Anyone know of any inexpensive accomodations in the Miami area? Looking to travel down but not break the bank...

well... it's a giant city i'm pretty sure you could get good results via google

not much wind this time of year though

also if you are trying to ride in crandon park bring an iko card, they have pages and pages of rules there

I just read thru the rules and watched some videos. Wow, what a beating. Think I might stay home...any good places to ride in the Miami area. By good I mean, good flat water or waves, not too many crazies, good safe launch, locals that are too territorial, etc. When is the windy season for ya'll? I have a friend who is coming down for lessons and thought I might come along if it makes sense.

Windy season is around octoberish through early may... this season has been kind of a bummer though, we had an epic november and part of december but then jan and feb were mostly deadish, march (which is our statistically windiest month) was almost totally dead, i think i could go upwind maybe 3 days. its been picking up again lately with thermals, but it's only good by florida standards... about 12-15 knots...

if you are in the key biscayne area you can just go to south crandon, its not an area many people know about. just park in the huge main parking lot and walk south past the lifeguard towers (its a 15-20 minute walk) and the water is flatish and shallowish, with a nice big beach. not too many people go there. other than that i don't really know, that's the only place ive been in miami. haven't even kited crandon because i don't want to bother with the iko nonsense. matheson hammock is nearby, but again need an iko card (which they can provide)

the keys isn't too far, there are some nice spots in islamorada and south if you want to do a day trip. every time ive been to the keys the forecast has been way off, but there are some perfect flat water spots

if you want waves you can drive north about 2 hours to jupiter, or if it's really cranking there will be decent swell pretty much anywhere from fort lauderdale and north. if you're already in miami though, i'd just try to find some flat water, waves in fl are really just a choppy mess unless it's blowing really hard

sorry if this all sounds negative haha, it's not bad. there's just more rules the farther south you go, and our season hasn't been too great

Thanks Dylan. Our spring here in Dallas has not been that epic either(better than S Fl though). Yeah the rules and regs sound crazy, but I am sure that comes with the population. Islamorada and Jupiter were the two spots I was considering. Are there less rules and regs at those spots?
As with any kiteboarding trip you can always get skunked by the wind. Thanks again for your input.

Jupiter is pretty much the end of civilization for "south florida", past it is just farms until you get farther north. so there is almost no regulation, basically the only rules are that you can't kite within 100 yards of guarded areas, which are few and far between. there's a few miles of unguarded beach where there is practically no one

I feel like jupiter is a little more consistent as well. every time I go there the thermal wind seems a little stronger, and when they get north wind it's always more consistent than what we get about an hour south in boca raton.

it's also where the waves start forming, south of jupiter has just wind chop (im guessing the bahamas block a lot of it?), and the farther north you go the cleaner it gets.

islamorada there are almost no rules, just have to be careful and go to the spots where everyone else goes because of power lines and sketchy launches