The Caribbean islands are a popular destination for windsurfing, offering strong, reliable trade winds, warm water, great weather, flat water lagoons, surfable waves, and friendly hospitality. Some of the best beaches for windsurfing in Aruba include Andicuri Beach, an east coast beach with strong currents and rough surf. Bonaire is one of the best flat water and easiest windsurf destinations in the world, with a stunningly beautiful flat water lagoon and 8 months of wind per year.
Cabaret offers a wide range of windsurfing conditions, from beginner-friendly flat water to world-class waves, making it the perfect place to learn or improve your skills. The best windsurfing holiday spot in the Caribbean is Bonaire, part of the Dutch Antilles, with its huge flat water lagoon. Other Caribbean windsurfing resorts include Carlisle Bay Antigua, Point Pleasant Resort, West Bay Club, and Fairmont Royal Pavilion.
Travelling up through the Caribbean Sea can also offer windsurfing and kitesurfing in Antigua, with great waves in Barbados, surfing, and stand-up paddleboarding in St. Lucia. Guadeloupe has several best windsurfing spots, including Le Gosier La Datcha, Saint-Felix, Sainte-Anne, Saint-François, Bas-Vent, and Le Gosier La Datcha.
One of the centers of windsurfing in the Caribbean is Cabarete in the Dominican Republic, which offers several good resorts for both beginners and experts.
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Jibe City is a relaxed and laid back windsurf centre situated on the east coast of Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean where you can …
Where is the windsurfing capital of the world?
Windsurfing has been a popular adventure activity for all ages and abilities for many years. And one of the reasons for its continuing increase in popularity is its inclusivitymeaning anyone can enjoy the sport. As well as being a great full body workout, windsurfing is fun, fast and exhilarating giving a real adrenaline rush to adventure sport junkies. We have compiled out top 10 windsurfing destinations in the world so you know exactly where to head with your board next.
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10. Rhodes, Greece. Rhodes is becoming a very popular tourist destination with its miles of idyllic beaches and landscapes. And what better way to enjoy and admire these beaches than on the water! Located in Ixia, Surfers Paradise offer lessons and rental so any ability is able to enjoy the sport from April to October.
9. Columbia River, Washington and Oregon. It may not always be warm but the Columbia River is a favoured windsurfing destination for many with it heavily influencing the culture of the area. You’ll find shops, stores and instructors lining the streets and with plenty of launch sites along the river it won’t be long before you are in the water making the most of that wind! Go to gorgewindsurfing.org/ for more information.
8. Virgin Islands. It may be in the top 10 windsurfing destinations but the virgin island offers a whole host of water sports in some of the best scenery. With its warm waters and idyllic beaches, you can kayak, scuba dive, windsurf and snorkel to your hearts content. We’d be surprised if you spent any time on dry land here!
7. Cabarete, Dominican Republic. Head to top windsurfing destination Cabarete in the summer months and you won’t be disappointed. There is even a windsurfing spot called Kite Beach which of course is amongst the most popular. Open all year round and with windsurf schools all along the coast this is a fantastic place to learn and practice. For more information, visit Vela Resorts.
6. Boracay, Phillipines. With 30mph winds and brilliant bright white beaches lined with palm trees it’s easy to see why Boracay appears as a top windsurfing destination. windsurfasia.com/en offer lessons and rental so no matter your experience you can take full advantage of windsurfing on one of the best beaches in the world.
5. Bonaire, Caribbean. About 50miles from Venezuela you will find the Caribbean Island of Bonaire, with sunshine and steady winds all year round it makes for a stunning windsurfing destination. Due to the nature of the bay there is great spots both with calmer water for beginners to practice and swells further out for the more experienced windsurfers. And with many of the windsurfing professionals deciding to call this part of the world home, it won’t take long to realise just why. Visit bonairewindsurfplace.com/ for more information.
4. Outer Banks, USA. This family-friendly tourist destination will mean that everyone can get involved with windsurfing. And for those who are less keen there is a whole host of other activities to enjoy. With some fantastic waves and stunning scenery, it is a great place for windsurfers to have some fun. Visit outerbanks.com/windsurfing.html for more information.
3. Red Sea, Egypt. The Red Sea has been a popular windsurfing destination for decades with most hotels in the area now offering windsurfing lessons as part of their activities package. With watersport rentals littering the coast, once you have learnt the basics it won’t be too long before you are off on your own. The mountains create a wind tunnel that boast powerful gusts in the afternoon giving the area almost 300 days a year windsurf weather.
2. Fuerteventura, Spain. Home to the Windsurfing World Championships, Sotavento Beach is the holy ground for windsurfers. The beach is open for everyone to try windsurfing all year round with the Championships being held in July. Due to the nature of the island, it offers varying wind conditions so windsurfers can find exactly what they are looking for with the beautiful scenic beaches as a backdrop. Visit flagbeach.com/ for more information.
1. Maui, Hawaii. The windurfing capital of the world and our top windsurfing destination is Maui, Hawaii. It is no surprise that the state famed for surfing is also the number 1 windsurfing destination with tempartures well above 26 degrees most of the year, trade winds ripe from May to October and stunning scenery. However, make sure you watch out for sharks as they have been known to make an appearance or two in this hot spot!
Can you windsurf in the Bahamas?
Windsurfing – Stay balanced on Freeport, Grand Bahama Just about every major resort, hotel and beach has windsurfers for rent, as well as professional instructors for beginners.
Can you surf in St. Lucia?
Commaret Point, St. Lucia. Saint Lucia is blessed with some great surf spots. One such spot is Commaret Point which offers consistent waves even when there isn’t much swell around. The best wind direction at Commaret Point St Lucia is from the southwest.
Waves are mainly lefts although there are also some rights that form on certain days when conditions align just right. Although crowds may be present at times, Commaret Point remains relatively uncrowded most days making it a great spot for surfers who want some space to themselves!
Even for surfers established in one area of the Caribbean, the proximity of the islands and travel time between means that many visitors can hop from place to place to get the most out of the water. Weather and marine patterns are vital considerations to take into account, however. For instance, Antigua – not usually associated with surfing – offers its best swell of the Atlantic in the southeast. Swells from the west will also dictate which locations are ideal to start from.
Is windsurfing dying out?
It’s not 100% fair to say that windsurfing died, but from its meteoric rise from obscurity to everybody’s-doing-it popularity across the country, it has now largely gone extinct save for a few favored locations—and even there, kiteboarding is probably eroding windsurfer numbers even further. But hey, Neil Pryde still exists, and Maui and the Columbia River Gorge most certainly still exist, and if I lived in either place and I had a garage, I’d still be a windsurfer, too.
From my own experience, I can tell you what killed the sport for me. First of all, I don’t have a garage. But beyond that, I do think there is a progression to the sport which ultimately leads to heartbreak. You get good very slowly, but eventually you get a taste of what the sport can offer at its higher levels, and then you go to the gorge, or to Hawaii, and you realize it’s pretty much stupid to do it anywhere else.
Okay, not quite true: there are pockets of great wind and water to be found here and there. But the essential point remains: Windsurfing is awesome in the right conditions, and practically a non-sport everywhere else. That fickle wind! How many days did we spend sitting around, waiting for the forecast wind that never showed? Imagine if every time you went to go skiing, you never knew if there would be snow when you got there.
Where is the most consistent surf spot in the Caribbean?
Barbados. “Barbados is always at the top of my list as far as Caribbean surf destinations. More specifically, the wave called Soup Bowl (in Bathsheba).
Indeed, some oceans get all the love. The Indian Ocean boasts surf meccas like the Maldives, Mentawais, Telos, and Banyaks. While the Pacific gives us visions of big waves in French Polynesia, Micronesia, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, and so, so many more. Less, however, is known of how many perfect waves (and secrets) are being kept in the Caribbean Sea.
One guy who knows exactly which islands to explore — and return to — is Zander Morton, a former editor at Transworld Surf, Surfing, and Surfer magazines, and has flown (but mostly sailed) to many of the best waves around the Caribbean for the past 25 years.
“The interesting thing about the Caribbean to me, is that it really has all the same setups that Indonesia has — it just needs a more precise combination of wind and swell. Which, when you get it, is magical,” says Zander.
Can you surf in Curacao?
Surfing and wave spots on Klein Curaçao Curaçao does indeed offer good spots for surfing, with three main spots on the island: Playa Kanoa, Sint Joris and Pistol. But the island of Klein Curaçao, an hour and a half boat ride away, has the very best waves of the ABC islands.
- Spaanse Water / Windsurfing Curaҫao
- Surfing and wave spots on Klein Curaçao
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- Additional information about Curaçao
More than 150,000 people live on the island, mostly around the capital Willemstad, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its typical Dutch façades.
However, the island is no longer the right place for a hardcore surfing holiday. Unfortunately, the beautiful spots on the south side, where you used to be able to surf, now have buildings right up to the water’s edge, so that the wind no longer has a clean run-up. On the island of Curaçao, surfing is now mainly done in the sheltered lagoon a little to the east of Willemstad. Spaanse Water is the name of the winding body of water, which is also home to the Windsurfing Curaçao centre.
Where is the best windsurfing in the world?
We have uncovered the 10 best windsurfing destinations in the…Maui, Hawaii. … Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain. … Outer Banks, North Carolina. … Lake Arenal, Costa Rica. … South Padre Island, Texas. … Cabarete, Dominican Republic. … Columbia River Gorge, Washington/Oregon. … Aruba.
Can I surf in the Bahamas?
The Bahamas is an exotic archipelago located in the north part of the Caribbean Sea. This magical group of islands has attracted many visitors searching for the white sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and all kinds of tropical wildlife. The Bahamas is formed by 29 islands, 661 cays and 2.387 islets that offer great conditions for all kinds of water sports throughout the entire year including scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming and of course surfing. Despite the fact that the Bahamas is not famous for being a surf destination the country has excellent waves. The Abacos, the Rum Cay and the Eleuthera island receive consistent swells that produce high quality waves that would blow any surfers’ mind. Lots of surfers come to the Bahamas because of the incredible winter surfing season that goes from October through April for size and consistency. This is when strong cold fronts come from the north atlantic ocean and the winds typically switch offshore and the surf gets really good. The best part of surfing in the Bahamas has to be the warm water all year round and the lack of crowds that give the visitors a feeling of seclusion and privacy that comes with having the beach and the water practically all to yourself making the archipelago a true paradise on earth for any surfer.
Climate in Bahamas. The climate in the Bahamas is tropical, with two seasons. There is a warm and rainy season from May to October usually called summer and a cooler and drier season from November to April generally called winter. Trade winds blow constantly making the heat index lower. September to May is the most popular time to visit the archipelago due to the low amount of rainfall. Summers register the highest temperatures and higher humidity. Some resorts and hotels shutdown during this time of the year but there are still plenty of options for accommodation. It’s usually a good time to take advantage of lower seasonal prices.
The Bahamas have about 340 sunny days a year and even during the rainy downpours are usually short-lived. The best time to surf in the archipelago is from October to April when strong swells coming from the northeast reach the coast of the country. From May to July, it’s usually less consistent and small. From August to October is the least consistent time of the year but the hurricane season brings the possibility of really good waves. The water temperature is warm throughout the whole year and averages 24°C (75°F) in the winter, 27°C (80°F) in the spring and 31°C (88°F) in the summer.
Why does no one windsurf anymore?
L. Jon Wertheim – Where have All the Windsurfers Gone – 2001Where did windsurfing go wrong?
Much of the blame can be assigned to those who marketed the sport after its initial surge in popularity. Instead of promoting windsurfing as physically challenging, environmentally sound and accessible to practitioners at all levels, “wind snobs” played up the extreme element. Television coverage and product brochures featured acrobats negotiating mast-high swells in Maui and freestyle daredevils executing midair sorcery in 30-knot winds. …. It made for a macho image, but it scared off some beginners and frustrated even skilled boarders.Manufacturers didn’t help matters. While they didn’t cease production of beginner-level boards, companies, in an effort to appease the daredevil contingent, put far greater emphasis on sleeker, more aero- and hydro-dynamic boards that were prohibitively expensive. More recently, the sport’s popularity has been scuttled by kitesurfing, a fast-growing windsurfing cognate that offers a considerable element of thrill but with a near-vertical learning curve–at about half the cost. /37.
Fred Hasson – How the Internet Killed Windsurfing – 2017.
… how did the internetkill windsurfing? By taking the money out of it. First, the money went out ofsmall shops, lost to the online retailers. But the shops’ customers were theclients of the online sellers, and when the shops stopped generating customers,the online sellers gradually lost their sales. Little by little, windsurfing ….. went away. /38.
What is the surfing capital of the Caribbean?
The top surf destinations in the Caribbean. If we had to pick out the places where we’d say reign supreme for surfing in the Caribbean, it would be the Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Puerto Rico. Together, they do the best on those winter N swells and offer the most developed surf communities.
Surfing in the Caribbean is largely about hitting the warm waters of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Barbados, and the Bahamas. But there’s also more…
For some reason, surfing in the Caribbean hasn’t taken off like it has in Indo or Costa Rica. There are certainly plenty of exceptions to prove that rule – exceptions that come in the form of Puerto Rico’s beefy Rincon slabs and XXL monsters; exceptions that come by way of the peeling reef breaks of the Dominican Republic. But, by and large, we can’t shake the feeling that this is a region that’s been oft-ignored by wave hunters and more given over to monied holidayers on the hunt for the next five-star Sandals resort.
Things are changing surely but slowly. The emergence of newfound surf territories in Cuba and the Bahamas are making that happen. Older surf hubs in the region are also coming to the fore, with fancy surf camps popping up in Encuentro (Dominican Republic) and Jamaica alike.
Can you windsurf in Aruba?
Aruba Windsurf Holidays. Aruba is situated in the heart of the southern Caribbean, just 15 miles off the coast of Venezuela. It is 19 miles long and 6 miles across, at its widest point, with an area of approximately 70 square miles. Aruba is a great windsurfing holiday destination for all levels of windsurfer. With perfect learning spots where you will find buttery flat, shallow water, up to the challenging wave spots.
Aruba is a stunning island, with picturesque beaches, and renowned friendly locals. What’s more is this small island is blessed with year round reliable trade winds, making it an awesome, and beautiful windsurf holiday destination.
Aruba Windsurf Holidays. Aruba is situated in the heart of the southern Caribbean, just 15 miles off the coast of Venezuela. It is 19 miles long and 6 miles across, at its widest point, with an area of approximately 70 square miles. Aruba is a great windsurfing holiday destination for all levels of windsurfer. With perfect learning spots where you will find buttery flat, shallow water, up to the challenging wave spots.
Aruba is a stunning island, with picturesque beaches, and renowned friendly locals. What’s more is this small island is blessed with year round reliable trade winds, making it an awesome, and beautiful windsurf holiday destination.
📹 Caribbean – Barbados Windsurfing, Kitesurfing, Surfing and SUP Holidays with Sportif Travel
For a Caribbean windsurfing and kitesurfing holiday, Barbados offers great waves, SUP, surfing and other activities such as scuba …
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