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Watching the wind forecasts from http://www.windfinder.com I always noticed that the Dom.Rep. had no wind, but Puerto Rico did.
The trade winds blow all the way, but due to the massive land of the Dom.Rep. the wind gets thermical less, but since PR is so small, the winds fully blows over it.
Am I right or is it wrong?

Toby

Hello Toby,

I don't fully understand the weather dynamics at Cabarete, even less along the north coast of Puerto Rico. Cabarete does have strong thermal wind influence on winds. I suspect that they use/amplify existing winds, such as trade or tropical depression winds that may be present. The wind, if they have any, comes on like clockwork in late morning. This implies a dominant thermal effect. A local weather site that may be of use is:

http://www.hispaniola.com/noworkteam/report.html

As to the north coast of Puerto Rico, from what I have heard from locals, their wind is strongly governed by incoming weather systems, i.e. depressions more than from thermals. I am not sure about this as I looks like good thermal generating terrain to me. I recently heard that the north coasts of Jamaica and Cuba both have strong thermal winds and low densities of kitesurfers, for now.

Rick Iossi

What about Cuba?
They have strong thermal winds?
Wanted to go there anyway one day. I've been there many times, but didn't kitesurf back then. So I never paid attention to the winds. But for sure I know they have damn nice beaches, specially in their keys.

The guys that kitesurfed from Key West to Cuba raved about the winds. Of course they were in the tail end of strong weather system. I read of another account in the kitesurf list several months ago from a guy in the Bahamas that made a trip there. He said the thermal winds and launches were great, locals very nice and noooo kiteshops in sight (in the country!).

Rick Iossi

here some pics from cuba

As an instructor spending the winter in Ocean Park in San Juan, I'll let you know that the winds are predictable from the end of December through to early summer. The greatest effect on the wind isn't the infrequent passing weather systems, but rather the thermal effect the land has the further west you travel. I ride my Aero 12 and 16 (8.9 and 11.8 wipika sizes) almost every day of the week at ocean park whether in the shore break or in the beautiful reef break a half mile out. If you travel west either on the north coast or the south, the wind blows 5 to 15 knots harder than San Juan if you want to make the 1.5 hour trip. The southwest is known as the "southwest wind machine" for good reason as warm air flows up from the Carribean. 25 knots is a fairly average wind speed for La Parguera and Guanica this time of year. Each time I've been to these two spots this year it has actually blown harder. More like 30 +. Bad ass kiting to say the least. There are HUNDREDS of places to kite here. I continue to be amazed. Surf spots on the northwest shore that are world known for windsurfing are quickly becoming the kite spots of the islands. Last week the swell here on the northern shore got to 15 to 20 on the reef breaks and double overhead shore break in San Juan. Beautiful glassy water in between each wave with a view back at the city was epic. Seriously fun kiting. If any of you have more specific questions about the conditions here in PR let me know at zack@realkiteboarding.com. Check out realkiteboarding.com or velauno.com for travel info. Later. Ride on! Zack

Can only confirm everything Zack has just said.
We spend 10 days in PR (Feb 1st thru the 10th) and kited every single day !
The swell days were indeed epic and Zack took full advantage of it: he's indeed a seriously bad ass kiter and a great instructor !
The guys at Realkiteboarding and Vela Uno could have not been more helpful or nicer for that matter, thanks to their guidance we did not waste any time running around, just lots of great kiting and good don-q rum to relieve sore muscles !

enzo

Do you have nice pictures of PR beaches?

Hi Toby,
this link has 2 slide shows of kite action in Puerto Rico, both will give you a very good idea of the spots.

http://www.realkiteboarding.com/index.i ... ge=gallery

Will post the pics from our trip later...
enzo

Hey guys. I live in PR and have a great school on the beach. Jet ski, boat and perfect location. Free leassons if you buy your gear from us or $75.00us an hour boat and equipment. Check out the website @ kitesurfpr.com. Spanish and english speaking instructors. We kitesurf everyday except for about 2 months around x-mas. I travel to contests every month and used to live in Maui and I can assure you that soon PR will be the place . Puerto Rico is an incredible island for all watersports and there are thousands of places to sail. My e-mail is on the site. We welcome visitors and encourage everyone to come visit us for info on the best places to sail and the local rules. We were the US's largest distributor of RRD kites. Aloha See you here Royce.