Postby Jamie-NYC » Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:04 am
I learned in both TI and Cabarate, dec-jan 2013-14. TCI is the best place for first sessions, certainly - straight onshore wind, very shallow water with silky sandy bottom for miles! Launch a kite, walk out a hundred yards, fly the kite. But winds are lighter than Cabarete (unless summer), and lessons are about 3x the price (lodging is a similar multiple). I never got up on a board in TCI, but did learn how to keep a kite in the air in 8mph of wind, and that time with the kite paid off very handsomely later on. Lessons in TCI are better than in Cabarete, in my experience: less wind and shallow water means the instructor is next to you and the student must learn to use technique instead of raw power.
Having said all of that, Cabarete is an essential part of the learning curve - or at least it was for me. I had intensive instruction in TCI, almost none in Cabarete - there, it is sink or swim. But if not for that somewhat harrowing experience the first year in Cabarete, where I became a little more confident and somewhat less afraid of the kite (still fear it out of respect), I would not have had the confidence to kite on my own in my home waters. TCI was technical, Cabarete was a confidence test. I have kited since in both places again, and although I still love TCI for the beautiful placid waters, if I had to pick a destination now, it would be Cabarete.