Hi there,
I’m now for over 3 weeks in the most reliable windy place in the world, Cumbuco in Brazil. Yesterday I spoke someone who is already here from May. He told me that there were 3 days in that period that it was not possible to go kiting, really amazing!
I’m here for a work placement with Windtown, which is setting up business here. I.e. a pousada, kiteschool, kitesurfshop and a beachhouse for renting kite- and windsurfequipment.
I flew to Fortaleza with TAP-air, for me that was ideal, because I had a lot of stuff to carry with me. With TAP you can have 2 pieces luggage of 32 kg and 6 kg hand-luggage. Yes, you read it well, 70 kg in total! You probably make a stop over in Lisbon, but all that goes very fast. From Fortaleza Airport it is an hour drive to Cumbuco.
If you are coming from Europe, you don’t need a visa. For other countries you have to check your local embassy. Coming from Europe you only have to fill out 2 forms in the plane and that’s it. At the airport you get a stamp in you passport from the customs and then you can enter easygoing Brazil!
I’m here since the 23rd of September and most of the time I have been using my Rrd Type7 9.0, sometimes 12 and once my 7.0 (I’m 75kg on a Rrd FourXcess 1.28/36). So if you are hesitating which kite to bring, take something between 9.0 and 12.0.
Kitesurfing here is really fun, just put on your surfshorts, harness and maybe a lycra against the sun and then hit the water! The Atlantic Ocean is really warm down here. Don’t worry about dangerous animals, the water is to warm and to shallow.
With high tide you get a pretty big shorebreak, which is possible to ride on. After the shorebreak it is choppy. But with low tide the water is the first few hundred meters flat, with some nice small waves. If you go downwind from Cumbuco for some kilometres you will see really nice waves. In my last 3 weeks I had waves up to 2.5 metres.
It is also very nice to go to CauÃÂpe. That is a lagoon about 7 kilometres downwind from Cumbuco. It is nice to drive over there because of the beautiful scenery, but it is even more fun to make a downwinder to the lagoon. On your way you will find kilometre after kilometre the waves I told you about.
The water is fresh in the lagoon and it is really flat! Ideal to practice on your new tricks. The lagoon is pretty big, with 20-25 kiters it still good kiting.
Another lagoon you have to see is TaÃÂba. It’s a 45 minutes drive from Cumbuco. CauÃÂpe is bigger, that is also due to the favourable wind direction, but here are less kiters. That’s probably because it’s not so close to Cumbuco and the last kilometres the road isn’t that good. There is even a slider and a kicker for the wakestyle tricks! When I was in TaÃÂba, I also went on the Atlantic. I had waves up to 3 metres!
When you want to make a longer downwinder then Cumbuco-CauÃÂpe, you can also do Cumbuco-Pecém. That’s about 15 kilometres of waves. You can’t go any further than Pecém, because there you have a container terminal. But after such a long trip through those waves you will be tired. And it is not necessary to kite the whole day, because every day there is enough wind all day long.
Greetings Frank
For pictures: http://spaces.msn.com/members/franklorier/