Postby jj83 » Thu Nov 26, 2020 8:54 am
So tough to find 1 location that is good year-round - it has also been a personal quest of mine in the last few years.
I'm from the UK and looking for places to work online while kiting, surfing and exploring with my Brazilian girlfriend, and eventually hopefully raise a family and retire.
Although you can certainly use other people's experiences as a guide, kite spots are highly personal depending on the conditions you enjoy and you need to experience this yourself.
I was disappointed by some spots that came highly recommended and surprised by others that weren't pimped so much.
It is important to realise also when asking other kiters, what one person considers strong wind, choppy etc can be very different from another e.g. take Jeri and Cape Town. If you ask riders who are used to kiting in lighter winds, they will consider Jeri a strong wind spot, recommending small kites, whereas if you ask kiters in Cape Town, Netherlands etc they use the area around Jeri as a training ground for practising new tricks as it is more moderate and forgiving than conditions they are used to riding.
What I found helpful was renting a car and travelling the coasts to check out as many spots as possible e.g. in Brazil, we started in Cumbuco and over the course of a month made our way up to Atins. We downwinded some stretches and drove others, and quickly got an idea of the sections of the coast we enjoyed the most, then on the way back we stopped at those spots.
You can do the same in Europe e.g. start in Lisbon and drive up the coast to Viana do Castelo, down the West Coast to the Algarve and East to Tarifa.
In South Africa e.g. start in Cape Town and drive up the West Coast and then East along the Southern Coast.
One other important factor is staying in these kite spots out of season - both NE Brazil and Cape Town are very different out of high season - expect rain and no wind.
Our own conclusion, for what it's worth is that we will most likely split our time between 3-4 locations, spending 3-4 months in each, at least for the next few years (obviously COVID depending!).
As we are more into big air, we prefer stronger wind and swell, so that has been our preference when selecting locations.
We also prefer to arrive in spots, slightly pre-season, as have found they tend to have the best energy building up to the peak season and then leave just before it peaks and starts to get overcrowded e.g. Nov in NE Brazil, Feb in Cape Town, Aug in Europe etc.
This is what a year looks like to give you an idea:
Aug-Oct NE Brazil (Prea, Tatajuba, Maceio)
Nov-Jan South Africa (Cape Town)
Feb-Apr Colombia (Santa Veronica)
May-Jul Portugal (Guincho, Viana do Castelo)
Lisbon works well as a hub to travel to these spots.