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Heading to Sarasota to visit parents and get some childcare help during WFH. What should I know about the wind?

I'm still pretty new and looking for beginner friendly spots. Lido and Venice Beach seem to be the main places to go unless you drive to Fort DeSoto.

That's a great time to go..Will have fun wind, cold fronts bring 15-25 mph, occasionally higher but not as common, waters not too cold (I usually kite in a 3/2 but some days deeper in winter wish I had a little thicker). North Lido Beach is a good spot (look on googlemaps and search 1-85 John Ringling Blvd Parking), big open beach area where people set up/launch and the water is calm. Fort DeSoto is great too you can pretty much kite on any wind direction and it's all flat water. Depending on the wind direction you'll see people just off the side of the skyway bridge or on Fort DeSoto, if theres wind there will be people out.

Ok great!

Also how do I find out about regulations? Here in Los Angeles there are only a few beaches where kiting hasn't been banned yet but I'm getting the impression that most Florida beaches are no problem.

I'm not aware of any beaches in that area that it's banned. If you're still relatively new I would stick with going out where other kiters are anyway but if theres rideable wind you'll see people at those spots. I'm not familiar with kiting at Venice Beach FYI.

Wow that sounds pretty awesome. Couple more questions if you don't mind:

I'm looking at the wind history on ikitesurf and it's at various times of the day. In Southern California we get thermal winds which don't really get going until the afternoon but in Florida it looks like you can get kiting in the morning, right?

When the wind is out of the east do you just kite in the bays?

On a day to day basis we don't really get rideable winds, it's usually when a cold front comes in and then it can be windy for days. So depending on if a front is passing through you can definitely kite in the morning as well. In the summer we get more of those thermal winds in the afternoon but not so much this time of the year. Check out this website they have some different spots with good wind directions. If you're ocean side and it's blowing off shore I usually head to Fort Desoto/Skyway area. http://kiteboardingstpetersburg.com/lau ... ast-beach/

On occasion we can get warm fronts that will bring strong, warm southerly winds, sometimes prior to a cold front. Or unusual weather patterns like what we have now - high pressure to the north and low pressure to the south which has brought us easterly winds. I heard we are in a la nina weather pattern, so who knows what November - January will be like.