In summary - a superb mid winter destination with NE trade winds, 25 degrC, cloudless skies and a warm sea. The 5 star Riu Karamboa is situated on the west side of the hotel about 2 minutes from the airport.
Thomson holidays do a cheap holiday for around £600 per person in January (andy has already noticed that prices have shot up for school hols) ALL inclusive - and that means all drinks, all meals & all restaurants.
Okay so the kiting;
Be prepared for lightwinds. The forcast before we went was 20 - 25 all day everyday....until we landed and the forcast dropped for the whole week and in fact continues to some extent. Now, what we found was that the wind never really drops off all together - a forcast of 10mph can give 20mph on the west side of the island (cross off). The wind accelerates over land and seems to give almost constant kiteable wind BUT its offshore. The good news is the kite centre at Bahia has rescue and even better is that the RIU looks like it will have its own kite centre by next year thus rescue (rather than the reg flag, no rescue situation)
Swell is important here, or more accurately swell direction. We had a NW swell and thus biggish shore dump at the hotel and thus red flag. When the swell is NW then the east side beaches (onshore) are more sheltered. When the swell is NE then some beaches (eg shipwrecks) become very difficult but the west side can be totally flat.
Okay, beaches;
consider Boa Vista to be a circle/clock.
The best alround beach by far is Punta Antonio
- situated to the east of shipwrecks at 1pm - it has big flat inside section with waves availble on the outside pitching up on the rocks. The beach is lovely sandy before the lava/rocky desert which covers the whole island. There is a shade hut at the far end of the beach (5 mins walk). Cross on in a NE perfect for all standards.
Shipwrecks
is the huge sandy beach to the north which surpisingly has a shipwreck on it! Situated at 12pm, it is as Steph puts it a bit like westward ho - loads of waves but also there are flat sections to be found if you look. One BIG difference is the wave power. The waves here are rock solid, especially the white water - hit them and you know about it - not like the soft mush we get here. The locals (strava) do not like this place as its too wavey (ie not perfect point break etc etc) and were quite suprised that we seemd to love it!!! NE is cross on
A great beach when the forcast is light is Ervatao.
Situated at 4pm (SE) of the island it takes in the wind from the NE which accelerates over the land and gives a gusty but kiteable cross off on the most beautiful of the kiting beaches. Turquoise water, flate but with the odd kicker, soft dusty sand, great seashells and a sunshde hut to boot. They watch for turtles here in the summer. However beware, it is cross off with no rescue, BUT there is enough cross within the bay to have the far point still downwind of you for most of your reach. We had a decent 11m day here when the forcast was not much more than 10mph.
Just 10 mins to the north of the hotel is the Bahia kite centre/school
- it has a bar and more importantly a rescue service as it is directly offshore. More sheltred than the hotel and with some shallow water. This is your best chance when the forcast is poor.
Those are the best/ main beaches. There are a few others that are kiteable but have access/current/offshore problems.
In the week I was there I used a 19m Silver Arrow twice, my 11m three times & my 15m once with one day of no kiting. If you go, take a big kite and/or a big board (James got going on a 14m and 165 spleene door when I was on my SA). The smallest kites needed are 9m.
A huge recommendation for Strava who took us to all the locations (& kites himself) stravatours@hotmail.com