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riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

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occidentaltourist
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riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby occidentaltourist » Wed Sep 18, 2019 5:19 pm

looking at villas up to maybe half hour from cabarete kite beach in either direction for march. i know folks go nearby to la boca for downwinds back to cabarete but my recollection is that much of the coast is rideable and one just needs to think about break conditions and getting in depending on the location. but more sand beaches and access for miles and open sand beaches not full of urchins. i drove to samana the last time i was there and there was no wind but i saw many places i thought i could have ridden.

in particular looking at las canas in gasper hernandez on the beach 20 minutes from cabrete which seems to have launchable beach, playa gen, with possibility of driving a little down to playa rio piedra or bahia esmerelda for more sheltered riding if its rough or just looking for flatter water.

also see some villas in bluefish point area between sosua and cabarete with slightly sheltered sandy beach just to the west and encuentro to the east. just checking riding customs and conditions if known.

i got almost skunked on that last trip to cabarete in march back in 2002 I think, and had succombed to the idea that the better wind was in june (when things are rocking at home and its warm - well alright some folks don't think high 60s fahrenheit water is warm but its a luxury to us - so i'm not thinking about traveling). But looking at statistics and reviewing recent march wind archives seem to show like 70% riding days, not quite as solid as turks and caicos 100 miles north on the same days but close. it seems that maybe the higher land menas it takes good thermals to bring the trades into shore because the cabarete graphs show afternoon wind where turks it is all day. Dont' want to see turks overrun but if you got a little more scratch, it has had more solid riding for me than anywhere else i've been. But this being a family vacation with many non-kiters we can handle what seem to be 4 day lulls and go to samana or other destinations when the wind is down. and the villas around cabrete are half of the villas on turks and there is more for non-kiters to do.

any recent intel on riding along the north coast and other local yore much appreciated.

sorry, screen shots don't have labels but the first is long bay in turks march 2019 and second is go cabarete march 2019
Attachments
wind Turks and Caicos March 2019.png
wind cabarete march 2019.png

elguapo
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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby elguapo » Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:53 pm

i've spent a good chunck of the summer on the north coast this year...
but the DR wouldnt be my 1st choice for anytime in march.

the leewards, cayman islands, costa rica, colombia, cuba, yucatan, san blas, puerto rico tobago and yes turks...will probably all be less likely to skunk you again concerning wind. (i believe they all get better tradewinds or thermals @ that time...and are actually in season)

i could be wrong.. but there is a wind shadow west of encuentro towards sosua.
you can kite in playa long beach and playa dorado in pto plata...

also, i've seen folks kite outside luperon..
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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby occidentaltourist » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:53 pm

elguapo wrote:
Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:53 pm


i could be wrong.. but there is a wind shadow west of encuentro towards sosua.
you can kite in playa long beach and playa dorado in pto plata...

also, i've seen folks kite outside luperon..
thanks for on ground info. going by the cabarte meter its OK in march but you get lulls. absolutely those other locations, esp. to windward are most dependable. I have to imagine it is just the land effect of high ridge just in from the north coast because the turks is otherwise similar and it cranked there 24/7 every march i visited - and the amount of rideable beach is also what i'm thinking. St. Lucia, Barbados, islands that are out there in the trades have more limited riding areas. i'm threading the needle on airfare and family vacation. Can see luperon gets out in it. don't know if the wind gets depressed going east of cabarete. looks like rio san juan could throw a shadow but Playa Gen back in las Canas should be out of it and have decent exposure on any days the wind is coming into cabarete - of course the wind has to be coming in to cabarete and i have experienced a drought there one march although the recent ones don't look as bad. did you head east of cabarete much?

thanks again,

brian

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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby elguapo » Thu Sep 19, 2019 11:35 pm

i've driven around the island.
the french seemed to have already invaded the northeast...las terrenas is only recently "discovered" by americans so it remains a pretty good value. and samana is pretty(and whales should be in water @march) and the best beaches there remain undeveloped..
there are organized "kite beaches"... and beaches you can launch are ride without problems... but nowhere will people be as "kite friendly" as cabarete
in las terranas for example.. launching anywhere but the designated kite "areas" were frowned upon


DR has loads of problems...but lack of inventory of rental property around cabarete i dont believe is one of them.
is there a reason you wanted to be away from cabarete?(and the infrastructure there?)

labour is pretty cheap..
if you needed privacy for fam..you could rent a villa in seahorse ranch and have one of the dudes working on the beach to set up your kite every moring and have it ready to go (in case you get lucky to have sufficient wind).. you would only need to ask literally anyone you bump into to set it up.

but..
after all that..
in march..i'd probably prefer going to puerto rico or turks.
you can kite there year round yes... but you'll have some (or all) no wind days too

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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby TracyS » Fri Sep 20, 2019 1:31 am

Hello. I have been living here full time for 9 years. I have had a kite school since 2017. March is a fine time for wind. The worst time for wind is Oct-Nov. Sometimes a hurricane will suck the wind away in Sept. But most other times....we have plenty of wind.

I wrote this, hope it helps. It includes historical wind statistics for each month: https://kiteboardingcabarete.com/blog/w ... -cabarete/

You can ride in Las Canas. It's actually great to do a downwinder from there to Encuentro. You can also ride right in the heart of Puerto Plata. If you want to head further west (2.5-3 hours), you can also kite in Punta Rucia and Buen Hombre.

Technically, you can ride all the way downwind from Cabarete to Buen Hombre. A team of like 15 people just did it two weeks ago, but yes, in Sosua there is a wind shadow close to shore because of the way the Bay is situated.

Feel free to PM me if you like. I am happy to help out with whatever.
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elguapo
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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby elguapo » Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:56 pm

How would you define “fine time”?

And how would you compare the winds in March compared to maybe...July or august?


Just curious..

How many kitable days should one expect...if they spent a week of precious vacation time in cabarete? (during March)

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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby TracyS » Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:09 am

elguapo wrote:
Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:56 pm
How would you define “fine time”?

And how would you compare the winds in March compared to maybe...July or august?


Just curious..

How many kitable days should one expect...if they spent a week of precious vacation time in cabarete? (during March)
Did you look at the article? I actually answered all of your questions with a chart 😁

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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby elguapo » Sat Sep 21, 2019 2:01 am

elguapo wrote:
Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:56 pm
How would you define “fine time”?

And how would you compare the winds in March compared to maybe...July or august?


Just curious..

How many kitable days should one expect...if they spent a week of precious vacation time in cabarete? (during March)
ok.


i believe it is rather irresponsible to state it's "almost always" windy in cabarete... because it isnt nor has it ever been that way.
(especially with the last 1.5 years being borderline el niño)
https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/c ... B1a-update

the last 15 years windy days have ranged between 200-325 kiteable(force 4) days each years... which depends almost entirely on ocean temperatures in the central/eastern equatorial pacific and the persistence of a high pressure system that hangs out around bermuda

going by a normal kitesurf beaufort force 4 winds... i'd except to have about HALF the amount of kitable days in march as i'd expect in the month of july.
https://www.windfinder.com/windstatistics/cabarete
my experieces follows those windy/windfinder stats


this graph i also believe to be accurate for cabarete..
Image
it simply means.. you'll kite the most in june/july..a little less in may/august...the least in october...with all the other months being about equal (but better odds than october)
the exact days...depends (obviously)

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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby TracyS » Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:59 pm

elguapo wrote:
Sat Sep 21, 2019 2:01 am
elguapo wrote:
Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:56 pm
How would you define “fine time”?

And how would you compare the winds in March compared to maybe...July or august?


Just curious..

How many kitable days should one expect...if they spent a week of precious vacation time in cabarete? (during March)
ok.


i believe it is rather irresponsible to state it's "almost always" windy in cabarete... because it isnt nor has it ever been that way.
(especially with the last 1.5 years being borderline el niño)
https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/c ... B1a-update

the last 15 years windy days have ranged between 200-325 kiteable(force 4) days each years... which depends almost entirely on ocean temperatures in the central/eastern equatorial pacific and the persistence of a high pressure system that hangs out around bermuda

going by a normal kitesurf beaufort force 4 winds... i'd except to have about HALF the amount of kitable days in march as i'd expect in the month of july.
https://www.windfinder.com/windstatistics/cabarete
my experieces follows those windy/windfinder stats


this graph i also believe to be accurate for cabarete..
Image
it simply means.. you'll kite the most in june/july..a little less in may/august...the least in october...with all the other months being about equal (but better odds than october)
the exact days...depends (obviously)
I really don’t want to argue and I certainly don’t want to be irresponsible haha. So let me just give my personal experience. I kite almost every day on my 8m, either with my foil, my directional, or my twin tip (I’m 130 lbs). It’s windy so often that I’m tired of kiting and now would rather surf these days. I have a school and find myself wishing there wasn’t wind so the surf is better.

But aside from that, you think that 200-325 days of wind out of 365 is not “almost always” windy? Especially if we take out the few months that we both mentioned to be the “bad” months. What is that relative to? I’m not trying to be a smart ass. I’m enjoying the discussion.

By the way, I do agree that since we had the very strong El Niño in 2015/16 the wind seems to have become more unpredictable. We used to expect wind at 2 except in the “winter” months. Now it can come earlier or later.

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Re: riding north coast dominican republic east and west of cabrete

Postby elguapo » Sat Sep 21, 2019 1:56 pm

same here.
i do my best to be respectful and use tact..whether online or in real life.
some of us may be a bit more argumentative or obstinate than others(online and in real life)..
but that's ok.
..i thought the purpose of any forums was to discuss and share ideas/opinions. so i do (whether i'm right or wrong..has never been that important)

my point (which i may have poorly defined) is there are great times and not so great times to vaca in cabarete.
that's all.

btw i just noticed your business,
i actually took my original lessons at your place years ago when it was (i believe) a german pro chick running the show.. and more recently i've been to your restaurant more than a few times for breakfast (we appreciate you guys serving up healthy/paleo friendly options)
...i've had nothing but great experiences with Dare2fly
:thumb:


for wind in cabarete..
these have been gold.
https://smartweather.weatherflow.com/ma ... 70.3989/14

once the wind shows 8/9 knots.. i go out and get set up
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