Page 1 of 1

Sulawesi Palu

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 6:05 pm
by indosafe
Hello there,

Any dude been kiting in Sulawesi central , if there is any feedback , i will appreciate .

Thanks .

Re: Sulawesi Palu

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:48 am
by kitesurfbali
This is a piece I wrote some 10 years ago! Haven't been back and haven't heard of anyone kiting there...
Hope can help:

We found in Indonesia one the world windiest place!!!!! We hear about it few years ago from some windsurfer Airliner pilot, they said that is always difficult to land airplane there because of the wind....
Recently Palu was on the news for fighting between different religious group.

Why is one of the windiest place on earth???
Because is a bay long more then 40 kilometers with a wide of 20 kilometers at the entrance and only 1 kilometer at the end with by each side mountains of over 1000 meter!!!!
Every sunny day about 12:00 with the heating of the land a sea breeze start to blow at about 20 - 30 knots.
We found that the best place for kiting is about 2 kilometer from the city, near the Police office.

The rigging area is quite big with grass, you need to launch also there and then walk to the beach that is very narrow. Access to the water is very easy.

Something you have to know about his place:
Is not heaven, there is nothing there, the beach are not nice, stony and full of little coral. The water is not flat but quite choppy as the wind brings the waves inside the bay, the water is quite dirty too.
One of our friend walked on a stonefish near shore and ends up in the hospital for 3 days!!!
So be sure you use shoes there. No car or motorbike to rent and only basic accommodation.

Can get around with Bemo. A good point is that everything is very very cheap.
In March 2002 I went myself to Palu to check out the condition and the promises of this new place. I can tell that all is true, the people there (not kitesurfer) recon that they have over 300 windy days in a year.
Out of the 4 days I was there 3 were windy around 20 knots, the only day without wind was due to rain and Palu is one of the driest places in Indonesia.
I will recommend a visit to people passing bye in Indonesia for 3 - 4 days hi-wind experience. Palu is exactly 80 kilometers from the equator and the temperature is all year around at 30 degree and the water 28 degrees. To get there you can flight from most of the big cities in Indonesia via Unjung Pandan.

Re: Sulawesi Palu

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:43 pm
by indosafe
Thanks Kitesurf bali for the answer . I will have a look later on this place and post a review .