The Cathedral (La Catedral)

The Cathedral sits on the south-facing coast of Lanzarote at Puerto del Carmen, with the island bulk directly to the north sheltering it from the dominant NW-N-W Atlantic groundswell and the NE trade windsea — the reason Playa Chica is a famously calm, gin-clear shore-diving coast. The exposed window is the open Atlantic to the south: the S-SSE-SE sector is fully open, with SE the direction of the site's main real exposure to Southerly storms and S/SE swell and locally generated wind waves. Fuerteventura across the Bocaina strait to the southwest partly shadows the SW, and the coastline curving out to headlands on either side further clips the WSW-W and E-ENE sectors, while the N-through-NW arc is blocked by land. Most of the year the site is well protected and diveable; a sustained Southerly wind or a S/SE swell is what builds surge at the cove and the drop-off and can cut visibility or close the site.