People come to Tenerife for exactly this: the waves at El Médano, diving off Los Cristianos, a 3,718-metre volcano and the trails of Anaga. And almost nobody checks whether their insurance covers the very thing they came for.
Why this is a topic of its own
Most policies have an exclusions section, and it almost always contains wording about hazardous sports. The reasoning is straightforward: the insurer priced your risk as “ordinary life”, and a paraglider launch was not part of that assessment.
A typical exclusions list:
- scuba diving;
- surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing;
- climbing and trekking above a certain altitude;
- air sports — paragliding, skydiving;
- motorsport and downhill mountain biking.
The exact list is always individual. What you need to read is not the marketing page but the exclusiones section.
What happens in practice
A surfing injury is not an abstraction: torn ligaments, a fracture, a shoulder injury from the board. Then medical treatment starts, and that is when you find out whether it is covered.
The worst case is the mountains. Evacuation from a route on Teide or in the Masca gorge is a rescue operation, sometimes by helicopter. The cost of such an operation is the single most expensive line in the whole story — and it is precisely the one most often left uncovered.
Look for two words in the policy: rescate (rescue and evacuation) and deportes de riesgo. The first present, the second absent from the exclusions, is what you want.
The options
Extending a travel policy. There are travel policies with hazardous sports cover built in — usually taken by students and exchange programme participants, but they suit anyone travelling for the activity.
Accident insurance. This is about the injury itself: payouts for disability, compensation, support after the event. Useful if you do sport regularly rather than once a holiday.
A health policy for living on the island. If you live here, treating an injury runs through it — but check how it treats sports injuries and whether there are limits.
A hospital cash policy. A serious injury means weeks off work. That is exactly what it compensates.
What to check before the season
- Is your sport named explicitly? “Water sports” and “surfing” are not always the same thing in policy wording.
- Amateur or competitive. Competition is excluded more often than doing it for yourself.
- Evacuation and search — covered, and to what limit.
- Diving depth. Policies often set a limit beyond which there is no cover.
- Equipment — is damage or loss compensated.
A note on Teide
Reaching the summit crater requires a permit, arranged in advance and free of charge, but with limited places. Insurance does not replace the permit — they are different things. Evacuation from the route, however, is yours to pay for if it is not in the policy.
What next
Tell us what you do and how often — the answer differs between “twice a holiday” and “every weekend”.
Message us in the chat — we will find an option covering your sport free of charge and confirm that evacuation is included.