You’ll go to the beach for fun, take a refreshing dip, eat a nice ice cream, and with luck (and sun protection) you’ll get some color before fall. There are bathers who add something else to all of this: the “landowner spirit.” Maybe you’ve seen it on a visit to the beaches. Or maybe not. The truth is, there are those who don’t just spread out their towels and cling to their umbrellas when they get to the beach. They carry windbreaks, awnings, bars, and even folding tables. A whole arsenal of tools that allow them to set up “private” plots a few feet from the water.

This habit created a great excitement in Vigo.

So much so that the Abel Caballero City Council has said enough.

Holidaymakers with a colonial spirit. A picture is worth a thousand words. And the ones that have been circulating on social networks in the last few days, like this one from Concrete Celeste or shared by @inception1923 on X and Konexión Kallejera on TikTok, speak volumes.

Both display different images and approaches, but they are fundamentally the same: bathers on Shamil beach, one of Vigo’s largest and most popular beaches, spread out their towels and perhaps carry a parasol, rather than simply planting a parasol in the sand, and set up small, lazy, authentic “mini-castles”.

What exactly do they do? Restricting a small beach area (in some cases even a tiny area is left) with windbreaks, which is practically equivalent to creating “private” areas, areas delimited to be enjoyed only by those inside. Exactly like a private beach, only in the middle of a busy public beach. The method is cumbersome, if not very complicated: They open the awnings, thus marking a limited area, and position themselves inside.

Like? For example, in one of the images we mentioned earlier, you can see an enclosed “plot” with an open umbrella, four lounge chairs, and what looks like a folding table. Another, even more striking, photo shows a group of people among half a dozen umbrellas, backpacks, towels, the occasional inflatable boat, and baby strollers.

“I’m definitely going crazy. They’re all the same. It doesn’t fit in the photo,” says @konekallejera, sharing a video on TikTok in which you can see a large beach area demarcated by windbreakers. Inside, isolated from the rest of the sandy area, there are adults and children playing and sunbathing.

From sand to nets… He was not the only one to express his surprise at the media, which was bombarded with reactions to the images of the “private plots” on the beach. Among those who bathed and preferred to use humor and irony: “They will soon write the plots on the title deed.”

The use of windbreakers is reported in the networks and some local media to be relatively common on some windy beaches in neighbouring Portugal, where bathers use windbreakers to protect themselves from the wind. At least until now, they were less common on the beaches of southern Galicia. Samil, for example, is located in the heart of the Vigo Estuary, an area more protected from the elements and which welcomes thousands of swimmers from both Vigo and the rest of Galicia, Spain, or foreign tourists from other tourist destinations in Spain, such as the Cies Islands.

…And from networks to politics. The “plot” footage of Shamil caused such a stir that the City Council eventually mediated the debate. Yesterday, the mayor of Vigo announced that the City Council had launched “an information operation” due to the “sudden proliferation” of windbreaks on the city’s main beach. The aim: to warn bathers that getting into the sea and settling down as if it were in their own garden could cost them dearly. Very much so.

Are there fines? Yes. In case of any doubt, the City Council of Vigo has taken it upon itself to remember this. The Abel Caballero Government, in a statement published on its official website, states that the use of windbreakers, which have been seen in recent days in Shamil, is “prohibited” by the 2021 regulation that regulates the use of beaches. And insists: “The fines for the use of these devices range from 751 to 1,500 euros.” To avoid unpleasant surprises, the Local Police approached the sandy area yesterday morning and warned those who entered the sea.

The mayor warned, “Regulations prohibit creating obstacles for lifeguards and rescue personnel to move. We are trying to fix it without imposing sanctions, but if it continues like this from tomorrow, we will impose a fine.”

He insists that the users who place the tarpaulins do not do so to protect themselves from the wind, but rather to limit and reserve the areas they use as if they were small private plots. The first mayor said, “These are people who do not know the regulations, but they will definitely empathize and this situation will disappear.”

A unique case from Vigo? During an interview on the program ‘Mañaneros’, Caballero stressed that the thing about ‘colonizers’ on the beach is “not a common tradition” and that this phenomenon “emerged this year”. He also stressed that the problem is “limited” to Samil and that it is not common to see windbreakers on other beaches in the municipality, including the popular Rodas beach in the Cíes Islands.

There are some users on social networks who claim to have seen them in other spots near the Rías Baixas. Whether this is the case or not, what is undeniable is that the debate about bathers crowding the beaches is not exclusive to Vigo or even Galicia.

“War of the Umbrellas”In Malaga’s Torrox town hall, people who use chairs and umbrellas to reserve the best spots on the beaches early in the morning and for hours before their owners have even had a chance to enjoy the sand are being fined. Fines can reach up to 300 euros.

“What we prohibit is the reservation of a seat by those who are first in line at seven in the morning and do not arrive until one in the afternoon, or by those who have reserved a seat at noon and do not arrive until seven in the evening,” mayor Óscar Medina recently explained to EFE. In Malaga, they even use what he calls the “umbrella war”. The saturation of the beaches with bathers has also forced Benidorm to take measures. Where appropriate, ensuring safety corridors through which emergency services can pass.

Image | Wikipedia (HombreDHanta)

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