NU Journalism in Spain

A magazine of Northeastern University Journalism students

Artificial beach will add waterfront scene to landlocked Madrid

MADRID–Perfect 6-and-half-foot waves, a health-food café, a surf school and shop and chilled-out bars will be some of the features of a landlocked beach 40 minutes away from the center of the bustling Spanish capital of Madrid.

The project, Wet Madrid, was officially announced on April 9 and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2016. The goal is to create a tropical escape in Madrid, not just for those interested in surfing but for people who crave a beach experience in a city that has nothing of the sort.

Borja Camblor, 26, co-founder and chief financial officer of Wet Madrid, is also a surfer and said the idea for the lagoon first arose due to a variety of aspects, mainly a passion for the sport. Those who love it have to travel nearly four and a half hours to the north coast in order to catch a decent wave.

“The idea was produced through a combination of a passion for surf and an entrepreneurial mind, after a night full of investigation after first seeing a video of artificial waves produced by technology,” Camblor said, remembering back to 2013 when the idea initially came up. “It comes from past experience of traveling all the way north and not having good conditions, which are essential for surf yet hard to find and through this project that will now be guaranteed.

For supporters of independence, FC Barcelona truly is “more than a club”

BARCELONA–As the match clock hits 17:14 at Camp Nou, FC Barcelona’s stadium, the crowd begins to chant, but not for the team. Already one goal ahead against Galicia’s Deportivo de la Coruña, the players seem deaf to the unanimous cry for independencia that roars over the stadium.

And then all at once, in a show of solidarity and union, independence flags appear across the stands.

Catalonia, which encompasses four provinces into what is one autonomous region in the northeastern part of the country, has been pushing for self-government and secession from Spain more assertively since Artur Mas became president of Catalonia in 2010. While Catalonians show their desire to secede in many forms including banners and flags stretched across their balconies, one of the most prominent manifestations of this wish is at the FC Barcelona games at famed Camp Nou.

Nil Parcerisas, a 21-year-old FC Barcelona fanatic and separatist studying business at ESADE Business & Law School in Barcelona, said that the chants are a way to commemorate the national day of Catalonia.

“In minute 17 and second 14 of every game the fans begin to chant because Sept. 11, 1714, is Catalonia’s national holiday, remembering the day Catalonia was defeated and became a part of Spain,” Parcerisas said. “Maybe three or four years ago they started to chant and so the whole stadium was chanting and now it has become a tradition.”