Where to kitesurf

The spot

Tarifa sits on the point where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, and the Strait of Gibraltar behind it works as a funnel: the wind is either coming through from the east or going out to the west, and it is rarely doing neither. The town's own marketing says more than 300 days a year with wind, and every school repeats it; the one station whose long-run figure could be read gives an annual average of 12 knots with east the dominant direction and 19-knot gusts, from observations between 2003 and 2026 [8]. Those two numbers are not in conflict — a 12-knot average over every hour of every night includes a great many days that blew 25 in the afternoon — but they are the two ends of what "windy" means here.

The riding is on the beaches north-west of town. Los Lances is the main one: kilometres of wide, clean sand from the football ground to the Río Jara, working in both winds, with room for every level [2]. Valdevaqueros, the next bay up under the big dune, is the one that "works on basically any wind direction" and can be ridden all year without restriction, which is why it is the crowded one in summer and the sensible one in Levante [2][3]. Beyond that, the day trips: Palmones for the flat river water when the Levante is over 30 knots, Los Caños de Meca and Getares for waves on a strong easterly [2].

What Tarifa is not is a beginner resort in the way Dakhla or Cumbuco are. One guide puts it plainly — "not an ideal beginner spot but if you learn kiting here you can kite anywhere" — and recommends spring and autumn for lessons, when the beaches are open and the prices are lower [5].

Conditions

Two winds, and everyone here names them.

Poniente is the westerly, off the Atlantic: light to moderate, steady, onshore at Los Lances. Matos gives it "around 40% of the time" at 12 to 22 knots [4]; thekitespot's range is 15–25 knots from the W–SW [3]. It is the learning wind and the one for big kites, 8 to 14 m² [4]. It is also the colder, choppier one [5].

Levante is the easterly, through the Strait: warm, dry, strong and gusty, and offshore at the central beach. Matos gives it "around 60%" at 20 to 40 knots [4]; thekitespot says 25–40 with gusts that can exceed 50 [3]. Kites of 5 to 9 m² [4]. It flattens the sea and turns it turquoise, and it is the wind that sends people out to the boat: one listing site prices a rescue at "approximately €200" [3]. Los Lances central "is usually offshore and gusty in Levante"; Valdevaqueros in Levante is described as offshore but with a thermal component, and it is where the Levante crowd goes [2].

Water: 16 °C in winter to 22 °C in summer; air 15 °C to 25 °C, as seasonal averages from one school's page [4]. Wetsuits outside the summer months [5]. thekitespot records the spot as open water, flat water and small waves up to a metre, and marks it non-tidal — the tide here moves depth and chop, not access [3].

The year

The monthly probabilities are thekitespot's, defined as the historical share of days with wind of at least 4 Beaufort [3]. No station publishes a month-by-month table that could be read; Windfinder's Tarifa Centro page carries only the annual figure [8], and Windy.app's statistics page gives seasonal temperature and rainfall rather than monthly wind [11].

Local knowledge

• Levante is the wind that sends you out to sea. At Los Lances central it is offshore and gusty [2]. The rescue is a boat and it is not free [3]. If you are not certain of your upwind riding, Levante is a Valdevaqueros day or a lesson day, not a Los Lances day.
• The lagoon behind Los Lances, at the Río Jara, is off limits — flat, tempting, and "it is forbidden to kite there" [2]. The town's ordinance backs that with a €300 fine for kiting in a bathing zone [1].
• The live station that matters is the football ground. Windguru's Campo de Fútbol station is on the beach itself and reads the wind the riders are in, not the town's [7].
• Valdevaqueros' south end has rocks on the beach and underwater [2]. Walk it before you ride it.
• Summer is not the season the photographs are from. Between 15 June and 15 September the main beaches are divided into swimming, kite and school zones [2], and the free-riding space is small; one guide calls the end of June to early September "veeery crowded" [5]. Spring and autumn are what everyone who lives here recommends [3][4][5].
• Punta Paloma, at the dune end of Los Lances, is described as a safe bay in Levante and the best of the beach in Poniente — that is a search summary of a listing page rather than a page read in full, and is unverified here.

Access and hazards

The town's beach bylaw, the Ordenanza municipal sobre convivencia y uso de las playas para el término municipal de Tarifa, is the document that governs this. The copy on the town's website carries a 2010 file date and the ordinance text names no later revision, so treat the fines as of that date [1]. The articles that matter:

• Art. 6 — "La práctica de Fly-surf, dado el gran riesgo que supone para los bañistas, queda limitada al horario y zonas habilitadas por este Ayuntamiento." Kitesurfing is restricted to the hours and zones the town marks out. A grave infringement, fined at €600 [1].
• Art. 15 — kitesurfing in a bathing zone, €300; storing or leaving kit in a bathing zone, €90 [1].
• Art. 14 — schools must be registered with the Junta de Andalucía's active-tourism register and carry the paperwork on the beach [1]. Ask to see it.
• Art. 8 — ball games, frisbees, "vuelos de cometa" and the like are prohibited outside the marked sport zones, €60 [1]. That is the article that covers a kite on the sand — a trainer, a power kite, or a parakite — and not just one on the water.
• Art. 19 — where signage is missing "por causas climatológicas o vandálicas", the activity "se entenderá expresamente prohibida" [1]. No sign does not mean no rule.
• Art. 18 — kit can be seized as a precaution for grave infringements, and for minor ones where the rider is not resident in Spain and cannot post a bond [1].

The seasonal shape, from the schools rather than the bylaw itself: from 15 June to 15 September the main beaches are separated into swimming, kitesurf and kite-school areas [2]; 1 June to 30 September kiting is forbidden at the town beach [3]; a wider list of summer closures names Arte Vida, Los Lances at La Jaima, Los Caños de Meca, Getares, Palmones and Sotogrande, with Valdevaqueros staying open [5]. Outside those dates the beaches are unrestricted [2]. The precise summer zone boundaries at Los Lances — which chiringuito marks the school zone, which the free zone — appear in search results for two school pages that were not read in full, and are not stated here.

Hazards on record: Levante offshore and gusty at Los Lances central [2]; rocks at the south end of Valdevaqueros, on the beach and under the water [2]; the lagoon [2]; the crowd in summer [5]. Nothing published on the Strait's shipping or current could be found for this record, and it is not claimed.

Schools and rental

Dozens. The ones whose pages this record was written from are Kitefun Tarifa [2], Matos Tarifa, which rents rather than teaches [4], Tarifa Kite Passion [9] and Addict Kite School [10]. None of those pages carried a price that could be quoted; the one figure found is a listing site's "6H €300" for a course and "€20 per hour" for gear rental, undated and unattributed to a school [3]. Matos's own page says rental sizes run 5–9 m² in Levante and 8–14 m² in Poniente [4]. Every school here must be on the Junta's active-tourism register under Art. 14 [1]; which certification ladder a given school teaches — IKO, VDWS, FAV — was not established for this record.

Getting there

Gibraltar is the close airport at 48 km, about 45 minutes; Málaga the cheap one at 160 km, about two hours; Jerez 122 km [3][5]. A hire car is what every guide assumes, with the note that prices rose after 2020; direct buses run Málaga–Tarifa or via Algeciras, and a taxi from Málaga is around €140 [5]. Parking at the beaches is not described on any page read for this record.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Sports in Tarifa — 39 files, including several kitesurfers at Los Lances and a 2015 championship set [10]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.
• Wikimedia Commons, Tarifa — 168 files of the town and beaches, including Bolonia and Punta Paloma. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tarifa

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

The Stagnone is the lagoon in front of Marsala at the western tip of Sicily, held off the open sea by Isola Lunga (the old stinco di capra), with the Phoenician island of Mozia and the smaller Santa Maria inside it [10]. The water runs "from a few centimetres to a maximum of 2 metres" and in summer is warm all the way through because there is so little of it [10]. The reserve that covers it — the Riserva naturale orientata Isole dello Stagnone di Marsala — was set up in 1984, covers 2,012 hectares, takes in four islands (San Pantaleo/Mozia, Isola Grande, Schola and Santa Maria) and three working salt pans, and is run by the province of Trapani [11]. Windmills, salt heaps and flamingos are the backdrop; the front is a line of kite schools along the Birgi shore.

Why people go is depth. The lagoon is "ankle to waist deep" over most of the kite area [16], "not even up to the knee at some spots" [14], and non-tidal [3]. Fall off, stand up, walk back to your board. That makes it a learning lagoon before anything else, and every school here sells it as one; it also makes it a freestyle training ground, because the water stays flat in a northerly and the landings are onto something soft [16]. It is not a foil spot — thekitespot marks it "poor for hydrofoiling" [3] and the 2019 ordinance bans foils inside the reserve outright [1].

The day it gives in season is a slow morning and a windy afternoon. The thermal from the north gets going around midday to two o'clock at 12–22 knots, in the account of one school [7]; the rest of the shoreline fills with students, instructors in red vests and their launch corridors, and the free riders work the space beyond 200 metres [1]. The trade-off is the bottom: mud, sand and seagrass, "murky" rather than turquoise, with anemones and small stones in the shallows [14][15]. Wear booties and, if your skin reacts to anemones, leggings [15].

Conditions

There is one station whose long-run figure could be read, and it has stopped reporting. Windfinder's Marsala – Lo Stagnone station, at 37.8895 N 12.4701 E on the lagoon shore, gives an annual average of 10 knots with NW the dominant direction and 13-knot average gusts, from observations between March 2015 and February 2017; the page states that the station "is not available anymore or currently not reporting" and carries no monthly table [4]. Windguru's Lo Stagnone forecast page [5] and the Lo Stagnone di Marsala live station [6] are what the schools actually watch.

The mechanism, as the schools describe it, is seasonal. From April to October a thermal from the north builds after midday at an average 12–22 knots, with a secondary south-westerly thermal (Libeccio) that can reach 20–25 knots [7]. KiteActive puts the working range at 12–20 knots from March to November, side-onshore, gustier at midday in high summer, with spring and autumn the most consistent [16]. From November to March the wind is synoptic: Maestrale from the north-west is the usual direction, Scirocco from the south-east comes in runs of three or four days, and either can reach 30–40 knots [7]. Einfachkiten adds that a northerly pushes water out through the Marsala gap, so the north of the lagoon gets shallower the harder it blows [15]; IKSURFMAG says the same [13]. The Scirocco is the warm one and the Maestrale the flat-water one [3].

The "300 windy days" figure appears on almost every school page [13][14][15]; KiteActive says "more than 200" [16]; the only measured number is Windfinder's 10-knot average, which is a different thing [4]. Water: 15 °C in winter, when a full wetsuit is needed, and rash-vest weather from May to September [3]; air about 30 °C in summer and 10 °C in winter [13].

The year

The monthly percentages are thekitespot's, defined as the historical share of days with wind of at least 4 Beaufort [3]. No station publishes a month-by-month table that could be read for this record [4].

Local knowledge

• The first 100 metres are for walking, the next 100 for body-dragging. Inside the reserve, the ordinance's two-phase entry is: on foot to 100 metres, then board or body-drag between 100 and 200 metres, and riding from 200 metres out [1]. Einfachkiten's version is the same three bands, with the note that the 100–200 m band is "often too shallow" [15]. Advanced riders are expected to stay further out and leave the inside to students [3].
• Launch in the water, through a school. Every school has a marked corridor of orange buoys at 20-metre intervals, at least 40 metres wide at the shore and opening to 100 metres at 100 metres out [1]. Finding an independent launch "could get a bit tricky" [14]; einfachkiten says to launch and land in the water with help and not to go in alone except at the far north or south ends [15]. Day passes at the schools buy the launch, rescue and the loos [16].
• North, middle, south. The middle of the Birgi shore has the restaurants and most of the schools and is the busiest; the north is sandier, steadier and quieter; the south is quiet, very shallow, and turns to marsh further down [16]. Einfachkiten agrees the north is the crowded end in summer and the south "not yet so crowded", and adds that the southern stations need a road crossing to reach the water [15].
• The wind that looks fine and is not is the midday summer gust near the shore [14][16]. Wait for the thermal to settle after two.
• Bottom. Sand and mud with weed and small stones; anemones in the warm shallows can bring up a rash, so leggings for anyone susceptible [15]; stones and sticks in the shallows, and the old Punic road under the water off San Pantaleo [15]; harmless-but-painful jellyfish in the seagrass [14].
• Where to eat. One school's list: Santa Maria Restaurant Lounge, Ristorante Bar Saro, Le Caserie, Trattoria 48, the Le Vie del Vento kiosk and Pe' Hai Beach Club, all on the lagoon road [7].
• The day trips. Capo Feto, 40 minutes south, for a south-easterly and a small wave [13]; San Teodoro beach for waves a few minutes' kite from the schools [7]; the open sea is reachable through the lagoon's gaps [7].

Access and hazards

The rules come from the Marsala harbour office. Ordinance 1/2019 of the Ufficio Circondariale Marittimo di Marsala ("Norme di sicurezza balneare nel Circondario Marittimo di Marsala") governs kite and windsurf in the reserve [2]; a school's summary of it gives the articles that matter [1]:

• Minimum age 14; under-18s need an adult directly supervising. Daylight only [1].
• Helmet and flotation are mandatory and permanent — "indossare permanentemente un caschetto di protezione certificato" and "un dispositivo di ausilio al galleggiamento omologato". Kite with a depower and a quick-release leash, and a line cutter [1].
• Distance from shore: 300 metres generally in the circondario; 200 metres inside the Stagnone reserve; 500 metres from harbour entrances; 200 metres from fishing installations; 100 metres from dive markers [1].
• Banned: bathing zones and their margins, port areas and shipping routes, river mouths and rocky outcrops; hydrofoils inside the reserve [1].
• Schools need FIV, IKO or VDWS instructors, a first-aid post within 100 metres, a rescue boat, red "INSTRUCTOR" vests on staff and coloured vests on students [1].

Whether the rules are followed is a separate question, and the local press has been asking it. A July 2024 tp24 piece says "le regole ci sono" but are not respected, records kites sailing close to the Villa Genna bathing beach and one kite landing on a parked car, and notes that activities in the reserve require a valutazione di incidenza ambientale [2]. The reserve is a regional protected area under the province [11]; overnight camping is prohibited in the northern reserve section [15]. Power lines are buried at the stations; boats and jetties are everywhere along the shore [15]. thekitespot's line that there are "no formal rules" beyond common sense [3] is wrong on the paperwork and should be read as a description of enforcement.

Parakite: the shore is flat salt-pan and reserve, with no slope or dune to foot-launch from, the first 200 metres of water are reserved for walking and body-dragging under the ordinance [1], and the whole strip is school corridors in season. Nothing rules it in.

Schools and rental

Kiterr counts "15+" schools; einfachkiten lists over 40 stations along the shore, most open March to November and some all year [14][15]. Those whose own pages this record was read from:

• Stagnone Kitesurf, Contrada Birgi Clemente — 1.5-hour taster €80; six-hour basic course €380 with the IKO card included, one-to-one; six-hour intermediate €380; advanced €70/hour; supervised rental with radio helmet €80/day; gear only, for IKO Level 3 and above, €60/day [9].
• Kite Lab — pay-as-you-go: €70/hour private and €55/hour per person in a pair for the first four hours, €60 and €45 after; IKO certificate €10; everything including helmet and wetsuit in the price; no group courses, no prepayment; children from 8 [8].
• Sicily Kite School — the guide page read carried no prices [7].
• ProKite Alby Rondina, the Cabrinha centre — €310 for six hours and €60/day rental, from thekitespot's listing rather than the school's own page, which returned a 404 [3].

All the above charge what their own pages say; none was checked against another source. IKO is the ladder the schools name; the ordinance accepts FIV, IKO or VDWS [1].

Getting there

Trapani–Birgi airport sits between Trapani and Marsala, equidistant from the two railway stations, with Ryanair based there [17]. The schools put it at 3 km from the lagoon [14], "10 minutes" [3] or "5 minutes" [13] — the runway is beside the salt pans. Palermo is about an hour [3][7]; Catania four hours [13]. A car or transfer is assumed from any of them [3]. Parking is free at most stations [15]. No bus to the lagoon shore is described on any page read.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Stagnone di Marsala — 11 files including Kite al tramonto.jpg, plus subcategories Isole dello Stagnone and Saline di Marsala [12]. Check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Leucate is a commune of about 4,600 people on the Aude coast, 30 km south of Narbonne and 30 km north of Perpignan, built on a limestone cape with the Mediterranean on one side and the Étang de Leucate on the other [10]. Five settlements string out along it from north to south — La Franqui, Leucate village, Leucate-Plage, the naturist village on Corrège island and Port-Leucate [10] — and every one of them has a spot. What makes the place is the wind. The Tramontane is the north-westerly that accelerates through the gap between the Pyrenees and the Massif Central towards the Gulf of Lion, a Venturi effect on a continental scale; on the Roussillon plain it blows on more than 100 days a year, with its maximum in winter and its minimum in summer, and in winter episodes it gusts above 100 km/h [8]. The spot guides' "300 days of wind" [3][4][13] is the marketing version of that; the station figure is more modest and given below.

The riding divides by water. On the sea side, La Franqui and the long Plage des Coussoules to its north face the Mediterranean, and the Tramontane comes off the land — side-offshore, gusty, and stronger than at Leucate-Plage because it accelerates round the cape [13]. The tourist office calls Les Coussoules "one of the best spots in Europe" for kitesurfing, windsurfing and sand-yachting and notes that KSL provides the safety service there [1]; this is where the Mondial du Vent has been held every April since 1996, drawing around 200,000 spectators in 2019, and since 2007 the only French stop on the PKRA freestyle World Cup [9]. On the lagoon side, the Étang de La Palme to the north and Le Goulet on the Étang de Leucate are where people learn: shallow, flat, and standing depth "quasiment partout" [6].

The day it gives depends entirely on which wind is blowing. In Tramontane the sea is flattened and turquoise close in and the flat-water lagoons are a playground; the guides describe La Franqui as the "speed record beach" that works best on a full north-westerly [13]. In a Marin — the south-easterly off the sea — the beaches at Leucate-Plage and Port-Leucate turn side-onshore with waves and La Franqui goes quiet [1][13].

Conditions

Tramontane, NW to NNW. The sport-tourism sites give 30–60 km/h (16–32 knots) and "practically every day from April to October" [12]; ultimatefrance says it "often exceeds 40 knots" at the peak [5]; kitesurfy's La Franqui page records an average of 13 knots with gusts to 30, and 203 days a year above 12 knots [3]. It is side-offshore on the sea beaches — the French spot guides' "side-off, pushing riders offshore" [4] — and the forecast models "often underestimate gusts by 5–10 knots" on the beach [13]. Windykite's rule of thumb is that La Palme lagoon runs 2–3 knots lighter than La Franqui [13]. The local saying, quoted by whenwherekite, is that it blows in runs of 3, 6 or 9 days [6][8].

Marin, SE to S. Side to side-on, lighter, and the wind that makes waves at Leucate-Plage, Les Pilotis and Port-Leucate [1][4][13]. The tourist office lists Aqualand at Port-Leucate as the spot for "south-east and south winds" [1].

Station figures. Windfinder's Leucate-Plage station gives an annual average of 11 knots, dominant direction NW, average gusts of 22 knots, daytime air 17 °C and night 15 °C, from observations between August 2010 and August 2026; it carries no monthly breakdown [7]. An older Leucate-Village station (2005–2012, now offline) gave the same 11-knot average, NW, with 16-knot gusts [15]. The gap between an 11-knot round-the-clock mean and a 22-knot mean gust is the Tramontane in one line: it is either on or it is not.

Water. Non-tidal Mediterranean. Sea temperature 22–25 °C in summer and 11–12 °C in winter [5]; air 9–25 °C across the year [3]. The lagoons are 0.5–1.5 m deep with a sand bottom [12], and the Étang de La Palme has standing depth almost everywhere [6]. In a dry summer the lagoon levels drop and weed accumulates [5].

The year

The monthly figures above are the spot guides' estimates; no station on any page read for this record publishes a month-by-month table, and the twelve numbers in months: are this record's reading of the sources, not a measurement.

Local knowledge

• Which beach in Tramontane. La Franqui and Les Coussoules are the sea spots and they are for riders who can hold an edge in 30 gusty knots with the wind coming off the land [3][4][6]. Whenwherekite's access note for La Franqui: turn off the D427 from Leucate for the Plage des Coussoules, look for the large "K" sign, park on the earth lot and allow a 15-minute walk to the beach across shallow water [6]. Kitesurfy's alternative when the town beach is closed in summer is Les Coussoules, "5 km north" [4].
• Beginners go to the lagoon. The Étang de La Palme is the schools' training ground: shallow, flat, gusty in the Tramontane, reached from the D709 towards Port-la-Nouvelle past a "Site protégé" sign, with awkward parking on an earth track beside the dyke [6]. Le Goulet on the Étang de Leucate is the other beginner bay, with free parking 50 m from the water — but it is a windsurf spot with a windsurf camp, and ultimatefrance says it is "reserved for windsurfers" [5][6].
• The forecast under-reads. "Forecast models often underestimate gusts by 5–10 knots" on the beach, and the locals trust the live balise over anything more than three days out [13].
• The security service costs money. At La Franqui the safety boat is a paid service — €20 a day in whenwherekite's account [6]; KSL runs it from Les Coussoules April to October [11]. In a side-offshore wind that is the difference between a long swim and a lift home.
• Oyster posts. The oyster beds in the lagoon are marked by wooden posts [5]; the Parcs à Huîtres area at La Corrège is windsurf-only, kites forbidden for safety [1].
• Parc des Dosses. Between Port-Leucate and Barcarès, a freestyle spot that fills when the Tramontane blows, with a wakeboard cable nearby and the far bank described as a struggle to get back from [2][6].
• The bar. Wesh Center Crew at Le Goulet runs rental, lessons and a restaurant on the water [1]; the beach clubs at Les Pilotis and Port-Leucate are the sea-side evening [1].

Access and hazards

Kitesurfing on Leucate's beaches is zoned by the commune and the zones change with the season. The tourist office's spot list names Les Coussoules, Les Pilotis and Aqualand (Port-Leucate) as kitesurf spots, and Le Goulet, La Mine and the Parcs à Huîtres as windsurf, SUP or wing spots, with kites forbidden at the oyster park [1]. Surf and Kite's zone list gives ten kite zones from La Vieille Nouvelle in the north to the Agly mouth at Barcarès in the south, each with its level [2]. Universkite records La Franqui as "spot fermé en été" — closed to kites in summer — with Les Coussoules the alternative [4]. The text of the municipal arrêté that sets the summer dates and boundaries could not be read for this record; the dates are therefore unverified here and should be checked on the beach signage or with KSL.

Hazards on record:

• Side-offshore Tramontane. The wind comes off the land at La Franqui and Les Coussoules and "pushes riders offshore" [4]; the guides recommend it only for advanced riders when strong [3]. Use the safety service.
• Gusts. Tramontane is described as gusty in every source [3][4][6][13], and the models under-read it by 5–10 knots [13].
• Oyster beds and their marker posts in the Étang de Leucate [5].
• Weed and low water in the lagoons in a dry summer; road flooding and potholes on the La Palme access track [5][6].
• Windsurfers at Le Goulet, on a narrow beach [6]; the wakeboard cable at Parc des Dosses [6].
• Military land beside the Étang de Salses to the south [6].

No published incident record could be found for this record.

Schools and rental

Ultimatefrance counts "more than 10 kitesurf schools" with Ecole Française de Kitesurf (FFVL) qualified instructors [5]; sport-decouverte says "dizaines d'écoles agréées" [12]. The one whose own page was read:

• Kite Surf Leucate (KSL) — Plage des Coussoules, La Franqui. Kitesurf, wing, foil and land training; open year-round by reservation, closed 15 December to 15 January; security and rental service April to October, 09:00–17:00 weekdays and 09:00–19:00 weekends, 09:00–20:00 in July and August, "all windy days" [11]. No prices on the page read. https://www.kite-surf-leucate.com/
• Wesh Center Crew — Le Goulet, rentals, lessons and restaurant [1]; a windsurf and wing centre rather than a kite school on the tourist office's listing.
• CVCL Beach Park — rents equipment at Les Coussoules [1].

Indicative prices, from a sport-tourism aggregator rather than a school and undated: a 3-hour initiation €100–200, a 2–3 day progression course €350–500, equipment rental €60–90 a day [12]. Treat those as a range, not a quote.

Getting there

Perpignan airport is the close one, about 35 minutes' drive [5]. Leucate is 30 km from Narbonne and 30 km from Perpignan by road [10], just off the A9; Le Goulet is signed from the Leucate exit, next to the motorhome area [6]. Leucate-La Franqui has a railway station on the Narbonne–Perpignan line — Commons has a category for it [14] — but no source read for this record gives the service pattern, and the spots are a car or bike ride from it.

Parking: earth lot at Les Coussoules behind the camping, then the walk [6]; paid parking at La Franqui front de mer with toilets and showers [4]; free at Le Goulet [6]; the Aire du Goulet and Aire de Mouret motorhome areas at Le Goulet and Les Pilotis, and daytime-only parking for vans under 8 m at La Mine [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Leucate — 111 files and 18 subcategories including Cap Leucate, La Franqui, Port Leucate and a Mondial du vent 2013 photograph [14]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: La Franqui — 90 files of the beach, lagoon and village; no kitesurfing images identified at the time of reading. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:La_Franqui
• The tourist office spot pages carry webcams for Les Coussoules and Les Pilotis [1].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Lake Garda is 51.6 km long, up to 16.7 km wide, 346 m at its deepest and sits at 65 m above the sea, with the Alps at its northern end and the Po plain at its southern [1]. The northern third is a fjord — cliffs on both shores — and the whole lake works as a thermal engine: air descends from the mountains to the plain in the morning and climbs back in the afternoon, and every one of those winds has a dialect name [1][7]. Riva, Torbole and Campione have been famous for it since windsurfing arrived, and Wikipedia lists them as the lake's sailing, windsurfing and kiteboarding centres [1]. Kitesurfing is younger here and lives in fewer places, because the shore is steep and the lake is deep.

Two winds make the day. The Pelér (also Sover, Vént de Sóra) comes down the lake from the north; it starts in the small hours, strengthens with sunrise and dies around midday, strong in the upper and middle lake and weaker south of Torri del Benaco [7]. The Ora del Garda is the southerly valley breeze that begins when the Pelér stops and runs until sunset, accelerated by the Venturi effect through the narrow upper lake [7]. Between them, on a fair-weather day, the upper lake has wind from dawn to dusk with a lull in the late morning [3][6].

The kite beaches are club beaches. Navene, about 5 km north of Malcesine on the east shore, is the Kitesurfing Club Malcesine's dedicated kite beach and, in kiteguide's words, "the only legal shore launch" on the Malcesine stretch, with space to lay out several kites and one launch at a time [4][5]. Campione del Garda, a hamlet of Tremosine on the west shore, is Kite Campione's beach and the association's own description is "the only beach dedicated to the practice of kitesurfing on Garda Lake that offers the possibility to practice both with Ora and Pelér" [2]. Everywhere else you ride from a boat.

Conditions

Pelér, N. Kiteguide's Malcesine page gives 20–30 knots, reaching 40 on strong mornings, starting between 04:00 and 05:00, peaking after sunrise and fading between 10:00 and 11:00, with short steep chop [5]; thekitespot gives 16–25 knots, 25–35 in summer, gusty [3]; kitesurftheworld gives 15–30 knots from sunrise to about 10:00 [6]. The 360gardalife spot list puts the Retelino launch's Pelér at "average 20–25 knots" [4].

Ora, S to SW. Steadier and lighter: 12–18 knots beginning between 12:00 and 13:00 and running to sunset, "approximately 90% of days" rideable in mid-summer, side-onshore at Malcesine [5]; 12–17 knots and "more regular and calmer" in thekitespot's account [3]; 12–22 knots at Campione [6]. Kite Campione's own page says spring to autumn brings "winds from south and north always sideshore, together with thermal breezes with intensity from 12 to 25 knots", from dawn to dusk [2].

Balì / Balin, NW. The Italian Wikipedia article on the lake's winds calls the Balì "il vento più violento che colpisce il lago": cold, periodic, spring or autumn, averaging three days [7]. Kiteguide's version is the Balin, a sudden north-westerly storm wind to 45 knots [5].

Water. Fresh and deep — more than 300 m in the upper lake, "no shallow resting areas" [5]. Mean surface temperature 12 °C over the year, from a December minimum of 6 °C to an August maximum of 27 °C [7]; Kite Campione gives 24 °C in summer and 8 °C in winter, with air 30 °C and 10 °C [2]; thekitespot's summer figure is about 20 °C, shorty or light suit [3]. Flat to small chop in the Ora, steep short chop in the Pelér [5][6].

Kite sizes. 360gardalife's rule for a 75 kg twin-tip rider: 9 m² in the morning, 12 m² in the afternoon, a 9/12/15 quiver for the season [4].

The year

The monthly percentages are thekitespot's historical share of days at 4 Beaufort or more, for its Malcesine–Navene listing [3]. No Windfinder statistics page could be read for any Garda station during the writing of this record (the site rate-limited every request), so there is no round-the-clock station mean here; note that a thermal lake reads badly in a 24-hour average anyway.

Local knowledge

• The black line. "If you see the lake water on the horizon looking like a black line, the wind is coming. The darker the line is, the more wind you can expect" [4].
• Keep the kite low. Trees and the terrain make turbulence at the launches; the local advice is to keep the kite low to the lake to avoid stalls [4]. Kite Campione's rules require members to know "the specific conditions of the location: winds, turbulence, safe areas for entry and exit" [2].
• Watch the crowd. "If crowds are heading in, it's a big possibility that the wind is going to drop off" [4]. The Pelér-to-Ora gap is the trap: kitesurftheworld lists "wind drops during transitions" as a hazard and says there is "no easy self-rescue without boat support" [6].
• The other launches. 360gardalife lists Campagnola (3 km north of Malcesine, Pelér only, rocky, full of swimmers in fine weather), Retelino by the big car park 1 km north of Malcesine (Pelér only, mornings only, back by 09:00 in high season, 200 m from the ferry pier, shared with windsurfers) and Assenza 5 km south opposite Trimelone island (gusty Pelér) [4]. None of them is a dedicated kite beach.
• The lift. Schools run "a sort of back and forth ride" — a boat that drops you in the wind and picks you up — which is how beginners and anyone without a club card ride here [4][9]; thekitespot puts the day rate around €35 [3].
• Ferries have right of way. Hydrofoils and car ferries cross the lake all day; stay 200 m off the piers [4][5].
• The tunnel. Just past the Navene beach "there is a long tunnel where the cliff falls sheer to the lake" [4]. Do not drift north.

Access and hazards

Rules on the water. Kiteguide states kitesurfing is prohibited within 200 m of the shoreline except in designated launch zones [5]. In the Trentino part of the lake (the northern end, Riva and Torbole), 360gardalife gives the rule as: mid-October to the end of February, kiting allowed sunrise to sunset; March to mid-October, lift-service only until 10:00 and unrestricted only after 17:00; forbidden during sailing regattas [4]. Kiteguide's paraphrase of the same rule is that kites are allowed in Trentino "only during the winter months from mid-October to the end of February and only in the evening during the summer months" [8]. The ordinance itself was not read for this record; those are the guides' versions.

Kite Campione's rules, as published by the association [2]: registration and payment of the year's membership and activities fees; kite-specific liability insurance with minimum cover of €500,000; medical fitness certified by a doctor; age 12 or over, accompanied by a parent or guardian to 18; a "Level III" proficiency licence; working safety release, a means of deflating the kite and a knife; an approved life jacket. On the beach: one inflated kite per member, lines wound on the bar; the launch corridor kept clear; assisted launches only, one at a time; an upwind launch zone and a downwind re-entry zone; no jumps or direction changes in the buoyed exit corridor; no approach within 150 m of shore while riding; no landing in the swimming area. Two rescue boats: €8 for members in Ora, €16 in Pelér, €50 for non-members, and "the service is not guaranteed" [2].

Navene requires membership of the Kitesurfing Club Malcesine (the club operates under a Municipality of Malcesine concession, no. 70 of 2012 [10]), quoted at €10 a year by kiteguide and thekitespot [3][5], with proof of proficiency [5]; one launch at a time and a paid rescue service [4]. The club's own page directs members to a separate regulations page for the current fees, which was not read; the €10 figure is the guides', not the club's.

Hazards on record: deep water with no standing anywhere [5]; gusty Pelér mornings [3][5]; the Balì/Balin storm wind [5][7]; wind dropping in the transition [6]; cliff turbulence [4][6]; ferries [5]; the tunnel cliff north of Navene [4]; currents, mentioned without detail by kiteguide [8]. thekitespot says you will be required to carry a flotation vest and to be competent at upwind body-dragging, self-rescue and deep-water pack-down [3]. No published incident record could be found.

Schools and rental

• Kite Campione ASD — Campione del Garda; the association that runs the beach, staffed daily 08:00–18:00 from 1 April to 30 October [2]. Membership and fees as above; lesson prices not on the page read. https://www.kitecampione.it/en/kitespot-and-rules/
• KiteClub Malcesine del Garda ASD — Navene, Via Gardesana 86, Malcesine; courses for beginners and experienced riders, an anemometer on the site, seasonal subscription presale to 15 April 2026 [10]. Fees on a page not read. https://www.kitemalcesine.it/
• Beekite — Brenzone sul Garda; beginner courses "from €135", one to five days; kite, wingfoil and e-foil, lift boat and rental [9].
• Stickl Sportcamp — Malcesine; courses "from €120" for one to four days, foil kite course "from €200" [9].
• Wwwind Square — Malcesine; windsurf, sailing, kite and wingfoil courses [9].
• Also named by the guides without prices: AVID Kiteboarding and Mint Kiteboarding at Navene [5][8]; Spread Wings, GKS Gardakitesurf and Reunion Kite Academy at Campione [6].

thekitespot's indicative figures are €200 for six hours of lessons and €80 a day for rental including the boat [3]. Prices are as read on 25 September 2026; the year they apply to is not stated on the pages. Which certification ladder each school teaches (FIV, IKO, VDWS) was not established for this record; Kite Campione's page title names FIV.

Getting there

Verona Villafranca is the airport — about 60 km, 1.5 hours to Campione [3][5][6]; Milan Bergamo 115 km, about 2 hours [5][6]; Milan 2.5 hours [6]. Brescia-Montichiari is the other regional field and both are reached via the A4 [1]. Rail is the Milan–Venice line at Desenzano and Peschiera at the south end, then the lake road or the ferry, which runs the length of the lake from Desenzano to Riva [1]; Navene and Campione sit on opposite shores and are linked by ferry [3]. Malcesine is 40 km north-west of Verona [11].

Parking: near the beach at Navene, campers "not allowed, but possible" in kiteguide's phrase [5], overnight camper parking claimed by the same site's Navene page [8]; at Campione "parking can be limited in peak season" [6]; the Retelino launch is the big car park north of Malcesine [4].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Navene — 10 files of the settlement, the Gardesana road and the small harbour; no kitesurfing images at the time of reading [12].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Campione del Garda — 28 files, cliffs, the Terrazza del Brivido, the village; no kitesurfing images. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Campione_del_Garda
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Kitesurfing in Italy has no Garda subcategory at the time of reading. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kitesurfing_in_Italy

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Sotavento is the leeward beach of the Jandía peninsula, the long tail of Fuerteventura that hangs off the south-west of the island by the Istmo de la Pared and is entirely inside the municipality of Pájara [14]. Most of the peninsula has been a nature reserve, the Parque Natural de Jandía, since 1987, and its spine rises to 807 m at Pico de la Zarza [14]. The beach is roughly ten kilometres of sand between Costa Calma and Morro Jable on the east coast [17], centred on 28.10 N 14.27 W [15], and at low water it gets "incredibly wide" [17]. What makes it a kite spot rather than a sunbathing beach is the sandbar: at the right tides a bank forms offshore — the one at Risco del Paso is "almost 300 metres long" [17] — and the sea trapped behind it becomes a lagoon "4 km long and up to 200 m wide" of shallow, flat water [6].

Two centres anchor the two ends of that lagoon. René Egli's is on the north side at Playa Barca, in front of the Meliá hotels, 3 km south of Costa Calma [1][2][5]; ION CLUB's is at Risco del Paso at the south end, "with its feet in the water", at the km 72 mark on the FV-2 [1][2][3]. Between them is the beach that has hosted a windsurfing World Cup since René Egli started it in 1986 — the 38th edition runs from 17 July to 1 August 2026 at Playa Barca, and is now windsurf and wingfoil, with kite at the venue but not on the competition programme [19]. An older guide records the beach as host to "the PWA Windsurfing and PKRA Kiteboarding World Cup every year" [21]; the kite side of that has lapsed.

The day it gives depends almost entirely on the moon. On a spring-tide week the lagoon fills and you have kilometres of waist-deep turquoise flat water and a firm sandbar to launch from — thekitespot's summary is "spectacular, turquoise, mirror flat waist deep water" [1]. On a neap week, "extreme low tides may leave you with very shallow or no water in the lagoon, requiring you to go over the sandbank to the open sea" [1], and Surfers Island's plainer version is that "there are a few days each month when the lagoon may not be filled with water" [7]. The wind is the other half of the equation, and it is the reason the place is famous: the trade wind "comes between two mountains creating a funneling effect, which means the wind at Sotavento is generally stronger than other spots on the island" [7].

Conditions

Wind. The engine is the north-east trade wind, "which gets accelerated through the mountains" [9]; on the beach it is described as northeasterly, "flowing left toward open sea" [3], or "moving from the left and heading towards the open sea" [18] — that is, side-offshore. thekitespot gives it as N to NE at 25–30 knots from May to September with 75–95% wind probability, "up to 40 knots, gusty" in July and August, and 15–25 knots the rest of the year [1]. ION CLUB's guide has summer afternoons accelerating "to 35 knots", with the wind weakening but staying consistent in spring and autumn and decreasing slightly in winter, when the waves get bigger [2]. Kitesurf The World, from the Risco del Paso car park, says "30–40 knots" in summer, thermal gusts, and quivers of 6–8 m in summer against a 6–13 m range for a 70 kg rider across the year [8]. thekitespot's sizing is 5–10 m in high season with 7 m the most common, 8–14 m off-season [1]. One caveat on the north end: at Sotavento in front of the hotels "wind is less regular" because of the buildings [2].

The one station whose long run could be read is Windfinder's Sotavento, at 28.14 N 14.24 W — the Playa Barca end — with an average of 16 knots, 21-knot gusts and NNE dominant over observations from April 2004 to July 2021; Windfinder marks the station as no longer reporting and the statistics as possibly out of date [10]. Its Risco del Paso and Sol Gorriones pages carry no statistics at all [10]. Costa Calma's station only ran for four months of 2017 and reads 14 knots NW [11], which says more about where it stood than about the beach.

Water. Flat in the lagoon, "occasionally choppy when wind strengthens"; the open sea outside the bar is "flat or a little bit choppy" with "little beach breaks" [8]. ION CLUB describes a wave spot upwind of the Risco del Paso centre with "one to two metres", sandy bottom [3]. The bottom everywhere is sand; kiteforum lists no water hazards and no beach hazards [9], and ION says "no dangerous rocks" [3]. Water depth in the lagoon is the number to watch: Kitesurf The World gives a "minimum +50–60 cm" of tide for riding it, and says at "+80–120 cm" the sandy beach itself goes under [8]; René Egli's windsurf page asks for "an estimated minimum depth of 100 cm" in front of the hotel [6].

Temperature. Air 24–30 °C in the May–September peak [7]; Windfinder's long run gives a 23 °C daytime average across the year [10]. Water temperature was not on any page read; ION CLUB recommends "minimum 3/2 mm full-body neoprene" in winter at Risco del Paso [2], and kiteforum lists a shorty for spring, summer and autumn [9].

Tide. The lagoon "fills depending on the tides of the full moon and new moon phases" [6]; thekitespot puts the same thing as "dependant on the moon position, therefore, gets tidal on the weekly bases" [1]. René Egli publishes a downloadable lagoon timetable for the year "including the estimated highest levels", and a 2026 one exists [6]. Read it before you book.

The year

The percentages are thekitespot's, defined as at least three consecutive daylight hours of 4 Bft (11–16 knots) or more [1]. No station-based monthly table could be read for this record: Windfinder's only long-run page gives an annual average [10], and Windguru's spot pages load their data by script and show nothing to a text fetch [12][13][23].

Local knowledge

• Park at Risco del Paso, not at the hotels, if you are a kiter. The big sandy car park at the south end "with lots of motorhomes and surfers" is the one everybody uses [17]; it is a three-minute walk to the open sea and another two minutes north, towards the ION CLUB, to the lagoon [8]. Do not try the rough track between Risco del Paso and the Meliá unless you are happy off-road [17].
• Kites left, windsurfers right. At Risco del Paso "use left beach side; right side reserved for windsurfers" [8]. Kiteforum's entry, undated, goes further and says kitesurfing is prohibited at Risco del Paso outright, with a "1000 Euro fine and possible loss of equipment" [9]. That is contradicted by ION CLUB running kite lessons from the beach there today [3][4], and by every other page read; treat it as a historical zoning that has since been drawn as a kite side and a windsurf side, and check the signs on the day.
• The lagoon is René Egli's classroom. The centre states it is "the official and exclusive license holder for lessons in the entire lagoon" [6], and an independent guide repeats that it "holds exclusive licensing for lagoon lessons" while calling the school "rather expensive" [21]. Freeriding in the lagoon is not restricted by that; teaching is.
• Beginners: the south end. thekitespot's guide recommends Risco del Paso for beginners because the lagoon there is better than at René Egli — a search summary of that page, not a line read in it, so unverified. What was read: Surfers Island runs zones in the lagoon keeping beginners and advanced riders apart [7], and ION describes "dual flat-water zones suitable for beginner lessons at high tide" [3].
• Carry a smaller kite than you think. "Sudden wind gusts require smaller kite backup" [8]; summer is 40-knot days [1].
• At a big high tide your kit floats. At +80–120 cm the beach itself is submerged [8]; the beach hut and car park sit behind it.
• Costa Calma is 30 minutes away for anything you forgot [8], though ION runs a free shuttle over the 7 km between the centre and the town [3]. The car-park toilets are "occasionally non-functional" [8].

Access and hazards

Wind direction is the hazard. The trade wind leaves the beach to the left towards the open sea [3]; thekitespot puts it as "cross-offshore winds require rescue service" and prices a jet-ski rescue at €90 a week or €50 a rescue [1]. Kitesurf The World's first rule is the same: offshore wind, "verify rescue service availability" [8]. ION CLUB keeps "lifeboat plus jet-ski on standby" [3]. If you are riding outside the bar on your own kit, know which centre's jet-ski is running and whether it will come for you.

Tide. The lagoon can be empty for days at a time [7]; on those days you are in the open sea in side-offshore wind with beach break at the edge [8]. At the other extreme the beach floods [8].

Rules. No municipal beach ordinance for Pájara could be found online for this record, and none is cited. The zoning on the ground at Risco del Paso — kite side and windsurf side [8] — and René Egli's exclusive lesson licence in the lagoon [6][21] are the rules the pages describe. The kiteforum "prohibited" note [9] is discussed above. Most of the peninsula behind the beach is the Parque Natural de Jandía [14].

Terrain. Sand bottom throughout [3][9]; no rocks reported by any source read. Waves of one to two metres on the upwind side of the Risco del Paso centre [3].

No incident record is published for the spot.

Schools and rental

• René Egli Center, Hotel Paradisus by Meliá, Playa Sotavento, Costa Calma — the north end [5]. Kite courses from beginner to advanced at €205 for 3 h, €395 for 6 h, €585 for 9 h and €750 for 12 h; "Advanced Pool" hours at €160/€285/€390 for 3/6/9 h; private lessons €270 for 2 h one-to-one or €240 for 2 h with two people; 5% off for paying a week ahead; minimum age 15 and weight 50 kg; wetsuit, vest and helmet included; the page says "international licences" without naming IKO or VDWS [5]. Holds the exclusive lesson licence for the lagoon and runs a "Lagoon Shuttle" for students [6].
• ION CLUB Risco del Paso, Playa Risco del Paso, km 72, Pájara — the south end [3]. Open all year, 10:00–17:30 September–April and 09:30–18:00 May–August; free shuttle to Costa Calma; lockers, lunch, ATM, card payments; lifeboat and jet-ski [3]. Instructors "IKO or VDWS", a maximum of two students per instructor, radios in the helmets; beginner courses of 6 h (Discovery, Progression) and 12 h (Combo), intermediate 2 h and 6 h, and 2–4 h clinics for foil, strapless and tricks [4]; the centre reckons "12 hours" on average for a total beginner [3]. Prices are behind a separate page that could not be read; none are quoted here [4].
• Surfers Island, Morro Jable, teaching at the Risco del Paso lagoon since 2008, with a dedicated kite zone split between beginners and advanced [7]. A €180 five-hour IKO beginner lesson with transfer from Morro Jable appears in search results for its pages but was not read on a fetched page and is unverified.

For comparison, thekitespot's undated listing figures are €300 for six hours of lessons and €240 for four days of gear rental [1]. Rental rates from the centres themselves were not on any page read; ION says rental includes "wetsuit, harness, leash, helmet, vest" and offers damage insurance [3].

Getting there

Fuerteventura Airport (FUE) is at El Matorral, about 5 km south-west of Puerto del Rosario [22]. thekitespot gives 74 km from the airport to the beach, a taxi around €65 and a hire car around €100 a week [1]; ION CLUB says about 1 h 15 min down the FV-2 towards Morro Jable [3]; Kitesurf The World says an hour [8]. Bus line 10 runs Puerto del Rosario – Airport – Caleta de Fuste – Gran Tarajal – La Lajita – Costa Calma – Morro Jable, with "just 6 buses per day on weekdays and even less on weekends", fares of roughly €7–10, and line 1 covers the same corridor via Antigua more often; line 25 links Morro Jable, Costa Calma and La Lajita; pre-booked transfers are about €15 a head [20]. From the bus you still need to reach the beach: the ION shuttle from Costa Calma [3] or a walk. Parking is free at Risco del Paso [17], entrance to the beach is free [17].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Playa de Sotavento — 34 files including Kitesurfing_Sotavento.jpg, an aerial of the lagoon, and Windsurfer kitesurfer sotavento playa strand.jpg; subcategories for Playa Barca and Playa Risco del Paso [16]. Check each file's licence before reuse.
• René Egli's lagoon page carries a time-lapse of the lagoon filling [6].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Prasonisi is the cape at the bottom of Rhodes, 92 km from Rhodes town and 40 km beyond Lindos, and it is not quite an island: a sand tombolo joins the islet to Rhodes in summer when the water is low, and in winter, when the level rises, the bar floods and Prasonisi is an island again [1]. That strip of sand is the spot. On its west side the water is flat and the wind comes off the sand — the windsurfers' lagoon, and the schools' teaching water; on its east side the same wind blows onshore over the open Aegean and stacks up wind waves and chop [1][3][5]. Wikipedia's phrasing for what people come for is "predictable and reliable winds with certain qualities (not gusty, constant direction and during particular times of the day)" [1].

The wind is the Meltemi, the Etesian northerly of the Aegean, which blows from about mid-May to mid-September, from the north-west in the southern Aegean, at force 7–8 in its strong spells, strengthening in the afternoon and weakening at night, and — the hazard the Wikipedia article on it names — arriving "in clear weather without warning" [2]. At Prasonisi it accelerates round the cape: Kite Prasonisi's own line is that "the Meltemi wind accelerates around the peninsula, creating steady and powerful conditions almost every day" in summer [4], and kiteandsurfrhodes says the spot "is known for its stronger winds, compared to all other spots on Rhodes" [6].

The catch is that the two sides are not both yours. Kitesurfing has been forbidden on the flat-water side and is permitted on the wave side, and the rule is enforced by the port police from a boat, with tickets [5]. Wake Up Stoked's account of the same arrangement is that the left (flat) side is "dominated by windsurfers", kiters are "restricted to the right side of the bay", and the sign on the flat side says "no kite and no kite rescue" [3]. So the flat water that every photograph shows is, for a kiter, the water you look at while you ride the chop.

Conditions

Wind. Meltemi, NW to N. Kitesurfy's spot page gives an annual average of 13 knots with gusts to 27, a typical working range of 15–20 knots "with occasional stronger gusts", and 229 days a year above 12 knots; air 14–28 °C across the year [7]. The Etesian description is force 7–8 (28–40 knots) in strong episodes [2]. The daily shape, from Wake Up Stoked's weeks there: strong from 06:00 to about 07:30–08:00, a mid-morning drop, back up from noon or early afternoon and holding until sunset; the forecast under-reads by "4–5 knots" and the rule is to "add some knots" [3]. Kite sizes: 9 m most days, 11 m or bigger sometimes, 7 m rarely [3]; prasonisi-beach.com's priority list for a 75 kg rider is 9, 7, 12, 15, 5 m in July–August and 9, 12, 7, 15 m in September, and "the first three will bring you on the water on 80 to 90 percent of the days" [5].

On the wave (east) side the wind is onshore and there are "no lifeboats on the wave side (onshore wind, so no real need for a boat)" [5]. On the flat (west) side it is offshore [3][6].

Water. The east side gives wind waves and chop — "nice ramps to jump off of" — with algae near the shore and floating plastic on some days [3]. The west side is the flat lagoon. Non-tidal Aegean. No source read gives a sea temperature in degrees; Wake Up Stoked's practical version is a long wetsuit from June to September and a shorty in July and August [3]. Wikipedia notes that the two sides are two seas' worth of conditions on one bar [1].

No station statistics could be read for this record: Windfinder returned "too many requests" on every attempt over the writing session, and no Windguru station id for Prasonisi is quoted on any page read. The 13-knot mean and 229-day count are kitesurfy's, of unstated provenance [7].

The year

The months: strip follows the sources above; no month-by-month probability table from a station could be read for this record.

Local knowledge

• Ride the right side. Facing the water on the bar, kiters go right (east, waves, onshore); the left is windsurf water and the port police patrol it by boat [3][5]. Kitesurfy's neutral version: "kitesurfers are often restricted to the right side of Prasonisi's bay to avoid conflicts with windsurfers" [7].
• Beginners don't make it out. The wave side is "more filled with progressed kitesurfers since the beginners don't make it out" through the shore chop [3]; learn with a school, which has the corner of the bay.
• Two sessions a day. Early and late; the mid-morning lull is real [3]. Read the forecast as a floor, not a ceiling [3][5].
• The schools are not your rescue. No rescue boat on the flat side and a sign that says so [3]; none needed on the onshore side [5]. Wake Up Stoked's experience of the schools on the beach: "not really friendly and don't really like to help" — one visitor's opinion, quoted as such [3].
• Rubbish and weed. Algae near the shore and plastic in the water on the wave side; the same source suggests a beach clean [3].
• It is a long way from anywhere. About 100 km from the northern Rhodes spots [6]; "there is little evening entertainment, at least without using a car" [6]; "an atmosphere where people come, kite and go … not really a spot for solo travelers" [3]. Beds: Oasis and Kedros (half board), Zanetos, Club Prasonisi, or Kattavia 10 minutes inland; food at Oasis and Lighthouse on the bar, or Colonia San Marco 15 minutes away for "fresh, homemade food at really good prices" [3].
• Signal. A Cosmote SIM hotspot works; hotel wifi "pretty unstable" [3].

Access and hazards

Rules. Kites are banned on the flat-water (west) side and allowed on the wave (east) side; the port police enforce it from a boat and issue tickets [5]. The text of the port-authority order was not read for this record. Prasonisi is a Natura 2000 site; Wikipedia records that vehicle compaction has changed the sand and that loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting has declined under tourism pressure [1] — do not drive on the bar.

Hazards on record. The Meltemi's habit of arriving without warning [2]; local acceleration of the wind by the cape's topography [7]; a current effect that Wake Up Stoked attributes to the Venturi between islet and shore [3]; the offshore wind on the flat side, which is the side you are not allowed on anyway [3][6]; algae and plastic on the wave side [3]; crowding in July and August [6]. No published incident record could be found.

Schools and rental

Kiteandsurfrhodes counts "three surf / kite centers" on the bar [6]. The ones whose pages were read:

• Kite Prasonisi (Kite Praso Watersport Center) — Prasonisi Beach 85109; kite, wing and surf lessons, kite and wing rental, storage, yoga; IKO logo on the site; quad-bike support mentioned in a review [4]. Its prices page lists headings for kite and wing lessons, kite-only and board-only rental, surf lessons and storage but the figures did not render for this record [9]. https://www.kiteprasonisi.com/
• Prasonisi Center — windsurfing and wing foiling only, "over 32 years" on the bar, Severne and Starboard windsurf kit, F-One, Duotone and Attack wings; open May to September 10:00–18:30 and October 10:00–18:00 [8]. Not a kite school. https://www.prasonisicenter.com/
• A planetkitesurfholidays listing for a "Prasonisi Kitesurf School" returned 403 and was not read; a search summary put a six-hour kite intro course at roughly £210–255, which is unverified here.

No kite lesson price could be read from a school's own page for this record; ask on the beach.

Getting there

Rhodes International Airport is at Paradeisi, about 14 km south-west of Rhodes town [10], and Prasonisi is 92 km from the town [1] — allow 1.5 to 2 hours by road down either coast (the drive time is this record's estimate, not a sourced figure). A hire car is what every guide assumes [3][6]; there is no public transport to the bar mentioned on any page read. Park behind the beach by the tavernas; do not take a vehicle on to the sand [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Prassonissi (Rhodes) — 60 files and a lighthouse subcategory (11 files): the bar from the hill, the two bays, the meeting of the seas, a Surf Academy panoramio shot and beach views from 2015 [11]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Prassonissi lighthouse. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Prassonissi_lighthouse

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Praia do Guincho is the beach 5 km north of Cascais on the Estoril coast, about 800 m of sand in Wikipedia's measure and "1 km-long" in the beach guide's, backed by the Guincho–Cresmina dunefield and sitting on the western edge of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park — 145 km² protected since 1981 and a Natural Park since 1994 — which is why there is nothing built on it [1][6][7]. It was a Professional Windsurfers Association venue in the 1990s and hosts the Portuguese surfing and bodyboarding championships [1]. Cascais's own listing of its 17 beaches calls it "primarily a surfing, windsurfing, and kitesurfing beach because of the prevailing winds and sea swells" [2].

The wind is the Nortada: the summer northerly of the whole west Iberian coast, N to NNW, born of the thermal low over the peninsula against the Azores high and sharpened locally by the terrain and by the cold upwelled water offshore; the Portuguese Wikipedia article on it names Guincho as one of the two places where that local amplification is strongest [5]. It blows mainly from June to September [5], is at its strongest in July and August [1], and the schools' shorthand is "if there is sun, you will have wind at Guincho" [8].

What it gives is a big, cold, physical day. The wind builds through the early afternoon to a late-afternoon peak [3], the sea is Atlantic — waves, a shore break, rips off the rocks at either end — and the guides are unanimous that this is not a beginner's beach: kiteguide says "not recommended for beginners" [3], kitejungle rates it "intermediate to expert" [4], and the schools that teach here take their first-timers to the flat water of Fonte da Telha or the Albufeira lagoon south of the Tagus instead [10][11]. Wikipedia's safety line, from the local authorities, is "strong currents, powerful shore break, and rapidly changing wind conditions" [1].

Conditions

Wind. Kiteguide: north, 20–30 knots average, "winds usually start building up in the early afternoon and reach their peak by late afternoon", gusty, May to September [3]. Kiteforum's spot page gives the working arc as N, NNW, NW, WNW and W with north primary, "up to 35 kts" from the local thermal effect, and May to October as the months with July and August "optimal" [8]. Kitesurfculture describes W/NW as cross-onshore, a standard range of 12–25 knots, "light in the morning and often honk by midday", and July–August pushing "over the upper edge" [9]. Kitejungle's numbers are the sobering ones: an annual average of only 8–10 knots round the clock, gusts of "anything from 15–25 knots and up to 40 knots in summer", 218 days a year with at least 12 knots, and monthly wind directions of 4° to 30° — north to north-north-east [4]. In winter the wind is easterly and the swell is the story [1].

Water. Winter waves of 1.5–3 m and occasionally over 4 m [1]; in summer the Nortada makes wind-swell and chop over a sand bottom with rocks at each end and in the middle [4][8]. Tide matters: kitejungle says "low to mid-high tide is better as waves break outside" [4]; kiteforum says the beach break is "a bit strong" at high tide [8]; kitesurfculture, writing for surfers, says the surf breaks best on a mid to incoming tide [9]. Temperature is disputed: kitejungle gives a monthly run from 11 °C in January to 22 °C in August and 12 °C in December [4]; kitesurfculture says it "rarely gets above 17–18 °C year-round" [9]. The upwelling that sharpens the wind cools the water [5], so the lower figure is the safer one to pack for. "Wetsuit is mandatory" [8]; "wetsuits essential" [3].

Station. Windfinder's Guincho page carries no statistics — "No statistical weather data available" — and points to Cascais-Tejo airport 10 km away, whose page could not be read during this session (rate-limited) [12]. The only monthly table found is kitejungle's, of unstated provenance [4].

The year

The months: strip follows kitejungle's monthly table, the Nortada's June–September range and the three spot guides' seasons; there is no station table behind it.

Local knowledge

• Launch by the rocks, north of the surfers. Kiteforum's summer rule from the locals: "in summer launch at the middle (north or south of rocks)", and "go to the northern side of the beach" so the surfers keep the south — "let's respect them and avoid stupid arguments" [8]. Kitesurfculture's version: "respect the surf line-up" [9].
• Rocks in three places. "Rocks in each side and at the center of the beach" [8]; "few rocks at the beach and in the water" [4]; the reef to the north "if you drift too far" [9].
• Rips off the north end. "Rip currents around the cliffs and near rocky outcrops on the northern edge are serious and swift" [9]. Wikipedia's "strong currents" [1] is the same warning.
• Morning is for surfing. Light until midday, then it honks [9]; peak late afternoon [3]. The car park "fills fast during summer" — "get there early or be ready to hike" [9].
• Small kites. "Smaller kites are generally recommended" [3]; gusts to 40 in July and August [4].
• No fees, no club. "No fees or registration needed, just talk with locals for info" [8]; "no entry fees — Guincho Beach is public" [9].
• The other beaches. When Guincho is too much, the same schools are at Fonte da Telha and the Lagoa de Albufeira across the river [10][11]; Guincho Wind Factory's one-hour lesson is Guincho-only, with a two-hour minimum elsewhere [11].

Access and hazards

Rules. Kiteguide states that in the busy summer beach season "kitesurfing is only allowed after 6 pm" [3]. No other page read for this record repeats that, and the text of the beach edict (the Capitania's edital de praia) that would set the hours and the zones could not be found; treat the 18:00 rule as one guide's claim, unverified here, and read the signs on the beach. Kiteforum's remark that kitesurfing "is still in probation at Guincho" appeared only in a search summary and is likewise unverified. What is certain is the ground: the beach is inside a Natural Park (IUCN Category V, run by ICNF) [7], the dunes carry conservation signage — "respect conservation signs and avoid disturbing dunes" [9] — and the Guincho–Cresmina dunefield is a protected system, not a rigging area [7][13].

Hazards on record. Strong currents and a powerful shore break [1][9]; rocks at both ends and in the middle [8]; rips off the northern rocks and cliffs [9]; gusty, "switchy" wind [9]; cold water and the fatigue that comes with it [9]; surfers in the water [8][9]. Lifeguards are on duty in summer according to the beach guide [6], while kitesurfculture says "no lifeguards here, so you're on your own" [9] — both are probably true at different times of year, and neither is a kite rescue. Kiteguide lists a medical centre and a rescue service as available [3]. No published incident record could be found.

Schools and rental

• Guincho Wind Factory — on the beach; kitesurf lessons with "IKO and FPV (Portuguese Sailing Federation) certified instructors", radio communication, Reedin kites and Brunotti boards; individual lesson €80 an hour at Guincho (minimum two hours at other spots such as Fonte da Telha), ten-hour pack €590 [10][11]. https://www.guinchowindfactory.com/collections/school-kitesurf
• Gustykite — teaching since 2003 at "Guincho/Cascais", Fonte da Telha and the Albufeira lagoon, choosing the spot by the day's "wind, waves, and ground conditions"; private lessons "from €60", semi-private "from €44", supervised rental "from €20"; gear, insurance and certification cards included [14]. https://gustykite.net/
• SB Kiteboarding and Kitesurf Adventures are named by the search results as IKO schools working Guincho, Caparica and Alvor; neither site could be loaded (certificate and DNS errors) and nothing from them is claimed here.

Prices are as published on the schools' pages when read on 25 September 2026; the year they apply to is not stated.

Getting there

Lisbon airport is the one; the drive is "about 40 minutes" in kiteguide's estimate [3], 30–40 minutes in kitesurfculture's [9], and the park is 25 km from the city [7]. Without a car: train from Cais do Sodré to Cascais, about 40 minutes, then Scotturb bus 405 or 415 from the terminal under the Cascais Villa shopping centre, 15–20 minutes to the beach [6]; kiteguide gives the same bus-from-Cascais-station route [3]. The beach is 5–6 km from Cascais [1][6].

Parking: on the road above the beach — "you just drive there along the road, stop your car on the side way, and walk to the beach" [8]; "available close to the beach but fills fast during summer" [9]; campers by day only [3]. Nothing on the beach: kiteguide lists no toilets, showers or restaurants at the sand itself [3], though kitejungle lists a restaurant, toilets and accommodation in the area [4] — the hotels and restaurants are on the road behind.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Praia do Guincho — 157 files and three subcategories, including Guincho-Cresmina dunefield (91 files) and Forte do Guincho; kitesurfing and windsurfing files include Kite Surfer@Guincho (Cascais, Portugal), Windsurfing Guincho Beach and 40 knots at Guincho [13]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Sylt is the long island at the top of Germany's North Sea coast, and its flying has two faces. Westerland, the west-coast town beach, is the wave spot: "3–4m big waves with lots of power to small choppy waves", "Main direction from West. Fall and autumn best winds, can be very strong", "Intermediate, Expert" [1]; the pro centre calls the Brandenburger Strand "advanced surfers only", waves "up to 3 meters high", winds "North, Northwest, West, Southwest, and South", and notes that "world champions like Matchu Lopes or Victor Fernandez compete right in front of our center" [2]. Hörnum, twenty minutes south, is the other face: the Möwennest on the Wadden side, "waveless shallow water", all levels, "East wind" optimal with SE and NE, and "Sansibar 2" on the west coast for N, S and W at intermediate-and-up [2]. The kite guide's Hörnum page adds only "4 to 18 knots", "constant", "all day", and Surfhouse Sylt as a school [3].

Conditions

Westerland's hazard is stone: "long rock lines (ca. 20m into the sea) every 100–200m from Westerland to Kampen. You can't see them while high tide!" [1]. Water "16–20°C" June to September and "4°C" November to February [1]; the centre says water "exceed[s] 10 degrees Celsius" in season and "wetsuits required year-round" [2]. The Möwennest is inside the Wadden Sea National Park, where kiting is "only allowed two hours before and after low tide" [2]. No station statistics were read.

The year

Local knowledge

• Two hours either side of low tide at the Möwennest, no more [2]; three tolerated at most (search summary).
• Learn the groyne map before high tide [1].
• Launch north of the main beach building or south at the Seeblick at Westerland [1].
• Rantum harbour is the windsurf/wing water — "2.5 hours before and after high tide", the opposite window to the Möwennest [2].

Access and hazards

Beach fees in summer and a summer kite ban on the bathing beach [1]; national-park tide windows at the Möwennest [2]. Hazards: the rock lines, the shore break, the cold [1].

Schools and rental

Duotone Pro Center Sylt — Westerland, with teaching at Rantum and Hörnum, open April/May to October; no prices on the page [2]. Surfhouse Sylt at Hörnum [3].

Getting there

The Hindenburgdamm car train from Niebüll or the ferry from Rømø; Hamburg is about three hours. A judgement, not from a page read.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Sylt — 53 files and 24 subcategories including Sports in Sylt, Westerland and Hörnum [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

The Brouwersdam is one of the Delta Works, a 6.5 km dam that closed the Grevelingen off from the North Sea, and its seaward beach is the Netherlands' best-known kite spot (search summary). The rule is simple: "kitesurfing is only allowed in a signposted area on this side of the dam" [3]; "only at the south part of the Brouwersdam kitesurfing is allowed", inside the yellow buoys [1]; "no kiting between the yellow buoys" is how the Dutch spot guide puts the same line [2]. The water changes with the tide: "at low tide you have a very nice flat-water spot" and "at high tide you have wonderful waves" — and "at high tide it can also be a huge bastard", with "a strong current" on the rising water; "at spring tide it is 1 large flat-water spot" [2]. The magazine: "semi flat water / choppy", easier "at low tide because it's possible to stand in the water", and a shore break at high tide that troubles beginners [1].

Conditions

"Onshore wind directions: Southwest, West, Northwest, North, Northeast" [1]; south to south-east is offshore and for experts (search summary); the sea wind "is generally steady and non-gusty due to absence of obstacles" (search summary). "April through October are the windy months" [1]; spring brings north-westerlies that stay for days and autumn turns stormy from the south-west (search summary). Summer water "around 18 degrees Celsius" [1]. No station statistics were read.

The year

Local knowledge

• Free parking at 51.760158, 3.847107 [2]; showers and tubs to rinse gear, beach bars, a surf shop [2].
• Low tide for the flat, high for the waves, and respect the current on the flood [2].
• Buggies and landboards share the beach (search summary).
• Rotterdam airport is 45 minutes; a car is the way, though this spot has public transport [1].

Access and hazards

The signposted zone and the buoys [1][2][3]. Hazards: the rising-tide current and the high-tide shore break [2]; offshore southerlies (search summary).

Schools and rental

"There are kite schools" [2] — Natural High (VDWS) and KBC Brouwersdam (IKO) in the search summaries, not read; the magazine names Vertigo Sports at Vrouwenpolder rather than here [1]. No price was read.

Getting there

Rotterdam (RTM) 45 minutes by car [1]; the N57 runs along the dam.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Brouwersdam — 41 files: the dam, the beach, a grey seal [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Lefkada is the Ionian island you can drive to: a causeway and a floating bridge join it to the mainland, so there is no ferry, and the town sits at the northern end about 25 minutes from Aktion airport [13][14]. The kite beach is Agios Ioannis, 2 km from the town on the north-west shore, known to everyone as Milos Beach after the row of old stone windmills along the back of it [2][5][17]. It faces north-west into the open Ionian, and the wind that makes it is a thermal — the Maistro — that builds from around midday and runs to sunset [8].

Why people come is the reliability of that thermal in summer. One magazine guide calls the spot "nearly 100% reliable" and puts the probability of a wind day at 95% from June to mid-September [8]; the Milos Beach club's own listing claims "every day 90% constant wind" from April to September [15]; a German windsurf magazine, more cautiously, gives "a good 50 per cent" of days with planing wind through the summer months [3]. Those are three different definitions and the spread between them is the honest answer.

What the beach is not is a beginner spot. Every guide read for this record says the same thing in different words: the shore and the seabed close in are "dotted with smooth, slippery rocks and rock slabs", water entry is "tricky", and the usual advice is to body-drag about 50 m out before trying a water start [1]. Beginners on Lefkada learn at Agios Nikolaos, a shallow lagoon 13 km south-east of town that spots4kite calls "one of the safest beginner spots in western Greece" [2]. And the island's most famous wind bay, Vassiliki at the southern end, is a windsurfing centre where kiting is prohibited — see "Access and hazards" [4][6][7].

Conditions

The wind is thermal: the hinterland heats, the air over the sea is drawn in, and the breeze arrives in the early afternoon [3]. spots4kite gives the start as 14:00–15:00 and the end as 19:00–20:00, with the working directions N, W and NW, onshore to side-onshore, and a typical range of 12–24 knots [1]; its island guide gives 14–24 knots from W, NW and SW at Agios Ioannis, and 10–25 across the island [2]. iksurfmag says the Maistro comes "cross on to on from the right" at 15–20 knots, "starts to build around midday" and "drops off at sunset" [8]. Kiteforum lists N, W, WNW, NW and NNW as both the main and the best directions [5].

The point every source makes is that the thermal is stronger than the model says. Surf magazine records afternoons of "12 to 20 knots" at Milos Beach "despite lower forecast predictions", and days of "over 25 knots and a nice swell of one to two metres" [3]. Windguru's Agios Ioannis spot [11] and the Milos Beach spot set up for the 2015 EFPT event [12] are the two forecast pages; neither publishes statistics. Windfinder has no statistics for Agios Ioannis [10]; its Lefkada Port station, 2.8 km away in the town's lee, gives an annual average of 7 knots from the SW with 11-knot gusts over 2011–2026, which is a harbour reading over every hour of every night and says nothing useful about a 3 pm thermal on the open coast [9].

Water: deep close in, "small waves and choppy" in the thermal [1]; iksurfmag calls it "medium choppy/wavy" with a shore break after days of 20 knots or more [8]; on a true north wind kiteforum gives waves of 0.5 to 3 m [5] and the kite-and-windsurfing guide says "a chest-high swell can develop" [6]. Sea temperature around 27 °C and air around 28 °C in high season [1], or 27–30 °C in the water and 28–35 °C in the air by spots4kite's island guide [2]; iksurfmag's range is "bikini to 2.5 mil shorty" [8].

The year

The probabilities in the table are iksurfmag's estimates, not a station's count [8]; no station statistics for the beach could be read for this record [9][10].

Local knowledge

• Rig at the northern end, in front of the three northernmost windmills. That is where kiteforum says to launch [5], and surf magazine confirms the resort and the northern end are "hot spots for kiters" while the southern end of the bay has none [3]. The two sports are separated by a line of yellow buoys in front of the Milos Beach club: windsurfing to the left, kiting to the right [5].
• Body-drag out before you water-start. Rock slabs in the shallows, smooth and slippery; the usual figure is 50 m [1]. Booties are not mentioned by any source but the bottom is described the same way by three of them [1][3][5].
• The forecast under-reads. A model showing 8–12 knots is a normal thermal afternoon here; surf magazine's "despite lower forecast predictions" is the recurring theme [3]. Arrive for 14:00 rather than reading the morning off [1].
• Watch the true north. The thermal is a NW wind on a NW-facing beach; a synoptic north brings the swell, and with it kiteforum's 0.5–3 m waves and currents [5]. Kite-and-windsurfing-guide notes that on days a north wind kills the Vassiliki thermal, Agios Ioannis is the beach worth a look — that is written for windsurfers, and it is a heavier day than the thermal one [6].
• Beginners: drive to Agios Nikolaos. Knee to chest deep, flat, cross-on from the right, 15 minutes from town [8]; camping permitted and a muddy bottom [19]. The Wooden Bridge spot 4.5 km from town is the flat-water freestyle option, a protected Natura 2000 area, shallow and unsuitable for foils [2][19].
• Greeka's page describes the beach as "thick sand" and "suitable for all skill levels" [19]. Every other source read here says rock and intermediate-plus [1][2][3][5]. The rocks are the safer assumption.

Access and hazards

Vassiliki is windsurf-only. The bay at the southern end of the island is the one with the famous wind — the afternoon thermal the windsurfers call "Eric", 15–20 knots with days over 25 [3], and a club that has been there since 1987 [22] — and kites are not allowed on it. Kiteforum's rules line reads: "Kiteboarding prohibited on this beach. Most of the time the winds are off-shore and very gusty, windsurfing and catamaran only." [4] The kite-and-windsurfing guide says kiting is "prohibited at nearby Vassiliki year-round", which makes Agios Ioannis "Lefkada's only option for kitesurfing" [6]. A sailing blog adds that the prohibition is enforced by the port police, attributes it to Greek maritime rules on kiting within a mile of a harbour, and notes that a launch from a boat outside the bay is a grey area nobody should test in July [7]. That last source is a cruising guide, not a legal text; the port-police clause is not verified here beyond it. Wikipedia describes Vasiliki simply as "a windsurfing center" [13].

At Agios Ioannis itself the published rules are the buoy line — kites right, windsurfers left of the yellow buoys in front of the club [5] — and the Milos Beach club's rescue service [1]. No municipal ordinance for the beach could be found for this record. Hazards on record: rocks and rock slabs on the shore and seabed [1][3][5]; currents and swell on a north wind [5][6]; glass and rubbish on the beach [1][5]; the shore break after strong days [8]. The Wooden Bridge is in a Natura 2000 area and is described as hard to reach [2][19].

Schools and rental

• Milos Beach Kite & Windsurf Resort, on the beach at Agios Ioannis, operating since 1999 [21]. Its listing describes instructors holding IKO levels 1–3, courses at IKO 1 (intro), IKO 2 (beginner) and IKO 2/3 (improver), teaching from a boat, equipment and health insurance included, open 09:00–20:00, plus rental, a bar, a shop and rescue [1][15]. No prices are published on the listing; the resort's own site (milosbeach.gr) could not be fetched for this record because of a certificate error, so nothing from it is cited. The wind claim on the listing — "every day 90% constant wind" April to September at 15–20 knots — is the school's own [15].
• Kite Club IDAS (Kite Club Greece), at Agios Nikolaos, for beginners: €75 an hour for private lessons, a beginner package at €325 (the listing's hour count is garbled and is not repeated here), groups of one to four per instructor, safety boat, June to September, noon to 21:00 [16][20]. The same listing carries several 2024 reviews complaining about refund practice; read them before paying a deposit [16].

Which ladder: IKO at both, on the schools' own descriptions [15][16].

Getting there

Aktion National Airport (PVK) at Preveza is the one, about 25 minutes from Lefkada town [13] or "20 minutes" in the kite guides [2][8]; it has seasonal scheduled service from easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2 and Norwegian among others [14]. Alternatives: Corfu (3 hours including a ferry, hydrofoil 45 min or ferry 1 h 10), Ioannina (3 hours' drive), Athens (5 hours) [8]. No ferry is needed for the island — the road crosses a floating bridge [2][13]. A car is essential; the spots are "too far to walk" apart [8]. For the beach: bear right after the bridge and keep going until the windmills [6]. Parking is free, on the bluff 30 m above the shoreline [1] — kiteforum calls the beach "only reachable by car" with a short walk down [5].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Ioannis Beach (Lefkada) — 14 files, several of the windmills and aerials of the beach [17].
• Wikimedia Commons, Vasiliki (Lefkada) — 58 files of the bay and village, with subcategories for the beach and the port [18].
• Wikimedia Commons, Beaches of Lefkada — the parent category, 14 subcategories. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Beaches_of_Lefkada

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Famara is the long beach on Lanzarote's north-west coast under the Risco de Famara, a 400 m wall of cliff, and the same cliff is why the paragliders are here — this atlas's paragliding page has a Famara record too. For kiting, the cliff makes the wind: "NE trade wind (Los Alisios) is channelled along the Risco de Famara cliff and accelerated onto the beach", "cross-onshore to side-shore" [3]. The beach is zoned, kitesurfing "at the North Eastern section" and the surfers at the other end [1]. Sand, "no reef", "safe" [3]; "strong riptides" and a tidal range of about 2 m — 50 m of beach at low tide, none at high — with "high tide (1 hour either side) unsuitable for launching" [1].

Conditions

"NW, N, NE"; March to August windiest, May to August the peak, "12 to 35 knots almost daily" then; kites 6–12 m [1]. The monthly probability — days with three consecutive hours at 4 Bft or more — runs from 48 % in October to 91 % in July [1]; rideable days peak in July at 30.5, August 30.0, June 29.5, with March the low at 18 [3]; "when rideable", 7–12 knots for 47 % of hours, 13–20 for 52 %, over 20 for 1 % [3]. Water 19–22 °C [1], 18–22 [3]; a 3/2 shorty in summer, 4/3 in winter [3]. Waves "up to 2m summer; up to 3m winter" [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• Mind the tide. An hour either side of high water there is no beach to launch from [1].
• The ebb pulls — "strong currents on outgoing tide" and "shifting sandbanks" (search summary); rips [1].
• Respect the zones and the surfers' priority at their end [1].
• Kite at the north-east end [1]; rocks at the north end [3].

Access and hazards

The beach zoning [1]; the school is "accredited by the Canarian Kitesurfing Federation (FKI)" [2], which suggests a federation on the island whose rules were not read. Hazards: rips, tide, shore break, the rocks at the north end [1][3].

Schools and rental

Surf & Kite School Famara — "1 day (3h): 120 €", "2 days (6h): 240 €", "4 days (12h): 480 €", IKO level 2 instructors, four students per instructor, radios and insurance [2]. thekitespot's figures: "approx €100 per 3hrs", rental "€65–75 per day", a rescue jet-ski on the beach [1]. Kite School Lanzarote, Surf & Kite Caleta and Red Star are the others named [3].

Getting there

Arrecife (ACE), "€40 taxi or ~€70/week car rental" [1]; Caleta de Famara is the village at the beach's west end.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Playa de Famara — 53 files including "Kitesurfing in lanzarote.JPG" and the cliff [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Kos's north coast faces the Meltemi, and two beaches take it. Marmari: "flat to choppy water, with small waves. You can stand in the water about 50 meters from the beach"; "every day mostly 4.5–6 Bft"; "Beginner, Intermediate, Expert" [1]. Mastichari, west along the coast, is the resort teaching hub, with the channel to Kalymnos — ten kilometres away — accelerating the wind (search summary; the Windmaster guide that states it answered 429). The school read for this record teaches at "three different spot's in Mastichari, Marmari and Kohilari" with "VDWS certified instructors" and a rescue boat [2].

The rule at Marmari is the one to know: "since 2011 kiting is prohibited in front of the wide beach which now became a swimming zone", and "the permitted kite-zone was moved further downwind where the beach is only about 10 m wide", with trees that make "launching and landing there very tricky" [1]. Hazards on the spot page: swimmers in the water, trees on the beach [1].

Conditions

Meltemi, "Best Direction: W, WNW, NW", "Best Months: June, July, August, September" [1]; a thermal that starts around noon and stops at sunset, 4.5–6 Beaufort, with wind probability of 80–90 % in June–August and over 90 % from July to September (search summaries, unverified). "Very high wind probability" is the school's own claim [2]. No station statistics were read.

The year

Local knowledge

• Launch in the narrow zone, not on the wide beach — the wide beach has been a swimming zone since 2011 [1].
• Trees behind the kite zone [1].
• Noon start, like every Meltemi spot (search summary).
• A 10 or 12 [1].

Access and hazards

The 2011 zoning [1]. Hazards: swimmers, the trees, the narrow launch [1].

Schools and rental

Kitesurfing Kos — Mastichari, Marmari and Kohilari, VDWS, rescue boat; no prices on the page [2]. Others cluster along the north coast, "almost all VDWS or IKO with rescue boats" (search summary).

Getting there

Kos airport (KGS) is on the north-coast road between Marmari and Mastichari, minutes from both. A judgement, not from a page read.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Marmari (Kos) — 39 files with a Marmari Beach (Kos) subcategory of 17 [3]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Porto Pollo is "an Italian località, in the comune of Palau", "approximately 7 km from Palau and 50 km from Olbia", between the Liscia river mouth and the Isola dei Gabbiani, "a small peninsula connected to the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus" [4]. That isthmus makes two bays: "The eastern bay, known as 'La Sciumara,' is generally used by windsurfers, while the western bay is reserved for kitesurfers" [1]; "one side with flat water, one side with choppy water" [3]. "The beach is wide, coarse sand without stones or other obstacles – at least in the low season. There is no standing area at all" [5]. It hosted "the IKA Kiteboarding World Championship finals" in 2016 [4].

Conditions

"Porto Pollo works in all westerly winds, the main wind direction in Sardinia", and "the wind here usually blows at 5 to 10 knots more than on the northern west coast when the mistral is blowing" — the jet between Corsica and Sardinia [5]. "The wind normally blows cross or cross onshore here, and you can expect somewhere between 15 and 30 knots depending on the day" [2]; "consistent Maestrale wind from the northwest blows reliably between 15 and 30 knots, typically from midday to early evening, from April to November" [4]. The model: "171 windy days / year", most in winter and spring (18–19 a month January to March, 9–13 June to October), directions "270-292°", "Wind from the west it is usually a bit gusty" [6]. A strong mistral over 25 knots makes chop and "waves 'up to 2 meters'" [1][5].

The year

Local knowledge

• The summer rule — "Kitesurfing is not permitted in the right-hand bay with shallow water from May to September!" [3]; "In summer, parking costs €7 and kiters have to walk 300 metres to the even bumpier western end of the bay and wear life jackets – or pay €150", and "All self-instruction – even for advanced kiters – is prohibited" [5].
• No standing [5]; "shallow waters" on the learners' side [1].
• Big kites for the thermal days, small for the mistral — the range is "From 17 to 41 Knots" [1].
• Go in May or September [5][6].

Access and hazards

The bay split and the summer rules [1][3][5]. Hazards: gusts from the west [6], chop and 2 m waves in a mistral [1], the crowd [5][6].

Schools and rental

"THE SPOT, Kite House Sardinia, KITE ACADEMY CRUISE, and KITE VILLAGE SARDGNA" [2]; FH Academy in Palau [1]. No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

"Olbia Airport (OLB) is the closest around 45 minutes away" or "Alghero (AHO) which is around 2 hours drive"; a car is "Recommended" [2]; ferries to Palau or Olbia [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Palau (Italy) — 79 files with Beaches of Palau (Italy) and Capo d'Orso; "Sailing in Sardinia, Palau - panoramio.jpg" [7]. No Porto Pollo subcategory. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

St. Peter-Ording — SPO to everyone who rides there — is the western tip of the Eiderstedt peninsula on Germany's North Sea coast, about 45 km south-west of Husum [20]. The thing that makes it is the beach: Wikipedia has it at roughly 12 km long and up to a kilometre wide, part of it inside the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park, with dunes and salt meadows behind [20]; IKSURFMAG calls it "the biggest beach in Germany" at 2 km by 12 km [12]. By overnight stays it is Schleswig-Holstein's largest seaside resort [20], which is the other thing you need to know: in July and August the sand is shared with a great many people who are not kiting.

The riding is split across three named areas that the local guide Kiteguide-SPO treats as separate spots: Ording in the north, Südstrand in the middle and Böhl in the south [6]. They are not interchangeable. Ording is the open-sea beach with the shortest walk, the wave when it is westerly, and the crowd [3]; Südstrand is a lagoon behind a sandbank that only exists as a kite spot for a few hours around high water [5][12]; Böhl is a very large, almost waveless standing area with a long walk and a current that wants to take you south towards the Eider barrage [4]. What the three share is the tide: this is the Wadden Sea, and as Kiteguide-SPO puts it, the mudflats "always bring surprises" — tidal channels form and disappear, and with them the currents [6].

SPO hosted a stop of the kitesurf world tour for about a decade, and the annual competition is now the Kitesurf Masters on the Ording beach, run with a festival village [8][12]. The kind of day it gives depends almost entirely on which spot you pick and when you walk out: at the right tide with 15–20 knots from the south-west, Böhl is one of the easiest places in northern Europe to learn; two hours later at Ording in the same wind it is a wave spot with a drift that the German guides warn about in capital letters [4][13].

Conditions

Wind. The one station whose long-run figure could be read is Windfinder's Skt. Peter-Ording station: from observations between December 1999 and August 2026, an annual average of 12 knots from the WSW (249°) with 18-knot gusts, and a daytime air average of 11 °C [1]. Westerhever, 7 km up the coast, gives the same 12 knots WSW from 2012–2026 [2]. Neither page publishes a month-by-month table, so no monthly probability is stated here from a station [1][2]. Kiteforum lists the main directions as SW, WSW, W, WNW and NW, with the best days on E, SW and NW [15]; IKSURFMAG gives 15–20+ knots as typical in the peak seasons and recommends 7, 9 and 12 m kites [12]. In July and August, one rider's note on Kiteforum: "not too windy, big gear is good to have" [15].

By spot, from Kiteguide-SPO's pages [3][4][5]:

• Ording — ideal from NNE round through N, NW, W, SW to SSW; S and NE slightly offshore; everything from NE through E to SSE offshore [3]. Two kite areas separated by a swimming zone about 1,000 m wide [3]. From 5 Bft in a westerly the waves build and it becomes "challenging terrain"; NW or SW gives the cleanest wave [3]. Recommended window: 1.5 hours either side of low water, when the current is weakest and the wave smallest [3]. surfspot.de reads it differently — best in the last two hours of the flood and early ebb, and warns that a strong southerly is diagonally offshore at Ording Nord [13]. Both were read; they disagree, and the safest reading is that the current here changes with the state of the tide and you want to be out when wind and current are not pulling the same way [3][13].
• Südstrand — ideal WNW through W, SW, S to SE; NW slightly gusty; N and ESE "super böig" [5]. Only kiteable about 2–3 hours either side of high water, when the lagoon behind the sandbank fills [5]; IKSURFMAG says 2 hours [12]. Flat water; multiple exits make it the safest of the three [5].
• Böhl — ideal SSE through S, SW, W; SE and NW slightly offshore; N and all easterlies offshore [4]. "Kaum Welle, sandigen Untergrund und ein sehr großes Stehrevier" — hardly any wave, sandy bottom, a very large standing area [4]. The current is strongest in the third and fourth hour after low or high water, and on a rising tide it sets south towards the Eidersperrwerk [4].

Water. Kiteforum gives 7 °C in winter and up to 20 °C in summer, and describes it as cloudy [15]. IKSURFMAG says a 6/5 mm suit in spring and early summer, and that the schools run April to October in 4–5 mm [12]. The shorebreak is small because the sandbanks offshore take the swell; spotnetz notes that flat water forms between the banks but is usually too shallow and too brief to rely on [14].

The year

The station average is a flat 12 knots across the year and no monthly table could be read [1][2]; the shape above is the guides' consensus, not a measurement.

Local knowledge

• Pick the spot by the tide, not the wind. Südstrand is a spot for 2–3 hours either side of high water and nothing else [5]; Böhl's walk is 10–25 minutes depending on how far out the water is [4]; Ording is 5–15 minutes and the only one you can drive to [3].
• Never go out alone. surfspot.de says it in those words, citing the rescue statistics and the drift when wind and current run together [13]. Kiteguide-SPO's Böhl page: on a rising tide you drift south towards the Eider barrage, and on a falling tide the channels run hard — "avoid manoeuvres you are not sure of" [4].
• Do not drive to Südstrand. "Fahrt bitte nicht mit dem Auto an den Südstrand. Es ist VERBOTEN!" — park behind the dyke and walk ten minutes [5]. Rig on the grass to the right of the swimming zone, and mind the slippery bits [5].
• At Böhl, rig at the water's edge, not on the beach. The beach is a riding area for horses and a kite going up beside one is a problem [4].
• The Ording car park floods on a storm surge — and when it does, travelonboards says, it becomes "a perfect shallow water runway" once you have moved the car [16]. Kiteforum lists "high tide flooding of parking areas" among the hazards for the same reason [15].
• The beach car park costs money. A day ticket is €12 for a car and two adults; an annual pass from the municipality is €55 and "worthwhile after a few sessions" [16]. All beach areas and parking incur fees [3].
• Summer is not the season the photographs are from. The main beach is very crowded in summer [14]; spring and autumn are what the guides recommend [12][16].
• The bar most of the guides name is the Beach Motel's; the pub is Eagans, an Irish bar the locals use [12].

Access and hazards

The national park. The whole seaward side is inside the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park [20], and what governs kiting there is the federal Nordsee-Befahrensverordnung, revised in April 2023 [9]. The park's own page: kitesurfing and wingfoiling are limited to designated areas — 22 spots in Schleswig-Holstein covering about 13,000 hectares — and some of them carry further conditions, "z. B. eine Beschränkung auf die Zeit drei Stunden vor bis drei Stunden nach Hochwasser" [9]. All water users are asked to keep 500 m from seal haul-outs where possible [9]. The state's press release on the new rules says only that Schleswig-Holstein's allocation "die bestehenden Kitesurf-Spots einschließt" and that the old "3-Stunden-Regelung" was replaced [11]. KITE Magazin, reading the new map, notes that "nahezu der komplette westliche Strand in St. Peter-Ording" is drawn as a kite area — and warns that the drawing is misleading, that the swimming zones are almost certainly excluded, and that the precise limits are in Annex 3 of the regulation, in the Bundesgesetzblatt of 27 April 2023 [10]. That annex was not read for this record.

The local zones. The tourism office's rule is the operative one on the sand: kiting only in the water-sports zone between the swimming areas at Bad and Ording, "marked accordingly with buoys, posts, and signs", with a mandatory 50 m from the seaward edge of the swimming area and from every swimmer [8]. Kiteguide-SPO describes the Ording arrangement as two kite areas either side of a roughly 1,000 m swimming zone marked by posts and buoys [3]; surfspot.de says two rows of buoys separate surfers from swimmers there and that surfing inside a marked bathing zone "is FORBIDDEN" [13]. At Südstrand there is a bathing zone to the south and a nature-protection zone to the north, both "markiert durch Bojenketten" and both off limits [5]. Kite buggies need a licence and a plate [15]. Camping and barbecues on the beach are prohibited [12].

Hazards on record: currents in the channels at ebb and flood, strongest in the third and fourth hour [4][13]; the southward drift towards the Eidersperrwerk from Böhl on a rising tide [4]; a 100 m sandbar crossing at Ording Süd and fins on the banks at low water [13]; swimmers and bystanders on a resort beach [15]; offshore sandbars [15]; the flooding car park [15][16]; and the long walk — spotnetz recommends a trolley [14]. No published incident record was found for this spot.

Schools and rental

The schools whose pages were read:

• Kiteguide-SPO (Tümlauer Chaussee 10) — a VDWS school since the 2025 season [6]. Its price list: a three-day beginner course in a group of three is €390 (€140/€130/€120 by day), a two-person group €160 a day, private €200 a day; the three-day intermediate course €370; advanced €100 a day; a trial day €100 with a minimum of two; guided kiting €30 for three hours without gear or €70 with; theory €30; the VDWS licence €40 [7]. Rental for three hours: full set €70, kite and bar €60, board €25–55, suit or harness €10 [7]. Courses are paid in cash after each session [7]. It also offers "accompanied kiting" for people who do not know the banks [6].
• UP-WIND Kitesurfschule — SPO and Meldorf; courses from S (3 h) to XXL (15 h), maximum three per instructor, radio instruction in shallow water, licence included; no prices on the page read [17].
• Kitesurf-Training.de with Kitetiki — maximum three per course; taster €140 for three hours, three-day beginner €375, intermediate or advanced-beginner days €125, gear included except boots; no certification named [18]. IKSURFMAG places Kitesurf-Training at Böhl [12].
• Kitesurfing SPO — a mobile school, maximum three per instructor, one kite and board per student, meeting point sent the evening before according to wind and tide; season from 1 April 2026; no prices on the page read [19].
• Wassersportcenter / X-H2O on the main beach is named by spotnetz and travelonboards [14][16]; its page returned a 404 when fetched. The tourism office says a new water-sports centre opens in summer 2026 [8].

Which ladder each teaches: Kiteguide-SPO is VDWS [6][7]; the others do not say on the pages read.

Getting there

Hamburg is the airport: 143 km by road and about 1.5 hours to Bad St. Peter-Ording by Rome2rio's reckoning [22]; IKSURFMAG says two hours [12]. By rail it is roughly five hours with two changes — bus to Elmshorn, train to Husum, then the Husum–Bad St. Peter-Ording line (KBS 135), nordbahn's RB 64, to the terminus at Bad St Peter Süd, opened in 1932 [21][22]. travelonboards adds a direct bus from Hamburg of about three hours and a road route through Stade and Tönning [16]; surfspot.de says A23/B5 to Tönning [13]. A car is what every guide assumes for moving between the three spots [12].

Parking: at Ording you drive onto the beach itself, mid-March to end of October, and pay [3]; €12 a day for a car and two adults or €55 for the year [16]. Südstrand and Böhl are park-behind-the-dyke and walk [4][5].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Sankt Peter-Ording — 210 files and 17 subcategories, including Beaches of Sankt Peter-Ording (175 files) and Dunes of Sankt Peter-Ording [25].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Kitesurf World Cup St. Peter-Ording — 6 files from 2014 and a subcategory for the 2015 event with 15 more [26].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Mikri Vigla "quickly became the top kite beach on Naxos" [1]: a "Long sandy beach" with "crystal clear water", "Safest kite spot for kiteboarding activities in Naxos" because the wind "pushes riders 'back toward the sandy beach'" [2]. The catch is space — the beach is narrow and "mostly full of kit (usually with fins up)", there is a "Rocky cape at the bay's end", and "water's often full of swimmers despite the wind" [1]. The village has "two supermarkets, three tavernas and two kite and windsurf centers" [1].

Conditions

The meltemi "is 'thermally supercharged here'", cross-onshore [1]; "The direction of the dominant winds is side-onshore" and the local thermal delivers "5 to 10 knots more than predicted" — "18-22 knots" when the forecast says 12–14, "+5 knots minimum" over Paros, "less 5-7 knots" than Mykonos [2]. "NW-N, SW" with "steady wind speeds ranging between 20-25 knots", strongest in the afternoon [3]. "A 9m and a 12m kite will cover 90% of the days" [2]. For the rare southerly, "walk a few hundred metres down the beach to launch beyond the point" [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• Mind the swimmers — "Be mindful of swimmers and other water sports enthusiasts to avoid collisions" [3]; they are in the water on windy days [1].
• Reef shoes "in certain areas with rocky patches" [3].
• You will hardly ever need a rescue [2] — the wind is onshore.
• The road in is dirt — "a dirt road spanning approximately 11 kilometers" from the Plaka road, or 17 km the other way; "Rental cars are recommended" [4].

Access and hazards

Public beach; "adhere to local regulations, respect designated areas" [4]. Hazards: the crowd on sand and in the water, the cape [1], the rocks [3].

Schools and rental

Naxos Kitelife and Thalasea Kite Center [4]; Flisvos Kite Centre (search summary). No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

"Naxos Island National Airport (JNX), 10 km from Mikri Vigla", a taxi "approximately €20-25" and "about 20 minutes" [3]; ferries to Naxos town from Piraeus.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Naxos — a Mikri Vigla subcategory of 51 files among 49 subcategories; "Aghia Anna beach.jpg" [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

"A sheltered tidal inlet between Lagos and Alvor. The wind funnels in from the north, channelled by the Serra de Monchique mountain range to the north" [2]. "Sand banks across the teaching area keep the water knee- to waist-high. Sandy floor. Shallow enough to stand throughout the lesson", and "once you start boarding, the whole lagoon opens up" [2]. At mid to high tide "vast flat areas appear between sandbanks" [1]. The launch is "between the oyster beds", marked by white buoys, from "the parking on the northwest side"; at low tide "walk 100m further out to a sandbank and launch from there" [3]. The lagoon is a nature reserve with zones (search summary; the rule text was not read).

Conditions

"Nortada: thermal NW-N wind from April to September, starting late morning and peaking afternoon (15-25 knots)" [1]; it arrives "between 1:00 and 2:00 PM" and reaches "15–25 knots within an hour", "18–22 knots" on a proper afternoon [2]; "Typically 15–25 knots in summer", best "Afternoon (14:00–18:00)" [4]. Rideable-day counts: "May-July: 70-71% rideable (11–21 knots)", "August: 61%", "October: 41%" [4]; "peaking in July: 23 rideable days a month", January "6.5" [1]. Southerlies work "but with less power" [1] and bring "half-metre chop" when strong [3]. "At low tide: expect ultra-flat, shallow water"; "At high tide: deeper water with more riding space" [4].

The year

Local knowledge

• Tide — "at mid-tide rising to high tide"; low tide "concentrates tidal currents and should be avoided" [1]; windsurfers "stick to high tide – or expect to do a lot of gybing" [3].
• Water shoes — "Mussel beds: submerged at high tide, can cut feet. Water shoes strongly recommended" [1]; "minor shell cuts on soft feet are possible" [2].
• Four channels — "tidal currents: four main current channels cross the lagoon" [1]; "Strong tidal currents near the inlet" [4].
• Stay in the middle in a NNW — the sides are gusty [3].
• Summer boats near Alvor [1].

Access and hazards

The buoyed launch area and the reserve (search summary) [3]. Hazards: currents, mussel beds, "Wind shadows and gusty conditions", "Shallow sandbanks" [1][4].

Schools and rental

"Algarve Watersport (IKO certified), Kitesurf Lagos School, and Kite Control Lagos" [1]; "Lagos Kiteclub, Algarve Kite Center, Algarve Fun Sports, and Alvor Kitesurf Center" [4]. Lessons "are planned around the tidal window the day before" [2].

Getting there

"Nearest airport: Faro (~1 hour drive)" [4]; from Odiáxere "via Vale de Lama road (dirt road ~600m)", Lagos 15 minutes [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Alvor (freguesia) — 199 files with Nature of Alvor (53 files) and Zona Ribeirinha de Alvor; "Alvor Beach Winter 2014 - panoramio.jpg" [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Camber Sands is a 4.8 km sand beach east of the River Rother estuary at Rye Bay, running to just past the Kent border where the shingle takes over, and it is the only dune system in East Sussex [8]. It is also the closest kitesurfing beach to central London that is not shingle, which is the whole point of it: the spot guides call it "one of the closest kitesurfing beaches to Central London" and "probably the busiest in the UK, with around 200 kites in the sky on a warm, windy weekend with suitable tides" [3]. The riding is not on the tourist beach. Kitesurfing, landboarding and buggying are authorised only at the eastern end, towards Jury's Gap [8], on the stretch the council and the schools call Broomhill Sands, in front of the sea defence and the car park of the same name.

What the beach gives is space and shallow water. At low tide the sand goes out a long way, sandbars form and disappear, and flat-water lagoons sit between them; a westerly stacks up small to medium waves of 0.5–2 m depending on tide and wind [3]. The Kitesurf Centre, which has the corner of the car park and has taught here since 2008 [14], describes "miles of sandy, flat beach with wide sandbanks" and a second, differently-facing beach at Greatstone ten minutes away for the days the wind is from the north or east [1].

The catch is the tide. Spring tides here run to an 8 m range [3], and the water comes right up to the rock revetment and the shingle bank at high water, so there is nowhere to launch. Every source gives the same rule in slightly different words: no kiting for about two and a half hours either side of high tide [2][3][12]; the Kitesurf Centre's own guide puts it at "2 hours before and 2.5 hours after" [1]; IKSURFMAG says "up to 3 hours" [4]. Plan a Camber day from the tide table first and the wind forecast second.

Conditions

The prevailing wind is south-west, cross-onshore from the right as you look out to sea [4]. The beach works on any wind with south in it, ESE round to WSW [4]; the Kitesurf Centre widens that to "any direction from East South East clockwise round to West" for Camber, and gives Greatstone as the NNE-to-SE alternative [1]. thekitespot lists W, SW, S and SE as the working directions [3].

The mechanism that makes Camber better than its raw numbers is the sea breeze. Romney Marsh behind the beach heats fast on a sunny day and draws air in off the Channel; thekitespot puts the effect at 5–15 knots above forecast, "especially spring/early summer" [3]; the school's guide says thermals "can add an extra third onto the wind forecast" between April and October [1], and its conditions page tells you to "add between 30–100% on top of the forecast" on a warm, sunny day [2]. That is a school's estimate, not a measured one, and it favours the school; but the direction of the effect is not in dispute.

The raw numbers are modest. Windfinder's Camber Sands statistics, from observations between February 2016 and August 2026, give an annual average of 10 knots, dominant direction west, average gusts of 14 knots, and daytime air of 13 °C [5]. thekitespot's monthly probability of 4 Beaufort or more is unusually flat for a British beach: 54% in December at the bottom, 65% in August at the top, and every other month between 57% and 64% [3]. The live station that matters is Windguru's Camber Sands, Red House [7]; the forecast page is Windguru 219 [6].

Water: 5–9 °C in winter, 16–19 °C in summer with 19 °C in July, from thekitespot; a 5 mm suit with boots and gloves in winter, 3 mm in summer [3]. The water is shallow — "for 200m out to sea" in one guide, a claim seen only in a search summary and unverified here — and the state runs from chop in light wind to the flat pools between bars and the waves on a westerly [3]. Camber Kitesurfing says beginners need at least 12 knots and experienced riders 18 [11].

The year

The monthly figures are thekitespot's, defined as the historical share of days with at least 4 Beaufort [3]. Windfinder's statistics page carries the annual figure only [5]. The Kitesurf Centre gives April to October as the main season and November to March as "still viable" [1].

Local knowledge

• Tide first. The high-water closure is roughly five hours out of every twelve and a half [1][2][3]. Kite Addict adds the reason it is a hard rule rather than a preference: "a steep shingle bank at the top of the beach" [12], and behind it the granite revetment [16]. The tide comes in fast and the sandbars that were dry become islands [3].
• Two zones, one flag. The kiting area is in front of the sea defence and promenade at the eastern end, split into a teaching zone (west) and a freeride zone (east) [3]. Beginners wear yellow helmets and are confined to the teaching zone until they are riding [1]; independent riders should not ride in it [3]. The freeride zone runs east to the MOD boundary [3]. A black-and-white flag is said to mark the boundary between the two — that detail was seen only in search summaries and is unverified here.
• Red flags mean live rounds. The eastern end of the freeride zone is the fence of Lydd Ranges, a live-firing range that fires "about 300 days a year" [9]. Red flags are flown during firing and access along the foreshore is prohibited [9]; do not ride in front of the range when they are up [3].
• The wreck. The brig Avon, sunk in 1852, shows at low water [8]; the school's guide puts it "slightly to the East of the centre" and warns it is completely submerged once the tide is high enough to cover it [1]. thekitespot counts two wrecks visible at low tide [3].
• Launch in front of the Centre. "Launching is mainly done from the area of the beach directly in front of The Kitesurf Centre" with "plenty of space at low tide" [1]. Stay double your line length from the sea defence and groynes [1]; thekitespot's version is 75 m from any hard hazard — sea defence and steps, granite rocks, wooden groynes [3].
• Tourists go west, kiters go east. "Tourists and non-kiters tend to stay to the western end" [1], which is also where dogs are banned on the main beach in season; they are allowed near the Centre [1].
• North or east wind: go to Greatstone. Ten minutes' drive, works NNE to SE, and needs only 1–1.5 hours either side of high water [1][2].
• Afterwards. The Owl, a gastropub five minutes' drive [1][4]; the Gallivant, Rye Bay Café, Dunes Bar and KitKat Café; "Camber is generally pretty quiet" and Rye, 3 miles away, has the evening [4].

Access and hazards

Rother District Council authorises kite sports only at the eastern end of the beach [8]; the Kitesurf Centre's account is that the kite zone runs from the car park end to the army range boundary and was left unchanged by the 2014–15 sea defence works [16]. The council's own page on the Centre confirms the school occupies "a corner of Broomhill Sands Car Park" [14] but says nothing about the zone rules; no council bylaw text on kitesurfing at Camber could be read for this record, and the zone rules quoted here are the schools' and spot guides' versions [1][3].

Rye Watersports describes itself as "one of only three kite schools licensed to teach at Camber Sands" [10]; the three named schools in this record are the three.

Hazards on record:

• The sea defence. The £30 million Broomhill Sands scheme, built August 2014 to December 2015, put a granite rock revetment and a concrete wave wall along the top of the beach, with a 2.4 km promenade and timber access steps; the rock sits at the top of the shingle bank, 7–8 m visible, with more buried below it [16]. It is what the tide rule and the 75 m rule are about [3].
• Groynes — timber, replaced at The Suttons during the same works [16]; hidden near high water [12].
• Lydd Ranges to the east, with red flags on firing days, which are most days [9][3].
• The wreck(s) at low water [1][3][8].
• Swimmers outside the designated areas, and learners who "may lack collision avoidance skills" [1].
• Drownings. Seven men drowned at Camber in 2016, five on one day, with the lack of lifeguards cited [8]. That was on the swimming beach, not the kite zone, but it is the same water and the same tide.

Schools and rental

• The Kitesurf Centre — Broomhill Sands car park, Lydd Road; school since 2008, shop since 2009, eight full-time staff year-round [14]. Teaches BKSA, with instructor courses [1]; lessons seven days a week from March to the end of November; high season (May–September) open daily 09:00–17:00, April and October Thursday–Sunday, winter weekends only [2]. Rental in 1-hour, 2-hour and 4-hour blocks; beginner, intermediate, advanced, camps of four, wingfoil, buggy and landboard [1]. No prices could be read from its pages for this record. https://www.thekitesurfcentre.com/
• Rye Watersports — BKSA syllabus at Camber Sands; Learn to Kitesurf 2 Day £210, BKSA 3 Day £325, private 1:1 £110 per session (minimum 2 hours); children from 12 under an AALA licence [10]. https://ryewatersports.co.uk/kitesurfing/adults/
• Camber Kitesurfing — established 2002, shop at 123 Lydd Road two minutes from the teaching zone; BKSA-approved, courses aligned with IKO; 2-day £219, 3-day £319, 5-day "Zero to Hero" £519, private hourly for two £75, kite buggy course £220 [11]. https://www.camberkitesurfing.com/

Prices are as published on the schools' pages when read on 24 September 2026; the year they apply to is not stated on the pages.

Getting there

Rail: London St Pancras to Ashford International (about 37 minutes on the high-speed service), then the Marshlink line to Rye (about 25 minutes); Stagecoach bus 102 runs roughly hourly from Rye to Camber in 15–20 minutes, first bus around 07:07, last back around 20:10 [15]. Door to beach is about 1 h 45 min [15]. Rye station is 5 miles from the beach [1].

Road: 1.5 to 2 hours from London via the M20 [15], or M20/A27 [1]. "New Lydd Road is the only road into Camber and it gridlocks on sunny weekends" [15].

Air: Gatwick, about 1 h 30 min [4]; Lydd airport 15 minutes [4].

Parking: Broomhill Sands car park, at the kite zone, is owned by East Sussex County Council and at the date of this record is free; ESCC consulted from 9 to 30 January 2026 on pay-and-display at £2 for an hour, £4 for two, £6 for four and £8 for over four hours between April and September (£6 in winter), 08:00–18:00; if approved, a Traffic Regulation Order with a 21-day objection period follows [13]. Check before you go. The western car parks are Rother's, and charged.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Camber Sands — 307 files: the dunes and marram grass, the beach at low and high tide, the sea front, the lifeguard hut, meeting-point markers [17]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.
• The Kitesurf Centre's beach guide and sea-defence pages carry the school's own photographs of the zone and the works [1][16].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Hunstanton is the one English east-coast resort whose seafront faces west, across the Wash, so the sun sets into the sea; the town is 102 miles north-north-east of London and 40 miles north-west of Norwich, with 4,370 people in the parish at the 2021 census [7]. The striped cliffs north of the town — orange carrstone, red chalk and white chalk in bands — are the type section of the Hunstanton Formation [7], and they matter to a kiter for a reason that comes later. The Wash itself is a shallow rectangular bay roughly 15 miles on each side, ringed by sandbanks and shifting channels, and Wikipedia's description of it as "one of the most challenging and hazardous places for sea navigation in the world" is about ships, but the sands and the tide are the same sands and tide a kiter is standing on [10].

There are two beaches. The town beach, along the North Promenade and its groynes, is where the school and the sailing club are, at PE36 6GB [4][5]; Old Hunstanton, the next village north-east, has a beach backed by low dunes and beach huts and the RNLI station [8][11]. Beyond that, the sailing club's own guide lists Heacham to the south and Brancaster to the east as the alternatives for other wind directions [6].

What the beach gives is space and shallow water for learning: "great beaches to learn on, due to the shallow shelving layout of the land" is Kite Addict's summary, immediately qualified by "you have to be aware of rips and tides that seem to make the beach vanish very quickly when you are focussed on your activity" [12]. The Wash's tide is what makes the RNLI keep a hovercraft here: the station's "wide expanse of beach and mud flats" make a boat hard to launch at low water [11]. That is the spot in one sentence — a lot of sand, a lot of tide, and a west wind onto it.

Conditions

The working directions come from Hunstanton Sailing Club's kitesurfing guide, which is the only local page that states them. At the town beach, "SSW through W to N", best at low tide; at Old Hunstanton, "SW through W to N", with the warning to "stay well away from the cliffs when the tide is high as they can generate huge updrafts"; Heacham rides "S through W to N" and is best around high tide; Brancaster, W through N to E [6]. On a west-facing beach those are onshore to cross-onshore, and the club's rule is absolute: "DO NOT go out in offshore or cross-offshore wind conditions" [6]. The prevailing wind on the Wash is south-west [1].

The numbers are the weak point of this record. Windfinder's Hunstanton / The Wash statistics page gives 3 knots average and 8-knot gusts, dominant direction SW, from a station that reported between December 2008 and September 2014 and, in Windfinder's words, "is not available anymore or currently not reporting" — the figure is not credible as a beach wind and is cited here only to say that it exists [1]. Windfinder's report page confirms there is no live station at Hunstanton; the nearest is Heacham, 7.7 km away, which also reports waves [3]. Heacham's statistics page could not be read for this record (rate-limited on every attempt). The sailing club points members at "The Bulldog" station on thewash.port-log.net for live wind and tide [5]; that site would not load for this record. The forecast link above is Windfinder's model forecast, GFS at about 13 km, updated four times a day [2] — a model, not a measurement, and it places the spot at 52.84 °N 0.51 °E, out in the Wash south of the town [2].

Wind-strength thresholds from the school: none published. Water: the Wash's shallows are "brought near freezing by the cold North Sea flows" in winter and reach 20–23 °C in summer in the sheltered shallows [10]; Windfinder's statistics give a 12 °C daytime and 9 °C night-time annual air average [1]. Tides are the whole game — Kite Addict lists "tides", "rips" and "beach vanish very quickly" as the three hazards and links Wells Bar, 14 miles away, for the tide table [12].

The year

No source read for this record publishes a month-by-month wind probability for Hunstanton; the strip above follows water temperature and the school's season rather than a measured wind curve, and should be read that way.

Local knowledge

• Tide before wind. Every local page says the same thing in different words: the beach "vanish[es] very quickly" [12]; the town beach is best at low tide, Heacham at high [6]; the RNLI needs a hovercraft here because of the mud flats at low water [11]. Look at the Wells Bar table Kite Addict links [12] and work the session backwards from high water.
• Not between the groynes. At the town beach, "please avoid launching in-between the groynes for safety reasons" [6]. Launch from the open sand at low water.
• The cliffs at high tide. At Old Hunstanton, "stay well away from the cliffs when the tide is high as they can generate huge updrafts" [6]. The striped cliffs are a photograph at low water and a rotor at high.
• Kite buddy, insurance, safety system. The club's guide: "Everyone needs a kite buddy! Never kitesurf alone"; every kiter "should have 3rd party liability insurance from either the BKSA or from a recognised provider"; practise water relaunch and "know your safety system" before going out [6].
• North or east wind: go round the corner. Brancaster takes W through N to E and has a designated launch zone west of the golf club house; kite tuition there is "STRICTLY PROHIBITED" [6].
• The club has the car park. Members get "parking, showers, BBQ, bar and more" on the North Promenade [5].
• No bar, café or après recommendation is published on any page read for this record; ask at the club.

Access and hazards

No council bylaw, kite zone or seasonal ban for Hunstanton could be found on the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk's website — the beach pages tried returned 404 — and none is claimed. The rules in this record are the sailing club's code [6], which is a club's, not the council's. Brancaster is the one beach in the area with a designated launch/land zone and a published prohibition on tuition [6].

Hazards on record:

• Tide and sands. The Wash's shifting channels and sandbanks [10]; the beach that disappears fast, and rips [12]. The lifeboat station keeps an H-class hovercraft (Hunstanton Flyer, since 2003) and an Atlantic 85 (since 2011) precisely because the flats are hard to reach by boat at low water [11].
• Groynes on the town beach [6].
• Cliff updrafts at Old Hunstanton at high tide [6].
• Offshore wind — anything with east in it at the town beach; the club forbids it [6].

Schools and rental

• Hunstanton Watersports — North Promenade, next to the sailing club, PE36 6GB; founded 2006, "one of the longest standing kitesurfing Schools in the country" (its own claim); BKSA- and BCU-accredited instructors; 2-day and 3-day beginner kitesurf courses, Level 1 and Level 2, plus powerkiting and paddleboard tasters, SUP hire £50 a day [4]. No kitesurf lesson price could be read from its pages for this record. https://www.hunstantonwatersports.com/
• Hunstanton Sailing Club — not a school, but the local body for windsurfers and kiters, with a membership, the promenade facilities and the kitesurfing code quoted above [5][6]. https://www.hunstantonsailingclub.co.uk/

No rental shop other than the school's hire is listed on any page read.

Getting there

Rail: Hunstanton lost its line in 1969 [7]. The nearest station is King's Lynn, Great Northern from London King's Cross in about 1 h 45 min, hourly and twice an hour at peak [13]. From King's Lynn, Lynx routes 33 and 33C run via Docking to Hunstanton, and 34, 35 and Coastliner 36 run King's Lynn – Hunstanton – Wells-next-the-Sea; frequencies are not stated on the operator's front page [14].

Road: the A149 [7]. From London it is 102 miles as the crow flies [7]; no drive time is published on the pages read. Nearest airports are Norwich and Stansted — distances unverified here.

Parking: the sailing club's car park is for members [5]; the council's seafront car parks were not described on any page read.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Hunstanton — 713 files in 11 subcategories, including Hunstanton beach, Hunstanton cliffs and Old Hunstanton Lighthouse; no kitesurfing subcategory [15]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

"The lake is 3.4 km long and 1.4km wide with only one designated entry point, but you are allowed to kite around the whole lake (50m from land)" [1]. "The lake is split into 2 areas. The underpart of the lake is just for kitesurfers", with "a 50m safety zone from the shore where you are not to ride except to exit the water" [3]. The kite area is north of the campsite, "a large grass field used for setting up, launching, and landing kites"; "Launching and landing are only permitted within the designated grass area"; the wingfoil and windsurf station is south of the campsite with "its own small harbor" [4]. The shore is "30 cm of stones" [3]. Altitude 1,800 m [1][4].

Conditions

"The lake is located in a narrow valley, so thermal winds and an additional venturi create the 'Maloja wind'" [1] — the Bergell heats first, the air rises over the Maloja pass and the Engadin valley floor pulls it through (search summary). "A thermal southwest wind blows from about 1 pm until sunset", "Usually the wind blows with four to five Beaufort. With strong southwest currents it can also be stronger"; northerlies are the spoiler [2]. "Best Direction: SSW, SW", "3-5 Bft" as the norm, "4-6 Bft" with southern flow [3]. Twin-tips from about 1 pm, "20-25 knots" between 3 and 5 pm, 11 am starts in July and August, and 5–8 knots for foilers into the evening [1]; "Most summer days bring wind strengths between 15 and 25 knots" [4]. The air is thin: "even if it's 20 knots, it still means you will need 9-12m" [1]; "20 knots at Silvaplana can feel closer to 15–18 knots at a coastal spot" [4].

The year

Local knowledge

• Pay — "a small member fee is charged for the use of the leased private meadow (the kite beach)" [2]; "Daily/weekly/season fees required" [3]; a day or season pass [4].
• Launch only on the grass [4]; "30 cm of stones" at the water's edge [3].
• Wetsuit always, hoodie for the evening [1].
• Bigger kite than you think [1][4].
• Bridge, rocks, bystanders are the listed hazards [3].

Access and hazards

The fee, the grass launch, the 50 m zone, the kite-only lower lake [1][3][4]. Hazards: cold water, stones, the bridge at the lake's end, the crowd on the shore [3].

Schools and rental

Kitesailing Engadin — "group lessons, semi-private and private lessons, foil and special courses", shop "daily 09:00-18:00", a snowkite school in winter [2]. No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

"2 km away" from St. Moritz; "Zurich-Chur-Julier-Silvaplana" by car, or the train to Chur and on toward St. Moritz [3].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Lake Silvaplana — 184 files with a Kitesurfing on Lake Silvaplana subcategory of 20 [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Two waters: "the 'pond', the lagoon of the Poole Harbour with perfectly flat and only about waist-deep water", and Sandbanks beach outside with a "long & wide shallow area for about 200 meters" [3]. "Launching and landing is predominantly done on the beach directly in front of the Sandbanks hotel" [1]; Whitley Bay "offers 'ideal learning conditions with the water never being much more than waist height'", and beginners should "Rig and launch up wind near the Sanbanks Hotel" [2]. At the back of the harbour, Lake Pier: "SSW, S and SSE are best" with W, SW, S and SE rideable, water "high enough to ride 4 hours either side of high tide" but "for 2 hours either side of low tide the mudflat comes into play" (search summary of the school's page, which answered 404).

Conditions

"Poole Harbour works in all wind directions" [3] against "The wind is quite gusty in anything other than NW" [1] — the harbour is sheltered by buildings, so it depends on where you stand. "Unlike many south coast kitesurf spots, Poole Harbour doesn't get any thermal winds (sea breeze)" (search summary of the school's page). "You can kitesurf at Poole in any tidal state (low tide can be very shallow & muddy though)" [1]. Hazards [2]: "Keep well away from the harbour entrance & the chain ferry"; "The deep water channel is very busy with traffic...they won't see you or feel a thing when they run over you"; "The deep water channel gets very choppy, & the currents are stronger here".

The year

Local knowledge

• The permit — "you require a permit to kite here (and spot checks are regularly carried out!). You can get your permit from Poole Harbour Commissioners" [1]; "annual kitesurfing permit" for "a little over £20" [3]; third-party insurance from the BKSA is mandatory (search summary).
• The road — "inexperienced kitesurfers have been dragged across the road into traffic" [1]; "be aware of launching to close to the road" [2].
• Crowds — "very busy, with families swimming and playing in the water, windsurfers and marine traffic" [1].
• Parking — "around £10 per day and there are lots of wardens!" [1].

Access and hazards

The Harbour Commissioners' permit and insurance [1][3]. Hazards: the road, the chain ferry and channel, the mud, the crowd [1][2].

Schools and rental

"There are also a few kitesurf schools and shops in the area" [1]; the Kitesurf Centre's guide [1] and Poseidon at Lake Pier (search summary).

Getting there

Sandbanks, at the end of the peninsula from Poole; the chain ferry to Studland is the landmark to avoid [2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Poole Harbour — 302 files with Brownsea Island and Holes Bay; "A sand bank in Poole Harbour - geograph.org.uk - 2746365.jpg" [4]. No kite subcategory. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Dakhla is a town at the end of a 40-kilometre sand spit off the Saharan coast, and the water between the spit and the mainland is the lagoon — flat, shallow, turquoise and sheltered from the Atlantic, with a wind that comes off the desert most afternoons of the year. One listing site gives the lagoon as "approximately 45km long and 4+ km wide" [1]; the KBC school says "almost 40 km" and describes a seabed of "very fine sand" with a standing area "up to 300m wide" at high tide [7]. Whichever figure you take, there is more flat water here than at any other African spot in this atlas, and it is why the place became the continent's main beginner and freestyle resort.

The kite camps sit along the lagoon's western shore, most of them around "PK25" — kilometre 25 on the road north from town — with a few closer to the town end. They are all-inclusive by design: bungalow, buffet, school, storage and a beach in front, with the wind blowing side to side-off along it [6][7]. What the riding gives you is a long sandy flat, knee to waist deep across a wide area depending on tide, that fills with beginners in the mornings and freestylers when the thermal comes in around two [7]. Downwind of the camps is the Speed Spot, "butter-flat" at low water behind a steep bank, and beyond it the Dune Blanche, 13 kilometres away, where the organised downwinders finish [6][10].

The Atlantic side is a different place. Oum Labouir, five kilometres from town, is a right-hand point break that works from October to March on North Atlantic swell [6]; it is where the GKA's strapless wave tour has stopped, and the wind out there is "a few knots lighter on the ocean" and "very gusty inside of the bay" [6]. Most visitors never see it. They come for the lagoon, and the lagoon is what the rankings here are for.

Conditions

The wind is thermal on top of the north-east trade: hot air rises over the Sahara in the afternoon and pulls cooler, moister air in off the Atlantic, so the flow over the lagoon is "steady, predictable" and "mostly north to north-east, blowing cross-shore" [4]. Mornings are generally calmer; in season the wind fills in "from around 1pm until sunset" [4], or "often starting around 2 p.m." in KBC's account [7]. One guide says it "typically begins around 10am" and "picks up around 2 pm" [6].

Strength, by the people who sell it: the Guide de Dakhla gives 20 to 30 knots in the afternoon from April to October [4]; thekitespot gives 15–25 knots as the average with "5–10 knots additional during summer" and kites of 8–12 m², occasionally 14 [1]; KBC gives 15–22 knots regularly and "around 35 knots" at the peak of the April–September season [7]; Ocean Adventure gives 20–29 knots in June, 22–30 in July and 22–28 in August as "peak winds", falling to 14–20 in December [3]. Bluboarding puts summer at "around 24 knots on many days" [5]. The only long-run station whose figure could be read is the airport, 24–32 km from the camps: annual average 16 knots from the NNE with 32-knot gusts, from observations between June 2004 and August 2026 [2]. Windfinder holds no statistics for the lagoon stations at Dakhla Attitude or the wave spot [2].

Frequency: thekitespot's probability of 4 Bft or more runs from 57% in December to 95% in June, with every month from March to September at 88% or above [1]. KBC claims "320 kitesurfing days per year" [7]; Ocean Adventure says "on average 300 days a year" [3]. Both are school figures.

Water: 19–24 °C year-round in thekitespot's account [1]; KBC gives 17–19 °C from November to April and 22–24 °C from May to October [7]; Bluboarding gives 16–18 °C in winter and 21–23 °C in summer, with a 4/3 mm suit standard in winter and a 3/2 mm shorty or nothing in summer [5]. Air is 20–30 °C by day and 12–15 °C in the evening [1] — the desert cools fast. The lagoon is tidal [1]; at low water "many places get extremely shallow" and some spots are "only" usable at high tide [9][10].

The year

The probabilities are thekitespot's, defined as days with at least 4 Beaufort [1]. The knot ranges are Ocean Adventure's "peak winds" per month, a school's figures [3].

Local knowledge

• The camps are 25–30 km from town and there is nothing in between. Airport to the lagoon entrance is about 30 minutes, to the wave spot 15, and town hotels are 45 minutes from the lagoon [6]. You eat where you sleep; one hotel charges €10 a head each way to town [6].
• Wear boots. The lagoon has "no rocks or sharp shells to accidentally step on" in one description [6], but thekitespot warns of "bits of sharp shell found at the beach" and recommends neoprene boots [1]. Both are true depending on where you walk in.
• Speed Spot is a low-tide spot with offshore wind. It is "deep immediately" at low water and the wind blows "over a steep bank" [9][10]. Beginners go there on a boat, not on their own.
• The Dragon Island crossing only works at high tide with a north wind — otherwise "the area is not surrounded by enough water" [6]. KBC runs it as a guided downwinder with a boat [7].
• Morocco bans drones outright and the airport looks for them [13].
• Best months, in one visitor's view: February, May, June and July [13]. February is included because the winter wind is lighter but the crowd is smaller. Take it as one opinion.
• Wind is "usually significantly more" than the models at KBC's beach — a claim made about their El Gouna beach rather than Dakhla, and not repeated here for the lagoon.

Access and hazards

No municipal beach ordinance for the lagoon could be found, and none is claimed. The camps run their own beaches, and the rules are the camps': launch and land in front of your own school, keep the beginner zone clear, and use the rescue boat, which every camp lists [1][7]. Dakhla is in Western Sahara, administered by Morocco; the Moroccan authorities treat it as Morocco for entry purposes, and the airport code is VIL [1][6].

Hazards on record: shallow water at low tide across much of the lagoon [9][10]; offshore wind and immediate depth at the Speed Spot [9][10]; sharp shell on the beach [1]; a gusty, lighter wind on the ocean side [6]. The evening temperature drops to 12–15 °C [1]. No incident record is published by any source read here.

Schools and rental

Every camp is a school. KBC Dakhla is IKO-certified, requires a VDWS Level 4 for kite rental, and lists beginner courses "from 400€", advanced training "from 100€" and kids' courses "from 383€"; airport transfer is "included in the hotel price" [7]. Dakhla Camp publishes a full 2026 tariff: private beginner lessons €115 for 2 h and €235 for 4 h, semi-private €75 and €155, a full kitesurf set €60 for a half day and €80 for a day, a seven-night all-inclusive "Chill" package with 10 h of lessons at €929 solo, and a standard bungalow at €84–€122 a night depending on board [8]. One visitor's survey of 10-hour beginner packages across six camps ranged from €280 (group, Dakhla Evasion and Dakhla Kitesurf World) to €750 (private, Ocean Vagabond), with a week's rental from €210 to €365 [13]. thekitespot's headline figures are €60 for a 2-hour lesson and €40 for half a day of gear [1].

All figures are the camps' own pages or a visitor's tally and favour the camps; check the year on any price.

Getting there

Dakhla airport (VIL) has Royal Air Maroc flights from Casablanca and Agadir, and Transavia has run direct Paris flights on and off [1][6][13]. One visitor's Casablanca connection cost about €300 return from Paris and found the Casablanca flights leave at 7:55 and 21:30 [13]. Royal Air Maroc carried a 23 kg kite bag free; Transavia charged €44 each way [6]. The airport is "about 30 minutes by car" from the camps, and most camps include the transfer [7]. There is no rail. Parking is not a question here: you stay where you ride.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Dakhla — 112 files, with a Dakhla Bay subcategory of 5 files, and windsurfing and kitesurfing near Dragon Island among them [12]. Check each licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Blouberg is a suburb of Cape Town on the north shore of Table Bay, and the photograph everyone has seen — a kite in the air with Table Mountain behind it — is taken from its beach. The coast runs roughly north–south for ten kilometres from Sunset Beach through Dolphin Beach, Kite Beach, Doodles and Big Bay to Haakgat and Melkbos, and the spots are simply the sections of it, listed upwind to downwind [2][3]. Kite Beach, "between Jerrys (burger place) and Pakalols (bar)" in the Cape Town Kite Club's directions, is the one with the schools and the crowd [2]; Dolphin Beach has "the flattest water between the kickers" and is "popular with the rippers and pros on big wind days" [2][4]; Big Bay is the wave spot with the King of the Air arena in front of it [4][9].

The thing to know before booking is that this is not a place to learn. The wind is 20 to 40 knots on a working day [4], the water is Atlantic and cold, the shore break is real, and the local guides say so: "Beginners? No!" — go to Langebaan, Hermanus or Witsand instead [3]. What Cape Town is for is the rider who wants a long summer of strong, side-on wind on a beach that is never closed, with a city behind it. Every school that teaches here does its beginner hours at Langebaan's lagoon, an hour up the coast [2][3].

The wind arrives as a line. "The day can start with zero wind but if a South Easterly is forecast then at some point you will see a line of wind creeping its way down the coast from the Mountain until it hits Blouberg" [5]. It builds from around 10 am and by 4 pm "it's indeed blowing its socks off" [4].

Conditions

The south-easter — the "Cape Doctor" — is a summer trade reinforced by a thermal: a cold ocean, a hot land mass and Table Mountain in between [5]. It is side-on from the left at the Blouberg beaches, which take SE, S and SW; Sunset Beach "can be a bit gusty" and "cross off", and Melkbos, further north, works when the wind swings to the NW [2]. Strength on a normal day: "generally start in the 20 knot range and increase to 30 knots"; "if it's a 'proper' south easter then expect 30–40 knots"; it is "gusty" later in the day [5]. The NSRI's figure for a typical afternoon is 15–30 knots [6]. Kite sizes: "a 7 & 9m are a safe bet for 90% of the time", with an 11 for twin-tips [5].

Frequency: thekitespot's share of days with three or more consecutive hours of 4 Bft or more runs from 83% in January to 43% in May, with November to February all at 77% or above [1]. Wake Up Stoked puts December to February at "around 60%–70% wind chance" [3]; iksurfmag says "five days per week between 20–40 knots" [4]. No long-run Windfinder statistic could be read for the Blouberg stations; the Cape Town page holds no data and points to Table Bay and Molteno Reservoir [unverified beyond that].

Water: 18–21 °C [1]; "cold" [3]; the NSRI advises a 4/3 mm or thicker [6], and Progression suggests 4/3 or 5/3 [5]. Air 25–35 °C by day [5], 23 °C-plus in season [1], with cool evenings [4]. The water is choppy with waves [3]; Sunset Beach has "the cleanest / largest waves along the Blouberg coast" and a sizeable shore break, Kite Beach medium waves and a small shore break, Doodles a big shore break at high tide, and Haakgat bigger waves again [4]. Tidal, yes, but the tide moves the shore break, not access [1][4].

The year

The probabilities are thekitespot's [1]. Nothing from a met station could be read for this record.

Local knowledge

• Sunset Beach is cross-off and gusty; Kite Beach is where the schools are [2][3]. If it is your first day, rig at Kite Beach or Dolphin Beach and ride upwind of the crowd.
• Big Bay has two swim zones. Keep out of both. Klein Baai, the "tempting flat water left (South) of the rocks", is the local swimmers' patch; the lifeguard zone in front of the station is marked with yellow-red flags and is off limits "whether or not lifeguards are present" [2].
• Doodles has semi-submerged rocks just north of the launch [2]. Big Bay has rocks downwind and "rock slabs" at some beaches [4].
• Kamers, just north of the Big Bay rocks, is a wave set-up; give way to the rider with priority on the wave [2].
• Cars get broken into. One guide first heard of gear being stolen from cars in 2022, and says "December and January during the public holidays … a lot of stuff gets stolen" [3]; iksurfmag says the same — no valuables in the vehicle, doors locked [4]. Nobody walks anywhere after dark [3].
• Sharks: not here, so far. "No one has been attacked by a shark on the Blouberg side of the Cape" [5]; the warm-water False Bay side is where the bites happen [5][9]. Wake Up Stoked calls the water "sharky (although nothing ever happened with a kitesurfer)" [3].
• The NSRI does not charge for a rescue. Dial 112, or 087 094 9774 direct [6]. Wear bright colours; "black, blue and white" disappear [6].
• Load shedding was a fact of life until 2024, when the same guide reported "currently there is no loadshedding" [3].

Access and hazards

No city bylaw specific to kitesurfing could be read for this record, and none is claimed. The rules that are published are the club's and the lifeguards': stay out of the flagged swimming zones and Klein Baai at Big Bay [2]. Platboom, inside the Cape Point reserve, has a park entrance fee [2]. Langebaan's Shark Bay, the beginner lagoon, has had toilets, showers and a café since 2021 [2].

Hazards on record: shore break, large at Sunset, Doodles at high tide and north of Big Bay [4]; rocks at Doodles, Big Bay and the Kreeftebaai-to-Haakgat stretch [2][4]; a gusty cross-off at Sunset [2]; theft from cars and after dark [3][4]; sharks in the record but not on this coast [5]. The NSRI's advice is two line-lengths of clear beach downwind, a helmet and impact vest, and "stay with your kite – it will keep you afloat" [6]. No incident statistics are published by any source read here.

For a parakite the rule is the South African Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association's. Its 22 November 2024 notice says parakites and other unrated wings may be flown "ab initio in training to a basic PG license or certificate, only under an appropriately approved school", or "by a pilot with an endorsed basic or intermediate license or certification, provided that they have passed the applicable training", with the endorsement in the logbook and SAHPA third-party insurance following from it [8]. That is the rule as read; it applies before any beach does.

Schools and rental

High Five Kitesurf School, 68 Beach Boulevard, Blouberg, teaches to IKO standards and publishes a full tariff: private 2 h R2,800, 6 h R8,100, 10 h R12,750; group 3 h R2,800 per person, 9 h R7,700; full kit rental R2,000 for 3 h or R2,800 for 6 h, with unlimited packages from R6,000 for five days. Rental requires "IKO Level 3J or higher (consistent upwind riding)" [7]. thekitespot's headline is "approx R4300 (€260)" for six hours of lessons and R800–1,800 for a session or day of gear [1]. Cabrinha Kitesurfing is named alongside High Five for rental and lessons [9]; the Cape Town Kite Club is a lodge and school at Big Bay [2]. Prices are the schools' own; check the year.

Getting there

Cape Town International (CPT) has many direct long-haul flights [3]; it is "45 mins transfer" to Blouberg [4], or "45min to 1 hour" [3]. A hire car is assumed by every guide — Avis, Budget and the local cheap-hire firms are all named [4] — and it is what gets you to Langebaan (1 h), Muizenberg (45 min–1 h), Scarborough and Misty Cliffs (1.5 h), Hermanus (2 h) and Witsand on the Breede (3 h 45 to 4.5 h) [2][3]. Parking is on the beachfront: the car park by the Dolphin Beach hotel, the roadside at Kite Beach, and a string of car parks at Eerstesteen, Derdesteen, Kreeftebaai, Kelpbaai and Haakgat further north [2]. Accommodation runs from "£10 per night in a hostel" to £200 a night for a house [4], or R300–1,000 a night in thekitespot's figures [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Kitesurfing in South Africa — 21 files, several at Bloubergstrand with Table Mountain behind [11].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Bloubergstrand — 37 files and five subcategories, including Beaches of Bloubergstrand (13 files) and Table Mountain seen from Bloubergstrand (60 files) [12].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

El Gouna is a purpose-built resort town 25–30 km north of Hurghada, and its kite beach, Mangroovy, is at the town's northern end: a private beach "over 800 meters" wide of fine sand in front of a shallow lagoon that KBC calls "more than two square kilometre in size" and "the biggest in the Red Sea" [7]. The lagoon is standing-depth almost everywhere — "never deeper than waist height" in Sportif's description — and runs out about 500 m to an offshore reef, beyond which the water is deep [4]. The wind comes down the coast from the north and, because the shore runs north-west to south-east, arrives side-onshore from the left [4][7].

That combination — warm water, shallow flat, a wind from the sea — is why the beach is lined with kite centres, each with its own teaching lane: Element Beach, Riah Kite Academy, Makani Beach Club and KitePower at the north end, KBC and Red Sea Zone in the middle, Kite Family at Zeytuna Beach, and KitePeople at the Mövenpick and Osmosis further south [5]. It is a resort spot with a resort's convenience: tuk-tuks around town, bicycles for hire, a 30-minute transfer from an international airport [5][7], and a beach fee of "€13–€20 per day" that covers launching, landing, compressors and storage [5].

The day it gives you is a warm, medium-wind flat-water session, on a 9 or a 12, with the lagoon crowded near the schools and empty a few hundred metres out. What it does not give you is waves: Sportif rates it 5/5 for beginners and intermediates and 1/5 for wave riding [4].

Conditions

The wind is northerly — N to NNW — and thermal on top of the Red Sea's prevailing flow; KBC describes it as "direct, undisturbed, constant, and without gusts — from the Red Sea", and claims there is "usually significantly more wind than most weather reports predict" [7]. Sportif gives the year-round range as force 4–6, "11 to 26+ knots", with the best months April to November [4]. Kiterr's monthly averages run 15–21 knots from March to November, with June the highest at 21, and 15–16 in winter — but with the note that winter fronts bring "usually the strongest wind of the year" at 25+ knots [5]. Kiteforum's summary, as picked up in search results rather than read, gave 70% of winter days and 80% of summer days over 4 Bft, and it is unverified here. Kiterr's own figures are 80% in summer and about 70% in winter [5]; kitetrip-planner's month-by-month index runs from 38 in November to 75 in June [6].

The long-run station is Hurghada airport, 30 km south: 12 knots annual average from the NNW with 22-knot gusts, from observations since November 2000 — an all-hours figure that says little about a thermal afternoon [8]. The El Gouna Kiteboarding Club station on Windfinder carries the same 12-knot annual figure and no monthly table [8].

Water: 21 °C in January–February, 23 in spring, 25 in May–June, 29 in July–August, back to 21 by November [6]; kiterr gives 25–30 °C in summer and 19–21 in winter [5]. Air 20 °C in winter to 36 in high summer [6]; Sportif says it "rarely fall[s] below 22°C" [4].

The tide is the thing. The range is only 20–70 cm [7], but the lagoon is so flat that it matters: "Only possible to surf for a few hours either side of High Tide. It is too shallow to safely kite at low tide", so lessons are "scheduled either side of high water" [4]. In summer "around full moon, the lagoon can be completely drained for several hours" [7]. Coral underfoot in places; boots are recommended [4]. KBC's beach "gets a little too shallow during low tides" and a crash on the reef finds "hundreds of sea urchins" [5].

The year

The index is kitetrip-planner's monthly figure, presented on their page as a percentage-style score without a stated definition [6]; the knot averages are kiterr's [5]. The two agree on the shape: a June–September peak and a November–February trough.

Local knowledge

• Read the tide before you rig. A few hours either side of high water is the window [4]; in a summer full moon the lagoon can be dry for hours [7]. Every centre posts the day's window; ask.
• Each centre has its own lane. Kiterr's map puts the beginner-friendliest water at Riah's "1,500 metres stretch of shallow water with no reef hazards" and Makani's "waist-deep water that extends quite far from the shore" [5]. Osmosis, at the southern end, is the one with "occasional waves" and deep water as well as the lagoon [5].
• Boots. Coral underfoot at Sportif's beach [4], sea urchins on the reef at KBC's [5].
• You need liability insurance to rent — kiterr's warning, and KBC's rental terms require a VDWS licence at Level 3 or above [5][7].
• The wind is often more than the forecast — a school's claim [7], not a station's; it is consistent with a thermal that models underrate.
• Outside the reef is boat territory. KBC's rescue boat "come[s] to your aid within minutes" in the deep water beyond the reef [7]; that is where the foilers go.

Access and hazards

Mangroovy is a private beach; access is through the centres and their day fee of €13–€20 [5]. No municipal ordinance was found and none is claimed; the operating rules are the centres' — lanes, launch areas, the tide window. Rental everywhere requires a licence or an equivalent level: VDWS Level 3 at KBC [7], liability insurance in kiterr's account [5].

Hazards on record: the low-tide dry-out [4][7]; coral and sea urchins [4][5]; the offshore reef with deep water beyond it [4][7]. No incident record is published by any source read here.

Schools and rental

KBC El Gouna is VDWS-certified with 150 kites from 5 to 17 m² and 80 boards, and prices beginner courses "from 439€", intermediate "from 281€", kids "from 396€"; the VDWS exam can be taken on site [7]. The other centres on the beach — Element, Riah, Makani, KitePower, Red Sea Zone, Kite Family, KitePeople, Osmosis — are named by kiterr [5] and by Sportif, which describes an IKO-approved centre at the Mövenpick with "rescue, storage, instruction and rental" [4]; none of their prices were read for this record. The beach fee of €13–€20 a day covers launching, landing, compressors and storage [5]. Prices are the schools' own.

Getting there

Hurghada International Airport (HRG) is about 25 km and 30 minutes south [5][6][7]; charter and scheduled flights from Europe take "approximately 4–5 hours" [7]. Transfers are by hotel shuttle or taxi; in town, tuk-tuks and hire bicycles [5]. There is no rail. Parking is not a question — the beach is reached from the hotels and the centres.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: El Gouna — 273 files and 15 subcategories of the town, marina, hotels and beaches; no kitesurfing subcategory [9].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Kitesurfing in Egypt holds a single file and is not worth the link [unverified beyond one read].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Essaouira is a fortified port town on Morocco's Atlantic coast with a population of about 83,000 in 2024, and a beach that "extends from the harbour south" to where the Oued Ksob meets the sea [3]. The bay is partly sheltered by the Îles Purpuraires — Mogador island, offshore, takes the worst of the ocean — and the town's fishing economy has always run on the alizés, the trade winds that drive the coastal upwelling behind the sardine catch [3]. The same wind is what the kite schools sell.

The riding is in the bay, on the wide sand south of the medina. The wind arrives from the north-east, so with the beach curving away to the south it blows side-shore from the right; one school's phrase is that "you drift along the beach rather than offshore" [6]. Inside, near the shore, there is flat water — one school claims "100 metres of calm flat water" for its beginners [8] — and further out the Atlantic swell rolls through under the wind [5]. It is a learning bay with a medina and a fish market at the top of the beach, which is why the schools here are numerous and cheap by European standards, and why most of them describe the same product: IKO lessons in the afternoon, when the wind arrives [4][6][7][8].

The wave riding is the day trip. Sidi Kaouki, 25 km south, is open Atlantic beach with wind the same school puts "3 to 5 knots stronger" than the bay and waves to ride; Moulay Bouzerktoun, 25 km north, is a rocky reef with a right-hand wave, described as expert-only [5][8]. Neither is covered further here.

Conditions

The wind is the alizé — a north to north-easterly trade wind that one school describes as thermal, blowing parallel to the coast and "funneled and accelerated" by the local topography as the inland desert heats and pulls in Atlantic air [5]. The pattern within a day is the pattern of any thermal coast: light mornings, then a build. One blog puts it at "by 2pm the wind builds to 18–28 knots" in season [4]. Ranges by season, from the schools: 15–30 knots April to October, 20–35 in June to August, and 12–22 knots on the winter days when it does blow [6]; a second school gives 15–35 knots from May to September, 14–22 in March, April and October, and "variable wind from weather systems" with winter swell from November to February [5]. These are school figures and they favour the school.

The stations tell a quieter story, because they average every hour. Windfinder's Essaouira record — observations from March 2002 to August 2026 — gives an annual average of 8 knots with north the dominant direction, and no monthly table [1]. The airport station, 16.5 km away, gives 9 knots from the NNE with average gusts of 25 knots, from April 2012 onwards, again without a monthly breakdown [2]. An 8- or 9-knot all-hours mean with 25-knot gusts is consistent with a coast that is calm at night and 20-plus knots in the afternoon, but no station read for this record proves the afternoon figure; the schools' ranges are the only numbers for that.

Water: Wikipedia's climate figures for the town run from about 15 °C in winter to 20 °C in summer for air, with the Canary Current keeping the sea cool [3]; the Windfinder station gives 18 °C daytime and 13 °C at night as annual averages [1]. No source read gives a monthly sea temperature; wetsuits are included in lesson prices at one school [8], which is the practical answer. The tide is large and matters — one school lists "flat water on tide" as a feature of the bay [6] — but no source read states the range or the working window. Ask the school what the day's tide does to the shallows.

The year

The strip gives June to August a 3, April, May, September and October a 2, and the rest a 1, following the schools' months [4][5][6]; no station table exists to check them against [1][2].

Local knowledge

• Mornings are for the surfers. "Morning is often light (better for surf)"; the kite lessons start when the wind arrives around 2pm [4].
• The bay is shared. One school lists beginners, independent riders, wingfoilers and swimmers in the same water and teaches starboard priority and self-rescue for that reason [7]. The launch is the open sand; nobody publishes a zoning map.
• Drift is downwind along the beach, not out to sea. The side-shore wind from the right is why the schools call the bay safe [6]; the same wind means a long walk back if you go too far.
• Winter blows sometimes. 12–22 knots in December to February when it does [6], but with swell; the year-round school is the one that also rents surfboards [9].
• Book July and August. "Kitesurf lessons Essaouira fill up" — a school's warning about its own diary [4].

Access and hazards

No municipal beach bylaw for Essaouira could be found or read for this record, and none is claimed; the bay is described by every school as open sand with no fixed zones [6][7][8]. Hazards on record are the shared water [7] and the strong summer afternoons — 30 knots and more in the schools' own ranges [5][6]. The Oued Ksob river mouth at the south end of the beach [3], the tidal shallows [6] and anything about currents are not described by any source read, and a rider should ask the school. Moulay Bouzerktoun's rocky reef is the one named hazard outside the bay [5]. No incident record is published.

Schools and rental

Prices below are as read on 25 September 2026 and are the schools' own.

• Essaouira Kitesurf School (The Windy) — IKO; group lessons 55 € for 2 h rising to 310 € for 12 h; semi-private 80–435 €; private 100–553 €; supervised rental 50 € for 2 h [6]. https://www.essaouirakitesurfschool.com/en/kitesurf-essaouira
• Seagull Club — IKO instructors; group (up to four) 49–235 € for 2–10 h; semi-private 40–355 € for 1–10 h; private 60–500 €; storage and downwinders for validated intermediates [7]. https://seagullessaouira.com/en/kitesurf/lessons/
• Surf Twins — IKO instructors; group 50 €, semi-private 70 €, private 90 € per session; 10-hour packs 275–475 €; wetsuits included [8]. https://www.surftwinsessaouira.com/en/kitesurfing-essaouira
• Essaouira Watersports — 27.5 €/h lessons, 80 €/day rental, 2-hour group 55 €; Ozone, Duotone and Mystic in the shop; hydrofoils; open January to December [9]. Listed by a booking site, not read on the school's own page.
• The Elite School's guide [5] and the Surf School Essaouira blog [4] were read for conditions; their prices were not.

IKO is the ladder every school here names [6][7][8]; none of the pages read mentions VDWS.

Getting there

Essaouira-Mogador airport is 7–8 km from town according to Wikipedia [3], 15 km according to one school's listing [9]; the airport station is 16.5 km from Windfinder's Essaouira point [1]. Marrakesh is the other airport, reached by the road that Wikipedia calls the desert road [3]; no bus or rail detail appears in any source read, though the schools' addresses are all in town within walking distance of the beach [6][7][9]. Parking is not described.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Beaches of Essaouira — 87 files including Mogador island from Essaouira beach.jpg and Surfers at Essaouira, Morocco.JPG; no file is labelled as kitesurfing [11].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Essaouira — 25 subcategories and about 1,016 files of the medina, port and coast, including six of Moulay Bouzerktoun; no kitesurfing or windsurfing subcategory [10].
• A Category: Kitesurfing in Essaouira does not exist on Commons (fetch returned 404).

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Langebaan is a small town — 8,297 people at the 2011 census — 120 km north of Cape Town, sitting on the eastern shore of a lagoon that "stretches for 17 km from Saldanha Bay, past Langebaan to Geelbek in the South" and is up to 4 km wide [1]. It is not a river lagoon: pure seawater, shaped by prehistoric changes in sea level, which is why it is clear and why it is warmer than the Atlantic beaches to the south [1]. It has been a Ramsar site since 1988 and a marine protected area since 2000 [1], and its southern half is inside the West Coast National Park, 362.59 km² of it, 88 km north of Cape Town on the R27 [2].

There are two places to ride. Main Beach is in the village: flat water with minimal chop, suitable for beginners, busier, deeper, and with more wind than the bay to the south [4][5]. Shark Bay is inside the park, reached by a short dirt road from town — the guides call the hill "Black Mamba Hill" and put the car park 200 m from the water [4] — and is the one that made the town's name with visiting riders: waist to chest deep on soft sand for "400m+" [4] or "approximately 500 meters" [6] out to the channel, warm, and with no shore break, which one guide calls "fail-safe" for beginners [4]. The sharks are sand sharks, "numerous and harmless" [6][7]. Hobie Beach, north of Main Beach, is quieter with small waves; Saldanha Bay round the corner is flat [4].

Riders come here from Cape Town on the days the Cape Doctor is too much, or with a beginner in the car, or to foil: the guides rate it for foil, freeride and freestyle [4], and the schools' marketing is all flat water.

Conditions

The wind is the same summer south-easter that blows Cape Town, arriving here as south to south-east: cross-shore at Main Beach and onshore at Shark Bay [4][6]. The guides give 10–25 knots as typical with "up to 40 knots on heavy days" [4], or "15 – 25 knots consistent winds throughout summer" [6]; one says the wind here is "usually a little bit less here than in Cape Town" [5]. Main Beach "can have 5-10 knots more wind than Sharkbay" [6], which is the number to remember when choosing an end.

The station record is thin. Windfinder's Langebaan Roodevos station, observed from December 2003 to April 2024 and no longer reporting, gives an annual average of 7 knots from the SSW with 10-knot gusts, 19 °C by day and 15 °C by night, and no monthly table [3]. That is an all-hours winter-and-summer mean and says almost nothing about a summer afternoon; the guides' 15–25 knots is the only figure for that.

Water: about 17 °C at Main Beach and about 24 °C at Shark Bay by one guide's account [4]; "warm water 18 deg plus" by another [6]. Both agree that the bay, being shallow, is the warm one [4][6]. The tide sets the launch: at Shark Bay high water "limits launching space" and low water gives more sand [4], and low water is when the 500 m of standing depth is at its widest [6].

The year

The strip gives December to February a 3, March, October and November a 2, April and September a 1 and May to August a 0, which is the guides' mid-October to mid-April [4][5][6] read against the southern calendar.

Local knowledge

• Check both ends before you rig. "Wind conditions can differ between Sharkbay and nearby Langebaan" [6]; Main Beach carries 5–10 knots more [6]. A light day at the bay may be a proper day in the village.
• Shark Bay at low water is a walk. Waist deep for 400–500 m [4][6] means a long wade out with a kite in the air; at high water the launch shrinks [4].
• The park charges. Entering the West Coast National Park costs a conservation fee; one guide quoted R42 a head in season, undated [6], and the SANParks tariff page could not be read for this record (403), so the current figure is unverified.
• Pearly's. The restaurant at the lagoon mouth, pizza, and the R40 breakfast one pair of backpackers found [5][7].
• Camping. Leentjiesklip caravan park, R130–R305 a site, as quoted by the same backpackers [5].

Access and hazards

Shark Bay is inside a national park with a gate and a fee [2][6]; the SANParks page for the park and its tariffs both returned 403 when fetched, so the opening hours, current conservation fee and any kitesurfing zoning inside the park are unverified here. The lagoon is a Ramsar site and marine protected area [1], and the park administers it [2]; the rider's practical rule is to enter by the gate, pay, and stay off the bird sanctuary end at Geelbek, which no source read describes as a kite zone.

Hazards on record: "minimal obstacles" and soft white sand at Shark Bay, with the harmless sand sharks [6][7]; the 40-knot days [4]; the deeper, busier water at Main Beach [4]. No rocks, urchins or great whites are reported in the lagoon by any source read [6]. No incident record is published.

For a parakite the rule is the South African Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association's. Its 22 November 2024 notice says parakites may be flown "ab initio in training to a basic PG license or certificate, only under an appropriately approved school", or by "a pilot with an endorsed basic or intermediate license or certification, provided that they have passed the applicable training, completed the syllabi and have the paraglider type endorsed in their logbook", with SAHPA third-party insurance following from the endorsement [10]. The task brief for this record says Advanced Pilot; the notice as read says basic or intermediate with endorsement; both are recorded.

Schools and rental

• Cape Sport Center — on Langebaan beach, windsurfing, kitesurfing and wing foiling with "qualified instructors", plus e-foil, downwinders, rental, accommodation and the Wunderbar rooftop café; no prices or certification on the homepage as read [9]. http://capesports.co.za/
• The KiteLab — IKO; a two-day beginner course of 4 hours a day, two students to an instructor, R2,600 a head including gear, radios and boat rescue, as quoted by two students in an undated blog [5]; the school's own Shark Bay page carries the conditions above [6]. https://www.kitelab.co.za/kitesurfing-sharkbay-langebaan/
• WindChasers and Best Kiteboarding Africa are named as lesson operators by a travel blog, with hourly lessons "from R150" and a full day at R1,100, undated [7]. Neither was read directly.

Prices are as quoted on the pages read on 25 September 2026 and are not the schools' current lists.

Getting there

Cape Town International is the airport; the drive up the R27 West Coast road is about 90 minutes [4][7]. There is no rail. In town, Main Beach is in front of the village; for Shark Bay follow the dirt road out of town — about 1 km by one account [7] — over the hill to a car park 200 m from the water [4], inside the park gate. Alternatively enter the park from the R27 and pay at the gate [2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Langebaan — 31 files and six subcategories, including a file labelled Langebaan Windsurfing [11].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Langebaan Lagoon — 15 files, mostly ISS imagery and landscapes, plus subcategories for the peninsula and Seeberg viewpoint; no kitesurfing images [12].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: West Coast National Park — 19 subcategories and 86 files, listed under Langebaan [11].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Paje is a village on the south-east coast of Unguja, Zanzibar's main island, between Bwejuu to the north and Jambiani to the south [1]. Wikipedia's one-line summary is that "the lagoon is popular for learning kiteboarding" for three reasons — consistent wind, shallow sandy water at low tide, and an offshore reef that keeps the waves out [1]. The reef is "1.5 kilometres off-shore" by one school's measure [5], "1-2 km offshore" by a guide's [6], and behind it lies a lagoon that at mid to low water is "flat and waist-deep for miles" [6].

The other thing in the lagoon is seaweed. Women farm it on staked plots along the shore — the Wikipedia article's own photograph is of the seaweed gatherers [1] — and the farms divide the lagoon into sections that a rider crosses "at mid/high tide with caution" [3][5]. That, and the sea urchins that "escape" from the farming areas [5], are the two things every local briefing starts with.

The day Paje gives depends on the tide as much as the wind. Low tide empties the inner lagoon and sends riders out to the outer lagoon and the sandbanks [3]; at the extreme, "the water disappears completely from the lagoons" [6]. High tide brings "mild chop with some freestyle features" [3] and waves of up to 2 m on the reef [4]. In between is the knee-deep flat water the schools sell [3][5]. It is a warm, medium-wind spot on 9 to 12 m kites [5], with two seasons and a long beach of guesthouses and kite centres behind it.

Conditions

Zanzibar has two monsoons. The Kaskazi is the north-east monsoon, which the island's climate literature associates with the cooler season on the north and east coasts; the Kusi is the south-west monsoon, which brings the main rains of March to May [2]. On the Paje beach they are the two wind seasons, and the schools name them.

Kusi, June to October: southerly winds of 15–25 knots by one guide, "the strongest season" [6]; "up to 25 knots" from mid-June to mid-October by a school [4]; "calmer mornings, stronger afternoons" [3]. It blows side-onshore along the beach [5].

Kaskazi, December to March: north to north-easterly, 12–18 knots by the guide [6], 14–20 knots from mid-December to mid-March by the school [4], 12–25 knots by the magazine [3]. Warmer air and water than the Kusi [6]. Also side-onshore [5].

One school gives the all-season average as "around 16 knots" [5]. No station record was read: Windfinder's Paje statistics page returned 429 on both attempts and is not cited. The knots above are school and guide figures.

Water: "exceeds 24°C year-round" [5]; air 29–34 °C by day and 20–24 °C at night across the year, with a mean of 26.9 °C [2]. Rain: the long rains of March to May under the south-west monsoon, a second peak in November and December, and July the driest month [2].

The year

The strip gives January, February and July to September a 3; March, June, October and December a 2; May a 1; April and November a 0, following the schools' mid-month boundaries [4][5] and the rains [2].

Local knowledge

• Booties. Sea urchins are "guardians of the lagoon", hiding in the sand [6]; one school recommends water shoes for the reef walk at low tide [5].
• Learn the tide table on day one. Inner lagoon at mid tide, outer lagoon and sandbanks at low, chop at high [3]. The schools schedule around it.
• Cross the seaweed farms with care, and only at mid or high water [3][5]. The stakes are the hazard, not the seaweed.
• Kusi afternoons are the strong ones; mornings are lighter [3][4].
• Kite sizes. "12, 10 and 9 meters" are the common ones [5].
• The sun off white sand is a hazard the guides list alongside the urchins [6].
• Other beaches: Jambiani to the south, quieter; Bwejuu and Dongwe to the north, wide lagoons; Michamvi, 15 minutes' drive, gusty, for sunset sessions [6].

Access and hazards

No permit, fee or municipal rule for kiting at Paje appears in any source read, and none is claimed; the beach is open and the schools run their own lanes. The hazards on record are sea urchins [3][5][6], seaweed-farm stakes [3][5], the low-tide dry-out [3][6], reef waves to 2 m at high water [4] and sun [6]. One magazine judges the reef "less dangerous than other tropical locations" [3]. No incident record is published.

Schools and rental

• Kite Centre Zanzibar — IKO, on Paje beach since 2006; kite lessons "Couple+" from 95 € and private from 149 €, wing from 99 € and 129 €; Duotone rental from 49 €; durations not stated on the homepage [5]. https://kitecentrezanzibar.com/
• Paje Kitesurf Zanzibar — the season page carries the wind months above [4]; no prices on the page read. https://pajekitesurf.com/
• Paje by Kite — IKO instructors according to the magazine [3]; the school's own homepage as fetched was a redesign notice with no content, and is not cited.
• Aquaholics and Zanzibar Kite Paradise are named by the magazine [3]; neither was read.
• B4 Kitesurf Zanzibar is listed on the IKO site; the listing page as fetched returned an app error and is not cited.

IKO is the ladder every source names [3][5][6]; "Zero to Hero" courses of 9–12 hours over 3–4 days are the standard product [6]. Prices are as read on 25 September 2026.

Getting there

Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ) is the island's airport [2]; the transfer to Paje is about an hour [3]. The magazine's prices: a dala-dala to Stone Town at 1.50 USD a head, shared taxis at 10 USD, a private taxi at 50 USD [3]. There is no rail. Parking is not a question here; the kite centres are on the beach.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Kitesurfing in Tanzania — 20 files, all a Zanzibar series [7].
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Paje — two files, the village and horses on the beach; no kitesurfing [8].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Sal is the flat desert island at the top of the Cape Verde chain, a six-hour flight from most of Europe [1], and its east coast is Kite Beach: "the most popular" of the island's spots, "cross on from the left", beginner-friendly, where the schools are [2]. The trade wind arrives "cross-onshore" on to "a flat water-start area, small beginner waves, and larger breaks for experienced riders positioned further offshore" [3]. Santa Maria, the town at the south tip, has its own bay and schools on the south side [1]; Ponta Preta on the west coast is the wave — "offshore", "advanced", the venue for professional competitions [2], with waves that "typically range between 3–6 metres high and come in fast" [1]; Ponta Leme has "a very nice left wave (with the right direction of the swell)" on a side-on wind [2].

Conditions

North-east trades, "NNE, NE, E", "15–25 knots almost daily during peak season, sometimes stronger", "typically strongest between 9am–3pm" [1]. thekitespot's monthly wind probability — a windy day being three consecutive daylight hours at 4 Bft or more — is the best monthly series in this atlas: January 81 %, February 84, March 87, April 85, May 78, June 65, July 48, August 45, September 53, October 67, November 70, December 88 [1]. Air about 20 °C; a long wetsuit is the magazine's advice [2].

The year

Local knowledge

• Kite Beach is 3 km of sand and in peak season it is full; the shallow water at low tide is the thing to remember before a jump [1].
• Offshore spots are for riders who hold upwind. "Offshore/cross-offshore spots unsafe for riders unable to stay upwind", and "not all spots have rescue services" [1].
• Rental is for the competent. "Kite equipment is only handed out for hire to experienced kitesurfers" who can ride upwind [3].
• Santa Maria to the beaches is a €5 shared ride each way [2]; the airport transfer is twenty minutes [2].
• Visa on arrival, €25, one month [1].

Access and hazards

No rider permit; the visa above [1]. Hazards on record: crowds, low-tide shallows, offshore spots without rescue [1]; Ponta Preta's waves [1][2].

Schools and rental

Kiteboarding Club (KBC) Sal, on Kite Beach, IKO syllabus (certificate €25): group courses from a 3-hour introduction at €90 to an 11-hour complete course at €365; private from €120 for two hours to €530 for ten; full kite rental €70 a day, board alone €35; open October to May [3]. thekitespot quotes "6hrs Private €460" and rental "approx €55 per day" [1]. The Mitu and Djo school on Kite Beach is named in search results and was not read.

Getting there

Amílcar Cabral international (SID), "20 mins transfer" by taxi to Santa Maria [2]; six hours' flight from most of Europe [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Sal (Cape Verde) — 45 files and 17 subcategories including Beaches of Sal; "Sal_SantaMaria.jpg" among them [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Le Morne is the peninsula at the south-west corner of Mauritius under the Brabant, a 556 m mountain that is a World Heritage site for its maroon history [4], and the flying-in view every kiter here has photographed. The kite lagoon on its north side is "shallow, flat water for beginners" [1], "flat to semi-flat" by wind and tide [2]; outside the reef are four breaks in ascending order — "Little Reef: ideal for beginners looking to start wave navigation", "Chameau and Manawa: higher and more powerful" for intermediates, and "One-Eye: reserved for experienced wave riders" [1]; MACkite's grading is blunter, "advanced to pro level riders only" for Chameau and One Eye, "incredible but also ruthless" [2].

Conditions

"East or Southeast (left side-shore)" [1]; onshore at the lagoon beach, sideshore at the Point [2]. Two seasons in ION's figures: "Winter (April–October): approximately 15 to 26 knots"; "Summer (November–March): 12 to 20 knots average" [1]. MACkite's range for the peak, May to October, is "15–35 knots" [2]. The claim that the mountain reinforces the wind by about five knots is from search summaries and is unverified here. Kitespotting gives "24.0 km/h" as an average and rates the spot "Advanced" for its outer reef [3]. No Windfinder statistics loaded for this record; the station page answered 429 on the day.

Hazards, from MACkite: "sharp coral underwater", channel currents that "can pull riders out to sea", offshore wind in the evenings, and swell and reef that make a board leash advisable [2].

The year

Southern hemisphere: the UK summer is the season.

Local knowledge

• Stay in the lagoon if you are on your own and learning. Self-rescue outside the reef "could be a real mission", in the search summary; MACkite's channel-current warning is the sourced version [2].
• The boat is ready. ION keeps "a boat always ready to depart" [1].
• Evenings go offshore [2].
• Order of the breaks: Little Reef, then Manawa, then Chameau and One Eye [1][2].
• A car is "absolutely necessary"; stay at La Gaulette or Le Morne village, 10–20 minutes away [2].

Access and hazards

No rider permit. Hazards as above [2]. The lagoon beach is a public beach with hotels on it.

Schools and rental

ION Club Le Morne — daily 09:00–17:00, all year, lifeboat; prices on a separate page not read [1]. Other schools and rentals are on the beach, in the search summary; none read.

Getting there

MRU (Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam) airport, "approximately an hour" to Le Morne [2]; hire car [2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Le Morne Brabant — 69 files: the peninsula from the air, the beach under the mountain, the lagoon [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Soma Bay is a resort peninsula on the Red Sea north of Safaga, and the kite spot is the lagoon at Ras Soma on its tip: "a vast shallow water lagoon stretching for miles till the end of the reef" in the search summary, "shallow lagoon, flatwater, crystal clear" on the spot page [1], "sheltered bay offers perfect flat-water conditions — ideal for beginners and intermediates" at the centre [3]. Two beaches meet at a right angle: the main beach where launching happens has the wind offshore, and "just a short cruise away the beach bends and you have a cross shore effect" [2]. The consequence is the rule that defines the place: "safety/transfer boat service is mandatory" because the wind is offshore, at extra cost, and it comes with the facilities, storage and beach assistance [1].

Conditions

"NW", about 22 knots on the summer average, "increasing to 25–30 knots afternoons", on 7–12 m kites [1]; "constant north wind", "side-offshore, seasonally also side-shore", which "blows about one kilometer over the sea before it hits the KBC Center and is then constant and unvortexed" [3]. The magazine's range is honest about the spread: "some days blowing around 30+ knots and others around 15–18 knots" [2]. The spot page's claim that "Soma Bay always enjoy at least 5 knots more of wind than the neighbouring spots" is the spot page's claim [1]. Wind probability 75–82 % in May–October and 39–65 % in November–April [1]. Water 20 °C in winter, 28 in summer [1]; in June, July and August "you do not need a wetsuit on the water or long sleeves for the evening" [2].

The year

Local knowledge

• The boat is not optional [1]. Register at a centre, pay the rescue, and the beach and storage come with it [1][3].
• Twelve and nine, and a seven if you have one [2].
• Rental wants a licence: VDWS level 4 for a kite, level 5 for foil or wing [3].
• The entry is shallow, the training water is deeper [3]; the lagoon stays calm in strong wind [3].
• Utopia island, the sandbar, is the boat trip the schools sell, in the search summary.

Access and hazards

No rider permit; the compulsory rescue service is the rule [1]. Hazards: offshore wind [1][2]; nothing else published on the pages read.

Schools and rental

KBC Ras Soma — open all year, beginner kitesurf course "from 386 €", kids "from 336 €", kitefoil "from 84 €", rental 5–17 m², rescue included with registration, more rescues bookable [3]. The Kitehouse, with multilingual instructors [2]. thekitespot's figures: six hours of lessons €260, three hours' rental €45, accommodation €20–100 a night [1].

Getting there

Hurghada International, 45 km, about 50 minutes [1]; transfer bus [2]. Hotels on the peninsula: The Breakers, Robinson, Sheraton, The Cascades [2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Soma Bay — 10 files with aerial photographs and a nature subcategory [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Diani is the long white beach south of Mombasa, and Galu at its southern end is the kite beach: "shallow flat water" and "miles of uncongested crystal clear lagoon" behind the reef [1], "a calm 900-metre lagoon" in the local school's description [2]. The lagoon is a tide machine — "low tide mornings offer super-flat sessions, while high tide brings enjoyable shore break with decent size waves" in the Kusi [1] — and the local school times its lessons by it: "lessons are strategically structured according to the tide schedules" [2].

Conditions

Two monsoons, and the two guides read for this record do not agree on the second one. Kaskazi, December to March: "about 20 knots on average" from the north, which "turns on at 10 am every morning and turns off at sunset", flatter water, 9 m kites [1]; "15 to 25 knots" [2]. Kusi, the southerly: April to September, "about 25 knots + on average", with swell for wave riding on 7 m kites [1]; or June to September, "10 to 20 knots" [2]. The search summaries split the difference at 18–22 knots and "slightly less consistent" than the Kaskazi, with waves of 1.5–3 m on big days — unverified. The month strip takes the months both guides share and leaves the strength to the reader. No station statistics loaded for this record.

The year

Local knowledge

• Ride the tide, not the clock. Low tide is flat and shallow; high tide is the shore break [1].
• Kaskazi keeps office hours — 10 am to sunset [1].
• Kenyaways is "the most established kite accommodation on the beach" with rooms "right at the kite spot"; Quest Kiteboarding is at Diani Sea Lodge [1].
• The transfer from Mombasa is two hours and "$40 pre-arranged or $55 upon arrival" [1].

Access and hazards

No rider permit was mentioned on the pages read. Hazards: the reef and the shore break at high tide [1]; nothing else published.

Schools and rental

H2O Extreme — kitesurfing plus SUP, kayak and surfing [1]; its wind-and-weather page carried no seasonal data when read. Reef Kiteboarding — "qualified local Kenyan instructors", a beginners' programme, prices by WhatsApp rather than on the page [2]. No lesson price was read for this record.

Getting there

Ukunda airstrip is 5 km away for domestic flights; Moi International, Mombasa, is 35 km — a two-hour transfer by road and ferry [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Diani Beach — 144 files with a Beach at Diani Beach subcategory; no kitesurfing subcategory [3]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Ras Sudr is the Sinai's Gulf of Suez coast, "Just a stone's throw away from Cairo" — a "2.5 hours transfer" from the airport [1], "approximately 200 kilometers", "about 3 hours" by car [3]. The water: "two man-made lagoons with perfectly flat water", "a large natural lagoon offers a mix of flat and choppy water", and shallow flat sea outside [3]; the Kite Buzz claims "2 kilometres of waist-deep water" at low tide, Soul Kitesurfing "several small lagoons" [1]. "Loads of space to launch and land all round" on sand [2]. "Eight kitesurfing centres operate here, including Soul Kitesurfing, The Kite Buzz, 360 Kitesurfing, Matarma Bay Hotel, and Kiteloop" [1].

Conditions

"The wind is at its best from March through to November. The average wind speed is 16 knots to 25 knots", windiest "around the end of August to September, with days where it gusts over 30 knots" [1]; "even going up to 30 knots in September" [4]. "Best Direction: NW", "Main Direction: NW", "Generally 4-8 usually 5-6 Beaufort", thermal [2]. Certainty: "from February through November, with wind certainty above 60%"; "From March through October, conditions are even better, with wind certainty above 80%" [3]. "Kites used range from 9 to 12 meters" [1]. Choppy at high tide in places [1]; Kiteforum's best tide is high [2] — they disagree, and the lagoons differ.

The year

Local knowledge

• No wetsuit in summer — "just a light rash vest to protect you from getting sunburnt" [1].
• No coral, no rock — "The water is clear of obstacles, and the beach is clean and safe" [3]; hazards "None" [2].
• Pick the lagoon for the tide — flat at low in some, choppy at high in others [1].
• Kitesurfing Village and Soul Kite are the two names the visitors use (search summary).

Access and hazards

No permit; the centres run the beach. Hazards: none listed [2][3]. Transfers from Cairo or Sharm el-Sheikh, "3-4 hrs" from the latter [2].

Schools and rental

The eight centres [1]; "School" is a listed feature [2]. La Hacienda (50+ bungalows), Matarma Bay (44), 360's camping [1]. No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

Cairo airport, then 2.5–3 hours by road down the Gulf [1][3]; or Sharm el-Sheikh and 3–4 hours [2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Ras Sedr — 95 files of the coast; "RasSudar5.jpg" [5]. No kitesurfing subcategory. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Hamata is a village on the Red Sea "in the southern part of Egypt" where "a protective reef creates a lagoon" [1] — "a vast shallow flat area" with "a sandy bottom" [1], "a huge flat water lagoon" with "a large waist deep area" [4]. One station, Hamata Kite Village, "an almost endless space with crystal clear water and always enough space for everybody" [3]; "All the local kite schools offer lessons as well as transfers to the spot as none of them are directly on the kite spot itself" [4]. Three islands inside the lagoon need "high to medium tide" to reach [2].

Conditions

"Ranging from 15-30 knots" from "N, NNE, and NE, with occasional NW and NNW" [1]; "the wind generally blows between 15-25 knots when it's on", thermal, "all day" [4]. The day's shape: "The wind starts blowing stronger in the morning and slows down a little going into the afternoon" [3]; "Usually the wind was a bit stronger in the mornings and got slightly lighter" [2]. "Wind forecasts run about 5 knots weaker than actual conditions" [2]. Water "flat with no waves although it could get choppy sometimes with the wind" [3]; choppier "with winds over 30 knots" at high tide [2]; at low tide "water is not even knee-deep" [2]; "During the summer, low tide can result in very shallow waters" [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• Mangroves: 100 m off — "maintaining '100-meter-distance'" [2]; "a protected area, so no kiting allowed" [4].
• Reef at low tide — "watch out for shallow water on the reef particularly at low tide" [4]; "avoid stepping on them" [2].
• Boats — "be mindful of boats in the area, as they often host divers" [1].
• Station fee — storage, rescue boat, showers, toilets "around 80 Euros per person per week" [2].
• Small kites in the morning, bigger after lunch [3].

Access and hazards

The lagoon is the station's; the mangroves are protected [4]. Hazards: the reef, the mangroves, boats, the tide [1][2][4].

Schools and rental

The Kite Village station and the local schools with transfers [3][4]. No lesson price was on the pages read.

Getting there

"Marsa Alam (RMF) is the closest international airport, which is around 2.5 hours drive from Hamata" [4]; "approximately 180km" [3]. Pre-arrange the transfer with your accommodation [4].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Hamata — 11 files of the port and marina; "HamataMarina.jpg" [5]. No lagoon or kite files. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

"Extremely flat water behind the sandy spit in the Breede River estuary. And on low tide more sandbars appear offering even more areas with very flat water. The ocean side has small to medium waves" [1]. "Big sandy spit with lots of space" [1]; the riding is at "the sandy split in the Breede River Estuary" [2]. The Cape Town guide's line: "the perfect, really PERFECT, flatwater spot", "warm and butterflat water" [3]. "Don't mix up Witsands with Witsand (Breede River)" — the other Witsand is on the west coast [3].

Conditions

"Main direction is SE, so it blows into the river mouth. This means, the ocean side has onshore winds and the river side has offshore winds" [1]. Directions "E, ESE, SE" [1], "SE, S" with "NW" also working [2], "Works best with East wind" [3]. Thermal [1]. Strength was not on the pages read; 25 knots from the south-east is a search summary. Tide: "Keep a close eye on the tide!" — "a big tide fluctuation at Witsand", and gear left on the sand goes [2].

The year

Local knowledge

• Sharks — "This river mouth and the kite spot is probably some of the most sharky kite destinations in the world" [2]; "many bull sharks there apparently" [3]. Be good at body-dragging (search summary).
• The tide moves a long way [2].
• River side offshore — the SE is offshore on the river side [1]; stay on the spit.
• "Witsand Kite" is the local school [3].

Access and hazards

No rules on the spot record [1]. Hazards: sharks [2][3], the tide [2], offshore on the river side [1]. Access by "tar road" on the northern side [1].

Schools and rental

"Local kite school: Witsand Kite" [3]. No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

"About 250 km (4 hours) from Cape Town eastwards" [1]; "a 4-hour drive from the center of Cape Town", Swellendam "224km east of Cape Town" [2]; "4.5 hour drive from Blouberg" [3].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Witsand — 3 files with Nature in Witsand (9 files); two panoramas of the village from 2018 [4]. No kite files. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Boa Vista is the easternmost island, 31 by 29 km, capital Sal Rei [5]; "Several kitesurfing centres have set up on the beaches to the south of this small town of 6,000 inhabitants" [4]. The spots [1][3]: Sal Rei, flat water "Protected by a small island", "quite shallow (no more than 2m depending on the tides)", "Ideal for beginners and freestyle" [3]; Praia de Chaves / Iberostar, side-shore with waves December to February [1]; Varandinha, side-off from the right, "big slow waves", and "500m downwind and you are out into the open ocean" or volcanic cliffs [1]; Ponta Antónia, side-onshore with waves, 4×4 only [1]; Riu, "Flat shallow lagoon water with gusty off-shore winds" [1]; Morabeza Beach, side-off to off, flat, needs upwind skill [1]; Ervatão, "a pretty wave that breaks to the left" [3], "From Sal Rei on Boavista, drive south for 1.5 h through the dunes...guide needed!" [2]; and the ION club's "Carlota, the Dunes and Estoril" with Santa Monica by boat [4].

Conditions

"Averaging between 15-30 knots in high season" [1]; "between 15 and 25 knots", "generally side-shore or even side-offshore" [4]; at Ervatão "4-6 Bft, trade winds, sometimes gusty" — "The wind from the NE accelerates over the land and gives a gusty but kiteable cross off" [2]. Trades "75% of the time from October to May"; June to September "the wind is random, it is not the right time to come and sail in Cape Verde" [3]. Water "24 ° C" [3], "26°C and 30°C" air [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• Ervatão: no rescue — "No rescue!" [2]; 4×4 and a guide [2][3].
• Varandinha: don't go downwind — the open ocean or the cliffs [1].
• Turtles nest on the beaches and the reserves are closed to vehicles — a judgement, not from a page read.
• Airport is ten minutes — Aristides Pereira (BVC), "10 min transfer" [1].

Access and hazards

The beaches are "supervised by the nautical clubs" [4]. Hazards: the offshore quarter, the open ocean downwind, the shore break "on a sandbank. No stones" at Ervatão [2]. "All kitesurfing levels can navigate and progress on the Boa Vista spots" [3].

Schools and rental

Centres south of Sal Rei [4]; lessons from boats at Chaves when needed [1]; the ION-listed "DPC Boa Vista" [4]. No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

Fly to Boa Vista (BVC), ten minutes from Sal Rei [1]; or Sal and the inter-island flight or ferry.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Boa Vista (Cape Verde) — 20 files and 12 subcategories including Landscapes and Aerial photographs; "Boa Vista Beach 2.jpg" [5]. No kite files. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

A bay "Only 20km away from Diego Suarez" [3], "18 km or 35 minutes away" [4], protected by a reef. Inside, "Perfect flat water just in front of your room" and "a 200m long magnificent sand bank" on Zone A, "a terrific flat mirror area" on Zone B [3]; "A '200m long sandbar stretches all the way to Nosy Tsara Island at low tide'" [5]. Outside, "the waves average 2m and break only 500m from the shore" [3], "Wave lovers follow their passion 600m out on the reef" [4]. Five resorts on the sand, "40€ to 80€ per night for a double room" [1]. "One of the safest spots around with almost no accidents reported" [5].

Conditions

"Varatraza trade wind blows non-stop from mid March to November" [5], "a south-east trade wind" with cape and venturi effects [2], "side/side-on" [3]. By month [2]: "15 and 25 knots" mid-March to April; "20 and 35 knots" in May; "25 to 35 knots daily" June to September; "20 and 35 knots" in October; "15-25 knots" in November; December "only 20% to 40% of days are windy". "In 2017, the bay recorded only seven days with wind below 15 knots across 245 days monitored" [1]. "Water temperature is usually about 28° Celsius but it can drop down to 23° in July and August" [4]. Zone D by the mangrove has "a lot of turbulence" [3].

The year

Local knowledge

• Malaria — "Malaria prophylaxis is highly recommended, if not essential" [4].
• Small kites in the peak — 20–40 kn "requiring smaller equipment" [4].
• The mangrove corner — Zone D's turbulence [3].
• The taxi — "60.000 Ariary (which is less than 13€)" from Diego, "40 min" [1]; a 4×4 for the sandy track [5].

Access and hazards

Resort beach; the camps run rescue. Hazards: the reef on a big day, Zone D, the heat, the health precautions [3][4].

Schools and rental

KiteParadise Madagascar, MadaKiteCamp, Ocean Lodge, Varatraza Wind Riders, Royal Sakalava, Sakalava Lodge [1]; KiteParadise has "hotel suites, bungalows, restaurant/pizzeria on-site" [3].

Getting there

Fly to Antananarivo, then Arrachart airport at Diego Suarez, "45 minutes" of flight from the capital's hub [4]; 40 minutes by taxi to the bay [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Antsiranana — 461 files with Antsiranana Bay and Le pain de sucre; "Antsiranana (Diego Suarez) at dusk in Madagascar.jpg" [6]. No Sakalava subcategory. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Two waters. The centre's beach — ION Club Safaga, "Situated directly on the beach at the foot of the Shams hotels", "about fifty kilometers south of Hurghada" [4] — with "flat water or a light chop with a temperature of around 30 degrees in summer" [2]. And Tobia, "only 4 kilometres away from ION CLUB Safaga", "shallow water and flat sea" [2]: "Small sand islands surrounded by a coral reef", "Nice sand, good space to launch a kite", "Tide independent" [1]. The spot "is '5 km South of Soma Bay'", with "Tobia island, Soma Bay, El Gouna and Hurghada" all within reach [3].

Conditions

"Almost every day from 12-40 knots, direction N or NW" [1]; "The wind in Safaga is generally either on or off, and when it's on it blows 20 knots and more" [3]; average "22.6 kt" [4]. The day: "In the morning, the wind blows mostly side-offshore on the port side" and turns "slightly side-shore at the beginning of the afternoon, often increasing to more than 20 knots or even much more" [2]; "Offshore in the morning, ideal for downwinds to Toubia Island, then it turns sideshore around 11 am" [4]. Water "Flat in the morning, then slightly choppy in the afternoon", "Standable" at high and low tide, "Little influence on navigation" [4].

The year

Local knowledge

• Shoes — "There are often coral pieces in the standing area where you can injure yourself" [3]; Tobia's hazards are "Reefs, Corals" and "Shells" [1].
• The morning downwinder to Tobia — and "Be cautious during downwind excursions where the current can intensify near Toubia" [4].
• Stay in front of the centre — "Stay within the navigation area in front of the center to avoid more exposed zones" [4].
• Forecasts read low — add 1–2 Beaufort (search summary).

Access and hazards

The centre's beach is the hotels'; Tobia is reached by boat "20-30 minutes" from Safaga [1]. Hazards: coral, the current at Tobia, the offshore morning [1][3][4].

Schools and rental

ION Club Safaga — "every day from 8.30am to 5pm", Duotone rentals, storage boxes [2]; Lost Lagoon is the other school listed [3]. No lesson price was on the pages read.

Getting there

"Hurghada International Airport (HRG) is the closest airport" with "a taxi from there to Safaga, which will take around 50 minutes" [3]; "about 50 km" [2]; Tobia "20-30 minutes by boat" [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Safaga — 23 files with Nature of Safaga and Port of Safaga; "Safaga banner.jpg" [5]. No Tobia or kite subcategory. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

The lagoon is "huge", "enough space for thousand kiters", "shallow" and "flat" [2]; "Mehrere Kilometer Stehbereich und Flachwasser" between the island and the mainland, with islands "auf denen sich tausende Vögel und ein paar Flamingos tummeln" [4]. "Knee to hip deep" throughout, "Mirror-flat up to 15 knots. Very small chop in 15+ knots" [1]. The station is Kiteworldwide Village, the old Hotel Amphora Menzel, "opened 18 years ago" [2]; the spot is "a 20-minutes-drive" from the hotels [2], "Max 3 Euro from any hotel to the kite beach" by taxi [1].

Conditions

"Main Direction: N, NNE, NE" [1]; "Northeast or Southeast" with "ranges between 12 and 20 kts" most probable, "0-30 knots possible" [2]; "konstant Side-On Shore Wind aus dem Nordosten kann man nahezu täglich zwischen 16 und 25 Knoten erwarten" [4]; "12-20 knots, but can get up to 30 knots on occasion", thermal and hard to predict [3]. Summer "12-15 knots" [1], when the wind "usually starts in the afternoon due to thermal currents" [2]; "25-30 knots" gusts November to April [1]. The catch: seaweed — "particularly 'during summer on light-wind days'", trapped in the lines, "mitigated in 'stronger winds (above 20 kts), which push more water into the lagoon'" [2]; "Beginners should be a little careful on light wind days when the seaweed appears in some patches and can cause some horrible line tangles!" [3].

The year

Local knowledge

• Learners first — "beginners have priority, as usual, and the training zone is clearly marked" [1].
• No fee — "No charge for beach access" [1].
• Seaweed [2][3].
• Ships in the channel are the listed water hazard [1].
• Lunch on the beach — "20 dinars (about 6 euros)" [2].

Access and hazards

"No special rules or restrictions. Just introduce yourselves to the center" [1]. Hazards: seaweed, ships [1][2].

Schools and rental

The station at Kiteworldwide Village [2]; "Local kite schools organise shuttles to and from the lagoon" [3]; camps from Zarzis at "€ 2.090,-" a week with board and gear [4].

Getting there

"Djerba Zarzis International Airport (DJE)" is "only a short way from the kite spot" [3]; "Less than 3 hours from Germany/Europe" [2]; a car is "Not recommended" — the schools shuttle [3].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Djerba — 49 files with Coasts of Djerba (38 files) and Landscapes of Djerba; "Zone humide de djerba 2.jpg" [5]. No kite subcategory. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

"About 180km north of Maputo along reasonable tar roads, the lagoon at Bilene is an ideal beginner / improver spot" with "500m of standing-depth water" and "a beautiful sandy beach" [2]. The lagoon, "which goes by the sweet name of Uembje" [4], is 15 km long; the school's learning zone is "1m depth 1 km square area" and "hasn't any currents or tides" [3]. For the rest: "The mouth of the lagoon is a perfect spot, as glassy as you can wish", twenty minutes by kite or boat [3]; the Secret Spot, "approximately 10 minutes by local boat (costing about 20 Euros)", "unbelievable" for freestyle — "Just make sure you head there at high tide, or else you'll be waiting a while" [1].

Conditions

"The wind blows every day, from 15 to 25 knots (ideal speed range to learn)" [3]; "ranging from 15 - 25 knots daily" [1]; "Side shore" [4]. The central lagoon "responds best to northerly winds, though conditions become 'pretty gusty, and the water becomes choppy'"; "The Secret Spot requires southerly wind patterns" [1]. "We are open from September to March with an average of 90% of days sailed. The rest of the year, these stats drop to an 'unfortunate' 60%" [3]. Water "30°C, perfect for kiting in a swimsuit" [4].

The year

Local knowledge

• North for the lagoon, south for the Secret Spot [1].
• High tide for the Secret Spot [1].
• Helmet and life jacket come with the lessons — "IKO Standards" [3].
• The mouth for glass [3].

Access and hazards

Open lagoon; the school's zone is marked. Hazards: gusts and chop in a northerly [1]; nothing else on the pages read.

Schools and rental

Bilene Kite Center, "4.8-star rating (107 reviews)" [4]; BKC at Hotel Palmeras [1]. Prices are on the school's price page, not read [3].

Getting there

"Located about 3 hours north of the capital", "3 hours 30 mins transfer" from the airport [1]; tar road all the way [2].

Pictures

• No Commons category for Bilene could be found. Wikimedia Commons, Gaza Province — 8 files with a Bilene-Macia district subcategory [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Vilanculos faces the Bazaruto archipelago across a wide shallow channel: "Big tide difference when the tides are spring - but this is also good as low tide creates over 30 km of sand bars that are knee to waist deep between the islands and main land" [1]; "sand bars creating perfect freestyle kiteboarding conditions at low tide" in "waist deep crystal clear water" [2]. "Large, uncrowded lagoon bordered by white sand", the islands "11 to 17 kilometres away", "huge space available and the low density of kiteboarders" [3]. "On the mainland the beach gets tight at high tide" [1].

Conditions

"Generally the blows between 15-22 knots either from the SE or the NE" [1]; "trade winds blow in Vilanculos from about April to September, and you'll average between 15-22 knots most days" [2]; the SE trade is the Kusi, peaking in July "with winds of up to 20 knots"; "Wind becomes quite steady and never very strong during October and November" [3]. "Low tide the sand bars appear and the water is the flattest" [2]. The one rule that matters: "Beware when the tide turns, do not go into the channels you will be washed out to sea!" [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• Shoes — "watch out for sea urchin" and "razor clams which appear in various spots" [2]; "razor claims in some banks" [1].
• The channels [1].
• Rangers on the islands — "If a WWF ranger gets hold of you on the islands you must pay in Dollars" [1].
• Two students per instructor, sessions "of 2 hours, which we extend to 3" at the camp [3].

Access and hazards

Open beach; the islands are a national park with rangers [1]. Hazards: "Currents", the channels on the turn, urchins and clams [1][2].

Schools and rental

Local schools that "can organize downwinders and provide safety advice" [2]; the 360 Kite camp, "From €685 per person" a week with instruction [3].

Getting there

"Fly to Maputo then driving 8 hours, or flying directly to 'Vilanculos airport (VNX)'"; rental cars "Not recommended" [2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Vilankulo — 84 files with Beaches of Vilankulo (16); "Vilanculos_Beach_1.jpg" [4]. No kite files. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Watamu, "about 110 km north-east from Mombasa and 15 km south of Malindi" (search summary), sits on a marine park with "a coral reef about a kilometre offshore" [3]. The spots [1][4]: Kite Beach, "most popular spot and enjoys a good mix of flatter water and waves on the reef", the reef "1km from beach"; Jacaranda, "up there with the world's best flat water riding spots", "three hours either side of low tide" on neap tides; Turtle Bay sandbar and Plot 40 sandbar at low tide; Garoda Beach, "low-tide lagoon for beginners"; Silversands for the advanced; Mida Creek for downwinders; and Che Shale twenty minutes north, a Kuzi-season wave spot with the wind "slightly cross off shore" (search summary).

Conditions

"Kaskazi (Northeast): December to April", "averaging around 20 - 25 knots", "Generally picking up from about 11am"; "Kuzi (Southeast): June to September", "windiest time of year with winds averaging 25 knots, occasionally increasing to 30+ knots"; both "cross and cross-onshore" [1]. The forum card is lighter — NE "10-18 knots (January to April)", SE "15-25 knots (June to September)" [2]; the local guide's monthly means: "July 23kt, August 22kt, September 18kt, January 17kt, February 18kt, March 16kt", with April, May, October and November "under 15 knots" [4]. Tides rule the sandbars — "most flat-water spots only work at low tide" [4]; "Reef: not possible to ride on low tides. But still room to ride elsewhere" [2]. Water "25-30°C" [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• Reef shoes — "Falling on the coral can hurt" [4]; coral patches "easily avoidable" at the lowest tides [1].
• Neap tides for Jacaranda [1].
• Tuk-tuks "around 250 KSH" between spots [3].
• The marine park — UNESCO-listed; turtles and reef sharks under you [4].
• Gear — hire "$40 to $60 per day" [4].

Access and hazards

The marine park's rules apply on the water; no permit for kiting was on the pages read. Hazards: coral, the shorebreak in Kuzi, Silversands' cross-offshore angle [3][4].

Schools and rental

"JC Kite School, Simba Kite Kenya, Kite Adventures Watamu" from Garoda Beach [3]; "Tribe Watersports, Barefoot Kenya, Kitemotion, Watamu Kiteboarding, Tribal Kite School" [4].

Getting there

"Malindi is the nearest airport, about 20 minutes from Watamu by road" [3], via Nairobi; or Mombasa and "around a 2-hour scenic drive" [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Watamu — 55 files with Watamu Marine National Park; "Watamu Beach, Kenya 01.jpg" [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Cumbuco is a fishing village turned kite village on the coast of Ceará, in the municipality of Caucaia, half an hour north-west of Fortaleza by road [1][4]. It is the first stop on the Brazilian north-east coast for most visiting riders for a plain reason: an international airport 28–35 km away, a beach that works every afternoon from July to January, and a village that has organised itself entirely around the sport [1][3]. The beach itself is about 4 km of white sand backed by coconut palms and dunes, wide at low tide and narrow at high, with a small shore break and chop that grows with the wind [4][2].

The second reason people come is the Lagoa do Cauípe, a freshwater lagoon behind a narrow sandbank about 5–7 km down the coast [1][3][4]. It is flat, much of it standing depth, and it is where beginners learn and freestylers train [1][2]. You reach it by buggy, by taxi, or by riding down the beach and walking across the sandbank [2]. It is also, in the words of one guide, a place that "can get very busy and crowded throughout the windy season", and its size changes with the water level [2].

The kind of day it gives is the reason for the rank. MACkite's description is "blow-dryer steady winds", 15 to 25 knots every day in the season with an average around 19 [2]; kiteadvice says a rider of up to 80 kg can expect to sail every day on a 9 m [1]. It is not a wave spot and it is not scenic in the way Jericoacoara is; it is the place you go when you want to ride every afternoon and be back at the airport in 40 minutes.

Conditions

The wind is the south-east trade, and it arrives with the sun. In the morning it blows side-offshore and builds to 16–20 knots by late morning; around 11:00 it swings side-onshore, strengthens through the early afternoon and eases towards sunset [3][4]. Freeride Kitesurf gives the high season as July to January with 18–32 knots at 95 % probability, and the best of it as August to December, "constant wind between 16 – 28 knots with peaks of 30 practically 100% of the time" [4]. kitesurfing.me gives the same shape — 16–28 knots with gusts past 30, averaging close to 19–20 — and ranks September as the single best month [3]. kiteadvice narrows the peak to August and September at "16 to 25 constant knots" [1]. The low season, February to June, is the rainy season: 10–18 knots at about 55 % probability [4].

Two numbers put that in perspective. Windfinder's Cumbuco Beach statistics, from observations between April 2013 and August 2026, give an annual average of 12 knots with gusts averaging 15, dominant direction SE [5]. That is an all-hours average over a year that includes five rainy months; the afternoon figures the schools quote are for the six windy ones. The two do not contradict each other, but only one of them is the wind you will be in.

Water is 26–28 °C all year; air 24–29 °C by kiteadvice's account, 28–38 °C by Freeride's [1][3][4]. Nobody wears a wetsuit [2][3]. The beach shrinks sharply as the tide rises and the ocean is choppy with a small break; at low tide sandbanks give flatter zones near the shore [3][4]. Kite sizes: 8 and 11 m for men, 6 and 9 m for women, depending on weight [4].

The year

The month-by-month figures are the schools' and aggregators'; Windfinder's station page carries only the annual average [5].

Local knowledge

• Do not rig in front of the restaurant strip. The stretch of beach in front of the village is where swimmers and fishing boats concentrate, and the one rule every listing repeats is not to launch or ride there [3]. Walk up the beach.
• Low tide is the beginner's tide. The sandbanks give flat zones near the shore; at high tide the beach shrinks and the shore break gets bigger [1][4]. Full or new moon gives the wave riders their day [1].
• The morning is side-off. The wind fills in from the land and turns side-on around 11:00 [4]; the schools run their first lessons after the swing. If you go out early, know that you are going out on an offshore component.
• Cauípe is a buggy ride, a taxi, or a downwinder. About 4 miles (MACkite) or 5–7 km (kiteadvice, kitesurfing.me) downwind [1][2][3]. Freeride's Tabuba lagoon is 13 km the other way, upwind [3].
• Watch your kit. MACkite's guide names "theft of valuables and kite gear" as a hazard and recommends staying somewhere reputable with gear storage [2]. The beachfront kite hotels sell storage as part of the room [2].
• Windtown's centre is about 800 m from the village centre on the beachfront, and its pitch is that you ride "away from the crowds" in front of the hotel [6]. That is a school's page describing its own location, but it agrees with where the busy stretch is.

Access and hazards

No municipal ordinance or zoning rule for the beach could be found for this record; the only published restriction is the one the listing sites repeat — not to launch or ride in front of the village's restaurant strip, because of swimmers and fishing boats [3]. Whether that is a rule or a convention is unverified.

Hazards on record: the shore break and chop at high tide and the narrowing beach [3][4]; crowding in the Cauípe lagoon in season [2]; theft of gear and valuables [2]; the lagoon's depth and size changing with the water level [2]. No rescue service is described on any page read. Nothing about currents or rocks is claimed by any source, and the beach is described as sand throughout [4].

Schools and rental

kitesurfing.me indexes 13 schools in Cumbuco and gives IKO and ABK as the certifications that appear across them; its typical private-lesson rate is R$ 275–350 per hour, average R$ 314, and it lists Kitepoeira Kiteschool, Kitesurf Adventure (KSA), Carlos Kiteschool and LEOKITE with individual prices (a group lesson at R$ 195, full gear rental at R$ 230) [3]. Those are an aggregator's figures, not the schools' own pages, and should be checked before booking.

Windtown Brazil is the one school page read for this record: a beachfront hotel and Duotone centre, IKO-certified since 2001, with rental, beach service and a price sheet it links to rather than prints [6]. MACkite describes it as "a full Duotone lesson center and shop" [2]. Accommodation in the village runs US$ 40–100 a night in MACkite's account [2].

Getting there

Fortaleza's Pinto Martins International Airport (FOR) is the gateway, 28–35 km away and 30 to 60 minutes by taxi or Uber [2][3]; kiteadvice and Freeride both call it "half an hour" [1][4]. No bus route to the beach is described on any page read. Once in the village the spots are reached on foot, by buggy, or by riding down the coast [1][2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Cumbuco — 122 files and a Sunset at Cumbuco subcategory, including kitesurfing, fishing and beach scenes [8]. Check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Cabarete is a small town on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, and it has been a wind town for longer than kiting has existed; the windsurfers were here first and still own the town beach [7][8]. The kiting is on a string of beaches west of the centre. Kite Beach, 1.5 miles west of town, is the one everybody means: reef-protected, a bit flatter than the bay, busy, and organised into separate launch, landing and teaching zones so that "learners are not in the path of riders" [3][6]. Bozo Beach and Punta Goleta, the western half of the bay, give room and chop, with swell breaking on a reef "about one kilometer into the ocean" [7]. La Boca, at the mouth of the Yasica river some 7 km south-west, is the flat-water lagoon "where a lot of the pro riders go to train for freestyle", with a tight launch between trees and a crowd of seven counting as full [4][8]. Encuentro, 3–4 km west, is a surf beach — "one of the best waves in the Caribbean" in IKSURFMAG's telling — and kiting there has been forbidden since February 2016, according to Wake Up Stoked [4][8].

The reason to come is not the strength of the wind — it is not a 30-knot spot most days — but the shape of the day: the trade wind is there all year, and from spring to late summer a thermal builds on top of it, so that "sessions start around noon and hold for 3 to 5 hours most days" [5]. Two schools' pages claim 250–300 kiteable days a year [2][4]; the claim is theirs and no station backs it, and the one Windfinder station that reported here, between 2003 and 2014, gives an annual all-hours average of 6 knots with 12-knot gusts [9]. That figure is the trade wind at night and in the morning averaged with the thermal in the afternoon; it says nothing about 2 pm in July, but it is the only measurement on record.

Conditions

Three winds, and the local schools name them. The Alizé is the north-east trade, the foundation, present all year [2]. The thermal is what makes summer: hot land, cool sea, side-onshore wind "from 12pm to 6pm daily" from June to September [2]. Winter fronts add power from December to March and make the wind gustier "around frontal passages" [2][5].

Numbers, from the schools: Cabarete Kite Point and Liquid Blue both give January–April 14–24 knots, May–August 16–30, September–December 10–20 [1][2]. KiteDR gives spring–summer 15–25 knots "often reaching 20+ by 2pm", winter 12–25, autumn 10–20 with "some days [that] require large kites or offer no wind" [5]. Its separate spot guide gives a flat 15–25 knots from the north-east, December through August, stronger and gustier December–March and "more consistent, slightly lighter" April–August [6]. Kite sizes: 7–11 m in the peak season, 8–12 m in winter, 10–14 m in the low months [5]; Wake Up Stoked says 9–12 m and bring a 16–21 m for the light days [8]. The direction at most spots is cross-onshore from the right [4].

The wind fills in around 11:00–12:00 in summer and 13:00–14:00 in winter [8]. Water is 25–30 °C all year [1][2]; KiteDR gives 77–84 °F by season, warmest in autumn [5]. Board shorts; a lycra or shorty from September to April if you feel the cold [8]. The reef is shallow and protects the bay, which is why the beginners are here [1]; the bay itself is choppier than Kite Beach, and Kite Beach is choppier than the photographs suggest [4][7].

The year

No station publishes a month-by-month table; Windfinder's page carries only the 2003–2014 annual figure [9].

Local knowledge

• Go to Kite Beach early. It "can get very busy" and the advice from a hotel next door is to be there "when the wind starts" [7]. The students cluster at the Point [8].
• The town beach is not for kites. Cabarete Beach is for "windsurfers, catamarans and lasers" and hosts the bars [7][8]. Bozo and the bay you share with windsurfers and swimmers [4]; Kite Beach is zoned for kites [6].
• The rescue is a teenager on a kite. There are no rescue boats; Wake Up Stoked's account is that "young kids and teenagers who kitesurf extremely well will rescue you within seconds", and to tip them [8].
• Encuentro is a surf beach in the morning and was a kite wave in the afternoon — with an exit "not easy because of the shore reef" [7] — until kiting was stopped there in 2016 [8]. KiteDR still lists it as a wave spot for experienced riders that "can be punishing" [6]. The two disagree; ask on the beach before you drive out.
• La Boca is small. Seven riders is a crowd, the trees are close, and it is "only for medium to advanced riders" [7][8]. Schools sell it as a coached session or as the end of a downwinder [4][6].
• Getting around is by motoconcho — motorbike taxi — or a hire car at about US$ 25 a day, on roads IKSURFMAG calls "hectic" [4].

Access and hazards

No municipal ordinance for the beaches could be found. The organisation of Kite Beach into separate launching, landing and teaching zones is described by the schools as a working convention — "the system works because everyone follows it" — rather than a bylaw [6]. The ban on kiting at Encuentro is reported by one guide as dating from February 2016 [8] and is not corroborated by an official page read for this record.

Hazards on record: the rock shelf and heavy winter swell at Encuentro [4]; the shore-reef exit there [7]; a shore break at Bozo that is hard for beginners [8]; the reef a kilometre out [7]; crowding at Kite Beach and La Boca [7][8]; windsurfers and swimmers in the bay [4][8]. One hotel's spot page answers "hazards" with "None! Our beach is sand and the reef is deep enough everywhere" and tells you to watch for sea turtles [7]; that is a hotel describing its own beach. Hurricane season is June to November [5].

Schools and rental

Many, and most are IKO. Laurel Eastman Kiteboarding publishes a full price list: private lessons from US$ 89 an hour for the first four hours down to US$ 79 beyond ten, group lessons (two students, each on their own kite) from US$ 79 to 69 per person per hour, a two-hour La Boca coaching session at US$ 149 and a downwinder to Encuentro at US$ 129 [3]. Its page claims to be "the only active IKO-certified kiteboarding school in Cabarete" [3]; KiteDR says it has been IKO-certified and teaching on Kite Beach since 2014 [6], so at least one of those claims is out of date, and both are schools describing themselves. KiteDR's figures: US$ 85 an hour private, US$ 630 for a solo IKO Level 1 package or US$ 540 per person in a pair, nine hours over three or four days, and gear hire at US$ 40–60 a session once certified [6]. Wake Up Stoked names Big Willy's, dare2fly and Kite Club on Kite Beach [8]; Liquid Blue Cabarete describes a two-hour land lesson followed by water lessons but prints no price [1].

Getting there

Puerto Plata's Gregorio Luperón airport (POP) is the one to fly to: a 45-minute transfer in IKSURFMAG's account, "a 20-minute-ride by taxi later (around 35 Dollars)" in Wake Up Stoked's [4][8]. Santiago (STI) is 90 minutes, Santo Domingo (SDQ) four hours and Punta Cana (PUJ) six [4]. No rail. Kite Beach is a 5–10-minute walk west along the sand from the hotels at the western end of the bay [7].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Cabarete — 14 files and three subcategories, including Beaches of Cabarete and Playa Enquentro, and files titled "Kitebeach at Cabarete" [10]. Check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Jericoacoara — "Jeri" — is a sand-street village inside a national park at the western end of Ceará's kite coast, some 260 km from Fortaleza [2][5]. The park, 8,850 hectares run by ICMBio, was created in February 2002 on top of an environmental protection area dating from 1984 [6]. That matters for a kiter in two ways: the whole town is "built on sand" and reached by 4×4, and the town beach in front of it is reserved for windsurfers — kiting there is not allowed [1][4]. The only kiting at Jeri itself is behind the Sunset Dune on the western edge of town, where the wind is offshore and gusty and the launch is for experienced riders only [1][4].

The kite beach is Preá, a fishing village about 10 km east along the coast, and it is where the schools, the storage, the compressors and the downwinders start [1][3][4]. Preá is a wide beach with ocean chop and a shore break, cross to cross-onshore from the right, with "dedicated launch areas" at the Rancho do Peixe water-sports centre [4]. Upwind of Preá, 10 km further east, is Barrinha, shallow and flat to choppy at low tide, with a lobster restaurant; downwind of Jeri are the two lagoons, Guriú (15 minutes from town, medium to high tide) and Tatajuba (about an hour, a river-mouth with "epic freestyle conditions") [1][4]. Further inland, an hour and a quarter away, is Lagoa Grande, a big freshwater lagoon [1].

Against Cumbuco, Wake Up Stoked's judgement is "a few knots more" and a longer season [1]. Against the price of getting here — four and a half hours by 4×4 or seven by bus from Fortaleza [1] — that is the trade. What you get for it is a downwinder coast: Barrinha to Preá to Placa for beginners, 45 minutes fast and an hour and a half slow, with the buggy able to follow [1]; Jeri dune to Guriú to Tatajuba for the experienced, one and a half to three hours, on a coast the vehicle cannot follow all the way [1].

Conditions

The wind is the Atlantic trade, east to east-south-east. thekitespot gives the directions as NNE, E and ESE, an average of 17 knots across the season at 75 % probability, and 20–38 knots in the high season, with 7 and 9 m kites the most used [2]. The Preá school DPC gives "20 to 35 knots" from July to February, "side/side-onshore winds for much of the year", "softer in the morning, stronger in the afternoon" [3]. MACkite gives 16–35 knots on the Preá beaches, 5–9 m kites, and a wind that blows "until the sun goes down" [4]. Off season is 10–20 knots at 55 % probability [2].

Windfinder's Jericoacoara station, which reported from April 2005 to May 2015 and no longer does, gives an all-hours annual average of 11 knots with 18-knot gusts, dominant direction east, day 29 °C and night 27 °C [7]. As at Cumbuco, that is an average over nights and the rainy season; the afternoon figures above are the season's.

Water is the variable. At Preá it is chop with small to medium waves depending on the wind [3]; "at low tide, conditions are flat and ideal for beginners, at high tide the kitesurfers step up to the waves (1-2m)" is thekitespot's summary of the wider area [2]. Barrinha works at low tide; Guriú and Tatajuba at mid to high [1][3][4]. thekitespot marks the spot "not tidal", which its own tide notes contradict; the tide changes which spot works, not whether you can ride [2]. Water 22 °C and up all year by thekitespot's figure [2]; bikini and board shorts, with a rash vest against the sun in every guide [1].

The year

The probabilities are thekitespot's monthly wind-probability figures [2]; no station publishes a monthly table, and Windfinder's page is annual only [7].

Local knowledge

• Kiting in the town is windsurf-only. The Jeri beach is for windsurfers; kiters launch behind the dune, in offshore gusty wind, or drive to Preá [1][4].
• Buggies leave from Rua S. Francisco and Rua Principal, and you want one before 10:30 for a seat and a price — 9 to 15 euros a person a day [1]. Kite is Cool runs a daily trip to the spot before Guriú for R$ 40; Jackson's Kite Bus takes group bookings [1].
• Preá's kite centre is Rancho do Peixe — compressor, storage, food — with Vila Preá as the quieter alternative [1]. Its own page gives a contact and no prices [8].
• Watch for buggies on the beach. thekitespot's one hazard is "sand buggies everywhere [that] may not see your lines/equipment" [2].
• The lagoons change with the water. Scout depth before you try anything; "some beaches [are] rocky downwind from Barrinha" [1][4].
• Landing at Jeri from the Preá downwinder is in offshore wind — "fairly short and easy" for an independent rider, but the landing "requires confidence in offshore wind conditions" [4].
• Casa da Pedra, Club Ventos for the lunch buffet, Naturalmente for the sunset view, and the caipirinha on the dune are Wake Up Stoked's list [1].

Access and hazards

The park's rules for the sport are ICMBio's: a 2016 portaria set norms for commercial windsurf and kitesurf instruction inside the Parque Nacional de Jericoacoara, requiring operators to register with the park administration, with authorisation valid for 12 months and renewable; instructors must brief visitors on the risks of an open natural area and on taking their rubbish away; serious breaches mean suspension or cancellation, and environmental offences immediate cancellation [5]. The Agência Brasil report of it does not designate zones; the windsurf-only status of the town beach comes from the guides, not from a park document read for this record [1][4][5].

Hazards on record: offshore, gusty wind behind the Jeri dune [1][4]; fishing boats, rocks and buildings at the ocean spots [4]; rocks downwind of Barrinha [1]; lagoon depth [4]; buggies on the sand [2]; the sun [1]. No rescue service is described on any page read.

Schools and rental

thekitespot's figures are R$ 190 an hour for lessons and R$ 290 a day for gear [2]. Rancho do Peixe at Preá runs the water-sports centre the guides name; its page gives an email and phone and no price list [8]. DPC Preá publishes a spot guide and offers to "guide you on tide windows and daily logistics", with no prices on the page read [3]. The organised downwinder outfits — Kite is Cool, Kitesurfando, Love2Kite Brasil — are named by Wake Up Stoked with a R$ 40 day trip as the one figure [1]. Which certification ladder each teaches was not established.

Getting there

Fortaleza (FOR) is the main airport, about 260 km away [2]. Fretcar runs three buses a day, 7–8 hours with a change at Jijoca, R$ 55–70; a private 4×4 transfer is 4.5 hours and R$ 450–550; thekitespot's taxi estimate is R$ 450 [1][2]. MACkite's summary is four hours private, eight public [4]. A hire car gets you to Jijoca on tarmac; the last stretch through the park dunes needs a 4×4 and a driver who knows it, and leaving Fortaleza "takes usually around an hour" [1].

The closer airport is Jericoacoara (JJD), Comandante Ariston Pessoa regional airport at Cruz, 31 km from the village, opened in June 2017, with Azul from Belo Horizonte and Gol and LATAM from São Paulo–Guarulhos [9]. In the village nobody drives: it is buggies and walking on soft sand [4].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Jijoca de Jericoacoara — 331 files and 11 subcategories including Jericoacoara village and Parque Nacional de Jericoacoara [10]. No Preá or kitesurfing subcategory. Check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

La Ventana is a fishing village on the west shore of a wide bay in Baja California Sur, facing the island of Cerralvo across the Sea of Cortez, 45 minutes' drive from La Paz [1][3]. For North American riders it is the winter spot: when the Gorge and the Great Lakes go cold, the northerlies start here, and from November to March the beach is lined with campervans, kite camps and the schools that follow the season south from Canada [4]. The riding is off a long sand beach — "big" in Kiteforum's terse spot sheet — with rocky sections and urchins at the edges, in water that is glassy in the morning and builds to wind swell through the afternoon [3].

What sells it is the pattern rather than the peak. On a normal day the wind arrives around 11:00 and stays until about 16:30, 15–18 knots; every few weeks a high-pressure system over the western United States sends an El Norte down the Sea of Cortez and the same beach blows 20–35 [1][2]. Kiteforum's estimate is "80% of the afternoons" in the season [3]; thekitespot's monthly probabilities run from 73 % in December down to 30 % in June [1]. The bay is choppy rather than flat, and the reason a beginner does well here is not the water but the sand, the depth and the side-shore wind [1][5].

Conditions

Three things make the wind, and Baja Wing's guide lists them: larger weather systems that "push northerly air down the Sea of Cortez"; the mountains and terrain around the bay, which strengthen the northerlies; and heating over the peninsula, which adds a thermal component [2]. The Kite & Wing Academy's version adds the geometry — the bay "acts as a funnel due to the Venturi Effect" between the mainland and Cerralvo [5]. The El Norte is "a strong northerly wind event associated with larger-scale weather patterns" and produces "some of La Ventana's strongest and most exciting conditions" [2]. In an ENSO context, La Niña winters are the stronger ones [5].

Numbers: thekitespot gives 15–18 knots on regular days and up to 35 on an El Norte, direction N and NW [1]; Kiteforum gives 15–30 mph, N to NNW [3]; kitesurfing official's forecast snapshot ran 6–20 knots with gusts to 39 [4]. The day starts at about 11:00 and runs to 16:00–16:30, occasionally to 17:30 [2]. Water is 21 °C in thekitespot's figure, no tide to speak of, and the type is "choppy water; small wave (up to 1m)" [1]. Kiteforum's description of the water is "Glassy in the morning. Building wind swell in the afternoon", with reef breaks on the windier days [3]. Kite sizes: 7–10 m most days, smaller for El Norte [5]. A wetsuit question is not answered on any page read; at 21 °C most riders will want at least a shorty, but that is the writer's inference, unverified.

The year

The two sets of figures differ — thekitespot's are wind probabilities, the Academy's are "windy days" — and both are given; neither is a station record.

Local knowledge

• Leave room for the windsurfers — that is the etiquette line on Kiteforum's sheet, with open water available upwind of the campground [3].
• The rocks and urchins are at the edges. Kiteforum lists "Rocks" as the beach hazard and urchins in the rocky sections, thekitespot "small rocks, corals and sea urchins … in some parts of the beach" [1][3]. Launch on the sand.
• The forecast number is not the day. Baja Wing's point is that "Wind quality matters. Direction matters. Gusts matter. The water state matters." — an El Norte at 25 knots and a thermal at 18 are different sessions [2].
• Morning is for everything else. The thermal leaves the morning open, which is why the camps sell the foil, the fishing and the hot springs before 11:00 [7].
• Bring a small kite for El Norte. "During heavy El Norte (high-speed northern wind) days, you will want to have a smaller kite" [5].

Access and hazards

No municipal or state rule for kiting in the bay could be found for this record. Hazards on record: rocks, coral and urchins in parts of the beach [1][3]; kitesurfing official's list of "cold fronts, offshore drift risk in northerlies, rocky areas, boat traffic" [4]; and the gusts an El Norte brings [2]. Rescue services are listed as available by kitesurfing official [4], without a provider named. Nothing on currents is claimed by any source read.

Schools and rental

thekitespot's figures are US$ 480 for six hours of lessons and US$ 105 a day for gear [1]. Elevation Kiteboarding teaches in La Ventana in winter and at Nitinat Lake, BC, in summer, with IKO-certified instructors, a 15 % October discount and no printed prices [6]. La Ventana Kite Camp sells camps around the afternoon thermal and prints no rates on the page read [7]. Kite & Wing Academy publishes the monthly windy-day figures used above [5]. Kiteforum's sheet lists a campground as the anchor of the beach, with open water upwind of it [3].

Getting there

La Paz (LAP) is the airport: a 40–45-minute taxi [1][3]. Los Cabos (SJD) is two to two and a half hours [1][3]. By road from La Paz it is Highway 286 for about 23 miles and then 6 miles to the village [3]. The Baja Wing and camp pages assume a car [2][7]; no bus is described.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: La Ventana, Baja California Sur — 12 files, including the beach and kitesurfing [8]. Check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Hood River is a small town on the Oregon bank of the Columbia, an hour's drive east of Portland's airport, and it calls itself the "Windsurfing Capital of the World"; the windsurfers found it first and the kiters followed [7]. The wind is the Gorge's: the river cuts the Cascades, wet Portland sits at one end and the dry interior at the other — Cascade Locks, 20 miles west, gets over 75 inches of rain a year and The Dalles, 20 miles east, under 15 — and in summer the pressure difference drives a westerly up the canyon most afternoons [7]. Elite Watersports' figure is that the wind exceeds 20 knots on about 190 days a year [1].

The launch is the Event Site, a Port of Hood River park on the waterfront: a grassy rigging meadow, restrooms, a gently shelving beach and, in summer, a sandbar running out into the river [1][3]. The sandbar is the point. Its upwind side "stays waist-deep for a good distance", which is where the schools work and the beginners stand, and in some years the sand has extended "almost all the way to the Event Site", giving "the Gorge's largest standing-depth area" [1][3][8]. Upwind of that is the river: "extensive and can range from mild chop to river swell" [1]. Other launches — the Marina for advanced riders, the Spit, Stevenson 30 minutes west in Washington, Rufus and Swell City further out — are day trips for people who already know the river [2][6].

The day it gives is a windy, gusty, cold-water one. "Gusty conditions create an 'elevator effect' favored by big air riders" is Elite's way of saying it; MACkite's is that the wind runs "10 to 30+ mph in a day" [1][2]. It is not a tropical spot and it is not a flat one; it is where a great deal of the sport's American industry lives, and in July it is the surest afternoon wind in the country's north-west.

Conditions

West is the wind. "West Winds are best for Hood River. When winds clock too far north or south, the mountains can create gusty and turbulent conditions" [1]. A smooth day is 17–25 knots; the range across the season is 13–30 [1]; New Wave's figure is "15–30 knots during the summer" [6]. Easterlies blow in the transitional and winter months and are a different, colder sport [3]. Windfinder's Hood River station, which reported from 2007 to 2020 and no longer does, gives an all-hours annual average of 3 knots from the WNW with 5-knot gusts, and 13 °C days [9] — a figure that includes every calm winter night, and says only that the wind here is a summer afternoon thing.

The current is the hazard that is not obvious from the beach: on a westerly the river flows the opposite way to the wind [1][2]. That stands the chop up, and it means a rider who cannot hold ground drifts downstream towards the bridge, past what one guide called the "downwind exit point" — a phrase from a page that has since gone, and unverified here.

Water is fresh and cold; no source read gives a temperature, and the wetsuit advice is the measurement: 3/2 for most of summer, a shorty on the hottest days, 4/3 in the shoulders and 4/3 or 5/4 in autumn and winter [1][2][6]. Air is warmest August to early September [1]. Kite quiver 7–12 m [6].

The year

No station monthly table could be read; Windfinder's page carries only the 2007–2020 annual average [9].

Local knowledge

• Barges. "Massive barges (up to 500 feet) frequently pass through", and "the safest place to ride is in the area way upwind of the sandbar" [1]. They also make wind shadows [2].
• The meadow is in the wind shadow on a westerly; the rigging area is calm and the water is not [1].
• Wells Island shades the kiters too — it is on the spot guide's hazard list with driftwood and summer swimmers [3].
• Arrive early. The Event Site is "bustling with beginners, pros, schools and spectators" [3]; New Wave names crowding in peak summer as the hazard [6].
• Parking is metered and passes are annual. See below; there is free parking further back if you will carry your kit [2].
• Stevenson is a difficult launch — "challenging with slippery rocks and a steep bank to climb down" [12]. That the Marina is turbulent and for advanced riders came from a page that has since gone, and is unverified here; the Internet Archive's September 2025 copy of that page does not say it either. What that copy does say, dated 2012: "Kite launching is only allowed via the HR Sandbar (Event Site and Marina are strictly off-limits for pumping/launching)" [13] — a rule from that year, not checked against today's.
• Hotel and hostel prices were quoted from a page that has since gone and are not repeated; the archived copy carries no prices either [13]. Summer weekends selling out is the consistent report and unverified here.

Access and hazards

The Event Site is Port of Hood River property and its rules are the Port's. For 2026: parking is US$ 2.75 an hour to a maximum of US$ 15 a day, paid by app or text; an annual pass is US$ 225 for a vehicle of 20 feet or less, valid at the Event Site, Jensen West, Maritime, Anchor Way, Lot 1, the Marina boat ramp and the DMV gravel lot, and US$ 350 for over-length vehicles and RVs, valid at a shorter list; passes run 1 January to 31 December, are transferable but not refundable, must be displayed on the lower driver-side windshield, and "No overnight parking" applies on Port property [4]. Elite's older figures were US$ 7 a day and US$ 15 for oversized vehicles [1]; the Port's 2026 page supersedes them. Parking may be restricted during large events [4].

Hazards on record: barge traffic in the shipping channel [1][3]; the current against the wind and the drift past the downwind exit [1][2]; gusts and turbulence off the mountains on non-westerly days [1]; wind shadows from Wells Island, barges and boats, and "dead zones" [2][3]; driftwood [3]; summer swimmers and yacht-harbour traffic [3]; cold water [2]. No incident record is published on any page read.

Schools and rental

Cascade Kiteboarding is at the Event Site, 1405 14th Street, and opens for the season in early May; MACkite describes its lessons as run with "two-way helmets, jetskis, and the latest kiteboarding equipment" [2][5]. Its site prints no prices and names no certification ladder [5]. New Wave also names Hood River WaterPlay and Big Winds [6]. No school page read for this record carried a price.

Getting there

Portland International (PDX) is "a one-hour drive west from Hood River" [7]; MACkite's "about an hour east of Portland [PDX] and only five hours from Seattle [SEA]", "not recommended for those without access to a vehicle", is the practical version [2]. No rail; no bus is described on any page read. Park at the Event Site under the Port's meter or pass, or further back for free [2][4].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Hood River, Oregon — seven subcategories (Geography, Nature, Transport and others) and two files at the top level; no dedicated windsurfing or Event Site subcategory [10]. Check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Hatteras Island is a barrier island that "divides the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound", 68 km along a straight line and about 80 km following the curve, bending at Cape Hatteras itself; seven villages sit on it, north to south Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras Village, and most of it is inside Cape Hatteras National Seashore [11][14]. The sound behind it is the reason the kiting is here: Pamlico Sound is the largest lagoon on the North American East Coast, 130 km long and 25–30 km wide, and "depths generally range from 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m)" — a body of water in which a rider who drops a kite can, over great areas, simply stand up [12]. Along the island's shore it is shallower still.

The two named launches are on the sound side of NC-12 between Avon and Buxton. Canadian Hole, officially the Haulover Day Use Area, is a public soundside beach with a large car park and bathhouses, "named after the Canadian windsurfers that came here in the '80s" [4][7]; the lagoon there is "knee- to waist-deep over most of its area" and runs from "board-flat to light chop depending on wind" [6]. Kite Point, also called The Cove, is a quarter to half a mile south along the shore, reached on foot or by 4WD with a park permit, and is "credited as being the birthplace of kiteboarding on Hatteras Island"; the water off it "remain[s] at 2' to 4' ft. depths for hundreds of feet" [4][7]. Further north the schools cluster at Waves and Rodanthe with their own sound access, and the Salvo Day Use Area and Sandy Bay at Frisco are the other public rigging beaches [7].

What Hatteras gives, more than any one launch, is range. The sound side is a flat-water school for everything from first body-drags to freestyle; across the road the Atlantic has "shore break and current" [6] and the island's geography makes downwinders of many kilometres possible when the wind runs along it [7]. Kite Club Hatteras lists ocean runs from Ramp 34 to Avon Pier and from the ferry docks to the Frisco bathhouse as intermediate-to-advanced downwinders [10].

Conditions

Two winds, roughly by season. The summer wind is the south-westerly: the Kiteforum sheet says "In June and July 90% wind from SW. Starts at 3pm, strongest at 7pm and lasts until sunset", and calls it "very steady and warm" [5]. The other is the north-easterly, which arrives on fronts, especially in autumn, and is the wind that ventosurf calls "fresh northeast fronts" against the "warm southwesterlies in spring" [6]. Both are side-onshore at Canadian Hole and Kite Point, which face north-west to south-west across the sound; Kite Club Hatteras's rule is that "wind should be coming side on shore, never go out in off shore winds" [10]. Surf or Sound adds that spring "is known for warm southeast winds" [7] — a direction no other source names, and given here as it was written.

The numbers are thinner than the reputation. ventosurf gives "around 20 mph over the year", about 17 knots [6]. The one station whose long-run figure could be read is Cape Hatteras Airport, whose Windfinder record (October 2006 – August 2026) shows an annual average of 8 knots from the WSW with average gusts of 21 knots, daytime 19 °C [15]; the Frisco station gives 6 knots from the NW over 2013–2026 [16]. Those are all-hours averages at inland stations, and Windfinder's monthly tables were not readable for either, so no monthly wind figure from a station is claimed in this record. The climate is humid subtropical, summer highs of 30–31 °C and winter lows around 4.8 °C on the 1991–2020 normals [13]. Water temperature was not published on any page read, and wetsuit thickness by month is unverified.

Water: the sound is shallow and sandy and "can become choppy during stronger winds" [6]. It is also wind-tided rather than lunar-tided — "shallow waters are susceptible to wind and barometric pressure-driven tidal fluctuations", with levels on the tributaries moving "two feet in three hours" under a strong aligned wind [12] — so a SW blow can put water on the sound beaches and a NE one can drain them. Kiteforum lists the water as "Shallow, Flat, Chop, Small wave, Medium wave", the last two describing the ocean side [5].

The year

Local knowledge

• Two launches, one lagoon. Canadian Hole has the car park and the bathhouses; Kite Point is where the kiters went "when Canadian Hole became overcrowded" and windsurfers still hold the Hole [4]. Kite Point's own car park takes about six vehicles and the overflow lines NC-12 on a good day [4].
• Park on the sound, walk to the ocean. Kiteforum's access note: "Park on the soundside and walk over highway 12 to access the ocean side" [5]. The ocean beach opposite Canadian Hole is called Ego Beach [4].
• Mind the wires. Both the NPS and Kite Club Hatteras name the power lines along the road as the beach hazard: "Always be aware of overhead obstacles, such as powerlines near the road" [1][10].
• The summer wind is an evening wind. At 15:00 it starts, at 19:00 it peaks [5]. A summer session is a sunset session.
• Fronts shift fast. "Check the wind/weather forecast for the day to be ready for any sudden shifts" [10]; "Summer thunderstorms and gust fronts are possible" [6].
• Beginner corners. Kite Club Hatteras names 2nd Turnout, D Spot and Isabel's/The Washout as its beginner-friendly spots [10] — local names, not signposted.

Access and hazards

The National Park Service manages the seashore and publishes the list of where kites may be flown. Its kiteboarding sites are "Haulover (Canadian Hole) – Hatteras Island", "Kite Point – Hatteras Island", "Salvo Soundside Beach Access (Salvo Day Use Area) – Hatteras Island" and "Springer's Point – Ocracoke Island"; windsurfing has the same Hatteras sites plus "any soundside access on Ocracoke Island" [1]. Note the contradiction on record: Kiteforum's Canadian Hole sheet carries the line "Kitesurfing not allowed here" [5], while the NPS lists Haulover by name as a kiteboarding site [1]. The NPS page is the authority; the likeliest reading is that kiters are expected to move down to Kite Point when the Hole is a windsurfing beach, but that is inference, unverified.

Driving onto the sand at Kite Point needs an ORV permit: "$50, valid for 10 consecutive days" or "$120, valid for one year from date of purchase", sold "online only" through Recreation.gov after watching the ORV safety video [2]; a low-pressure tyre gauge, shovel, jack and jack board are mandatory kit, and "access does change frequently during the breeding seasons of protected birds and sea turtles … whatever is posted in the field is the official status" [3]. Of the seashore's 67 miles of beach, 28 are year-round ORV routes and 26 are year-round vehicle-free [14].

Hazards on record: swimmers in the water and power lines on the beach [5]; shallow water that chops up in strong wind [6]; shore break and current on the Atlantic side [6]; summer thunderstorms [6]; hurricanes, September especially [13]. Kite Club Hatteras adds buildings, other people and the advice not to ride alone [10]. No incident record is published by any source read.

Schools and rental

Surf or Sound's list, north to south: Kitty Hawk Kites at Rodanthe (two-hour lessons or four-day private instruction), Rad Kite and Jet Ski Rental at Rodanthe (three-hour 1:1 privates), REAL Watersports at Waves (camps, fast-track privates, rental and sales), OceanAir Sports at Avon (two hours to three-day camps), Kite Hatteras at Avon and Outer Banks Kiting at Avon (half-day to three days) [7]. Prices read on 25 September 2026: Kitty Hawk Kites' lessons at Waves Village Watersports Resort start at US$400 plus a 6 % online fee, run "March – November", and are taught in "waist-deep" sound water [8]. Outer Banks Kiting's instructors are PASA and IKO certified and it teaches from a 21-foot skiff with a Sea-Doo chase craft; no prices on the page [9]. REAL Watersports' site names its kiteboarding lessons and camps, the Watermen's Retreat lodging and the Watermen's Bar & Grill, but the lesson catalogue could not be fetched and no price is quoted here [20]. The kitehatteras.com domain was for sale when checked, so Kite Hatteras is listed on Surf or Sound's authority only [7].

Getting there

By road: NC-12 the length of the island, entered from the north over the Marc Basnight Bridge (opened 2019) or from the south by the 40-minute Ocracoke–Hatteras ferry; Billy Mitchell Airport at Frisco is a small paved strip [11]. Kiteforum names Norfolk, Virginia, as the nearest city airport [5]; no drive time is published by a source read (about three hours is commonly quoted, unverified). Parking at Canadian Hole is the "big car park" [6]; at Kite Point a six-vehicle sand lot or the road shoulder [4].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Cape Hatteras — 44 files plus the National Seashore subcategory (803 files) and the lighthouse (409 files) [17]. Check each file's licence before reuse.
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Hatteras Island — 14 files and village subcategories; nothing tagged for windsurfing or kiting [18].

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Kanaha Beach Park is a county park on Maui's north-central coast, 1.4 miles of beach on 40 acres with five separate parking entrances, immediately west of Kahului Airport [7]. Kahului itself is "one of the windiest places in the U.S., averaging 13.7 miles per hour" — about 12 knots as an all-hours figure — because the town sits in the gap where the trade wind funnels between Haleakalā and the West Maui Mountains [6][2]. The west end of the park is the kiting end, and it has been since the 1990s: the Kiteboarding School of Maui has taught here "since 1999" [8] and Action Sports Maui calls itself "Hawaii's original Kiteboarding School" [9].

The names are confusing and the locals use several. The Maui Kitesurf Company's guide splits the shore into two zones: Teach Beach — "Kite Beach, Pro Beach, Action Beach, and the Pro Pool" — west of Ka'a Point, and Naska Beach — "Old Man's Beach, Naish Beach, Campground, and the Keyhole" — to the east, with "a reef break 500 yards/meter out to sea" that makes it "the smoothest and steadiest launch spot on the island" [2]. Kite HI's guide gives Kite Beach the GPS point 20.896838, −156.448064, describes a flat-water "pro pool" upwind and waves on the outer reefs in winter, and rates it "beginners to experts"; Ka'a Point, the "Pro Beach" upwind of it, is a family beach with "very turbulent wind shadow" and "difficulty landing back on the beach" — "expert riders only" [5]. Further east the Keyhole/Flash Beach is the windsurfing zone, with rock jetties downwind and the "Boneyard" reef showing at low tide [5].

What it gives is a trade-wind day, not a storm day: the Kiteforum sheet says the wind "will typically start up around 9 am until 6 pm", side-onshore "from right to left towards the shore", and rates the crowd "very packed close to the beach" [3]. It is the reason to fly to Maui with a kite rather than a surfboard, and it is also the most regulated beach in this atlas — read the next two sections before you rig.

Conditions

The wind is the north-east trade. Kiteforum gives "Main Direction: NE, ENE, E" and "Best Direction: NNE, NE" [3]; the Maui Kitesurf Company says "clean trade winds coming from an ENE direction", strong where they funnel between the two mountain masses, with NE and ENE the working directions and E workable for wave riding "if comfortable riding 1–2 miles offshore" [2]. Kite HI's reading is that NE to E is "the ideal direction for learning because it is a cross-onshore to cross-shore wind" [5]. Tom Barefoot's park guide says the winds "usually arrive in mid to late mornings" [7]. For live readings the local guide points at the Kahului Airport and Kahului Harbor sensors [2].

No station's monthly table could be read for this record: Windfinder's Kahului pages returned rate-limit errors on the day of checking, and the only long-run figure is Wikipedia's 13.7 mph annual mean for the town [6]. The seasonal shape comes from the schools: KSM gives "May through October" as "75–95 % kiteable days" against "50 % kiteable days" from November to April [8]; Kiteforum's best months are May to October [3]. Air: Kahului's monthly means run from 22.7 °C in January to 27.3 °C in August, with 453 mm of rain a year, most of it in winter [6]. Water temperature was not published on any page read; nobody in the school pages mentions a wetsuit, and none is claimed here.

Water: "Flat, Chop, Small wave, Medium wave", "crystal clear" [3]. The pro pool inside the reef is the flat part; outside, the reefs — Kite HI names Boneyard and Lowers — break, and in winter they break properly [5]. Hazards on the beach are "Rocks, Trees" [3], and the trees matter: they throw the wind shadow that makes Ka'a Point an expert launch [5].

The year

Only two sources give any seasonal number and both are schools or forum sheets; there is no station table behind this strip.

Local knowledge

• Not before eleven. Every source repeats it. Swimmers and fishermen have the ocean until 11:00; after that, swimmers "stay in the buoyed off swimming zone", windsurfers "enter the water on the east side", and kiteboarders "enter and exit on the west side" [7]. The Maui Kitesurf Community's rules page puts it as "No Riding before 11 AM" [1]. Park gates are 06:00–20:00 and kiting is allowed 11:00–20:00 [2].
• Right of way goes the other way. "Fishermen, swimmers and outrigger canoes have right of way" [3]. Surfers have priority over kiters; the starboard-tack kiter yields; the downwind kiter has priority over the upwind one; incoming kiters yield to those launching [1].
• Two line lengths. The community rules ask for a two-line-length downwind buffer from others, a kite leash at all times, and a buddy [1]. Kite HI gives 200 feet from other ocean users at Kite Beach [5].
• Lifeguards on jetskis enforce the rules and provide the rescue [2].
• The upwind beach is not yours. Ka'a Point is a family beach with turbulent wind and a hard landing; the guide that names it says "expert riders only" [5].
• Ho'okipa is not a kite beach. Kite HI's rule for Lanes and Ho'okipa: if ten surfers or windsurfers are at Ho'okipa, "kiters must not be in the area" [5]. Baldwin Beach has a designated launch zone and a 1,000-foot exclusion off the main beach, and "is not safe against theft" [5].
• Lessons run at 10:30 or 14:00 — KSM's slots, which tells you when the beach is busiest with trainers [8].

Access and hazards

Kiting here is done under an FAA waiver because the beach is beside an international airport. The Maui Kitesurf Community's rules page gives the stipulations: "No kiteboarding in the 2 nautical mile long by one nautical mile wide corridor" off the Kahului runway; "The rope or attaching cables must not exceed 125 feet in length and no kite shall be operated more than 125 feet above sea level"; and "The waiver is applicable and only valid between the hours of official sunrise and sunset" [1]. Kiteforum adds that no manoeuvres may be performed over persons or property not involved [3]. The airport's runway 2/20 is 2,133 m long and the field is 16 m above sea level, east of the town [10]; the corridor the waiver describes runs off its end towards Spreckelsville. Enforcement is real: "lifeguards, DLNR officers, State Police, Park Rangers and County Police have the authority to give citations, fines, or confiscate your equipment" [1]. KSM notes it carries liability insurance "per county ordinance" — the county licenses the schools [8].

Hazards on record: "Buried rocks, high winds, sharp reef, strong currents", sharks and jellyfish [7]; rocks and trees on the beach and wind shadow from the trees [3][5]; the outer reef breaks at low tide [5]; fishermen and spear fishermen in the water [5]; humpback whales in season, 300 feet minimum [1]. No incident record is published by any source read.

Schools and rental

Kiteboarding School of Maui (KSM), teaching at Kite Beach via Amala Place since 1999: semi-private kite US$325 per person for two people over three hours; private "starting at $350/person" for two to three hours; "The Elite" three-day series US$1,200 for nine hours; instructors IKO and/or PASA certified with Red Cross first aid; gear included; lessons at 10:30 or 14:00 (prices read 25 September 2026) [8]. Action Sports Maui, family-run "for over 29 years", teaches on Kite Beach with an IKO certification option, ages 12 and up, prices only through its booking system [9]. The Maui Kitesurf Company and Kite HI publish the spot guides cited here and teach as well [2][5]. Aqua Sports Maui's site could not be reached on the day of checking and is not listed.

Getting there

Kahului Airport (OGG) is the island's main airport, 7.1 million passengers in 2025, and the beach is next to it — Kiteforum's access line is "Kanaha Beach Park. Kahului International Airport", a car rental and a short walk, "on Amala Place. Just west of the airport" [3][10]. Tom Barefoot's guide has all entrances "off of Alahao St", reached from the airport or downtown Kahului, with paved and dirt lots for hundreds of cars and "Easy" access barring events [7]. The park has toilets, showers, a lifeguard station and a permit campground [7].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Kitesurfing in Hawaii — 34 files, including "Starr 040411-0013 kitesurfers, Kanaha Beach, Maui" [11]. Check each file's licence before reuse.

Nothing has been copied into the repository for this spot.

The spot

Ilha do Guajiru is not an island but a peninsula on the coast of Itarema, a municipality of 42,000 people in the Litoral de Camocim e Acaraú region of Ceará [7]. Freeride Kitesurf's description is the one every other guide paraphrases: "an extensive sandstrip 500 m wide and 4 km long" separating the ocean from what it calls the largest lagoon in the Brazilian north-east [3]; Adventure Sports Holidays says "the biggest lagoon in all Ceará", "over 5 square kilometers of kitable space with land on three sides", and counts about ten pousadas and eight restaurants around it [5]. Kiteforum's sheet is blunter about what it actually is: "a river mouth, which becomes a big lagoon on high tide" [1].

That last clause is the whole spot. At the top of the tide there is a sheet of flat, warm, thigh-deep water several kilometres across with the trade blowing side-onshore over the bar; at the bottom of the tide "there is not enough water in the lagoon to kitesurf" [3], and kitetrip-planner's monthly table carries the same warning against every month [2]. Isla Kite Center gives the average depth as about 1 m [4]. It is the beginner's and freestyler's lagoon of the coast, and the reason to come here rather than Cumbuco is that the accommodation stands on the lagoon shore and the crowd is a fraction of the size [5].

The other spots are on the same peninsula. Freeride lists Praia da Barra as the main lagoon spot, a Secret Spot on the windward side with ocean access, Praia do Guajiru with flat water at low tide, and an isolated lagoon reached by downwinder or boat [3]; Kiteforum has a separate sheet for the Secret Spot [1]. Wave riding is rated at half the value of everything else in Freeride's suitability table [3].

Conditions

The wind is the same east-south-east trade that drives the whole Ceará coast, and the sources give it in the usual two registers. Kiteforum: "During season winds between 20–30 knots, off-season 15–25 knots", directions "NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE" [1]. Freeride: high season July–January at 20–35 knots with 95 % probability, low season February–June at 10–20 knots with 55 %, and a sentence claiming "18 and 38 knots blowing constantly from mid June to the mid February" [3]. Isla Kite Center, which teaches there, is more modest: "steady wind from June to January, with the trade winds arriving at 15 to 25 knots on most days" [4]. Take the school's figure as the one to size a kite for and the forum's as the one for the good days. Kitetrip-planner's table gives the probability of more than 12 knots as 96 % in July, 99 % in August, 100 % in September and October and 99 % in November, and calls the wind "On-Side On" [2]. No station record could be read: Windfinder returned rate-limit errors on the day of checking, and no Windguru station id was found on any school page, so the forecast link above is a point forecast, not a station.

Air 29–30 °C and water 27–28 °C in kitetrip-planner's table [2]; Freeride gives 28–38 °C air and 26–28 °C water, year-round [3]. Kite sizes from Freeride: men 7/8 and 10/11 m, women 5/6 and 8/9 m, by weight [3]. Water: "Shallow, Flat, Chop, Small wave" on Kiteforum's sheet [1]; "Flat, choppy" depending on where you are in the lagoon [2]. The tide is the mechanism: Kiteforum says a "falling tide" is optimal [1], the two planners say low tide leaves it dry [2][3], so the working window is the hours around high water and the first of the ebb. Print a tide table for Itarema before you book a lesson.

The year

The figures are from planners and schools; none is a station's.

Local knowledge

• The tide is the timetable. Everything above says it. The lagoon fills to a kite spot for a few hours either side of high water and drains to sand [2][3].
• Nobody is on the beach. Kiteforum's sheet: "Beach Users: None", "Rules: None", water hazard "Ships" [1]. The last is the fishing boats using the river mouth.
• The pousadas face the water. Ten of them, "80R for single person and 150R for 2 persons" on average in Adventure Sports Holidays' 2020s figures; beers €2–3 and dinner €10–15 [5].
• Ten to fifteen hours is the planner's estimate of what it takes to ride the lagoon alone [5] — one school's one-to-one model is priced for exactly that [4].
• The wave side is a walk. The Secret Spot is on the windward side with ocean access [3]; there is no published guide to the ocean beach itself.

Access and hazards

No rule, permit or zoning could be found for the lagoon; Kiteforum records "Rules: None" [1]. Hazards on record are the tide itself — a lagoon that is not there at low water [2][3] — and boats in the river mouth [1]. Nothing on currents through the mouth is claimed by any source read, and it would be the thing to ask the school about: a tidal lagoon of that size drains through a channel. No rescue service is described on any page read.

Schools and rental

Isla Kite Center, on the lagoon at Ilha do Guajirú, prices read 25 September 2026: kitesurf R$340 for a single hour, R$325 an hour up to five hours, R$300 an hour from six hours; wing R$390 / R$375 / R$350; all Naish gear included; one instructor per student throughout; no certification named on the page [4]. Adventure Sports Holidays counts "three to four established kitesurf schools" and names Windy Addiction, whose site could not be reached on the day of checking [5]. Kite Brazil Hotel's domain redirected to a booking site and is not cited. Kitetrip-planner's own school listings were "coming soon" and its downwinder trips from €1,150–2,060 per person are the only other prices seen [2].

Getting there

Fortaleza (FOR) is the airport. Adventure Sports Holidays says "2 hours North of Fortaleza" [5]; Kiteforum says about 2.5 hours [1]; Isla Kite Center gives about 220 km [4]. The road is the CE-085, paved; access to the lagoon is by sand road, "No walk" required [1]. No bus is described.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Ilha do Guajirú — 3 files, including Praia da Barra – Ilha do Guajirú [6]. Check each file's licence before reuse.
• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Itarema — 22 files and a Beaches in Itarema subcategory. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Itarema

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The spot

Bonaire is a Dutch special municipality of 288 km² and 26,500 people, 80 km off Venezuela, with a warm, dry, windy climate — 27.5 °C as an annual mean, 520 mm of rain mostly between October and January — and a position "outside the Main Development Region for Atlantic tropical cyclone activity" [10]. It is a diving island first: the Bonaire National Marine Park has surrounded the whole coast since 1979, "from the high-tide mark to 60 meters (200 feet) of depth", and everything that touches the water is regulated by STINAPA, the park's manager [10][2]. Windsurfing has its own place, Lac Bay on the east coast, which has produced five PWA freestyle professionals [10]. Kiting has Atlantis.

Atlantis Beach, also called Kite Beach, is on the south-west coast beside the salt pans, reached by the south coast road with free parking, and it is where the sport is allowed [4]. bonaire.com's explanation of why nowhere else: "Kitesurfing is not permitted at Lac Bay due to nature conservation", and the other beaches have "too much coral in the water, sections that are too shallow or too deep, or are protected diving areas" [4]. The beach itself has "a sandy bottom without coral or rocks in the kite area", water "3–7 feet deep" that is "completely flat more than 90% of the year" because a reef offshore "breaks the ocean swells", and 28 °C water all year [4]. Two schools work out of converted buses at the entrance — a yellow one and a blue one [6][5].

The day it gives is a flat-water day with an offshore wind, and that second half is what the rank turns on. Kiteforum's sheet is stern: "Only advanced kiters please! Organize rescue before getting on the water!" [7]; every school here puts a rescue boat on the water as part of the session [8][6], and the reason a beginner does well at Atlantis is that they are never without one.

Conditions

The trade wind comes over the island from the east and north-east and reaches Atlantis offshore. bonaire.com: "Easterly winds come over the island and reach Atlantis Beach with a strength of usually 15 to 25 knots", "most stable between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM", with December to July "the most stable wind conditions" [4]. Kitesurf The World: "offshore and comes from the east", "from December until July it's mostly around 15–25 knots", "a bit gusty during the day but most stable during morning and at the end of the afternoon" [6]. Kiteforum: "NE trade winds will blow from November until August with an average of about 16 knots", stronger gusts in June and July, reduced in September and October [7]. Beautiful Bonaire's figures are lower — "the average wind speed is 12 knots (28 km/h), with a maximum of 25 knots" in the January–August season, "300 days a year" of wind, always from the north-east [5]; Kiteboarding Bonaire's page says "300+ Wind days per year" [8]. The 16-knot and 12-knot averages are different averages of the same wind and both are given; no station's monthly table could be read for this record (Windfinder's Flamingo Airport page returned rate-limit errors on the day of checking).

Water: "Flat", "Crystal clear", "Tide independent", minimal current [7]; 28 °C [4]. Entry: "to get in the water, you have to walk over some stones" [7]; "chunks of coral, so it's good to check your steps when entering the water" [6]. Beach hazard on the sheet: "Stones". Water hazard: "None" [7]. Sun is the other one — Kitesurf The World's advice is protective clothing [6].

The year

Local knowledge

• Offshore means offshore. The wind blows from the beach out to sea. "Organize rescue before getting on the water" [7]. Kitesurf The World notes a rescue card at "approximately $25" [6]; the schools run a boat every session [8].
• The buses are the schools. Yellow bus, Kiters Paradise, daily 09:30–17:00 [9]; blue bus, Kiteboarding Bonaire [6].
• Morning and late afternoon are the clean hours; the middle of the day is gustier [6]. bonaire.com's stable window is 10:00–16:00 [4] — the two do not quite agree, and both are given.
• Check your feet at the entry. Stones and coral chunks between the sand and the kite area [6][7].
• Pink Beach, just up the road, is not a kite beach — "stronger" wind and coral, and it is prohibited [5]. Red Slave, further south, appears in search results as a spot; it was not read and is not claimed.
• Downwinders are by permission. STINAPA: downwinders "require written permission; contact marinepark@stinapa.org" [1].

Access and hazards

The rules are STINAPA's and they are short. Kitesurfing is "only allowed at the entry and exit zone of Atlantis within the Marine Park"; windsurfing "exclusively at Lac Bay within the Marine Park"; beyond the park's zone, riders keep "a respectful 75m distance from shore", and foiling is allowed in dark blue water "at least 75m from shore"; Klein Bonaire has a 500 m buffer with no kiting or windsurfing; riders must "stay within acceptable zones and scan for divers beneath the waves" [1]. Beautiful Bonaire puts the same rule as "kitesurfers must stay at least 75 meters away from the coast—outside the boundaries of the Bonaire National Marine Park" [5].

The nature fee is contested between sources. STINAPA: "The Stinapa Bonaire nature fee is mandatory for all users of the Bonaire National Marine Park and the Washington Slagbaai National Park", valid per calendar year [3][1]. Kiteboarding Bonaire says the fee is mandatory before entering the water [8]; Kitesurf The World calls the nature tag mandatory [6]; Beautiful Bonaire says all water sports participants need it [5]. bonaire.com alone says "You don't need to pay a Nature Fee for kitesurfing (that's only for diving and snorkeling)" [4]. The park's own text is the authority and says all users; the fee amount is on bonairenaturefee.org, which could not be fetched, so no figure is given here.

Hazards on record: the offshore wind [7]; stones and coral at the entry [6][7]; sun [6]; divers under the water in the park [1]. No incident record is published by any source read.

Schools and rental

Two, both IKO. Kiteboarding Bonaire, the blue bus at Atlantis, "IKO certified instructors" since 2001, maximum two students per instructor, "Rescue boat is in the water every session", premium rentals, no prices on the page [8]. Kiters Paradise (formerly Bonaire Kiteschool), the yellow bus, at Atlantis daily 09:30–17:00, no prices on the page [9]. bonaire.com's figure is "lessons from $75 per hour" across the IKO schools, read 25 September 2026 [4]; Beautiful Bonaire says both schools "are members of the International Kiteboarding Organization" [5].

Getting there

Flamingo International Airport near Kralendijk has a 2,880 m runway and flights from Miami (American), Atlanta (Delta), Houston and Newark (United), and Amsterdam via Aruba (KLM) or Curaçao (TUI) [11]. Atlantis is south of the airport, "past Pink Beach" [7], "20 minute drive from Kralendijk" [6], free parking at the beach [4][6]. The US dollar is the currency [10].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Category: Bonaire — 8 files and 24 subcategories, including Bonaire National Marine Park; nothing tagged for kitesurfing [12]. Check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Cabo de la Vela is a Wayuu fishing village on a desert cape at the top of Colombia, and the wind is why anyone else goes. The spot page: "wind is very strong ranging from 25–35 knots most of the time, low wind season just May and June, 15–25 knots"; "very warm water, perfectly flat, no waves, no dangerous animals"; "soft sand beach, lots of room for safety launch and land kites"; hazards "none", rules "none" [1]. The school's version: "consistent and strong winds, averaging 25 knots across approximately 330 days annually" [2]. The trip planner adds the mechanism — the Andes end at the sea here and compress the trade wind (search summary) — and the caveat: "off – side off", "chop in the bay in front of the spot", "white sand areas with algae should be avoided" and "venomous fish present in certain areas" [3].

Conditions

North to north-east trade wind, side-offshore, at 25–35 knots on the ordinary day [1][3]. Best season "from December to July", "25/30 knots guaranteed, sometimes with stronger conditions" [3]; the spot page lists every month [1]. The low is October–November (rains) and, for strength, May–June [1][3]. Early morning and late afternoon are steadiest (search summary). No station statistics were read.

The year

Local knowledge

• Side-off means a rescue plan. The wind blows away from the village; ride with a school's boat or stay inside the bay [3].
• Watch the algae patches and the fish [3].
• It is a 4×4 from Riohacha. "Take a 4×4 to Cabo de la Vela" after Riohacha [3]; "one hour by plane from Bogotá to Riohacha, and then two hours to Cabo de la Vela" [1].
• The village is Wayuu; the school makes a point of the cultural side [2].

Access and hazards

No permit, no rules on the spot page [1]. Hazards: side-offshore wind, algae, venomous fish [3]; the strength.

Schools and rental

Cabo Kite Center — IKO, +57 321 876 7690, no prices on the page [2]. Awalayu'u Kite School is named in search results and was not read. The planner's school list was "coming soon" [3].

Getting there

Bogotá–Riohacha by air, an hour; Riohacha to the cape two hours by 4×4 [1][3]; Riohacha is seven hours from Cartagena and three from Santa Marta by road [3].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Cabo de la Vela — 56 files: the cape, Pilón de Azúcar, the lighthouse; no kitesurfing subcategory [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Los Roques is a ring of coral cays around a lagoon, a national park 140 km off the Venezuelan coast with "no ferries and no road access" — "charter flights leave from Caracas (Maiquetía, CCS)", about forty minutes [1]. Gran Roque is the only inhabited island and "a logistical base"; "kitesurfing is prohibited on Gran Roque due to air traffic", and the riding is on "nearby islets accessible by boat" [3]. The cays: Crasquí, Madrisquí and Francisquí, "flat with a thin layer of wind chop", "ankle-to-waist for hundreds of meters before dropping into the channel", fine white sand, "no coral heads or rocks in the designated kite zones" [1]; Saki Saki, "shallow enough to stand in almost everywhere", where the instructors work with "guide support, rescue boats, and rental gear" [2]; Cayo de Agua, "really shallow at low tide" with wind "usually a bit stronger and less filtered"; and the Cayo Vapor to Sebastopol run, "stronger, steadier wind", "deeper sections", for the advanced [2].

Conditions

East trades. "15 to 22 knots from the east, most often kicking in by mid-morning and building through the afternoon", strongest and most reliable "January through May" [1]; the spot guide's range "usually sits between 16 and 25 knots. Most days hover around 18–22 knots", peaking "February, March, and June" [2]; the Gran Roque spot page gives a 23.3-knot average and "Jan → Jun" as the best period [3]. Water "between 26 and 29 °C year-round" [1]. The hazard is the channel: "real flow, especially on outgoing tide" between the cays [1]; "corals and shallow bottoms can pose problems", and "offshore wind on some spots requires real vigilance in case of drift" [3]. No station statistics were read.

The year

Local knowledge

• Sleep on Gran Roque, ride by boat. Kiting on Gran Roque is banned for the airstrip [3]; every session is a boat ride — Crasquí 20–30 minutes [2].
• The outgoing tide pulls through the channels [1].
• Book ahead. Schools are "small, owner-run businesses" bundling beds, boats and lessons; "capacity is genuinely limited" in high season [1].
• Cash for the park. "The national park charges an entry fee on arrival. Cash (USD or bolívares) is the norm; card acceptance is limited" [1]; paid "when you land at Gran Roque" [2].
• Francisquí is gusty for learning; Saki Saki is the lesson cay (search summary; [2]).

Access and hazards

National-park entry fee on arrival [1][2]; the Gran Roque ban [3]. Hazards: channel currents, coral, offshore drift [1][3]. Venezuela's wider situation is outside this record.

Schools and rental

Owner-run schools with boats and rental at Saki Saki [1][2]; none read individually and no price is quoted.

Getting there

Charter from Caracas Maiquetía, about 40 minutes [1]; then boats [2][3].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Los Roques archipelago — 101 members, with Gran Roque (59) and Cayo de Agua (22) subcategories; found by category search, since the bare "Los Roques" category is a village in Tenerife [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Paracas is a desert bay on Peru's coast south of Lima, a reserve of sea lions, penguins and flamingos on one side and a kite beach on the other. The spot page's figures: wind "S, SW", "12 to 25 knots, and occasional 30+ knot sandstorms", rising "around 11 am" and holding "till sunset", with forecasts underestimating "by 4+ knots due to desert topography"; water "flat" with "only little waves" and "shallow sandy bottom beach for around 100m"; 16–22 °C all year [1]. The magazine: the wind "from the south … blowing from the left, picking up around midday and peaking around 3pm", gusts "between 30 and 40 knots"; the bay "one giant mirror" in the morning and "butter flat" across it when the wind is in [2]. One main spot, "Kite Beach"; Laguna Grande is an hour south inside the park [2].

Conditions

Monthly wind probability, the best series for a South American spot in this atlas: January 85 %, February 89, March 88, April 72, May 62, June 50, July 45, August 56, September 88, October 91, November 91, December 93 [1]. Three kinds of day, in the magazine's account: wind from 11 am all day; nothing until 4:30 pm then wind to sunset; or none [2]. Sandstorms happen "when the forecast shows strong wind all day", and then "only experienced riders should kite" (search summary). "Fine sand will stick to your equipment and it's a nightmare to remove!" [2].

The year

Southern hemisphere: the season is the UK winter.

Local knowledge

• Nothing before eleven. Mornings are a mirror [2]; plan a late breakfast.
• It is a nature park. "Advanced riders may be asked to ride 100m from the beach during the peak season" for the lessons; flamingos, sea lions and penguins are protected, and some areas are off-limits for the birds [1].
• Sand in everything [2].
• The Kangaroo Kite House is on the spot, as are Bamboo Paracas and the backpackers' house [2].

Access and hazards

The reserve's rules and the school-zone courtesy above [1]; no permit for the bay. Hazards: sandstorms [1][2], cold water [1].

Schools and rental

Kangaroo Kite Peru — "Kite Lessons: 6H $320; Gear rental: full day $70" [1]. Others on the beach; none read.

Getting there

Lima's Jorge Chávez airport, 260 km [1] — "220km from Lima" in the magazine [2]; the road south takes three to four hours by bus or car (judgement).

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Paracas — 86 files: the port, the beach, the culture; no kitesurfing subcategory [3]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

South Padre is a barrier island at the bottom of Texas, and the water behind it — the Laguna Madre — is the point: "flat, waist deep water for miles" [1], "waist-deep flats" that are "the safest place to learn and progress" [3]. South Flats: "ankle to waist deep water for miles", "butter flat water", entrance "under $5" [1]. North Flats: bay side north of the convention centre, "better quality SE wind", "the water's shallow enough to wade back upwind", access through a break in the dunes off Ocean Boulevard on hard-packed sand, "an annual pass costing about $20" [2] — "members-only" with registration [1]. The Gulf side is Beach Access Road 5 for side-onshore waves, parking "around $10", and the jetties at Isla Blanca Park, "a busy tourist beach" with conduct codes [1].

Conditions

South-easterly, thermal, and long. MACkite's numbers: spring and summer "mid strength wind averaging 16 knots of steady, thermal breeze"; October–December "closer to 20 knots"; "12–25mph in the summer and 12–30mph in the winter" all year [1]. "South Padre's thermal winds deliver consistent conditions nearly year-round" [3]; "offshore winds are no problem in the bay" [2]. Water warm all year, "uncomfortably hot in the summer", a wetsuit in winter [1]. No station statistics were read.

The year

Local knowledge

• Watch the tide on the flats. "Keep an eye on the tides" or the car floods or you are "stuck surrounded by deep water" [1]; drive only on the hard-packed sand [2].
• Seaweed marks the high-tide line at North Flats [2].
• Boat support and radio helmets in the lessons [3].
• Free camping with a permit; hotels "fairly affordable" [1].

Access and hazards

South Flats gate under $5, North Flats pass about $20, Road 5 parking about $10 [1][2]. Hazards: tides on the flats, sand driving [1]; the Gulf's tourist beach [1].

Schools and rental

Windsurf Inc. — kiteboarding "1 hour $190", "2 hours $370", groups $150–300 each, rental "$50 / $200" hourly and daily, boat support [3]. ProKite and Air Padre [1].

Getting there

Brownsville airport, about 30 minutes; "rental car or your own personal vehicle is essential" [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, South Padre Island, Texas — 101 files of the beach and the island; no kiteboarding subcategory [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

The Spit is "the main launching and landing zone for kiteboarding in Squamish. The wind blows offshore" [4], a dyke at the mouth of the Squamish River run by the Squamish Windsports Society. "There's 'an epic piece of flatwater below the launch site called the Honey Hole,' and 'when the tide is low and the sandbar is visible, there is plenty more flatwater throughout the spot'" [3]. The launch is "a rocky launch, though in the summer there are mats laid out on the rocks to protect your gear" [3]. The alternative, Nexen Beach, has "on-shore wind conditions" but "many obstacles in the water, this is an advanced riding spot", no fee and "added dangers" [4]. The estuary to the north is "off-limits due to wildlife protection" [1].

Conditions

"A typical Squamish day has steady wind from midday until evening usually between 18 and 24 knots" [1]; "Wind in Squamish typically blows from 15 to 30mph in the afternoons, with most days blowing well over 20mph", "fairly steady" [3]. It is cross-offshore: "if you screw up you might find yourself wading through some deep marsh or beached on the downwind side next to some massive industrial ship" [3]. The water is snow-melt — "The water temperature is brisk—the Squamish River is fed by the Pemberton Icefield" [3]; "Cold water (snow melt), requiring wetsuits even in warm air" [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• The rules [2]: "Unless launching, do not kite near the Spit launch"; "Wrap up your lines immediately after landing your kite"; "Stay clear of beginners and kite school boats"; "Stay clear of boat traffic"; "make sure the downwind area is clear before jumping"; "Assist others whenever possible".
• Don't count on the ski — "The staff have sea-doos with rescue sleds attached... Nobody should count on this retrieval service" [1].
• Pay — "There is a day fee. Most of us buy a season membership" [1]; $20 a day, $180 a season, $95 with a student card (search summary).
• Booties for the rocks (search summary); mats in season [3].
• Stay out of the estuary [1].

Access and hazards

SWS membership or day fee, the season dates, the skill floor [1][3][4]. Hazards: the cross-offshore, the marsh and ships downwind [3], the cold [1][3], boat traffic and log booms [2], the obstacles at Nexen [4].

Schools and rental

Squamish Watersports [2] and Aerial Kiteboarding [4] teach; lessons run from boats, which is why "Stay clear of beginners and kite school boats" [2]. No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

"It's about a 90 minute drive up to Squamish from the airport" — Vancouver, up the Sea to Sky [3].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Squamish, British Columbia — 87 files, ten subcategories, none for the Spit or kiting; "Stawamus Chief - Squamish, British Columbia (6300411513).jpg" is the backdrop [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Two spots. Fisherman's Huts — "Located in Noord, just north of Aruba's famous Palm Beach hotel area" with "shallow water close to shore, plenty of room for instruction and easy access from Aruba's main tourism area" [3] — is "the flat water spot of Aruba", "perfectly flat" because the wind is offshore [1]. "100m out there is a coral reef" and "kitesurfers are required to stay at least 200 meters away from the shoreline to avoid damaging the coral reefs" [4]. Boca Grandi, 50 minutes away on the windward south-east [1], is "the kiter's favourite" — "Open-ocean conditions, chop, swell and waves", "a natural skatepark for kitesurfers" [3], "permanently choppy" with "some shorebreak" [2]; "take your own food and fresh water" [2].

Conditions

"The constant trade wind blows most of the days between 20 and 25 knots. Some days are lighter and range from 15 – 20 knots and some days the wind can pick up to 30 - 35 knots" [1]. At the Huts "The wind blows all day but is the strongest between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m." [1] and "is offshore and is coming from land which makes it gusty" — "Yellow buoy that mark the end of the wind range. Do not go there" [4]. At Boca Grandi "solid cross-onshores pick up through the day from 15 to 25 knots in summer" [2], "little waves from 0.5 to 1 meter" in the bay and "bigger waves from 1 to 2 meters" beyond the reef, strengthening "around 4 p.m. until after sunset" [1].

The year

Local knowledge

• 200 m off the shore at the Huts for the coral [4]; the reef is walkable if you can't get back by water [1].
• Rescue costs about $20 [1]; "Kite schools nearby offer boat rescue service" [4].
• Boca Grandi hours — kiting only before 10 am and after 5 pm (search summary; the rule was not on a page read).
• Sun — exposure "is severe" [4]; water "26°C year-round" [4].

Access and hazards

The coral setback at the Huts [4]; Boca Grandi's time rule is a search summary. Hazards: offshore gusts and the buoy line at the Huts [4], the reef [1][4], shorebreak and isolation at Boca Grandi [2].

Schools and rental

Aruba Kitesurfing School at the Huts, "complete beginners through advanced riders" [3]; several schools on the beach [1][4]. No prices were on the pages read.

Getting there

Queen Beatrix airport; the Huts are "within walking distance" of Noord or a taxi from the hotels [4]; Boca Grandi is 50 minutes by car [1].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Kitesurfing in Aruba — 8 files; "Kitesurfing school at Boca Grandi, San Nicolas Aruba 01.jpg" [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Isla Blanca is a sand spit north of Cancún with the Caribbean on one side and a large shallow lagoon on the other; "Just north of Cancun, easily accessible from downtown and hotel zone. 25-minute drive from central Cancun" [1]. The riding is on the lagoon — "shallow lagoon", "shallow, sandy-bottomed waters" [3] — waist-deep for kilometres, so a drifting kiter walks back (search summary). "The last stretch is on a sandy road, so a car with decent clearance is recommended" [3].

Conditions

"Trade winds consistently blow 15-25 knots. Winter months offer slightly stronger conditions" [1]; "Wind direction is side-onshore, typically coming from the northeast" with "average speeds ranging from 15 to 25 knots" [3]. Through the season "The winds during this season blow steadily from the northeast, averaging between 12 and 25 knots"; "The trade winds, locally known as 'El Norte,' peak in December and January" [2] — the nortes are the winter cold fronts, two to four days at a time, to 30 knots (search summary). "Temperature ranges from 25°C to 30°C" [2].

The year

Local knowledge

• Walk it back — hip-deep everywhere (search summary).
• Clearance for the sand road [3].
• Lessons cost "Flatwater Fundamentals: $80-100/hour", "Freestyle & Tricks: $100-120/hour" [1].
• Rescue and repair exist on the beach [3].

Access and hazards

No permit read; the spit is reached by the one road. Hazards: none on the pages read beyond the sun and the storms of summer [2].

Schools and rental

Aquacore [1]; "Ikarus Kiteboarding" [3]; several others (search summary).

Getting there

"Fly into Cancun International Airport" then "about a 25-30 minute drive north" [3]; a rental car is recommended [3].

Pictures

• No Commons category for Isla Blanca, Quintana Roo, could be found — the Isla Blanca category is a Peruvian island. Wikimedia Commons, Isla Mujeres — the municipality, 81 files with Beaches of Isla Mujeres; "Blue morning - Isla Mujeres.jpg" [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Barra Grande is a village in Cajueiro da Praia on Piauí's short coast, by the Parnaíba delta (search summary). The water is "flat-to-choppy near the shore, with some flat zones perfect for freestyle and freeride. Further out, small waves form" [1]; "more flat (no waves) during the low tide and a little choppy during high tide" [3]. Croa, the kite point, is 1.2 km from the village, and the pousada drives you [3]. It is "a popular starting point for downwind trips, often heading toward the Parnaíba Delta" [1]; a "14-km downwinder course to Macapa" [2].

Conditions

"Side-on-shore" [1][3], "between 18 and 30 knots" [1], "vary from 15 to 35 knots during high season" [3], "between a respectable 15 and an exciting 25 knots" from the east and south-east [2]. The strongest months: "September, October and November" with over 25 knots daily [3]. Lighter in the morning, pumping in the afternoon (search summary).

The year

Local knowledge

• Low tide to learn — "Low tide facilitates beginner instruction" [3].
• Rocks and coral on the west end — "rocks and corals on the west part of the beach" [3].
• No board leash — "extremely not recommended, to avoid accidents" [3].
• Courses: "from R$ 800 to R$ 1.600 for the complete course", "at least 10 hours" [3].
• Downwinders to the delta and Macapá [1][2].

Access and hazards

Open beach, no permit read. Hazards: the rocks and coral to the west [3], the tide's chop [3]. One guide's logistics — Salvador, Ilhéus, a three-hour drive — describe the other Barra Grande, in Bahia [2]; only its wind and downwinder lines are used here.

Schools and rental

"Several kitesurfing schools in Barra Grande" [2]; Terra Patris runs storage, washing and tide advice with a ride to the point [3].

Getting there

Parnaíba is the nearest airport, about an hour; Fortaleza is the big one, some six hours by road along the coast — a judgement, not from a page read.

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Cajueiro da Praia — 27 files with Praia de Barra Grande (Cajueiro da Praia) (12 files); "Barrinha (40882794552).jpg" [4]. No kite subcategory. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

"Long Bay Beach is the country's best kiteboarding location" — three miles of shallow flat water (search summary). "Most areas of Long Bay are only waist-deep, making it perfect for beginners" and equally for the advanced; "foiling is typically only feasible at high tide" [1]. "The water is fairly smooth and is shallow for over a mile offshore", "Crystal clear" [2]; "waist-deep, shallow waters at low tide for 1 mile from the shore" [3]. "Long Bay hosts nearly all Turks and Caicos kiteboarding schools" [1]. The launch matters: "It is important that one launches from Kite Beach because further down the beach the break is covered with broken conch shells"; "The beach is long, wide and sandy, making it ideal for beginners and self launching" [2].

Conditions

"Best Direction: SE", "Main Direction: N, NE, E, SE", "Frontal, Trade" [2]. "Wind typically ranges 'from 15 to 20 knots (17 mph to 23 mph)'" [1]; "wind speeds averaging 12–22 knots" [3]; "Good trade winds during summer with 15-25 knots" [2]; "15–20 knots from November to July" [4]. "The strongest winds are in the Summer months from mid-June through mid-August!" [3]. Kites: "8–12 m²" [1]. Sargassum comes to the south coast in summer and "is largely absent during the winter months" (search summary).

The year

Local knowledge

• Launch at Kite Beach, not down the sand — the conch [2].
• Dogs and horses roam the beach [2]; "Shells" the beach hazard [2].
• No rules — "At this time there are no special rules or curfews regarding kiteboarding in the Turks and Caicos" [2].
• High tide for the foil [1].
• A car — "About a 15 minute drive on dirt roads from the hotel area" [2].

Access and hazards

Public beach, no rules [2]. Hazards: conch shells, animals on the beach [2]; nothing in the water — "Water: 'None'" [2].

Schools and rental

"Big Blue Collective and H2O Resort" among the instructors [1]; Kite Provo [3]; Onda [4]. No price was on the pages read.

Getting there

Providenciales airport, then a hire car to the south-east coast [2].

Pictures

• Wikimedia Commons, Providenciales — 27 files including "Long Bay Beach, Turks and Caicos Islands (Unsplash).jpg" [5]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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The spot

Los Barriles "overlooks Bahía las Palmas along the Gulf of California", "40 miles (64 km) north of San José del Cabo and 65 miles (105 km) south of La Paz", "Baja's kitesurfing and windsurfing capital" [3]. The town beach carries "a small shore break" and "Radiant blues, still part of the sea of Cortez" [2]; Playa Norte at the north end is the long shallow learners' beach with side-onshore wind (search summary). Facilities on the card: "Rooms, Camping, School, Shop, Repair, Rental, Rescue, Shower, Toilet, Food, Parking" [1]. La Ventana, the other Baja spot, is "a 1 hour drive" [2].

Conditions

The El Norte: "Best Direction: N, NNE, NE", "10-30 knots" in season, "Generally windy 80% of the time" [1]; "Thermal wind blowing side on shore, averaging 17-25 knots" [2]; winter westerlies in the bay "average 20–25 knots (37–46 km/h; 23–29 mph)" [3]. The wind "travels for over 500 miles to get here so is very steady", 18–25 knots most afternoons with flatter water in the mornings (search summary). Water "Chop, Small wave, Medium wave", waves "3-10 ft", "Tide independent" [1]; "a bit choppy with a small shore break" [2].

The year

Local knowledge

• The rules — "Ride gentle through fishing fleets. Do not fly kites on the beach. Do not jump near shore, people or boats" [1].
• "Check up with locals for riding zones" [2].
• Ships and buoys in the water, "Rocks, Stones, Bystanders" on the beach [1].
• Mornings flatter, afternoons stronger (search summary).

Access and hazards

Public beach with the card's rules [1]. Hazards: the fishing fleet, buoys, rocks on the beach, the shore break [1][2].

Schools and rental

"Exotikite Kiteboarding, Vela Baja, Kiteboarding Baja School" [2]. No price was on the pages read (the two school pages returned empty).

Getting there

"From Los Cabos airport drive north 1.5 hours on the road parallel to the Sea of Cortez" [2]; "1 hour north on the well paved trans peninsular highway" from San José del Cabo [1].

Pictures

• No Commons category for Los Barriles could be found. Wikimedia Commons, Baja California Sur — 11 files and 18 subcategories; "Paddle Boarding in Baja California Sur.jpg" [4]. Freely licensed; check each file's licence before reuse.

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