Summer is ending in the northern hemisphere. Reality is setting in.
After an absolutely mental summer of downwinding in Santa Cruz CA …my next fix feels like an eternity from now.
Anyone have thoughts on the best option for solid downwind conditions between October and April?
The bigger the bumps, the better!
La Ventana? Maui?
Those are the only two in my list.
Maui probably top of list…but what else is out there?
NZ? AU? ? ? ?
Hey Chris, tomorrow looks promising!
But the traditional winter windsport destinations besides Baja & Maui are Western Australia, Cape Town, Chile and Brazil. I spent a winter in WA years ago windsurfing and it’s amazing but really far away - I would think the Geraldton area would be perfect for DW but I don’t know about logistics, weed issues etc
fingers crossed for tomorrow!!!
Cape Town and Perth are best options for good wind in winter. As far as I know there is a flat spot in Autumn where nowhere is particularly good, but there are two races in France in mid October that are worth checking out. Otherwise it’s Perth in November or Cape Town Jan-Feb
What about La Ventana? Apparently wind peaks November to March?
I live on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands and it gets pretty epic here. We have a cottage for guests with short walk to the beach and can assist with downwinders. We are located on the Northshore of the island. 5 minutes down the road to drop off a vehicle and then 10 minutes up the road to the launch site. Conditions can get pretty amazing with solid tradeswell and winter groundswells mixed in and both start and endpoints have good waves. Its really just my son and I getting on it here. There’s a couple of other people dabbling but not too serious. Anyone who wants to come visit, please dm me and I can provide more info.
Purple is the homestead, green is launch site, red is end point.
Do you have a sense for the best spots in the region? I’ve thought that BVI chain could be epic but logistics tricky, PR seems epic and lots of foilers. Guadeloupe has a race scene.. wondered what it’s like
If you believe in the current El Nino forecasts, the winds will be sh*t in La Ventana this winter.
I’ve been to a lot of spots in the Caribbean including Gwada, Grenadines, several spots in the DR,Turks, Bahamas. DR and Cabarete in particular can offer really good downwind type conditions but the thermal is a little bit weaker until spring. Southern Caribbean (Grenadines, Bonaire etc) is generally in the flow with the most reliable wind through the winter but in the Grenadines it feels like most of the downwinding would need to be boat supported and the swell typically isn’t big (or it hasn’t been while I was there). I haven’t been to Bonaire but that seems to be the bullseye for winter flow. I wasn’t very impressed with the setup in Gwada. Bumps were small, wind was somewhat inconsistent and the seaweed was horrendous - it’s also recently become harder to get to from the US (flight routes cancelled).
La Ventana is the closest thing I’ve seen to a sure thing in the winter months (traveling from the US). Bumps are good, generally not huge though. Very convenient setup once you are there.
@OmarFoilCol isn’t Colombia a good spot in these months? I’ve studied the wind maps in the region and there seem to be some hot spots on the north coast of S America all winter.
Curious about El Cuyo/ Progresso (Yucatán) and Brazil
Puerto Rico is maui east.
We have long stretch of coast. North coast and south coast almost daily. Lots of ins and outs. Ground swell mixed in winter, and summer time all wind swell every day. ( apart from the seaweed this year conditions were great)
I’ve spent two full season in Icarai de Amontada in northern brazil teaching kiting in 2007 and 2008.
Multi-days downwinding trip would be so epic there. Garanteed wind everyday. Renting a dune buggy with 2-3 mates and downwinding down the coast is totally doable. The wind strength start to go down in november but still fine. October is still prime time.
Ya i was just reading how the Cape Town season is starting earlier seemingly, and also windy already, average 100km/h wind blowing in an afternoon recently in a South Easter, which is definitely early for that kind of wind. Also drought predicted, potentially an unpredictable season ahead.
Our season is from december peaking january - february - march - and mellowing april and may.
This year different I guess because of El Niño, had some weird cold fronts from with inversed direction from the Gulf of Mexico in february, and march - april all the way to august was super windy. Usually our season in august is not consistent, this year august was really good wind and swell. Just yesterday I think was the last of medium winds, forecast seems that finally turned off and now it’s more of rainy days. But with this El Niño that has even killed all hurricanes chances to be, not sure what’s next. For now, 2 weeks forecast seems like normal september october, no Alisios Winds, just local stormy variable conditions. Not good for downwinding, let’s wait for december.
