after a few days. When he asked about it, they said it was out for reparation, but we saw somebody with that board on his car. Anyway there was no comparable windsurf board available. He had to be satisfied with another completely different size windsurfboard.
Kite missing
Back to my kite.The 24th I brought the kite to the storage at the and of the day like the previous days. The 25th it was gone. After turning the place upside down for about half an hour and searching the beach as well, I asked one of the Flagbeach staff members to call the police for me. I also asked for a receipt for storage which I wasn’t given the first day when I paid. Then he called his boss on the cell phone and the phone was handed out to me. I was told not to alarm the police right away. “I’m home because of my back. Nothing ever gets stolen here. A rental customer must have mistaken it for a rental kite and might have taken it to another place. Give it a few days and then you can always call the police.” This all turned out to be lies.
Other malversations
The end of the day (of the 25th ) we went back but no kite. We also went to another kite school Redshark to find out whether somebody has offered them my kite for sale. After telling the story we found out that there have been more incidents at Flagbeach. About three weeks ago the kite stuff from some Italians had also been stolen from Flagbeach. Many things turned out to be missing almost every week lately. One of the Redshark instructors said it is very hard to believe that every week some tourist is stealing there. I agree.
Other incidents which were mentioned happened on the full sea where they took the kitestudents for lessons by boat: all the students on the boat were throwing up. Because of the big powerful waves everybody got sick. One person was so sick they put him in the water so the sickness would diminish. They left him in the water for such long time that he suffered hypothermia and was heavily dehydrated. He was taken away by an ambulance.
Another incident which was spoken of was that they lost some students during lessons on the sea. The missing persons had to be rescued from sea at night. We were, of course, totally flabbergasted to hear of these terrible incidents.
The 26th we went both in the morning and the end of the day to see if my kite had been returned, negative. Still no receipt, they said the receipt book was at the office. Monday someone from the office would be there and write me a receipt. Flagbeach still didn’t offer me any solution.
We were informed by a local that the police would be more helpful if we visited them Monday instead of Sunday.
Monday morning, no trail of my kite and no receipt. I asked one of the staff members of Flagbeach for a solution. He gave me the cell phone with the boss, Ben. I explained him he had to compensate me for my damage. It’s his paid storage so if something happens to the stored stuff there it’s Flagbeach’ liability. After all, it’s a paid storage without exoneration of liability so it is his liability. (I am quite sure he will use exoneration clauses in the future). He kept nagging on about money and all of his problems and his insurance. After a lot of talking I was allowed to take a kite for this week. (I almost had to force this out of his mouth) In fact he was and still is liable so he should have given me the money to buy a kite of comparable type and state. He told me he was not going to do such a thing. I had to take him in court to get that from him, blablabla all about his profits and how little money he would make.
Bar missing
Later that day I was permitted to take a Rebel 14 (they didn’t have a suitable kite for me that day) and my boyfriend was checking out his Redshark rental kite for which he was going to use my bar. I was standing on the beach within a distance of 5-10m next to him opening the Rebel kite bag, when the Flagbeach staff member brought me the cell phone again. Ben (the boss) told me that I could only take the kite for the week and get my receipt if I signed a document in which I agreed to withdraw my rights to take legal steps against him. I told him I could not do such a thing and so he got angry. As a consequence he didn’t want to talk to me any more and hung up the phone. Then we discovered my bar was missing. It was with there just a few minutes ago. So I went to the Flagbeach desk and asked the guy if anybody had found my bar or taken it by mistake. With a stone face he answered no. We also asked some people on the beach. Then my boyfriend went back to the desk and asked again. The answer was still no, so he pushed the guy behind the desk aside and looked behind the curtain under the desk. Guess what he found there…my bar!!!!! The Flagbeach guy declared that somebody must have found it. Right, very convincing. After that we went to the Guardia Civil with a translator from Redshark to lay an information.(denuncia in Spanish) (so kind to take that trouble).
The next day I found on the Flagbeach website that they offered kites for sale among which the North Vegas 12m2 2006. I don’t know whether this website had been updated or not, but anyway another day at the Guardia Civil followed. There they showed us police pictures of the Flagbeach staff to see if we recognized somebody.
Summarized: first my kite has been stolen, I had to demand a solution, they didn’t want to compensate my damage, then they wanted me to sign a document in which I had to give up my rights to take legal steps, refused to give me a receipt and finally they stole my bar.
So if anybody is going to Fuerteventura please look out for my 2006 pink/black Vegas 12m2 kite. The factorynumber is 40019. Please warn me so I can alarm the right people at the Guardia Civil, or alarm the Guardia Civil.
Many thanks in advance.
Stéphanie
s_da_silva_curiel@hotmail.com